Green Hell [Review]

Green Hell is- wait what was that sound? Oh never mind, I think I’m just hallucinating again. Wait no! I just stepped on a snake, I guess that rattling was real this time. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that Green Hell is a pure survival game both developed and published by Creepy Jar. And it is one green hell of a survival game. You have to look out for every little thing and going crazy just makes it even harder to know what’s real! I’m getting ahead of myself though. I should talk about the game first.

Something I appreciate about this game is that the characters and story have a bit more thought to it than just “A plane crashed and now I’m stuck here” or you’re just kind of there for no discernible reason other than to survive. Now I love survival games, games like The Forest and its sequel, and I understand that the story isn’t the most important part of these types of games. After all, it’s more fun to just survive than try to understand what’s happening. But I do appreciate a bit more of a story than just a bunch of journal pages everywhere for you to read about what happened like a lot of survival games do. This game is good about giving you the story and not forcing the player to be the one to learn the story. The story is told through well-done voice acting between characters talking on walkie-talkies. You can reply and select different dialogue options that result in different responses. I also like that there is a reason for the protagonist to be there. You play as an anthropologist who studies the group of natives that live in the forest, and you are camped out for a while before the inevitable happens. By that I mean, it is still a survival game, there has to be a reason for why you’re still there. So, predictably, something happens to your wife while she’s away and you get attacked. Left with nothing and a missing wife this is when the game starts and we’ll get to that.

First I wanted to talk about the gameplay you’ll be experiencing while in the prologue. The first thing I noticed was the inventory. I’ve been playing Sons of the Forest a lot lately and let me tell you, I loved seeing an easy-to-navigate inventory. It’s even easy and quick to navigate with a controller, I know it’s not something that may be noticeable but once you play a game with a slow inventory you learn to appreciate the ones that do it better. Another aspect I like about this game is that harvesting items is a bit more unique than just running around picking everything you see up. If an item is too big you’ll be able to harvest it into smaller things. Big sticks become small sticks and big leaves can be broken down into small piles of leaves. I will say that some of the item differences can get a bit annoying when it comes to the crafting. The crafting is a bit complicated for what feels like no reason, like when making a fire start you need a big stick and a small stick, not just two sticks. When lighting the fire you need dry leaves, not just any regular kind of leaves. These semantics can make it annoying to craft because you have to look for specific items that aren’t all that noticeable. You can find dry leaves by looking for brown leaves on short trees but with sticks, you just kind of have to keep harvesting big sticks and logs until you get the specific ones you need. Luckily I was able to get the hang of this type of crafting fairly quickly but I do know it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. A nice option when harvesting things is that you can destroy them instead. Which is nice when you have to get to an item below and you already have too many items of that in your inventory. The only thing is that I encountered a glitch where every time I destroyed an item I became locked in place. I was stuck until I attacked the air or threw something. Luckily this was the only glitch I came across in my playthrough.

And now, after all of that, is when the game starts. Let me tell you, this game kicks off. On my first few steps, I came across a jaguar that chased me around until I stepped on a rattlesnake. As I was dying from the venom slowly seeping into my bloodstream I managed to step on a poison dart frog and accelerated my poisoned death. There is a lot that is out there to kill you and I am glad that it isn’t just people this time. Most survival games have you running and fighting off monsters, people who don’t want you there, or even cannibals. While the natives in this game are fighting you, the jungle is the antagonist here. It makes me feel like I’m playing a proper survival game. There are so many things to watch out for. And every time you get hurt you have to check your body for wounds!

While I personally love this checking-for-wounds mechanic I can see not a lot of people liking it. As it does slow the gameplay down a bit, but with the way the crafting mechanics work in this game it was already a bit slower than other survival games it can be compared to. Basically in this game to heal yourself you check over your limbs to check for wounds to bandage, leeches to rip off, or for “worms” to rip out. Now I’m not sure how I got it, but during one of my attempts I was infected by what the game called a “worm”. I’m hesitant to call it a worm because what happened is that lesions appeared all over my body and I slowly went insane! And when this character loses his sanity he loses it. You start to hear things that aren’t there, voices and animal noises that distract you and make you think you’re stepping on something. Or it causes you to hallucinate natives coming to attack you and with one hit they vanish, though that doesn’t mean you can’t be hurt by them. The only way to get that worm out is to cut it out with a specific tool that I wasn’t able to find before I was overwhelmed with hallucinations and poison once again.

Another attempt to make a shelter it is. But poison, fall damage, being mauled, thirst, and hunger all caused my death at one point or another. This game is difficult and requires some dedication. I was only playing on the second difficulty (out of four), which was the step above a peaceful mode. There is a custom mode so if a certain enemy is giving you trouble you can just end up turning it off. I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t even able to make it past day two. I managed to make a shelter once but ended up dying in my sleep due to poison I didn’t realize I had. But even though I didn’t make it far I still loved the game and found so much to talk about in just the beginning area. I loved this game. It stressed me the hell out and I loved every second of it. It’s intense and you have to be careful at every turn. I can’t wait to play this game with a group of people. I never play games like this alone, Unfortunately if it wasn’t for this review I never would have and to be honest I wont play it ever again until I have friends to enjoy it with. I will say that I don’t think this game is for everyone, while there is a peaceful (no hostiles) mode, the game is hard and you will get frustrated. So, if you like a calmer, less stressful survival experience then this one isn’t for you. But I recommend giving it a try if you think you’re up for the task. Green Hell deserves a 9/10 and is available to play on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series S and X, Nintendo Switch, and Steam.

I loved this game. It stressed me the hell out and I loved every second of it. It’s intense and you have to be careful at every turn. I can’t wait to play this game with a group of people. I never play games like this alone, Unfortunately, if it wasn’t for this review I never would have and to be honest, I won't play it ever again until I have friends to enjoy it with. When my colleagues or friends get a copy of this game I can review it for its full experience with multiplayer. I think this game will definitely get a perfect or near-perfect score from me. Unfortunately, games like this I do not enjoy alone.