// GAMESPOT — GAMING
Hellraiser: Revival Is More Than Just Cenobites and Gore – 10 Things We Learned From Saber Interactive
October wouldn't feel right without a spooky game or two, and Hellraiser: Revival is shaping up to be a terrifying--and horny--dive into the nightmarish fiction of author Clive Barker. So far, the game is looking like the kind of Hellraiser experience that defined the franchise throughout the '80s and early '90s, and at Gamescom, Saber Interactive sat down with GameSpot to talk about the game, how far they're willing to go to nail the vibe of Hellraiser, and more.
Hellraiser: Revival launches for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S on October 6.
The legendary creator of Hellraiser needed some convincing before he started collaborating with Saber Interactive, but once he was assured that the developers had a grasp of the Hellraiser franchise, he gave the studio the freedom to tell their own tale within that dark universe. "Clive Barker was such a permissive partner to work with," narrative director Anthony De Fault said. "He was really supportive of our ideas. He basically just wanted to make sure we understood Hellraiser as a franchise, and then, once he knew that we had the, we were channeling the same spirit that he was channeling back in the '80s, he just let us go."
For the game, Saber Interactive aimed to capture the "soul" of the franchise, drawing not only from the recognizable visual elements established in the Hellraiser movies, but also from Clive Barker's original novella, The Hellbound Heart, which served as the source material for the franchise. "This game is a response, specifically to The Hellbound Heart, the first film, and Hellbound: Hellraiser 2, the second film," de Fault said. "So it's just the things that Clive was involved with that resonated really strongly with people back then. We wanted to make something that renewed that and had the same soul, but for a new medium and 40 years later."
Barker was also credited as an executive producer on the third and fourth Hellraiser movies, but had no active production or creative involvement in the franchise until 2022's Hellraiser reboot. That gap saw six Hellraiser movies released, although fans usually consider this period a low point for the franchise.
From what we've seen so far, Hellraiser: Revival looks like it'll be going all in on the extreme subject matter of Barker's work. Saber Interactive has confirmed that the game is going to be gory and sexy, as the studio didn't want to compromise on their vision--even if that meant it faced the risk of being denied classification in several regions. Why go that far? Because doing anything less was seen as a disservice to Hellraiser fans.
"We knew what Hellraiser ought to be. We knew how disappointed Hellraiser fans would be if we did compromise, so it was just never really on the table," de Fault explained. "We wanted to pitch it at a point where I don't know if the executives would necessarily have agreed with this at the time, but we always felt like, if we get denied a rating in one or two places, we've probably done our job right. It was just important to us to do everything with purpose. All of the depraved stuff that you might encounter in the game, I think everything in there is defensible in terms of there's a reason it's there. It's not just for shock value. "It's like a good discomfort."
"Comforting discomfort," Esov added. So far, it looks like the game will be available in the US, at least, as it has received an ESRB rating.
While all of that comforting discomfort is designed with a purpose in mind, don't be too surprised if Hellraiser: Revival makes you reach for a bucket. One scene in particular might be hard to stomach, as de Fault described it as a moment of "consensual mutilation" in the game.
"There's a consensual mutilation scene. In early versions of this, we failed to adequately convey to players that this was consensual. So, some people came away thinking it wasn't and that it was pretty distressing, and so we had to course-correct that. I think our intent was fully realized in the game. T