What’s there to love about I Hate This Place? Stuff like onomatopoeia, crisp visuals, and the signs of the beast. For me, there’s nothing to hate, but a pile of frustrating stuff like disjointed and abrupt narrative, camera angles, fluidity, and mixed bagged voice-overs. Shall we?
You play as Eleanor, a Gen-X (?), potty-mouthed teen(?) who enlists her pal to find out what happened to her estranged mother by visiting the family ranch and performing a ritual. Some clarification. There’s an 80s vibe here, so the ‘tinternet wasn’t about, so what we all used to do back then was get around a fire, mark devil symbols on the floor with a bit of surplus blood we weren’t using, then try to summon some horny (evil kind) acquaintances.
If this all seems a bit out there, then good: that’s sort of the point and needn’t be taken seriously. Besides, it was hard to remain on the edge of the seat as the intro sequence had such a delay that I thought it crashed, only for the game to fade back in with Eleanor making an incredibly loud footprint searching for her now missing friend. Remember, kids: don’t touch matches or summon the Horned Man.
Anyhoo, I Hate This Place is an isometric crafting survival thingy that looks really nice and, except for some voice talent, sounds good too, with its ambient effects, and visual onomatopoeia. Again. The main objective is to find your estranged mother, but why not look into the disappearance of your bestie, who actually went out of their way to help you in the first place?
The Horned Man isn’t a reference to Lou Cypher, but a chap named Adam who follows you all over the place. Do you know in the movies where a character appears out of nowhere, then disappears again with no fathomable way to reach the next location? That’s him. He’s there for a bit of (mis)guidance, but what I initially sought was visual clues, as I had no idea where I was going at times, and despite never needing tutorials for something blatantly obvious, I had to fiddle about with the stealth option to duck through tunnels that looked the same as Eleanor’s height.
Another thing I overlooked with I Hate This Place, which will probably be obvious for others, is the health and hunger bars. Stamina makes sense, as does health, but I’m not a big fan of having to regularly eat when wandering around for the equivalent of two gaming hours. It does not emulate real life. I’ve had two coffees and a riceball today and reckon I could keep going and party like it’s 1999. Eleanor, on the otherhand needs to frequently munch on some more food before stomping about through places she shouldn’t be, and evidently hates.
Outside of the camera angles and unhealthy appetite, it was the movement speed in I Hate This Place that bothered me the most. There doesn’t seem to be much urgency when moving, and I would frequently get into survival horror-type scraps with enemies that didn’t seem to be bothered by my actions. The worst part early on was the inability to switch between my empty handgun and melee weapon. Some tentacles pulled me up against the wall, and all I could do was watch the health (and hunger) gauge go down until death. Whether this was a Steam Deck thing or user error, I don’t know. Regardless, it was irritatingly slow and redundant.
Fortunately, you can craft a fair amount of upgrades and survival items, such as food and throwables, as well as a limited base-building option that acknowledges the day/night cycle, and the reason why there’s a clock in the top right of the screen. Apparently, I Hate This Place is based on a comic book(?), and the aesthetics reflect that well. However, as a slave to the narrative, I was quite disappointed with how unengaging the story is, despite a relatively interesting concept. While it looks the part, it doesn’t so much feel the part, and I would suggest casting your eyes over Kingdom of Night as an alternative retro isometric adventure. It’s a little bit more coherent, too.
