HELL OF FEAR: Mind Breach Review

The location of a horror game can, in a way, be as important as the monsters themselves. If there’s one place that is perfect for a setting, then it has to be space, but even with the best location, there’s still a challenge. With that in mind, does Abyss Assembly’s latest title, HELL OF FEAR: Mind Breach, find itself as the next horror game of 2026, or are you better off hunting the stars for something else?

HELL OF FEAR: Mind Breach has you take on the role of Major Axel Vex, a veteran of Extraterrestrial Incident Response, who has been dispatched to a distress signal from Cengona Base. However, when he arrives, there’s nothing but silence and plants growing everywhere. It’s up to you to find out what happened to the survivors and retake the base from the threat that has sprouted. 

As a plot, it’s fine, if not a little generic, but it helps to build an impression of the world you’re in. Not to mention the wealth of journal entries expands the world. The actual threat you're up against is equally interesting to investigate, but the result can be a bit disappointing. 

The big question here is whether the game is, in fact, scary. Now, the game titles itself as an action/adventure game, so as you’d expect, the horror really isn’t frightening. At most, the atmosphere is a bit creepy at times, but I never found myself being scared to progress. 

Other than that, you spend most of your time exploring sections of the abandoned base and fighting the hordes of enemies that you come across. The exploration is a bit of a mixed bag, with the biggest weakness being that the actual layouts are usually pretty similar. For most of the game, you’ll find yourself with several different floors to explore, with no lights or power until you activate the power in that sector. You’ll have to climb the ladder in the elevator shaft. 

It creates a constant routine when you enter an area: climb around looking to see what items you can pick up and take out any enemy you see. Find the missing powercell and the room with the generator, find the relevant key cards and then enter the monorail to move somewhere else. There are some standout locations, as well as secrets hidden in the dark, that help break up the repetitive nature of the story, but for the most part, it remains formulaic. 

Combat is your basic run-and-gun, and is also arguably the weakest part of the game at first. The problem is that the two initial guns take an absolute age to reload, so if there’s more than one enemy, you’ll often get swarmed. On top of that, HELL OF FEAR: Mind Breach has a semi-interesting idea where the enemies are drawn to the light. The idea is that you throw glowsticks to distract them rather than having your torch on. 

While the concept might be good, the problem is that it just doesn't work mechanically. In an ideal world, you’d have the glowstick as a throwable item, like a grenade. However, instead you have to list it as a favourite, then select it from a radial menu, where it then automatically throws it. Thus, you have no real control over where it goes. It’s all moot, unfortunately, as the enemies always seemed to know where I am and attack me anyway.

The enemies themselves are pretty fun, being a mix of plant and human with a good variety of types. This is mostly due to the graphics that, while certainly not AAA standard, have a certain charm that helps them stand out. It reminded me of games like System Shock 2, especially the design of the levels. Also, I will shout out the sound, which is what helps build the slightly unnerving atmosphere. The base certainly isn’t silent, as you’ll hear rustles, beeps, and groans. 

Overall, HELL OF FEAR: Mind Breach is by no means terrible, but it is certainly in a bit of a rough state. I like the concept, but I worry that the systems don’t always work as intended, and it takes away from the game as a whole. However, if you want to scratch a sci-fi horror itch, then you can certainly do worse.