High Hell is a game about kicking in doors and burning down drug labs

High Hell is a game about making entrances—the kind of entrances that begin with a large boot applied forcefully to a fragile door, followed shortly thereafter by gunfire, flying bodies, and burning drug labs. Developed by Terri Vellmann, the creator of the strange yet oddly compelling FPS Heavy Bullets, and Adam "Doseone" Drucker, whose music and audio work has previously appeared in Enter the Gungeon, Gang Beasts, and Nuclear Throne, it looks a bit like a first-person Hotline Miami, and it's set to come out later this year. 

Publisher Devolver Digital urged players to "descend upon the criminal underground with an absurdly large gun and bring lethal salvation to those that have fallen from the light" in the High Hell announcement that came along with the trailer. "Righteous fury and fancy footwork are crucial to survive an escalating, absurd series of outlandish missions. Pop brainwashed chimps, deface corporate effigies, and dismantle the business dealings of the unrepentant cartel in a vibrant remix of the classic first-person shooter." 

“The original High Hell pitch just had players kicking down doors and setting fire to bags of cocaine," Devolver CFO Fork Parker added. "But that would have made for a weird age rating description so we added in a bunch of guns and violence."

There's not much else to go on at this point, but High Hell will "debut" at the Devolver booth at PAX West, which begins today—whether it will be playable or just on display wasn't made clear—and so I expect we'll be hearing more about it very soon. 

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.