Green Hell PS5 Upgrade Review - Impulse Gamer (2024)

Four years since its release, GREEN HELL still remains a good-looking title with deep gameplay. Now it gets a free upgrade to current-gens.

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of a „PS5 update”, is the performance improvement. This is, however, not the case in GREEN HELL. Hoping to see a picturesque jungle in 60 FPS? Forget it! The update adds no performance modes. Tired of staring at load screens? Who cares! They show up rarely, but once they do, it takes some time for them to disappear. And, worst of all, there’s no chance that you’ll feel a snakebite or rough trunk’s facture on your skin – the game doesn’t support DualSense. So, what is the new upgrade about?

In brief, it’s all about the content: PS5 and Xbox Series X/S acquire all the stuff that until now has been exclusive to PC. This includes three packs: Storage & Transportation, Fortifications and Flamekeeper, with a bunch of varied mechanics, items and options.

All these systems and building constructions enrich gameplay and improve the overall survival experience. But there is also another side of the coconut bowl. Ladies and gentlemen, I have two pieces of bad news: first, due to the discrepancy between current and last-gens in terms of content, we can’t transfer saves from the previous version to the new one. Secondly, no crossplay between generations is available.

GREEN HELL is a relatively old game, but this in no way means that one can no longer have fun there. It’s quite the opposite, and the key word there is immersion. The title like no other gives us the opportunity to experience on our own what it’s like to be left alone in the heart of the wild jungle. In both story and survival modes, we start literally empty-handed – and, as it turns out, two bare hands with a fair degree of ingenuity can work miracles.

There is one and only goal: to survive. This poses an exceedingly difficult task, as danger lurks at every turn in the game. And so, by trial and error, we learn that water must always be boiled, leeches need to be flicked off as quickly as possible, and jaguars… are simply best avoided.

The real evil, though, lurks elsewhere. It is called the user interface, and it works terribly. Controlling the game seems to be more of a challenge than just trying to survive in the Amazon jungle. The systems of body inspection and crafting are frustrating and counterintuitive. If you think that you’ll get used to them after some time, the title may soon prove you wrong. Who, the (green) hell, came up with the idea to navigate the backpack with a mouse cursor?

The controls totally spoil immersion in this title. This problem appeared in last-gens and the newest update seems to do nothing to improve the situation.

GREEN HELL still looks decent. It’s hard to believe that the game is four years old. The multitude of plants one encounters in the jungle is stunning. The devs did their best to reproduce both the vegetation and animals of the Amazon; the terrain lives a life of its own.

This, however, does not mean that the visuals in GREEN HELL are perfect. Since its release, the title has been patched multiple times; however, it seems that four years were not enough to fix all the issues – some scratches are still discernible in this seemingly ideal picture. This includes objects levitating in the air or textures loading painfully slow (the latter being a common issue). Also, animal animation has its glory years far behind it.

Final thoughts?

With its immersive gameplay and (still) alluring visuals, GREEN HELL ranks among the best open world survival games ever made. If you haven’t tried it yet, it’s highly recommended to do so right now, when the current-gen versions are supplemented with the additional content. What the title definitely lacks are 60 FPS and a smooth UI. But its varied mechanics and environmental depth make it worth every pulled hair.