I Hate This Place

About I Hate This Place

I Hate This Place is a survival horror game developed by Rock Square Thunder and published by Feardemic. It came out on 29 January 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch. It's based on the comic book series of the same name by Kyle Starks and Artyom Topilin, and it borrows that look: bold colours, comic sound effects like THUD and RA-TA-TA drawn right into the world, and an 80s horror feel.

You play Elena, who goes back to her family's homestead, Rutherford Ranch, and wakes something up. The farm sits in a haunted swamp. Around it are forests, a derelict town and government bunkers overgrown with red flesh, and cultists, outlaws and mutated animals roam all of it. You see it from an isometric camera above her. By day you scavenge every corner for food and parts, craft the gear you need, build crafting stations at the farm and rebuild outposts so you have places to hide. Ghosts with unfinished business are scattered around too, and solving their hauntings slowly fills in the story.

Nights are the frightening part. More creatures come out once it's dark, and they're stronger and angrier, and you've got only a flashlight to see by. Many of them hunt by sound alone. So noise works both ways: you can sneak past, throw something to pull a creature off your path, or lead it into a trap you set. You will find shotguns, a submachine gun and a flare gun, but the makers warn that brute force mostly gets you killed. Some nights the smart move is to find shelter and wait for morning.

The creatures are grotesque, all eyes and limbs and glowing growths, and there's blood. Still, it's tense more than shocking. Jump Dash Roll found few jump scares and not much excess gore, and said the swamp's sounds do most of the work. The comic style and dark humour keep it from feeling grim. Critics were split, and Metacritic sits at 61. Jump Dash Roll loved the visuals and music. Nintendo Life found the crafting pared back on Switch and saw it drop to a couple of frames per second in larger areas. A run through the main story takes around six hours.

It suits players who like Darkwood's scavenge-by-day, survive-by-night rhythm and want it in a brighter, pulpier comic-book world.

How to play I Hate This Place

1. Explore the ranch land by day and scavenge every container for food, materials and ammunition.
2. Build crafting stations at the farm and upgrade your campsite so you have somewhere safe to return to.
3. Watch the clock in the corner of the screen and be ready before night falls, when more and stronger creatures come out.
4. Move quietly. Many creatures hunt by sound, so sneak past them or throw a noise to lure them away.
5. Set traps and lead creatures into them rather than fighting head-on when you can.
6. Keep your health, stamina and food bars up, and find shelter to wait out the worst nights.

Tips

• Use the daylight hours for long trips, and plan to be back near a shelter before dark.
• Treat every gunshot as a call to every creature nearby; save guns for when you have no other choice.
• Rebuilt outposts are worth the materials: they give you places to rest far from camp.
• Winning a fight usually earns you a new crafting blueprint, which is often worth the ammunition it costs.
• On Switch, expect the frame rate to drop in the larger areas. Nintendo Life still found the core loop worth playing at a lower price.

Questions