Hell Clock comes to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S tomorrow, June 2, giving console players a chance to catch up with one of last year's sharper indie action RPGs at the same time PC players get a new expansion.
Publisher Mad Mushroom announced the console date and expansion, confirming that the base game reaches PS5 and Xbox Series X|S for the first time on June 2. Cursed War, the first major expansion, launches the same day on Steam and consoles.
That double launch is the clean pitch. Hell Clock is already out on PC, where its Steam page lists Rogue Snail as developer, Mad Mushroom as publisher and a July 22, 2025 release date. As of Monday morning, Steam showed a Very Positive English-language user review rating, with 84% of 1,686 reviews marked positive. Console players are not walking into a mystery box. They are getting the expanded version of a game that has had nearly a year to find its action RPG audience.
A Brazilian history nightmare with Diablo pacing
Hell Clock sits in an interesting pocket between loot-driven ARPGs and run-based roguelikes. You play as Pajeu, a warrior trying to rescue the soul of his mentor, The Counselor, through descents shaped by Purgatory, Hell and the demons of Brazil's past. The base game draws on the War of Canudos, the late 19th century conflict that ended in a devastating massacre after the settlement of Canudos defied Brazil's young republic.
That setting gives Hell Clock a texture many loot games do not have. The familiar pleasures are still there: fast movement, floods of enemies, relics, skills, build synergies and endgame pressure. The difference is that Rogue Snail is using that machinery to turn historical trauma into dark fantasy instead of another anonymous dungeon crawl.
The clock itself keeps the action lean. Runs are framed by a time limit, with the player pushing deeper for better gear before the descent collapses. It is a smart way to pull ARPG buildcraft away from inventory-room fiddling and toward quick, dangerous decisions. Players who enjoy Path of Exile or Diablo for the build puzzle, but prefer roguelikes for pace and restart energy, should understand the appeal quickly.
Cursed War adds a prequel act and a new conflict
Cursed War shifts the historical focus to the Paraguayan War, fought from 1864 to 1870 between Paraguay and the Triple Alliance of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Mad Mushroom's announcement describes the expansion as a prequel about Pajeu's past as a soldier before the events of Hell Clock and his return to Canudos.
The expansion adds an all-new act, more than 10 environments across biomes including Swamp, Blood River and Campo Grande, new skills, dozens of relics, new bosses and endgame systems called Endless Nightmares and the full version of Ascension. The Steam listing for Cursed War also lists June 2 as its release date and describes it as a fourth act centered on Pajeu's origin story during the Paraguay War.
Rogue Snail CEO and Hell Clock creative director Mark Venturelli said in the announcement that the response from ARPG and roguelike fans pushed the team to keep expanding Pajeu's story.
"In the Cursed War expansion we're adding more content, deeper systems, and uncovering more of our dark fantasy version of Brazilian history for everyone to dig into."
Rogue Snail has been building toward this lane for years
Rogue Snail is not a studio that arrived at fast, readable action by accident. Current press materials describe the Brazilian developer as a remote indie studio founded by Mark Venturelli, Betu Souza and Caio Lima, with earlier work tied to Chroma Squad, Star Vikings Forever, Relic Hunters Zero, Relic Hunters Rebels and Relic Hunters Legend.
That history is useful context because Hell Clock feels like a meeting point between the studio's past strengths. Relic Hunters built its identity around responsive top-down shooting, bright visual clarity and loot-chasing momentum. Hell Clock keeps the readable combat language but drags it into a harsher religious and historical nightmare, closer to a blood-soaked ARPG than a Saturday-morning sci-fi shooter.
The console launch also lands in a week where bigger names will dominate a lot of storefront space. Our new games worth watching this week preview has Final Fantasy VII Rebirth reaching new platforms, Fatekeeper entering Steam Early Access and Gothic 1 Remake arriving later in the week. Hell Clock has a narrower lane, but it is a clean one: a complete indie ARPG roguelike with a distinctive setting, a strong PC reception signal and fresh expansion content on day one for consoles.
Hell Clock launches June 2 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Hell Clock: Cursed War launches the same day on Steam and consoles.