I Hate This Place adapts a brilliant comic into a bland isometric survival-horror action game.

*I Hate This Place*. Credit: Rock Square Thunder / Broken Mirror Games

Rock Square Thunder and Broken Mirror Games (publishing subsidiary of Bloober Team) attempt to adapt Kyle Starks and Artyom Topilin's acclaimed comic series, I Hate This Place, but the result is a disappointingly hollow experience. The game fails to capture the source material's compelling horror and sci-fi narrative about traumatic family histories, instead offering a generic isometric action horror experience. The visuals are striking, but that’s not enough.

Set in and around the haunted Rutherford Ranch, the game follows Elena, a young woman with family ties to the property who accidentally unleashes a malevolent force after a failed occult ritual leaves her friend Lou missing. These are completely new characters, as the game tells an original story rather than adapting the books. It doesn’t bear comparison to Starks and Topilin’s exploration of toxic family legacies and buried trauma. The source material just becomes flavor for a bland isometric action-survival game that uses the setting as little more than window dressing.

Gameplay emphasizes stealth, with sound-sensitive enemies encouraging cautious movement, but the systems rarely deepen beyond the basics. Combat boils down to kiting enemies and firing off scarce ammunition, while the hunger mechanic is more annoying than immersive thanks to plentiful food and easy crafting. A day–night cycle introduces stronger enemies after dark, but the shift feels routine rather than genuinely tense.

Base-building feels particularly tacked-on. Constructing structures requires waiting through lengthy in-game time periods. This forces tedious time-skipping by sleeping rather than engaging gameplay. Structures that generate materials make much scavenging feel redundant. The game should have just completely eschewed base-building. Traditional survival-horror scarcity would have better supported the action than the half-baked base-building mechanics.

Visually, I Hate This Place shines. Bold comic book cel-shading with punchy colors creates a distinct aesthetic. However, the visual style feels stiff compared to Topilin's fluid, expressive artwork in the source material. On-screen sound effects text, appearing as you make noise, provide excellent visual feedback for the stealth mechanics, a thoughtful flourish that enhances both gameplay clarity and comic book authenticity while improving accessibility. Other games where the player's noise matters should take note.

Ultimately, the game’s greatest failure isn’t that it’s mediocre; it’s that it squanders exceptional source material. Starks and Topilin's sharp, exhilarating exploration of generational trauma is wasted, used only as a vague background for a serviceable but forgettable horror game. Fans of the comic will find little connection beyond the surface. I almost wish I hadn’t read the books ahead of playing the game.

I Hate This Place is available now on Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.