Playing Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival felt like welcome punishment

At Summer Game Fest 2026 I played a demo of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival and found it deliberately faithful to Barker’s vision, embracing the franchise’s explicit, fetishistic horror instead of stripping it away. The demo opens mid-story: new character Aidan is forced to retrieve his girlfriend Sunny after she opens a strange puzzle box and is dragged into the Labyrinth to be punished for eternity.

Gameplay centers on grotesque creativity. The Genesis Configuration, an alternate puzzle box, can swallow light and fire from nearby sources and incinerate enemies, but its blast radius doesn’t discriminate—hold it too close and Aidan is burned. The pistol in my hands felt almost pacifist by comparison, and a serrated sword stored in a Resident Evil–style inventory offered a more surgical answer to approaching threats.

The clubhouse setting is thick with fetish posters and cultists, and the writing doesn’t shy from graphic threats or sexual violence.

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