The Haunted: Hells Reach is a fast third-person horror shooter where you and up to three friends take the fight to demons in cursed places. Its main co-op mode, Inferno, turns each map into a four-wave fight that ends with a boss; another mode sends an endless horde until your group falls. You can play online, over a local network, or together on one PC with split-screen. The game also supports Steam Remote Play Together, so it has more than one way to bring friends into the same match.
Inferno turns survival into a moving objective
Inferno is the clearest fit for a group looking for a shared run with an endpoint. You start in a haunted arena and fight successive waves of hellspawn. Each wave has a kill target; once your group reaches it, the next one follows. If you clear all four, the match moves to a separate arena where Abaddon, a towering demon boss, is waiting. The structure is easy to grasp, but the fight asks you to keep moving as enemies crowd in from every direction.
Kills also drive the run forward. As your score rises, you unlock upgrades for your weapons, while explosive pickups and hidden special weapons add more ways to thin a horde. The standard kit includes a handgun, shotgun, machine gun and knife. Firearms cover distance, but the knife and close-combat moves give you a way to stun enemies that get in your space. Dodges, charged melee attacks and executions add a brawler’s rhythm to the third-person shooting: a gun can buy a moment, and a well-timed hit can turn that moment into a counterattack.
The shared goal does not erase the score chase. Your individual kills and combos contribute points while everyone works toward the next wave target, so a match can be both a team survival run and a friendly contest over who is racking up the most. That score is a session result rather than character growth that follows you into a later match. It gives repeat runs a simple comparison point without asking your group to learn separate character classes or build paths.
That melee system is tied to staying alive. You can knock a minion down and follow with an execution to regain health, which means recovery happens at arm’s length rather than from a safe distance. The trade is especially sharp when the map is full of enemies: an execution can restore a little breathing room, while approaching a stunned foe brings you into reach of anything else nearby. Your friends are fighting in the same space, so someone else’s rescue and your own attempt to recover can happen at once.
The game keeps its arena unsettled with stones that appear during a match. A blue Chronostone starts a countdown; destroy it in time and you prevent the map’s environmental event. Leave it too long and a minion carries it off, turning the task into a chase through the horde. Events vary by map and can make the next stretch of combat harder, from heavy fog that limits what you can see to flames across the ground. A match therefore asks for more than a kill count: the active stone can interrupt a wave and put a second objective in the middle of your fight.
A fallen hunter leaves a Soulstone behind. Destroy it before a minion steals it and the downed player can return; lose track of it and the rescue becomes a moving target. Healthstones can also be carried away, which can leave a group with fewer recovery options while it is under pressure. These objects create small, urgent decisions during a horde match without turning the game into a class-based co-op shooter. All four hunters can use the same basic combat systems, and there are no distinct character powers to coordinate around.
One more wave, or an endless holdout
Survival strips away Inferno’s wave targets and boss finish. The enemy stream keeps growing until every human player is dead, making each round about lasting as long as possible and seeing how far the score climbs. Healthstones appear during the match, but the Chronostone objective does not stop environmental hazards from happening. Weather and map events arrive as part of the pressure you are trying to endure, rather than as a threat your group can remove.
Inferno and Survival share their weapons, enemy pressure and map pool, so they are variations on the same action rather than a chapter-based campaign. A separate Santa Town mission adds a one-off objective, but the main modes remain self-contained arena runs. The game does not save a hunter’s loadout across sessions. Weapon upgrades and score climb during a match, then reset when it ends. That keeps the focus on a self-contained challenge: clear the four waves and face Abaddon, or stay in Survival until the horde finally overwhelms you.
There is still room to set a different target for another night. Five difficulty settings, from Beginner through Nightmare, change how demanding the same arenas feel. The later Hardcore option raises the stakes further and has its own map-completion achievements. Steam leaderboards give score chasing another reason to repeat a familiar map, and each arena has a distinct environment and event to learn. But the core loop stays consistent: fight, upgrade, watch the arena, and keep the run alive.
Demons can join the other side
The remaining two modes put a competitive spin on the same fight. In Battle, up to four human players face up to four demon players. The human side still faces ordinary minions, while demon players can enter the battle on the other team and attack from the demonic side. It changes the usual horde-match rhythm: your friends may be fighting both the game’s swarm and opponents who are deciding where and when to press the attack.
Demonizer starts closer to a co-op match and changes teams as hunters die. A fallen human becomes a demon and hunts the survivors; killing a demon can return that player to human form. The last player to remain human wins. It is a smaller, shifting contest instead of a fixed team battle, and it lets a match move between cooperation and competition without changing maps or combat controls.
The menu gives four modes, but the co-op recommendation rests mainly on Inferno and Survival. Battle and Demonizer are useful if your group wants to compete or switch sides, while the two co-op options keep every human on the same team against the game’s enemies. The four listed modes emphasize quick arena action rather than long-term objectives or character builds. The four selectable hunter appearances do not bring different abilities, so the choice is visual.
Choose how your group shares a screen
Online co-op supports up to four players, and LAN co-op is also available. If you are in the same room, the PC version supports up to four local players in split-screen. Each additional local player needs a controller. Assign it in Steam Big Picture, then press its Start button to join. That setup makes the game suitable for a couch group with several controllers, though it is not a keyboard-and-mouse split-screen setup.
Steam Remote Play Together is supported for the split-screen mode. One person runs the game, and friends can join that local session remotely through Steam’s feature; all of you share the host’s screen and computer. That can be useful when only one person owns the game, but it differs from separate online co-op sessions where each friend runs a copy. If you want each player on their own screen, use the game’s online mode instead.
The game is a Windows release, so everyone joining an online match needs a Windows PC. Online and LAN play are available, but public lobbies may be quiet. Online hosting reliability is uncertain, especially when using the dedicated-server tool or having a player host the session. Local split-screen and Steam Remote Play Together are clearer ways to set up a session with friends.
A rough-edged horror arcade run
The setting favors gloomy ruins, old cemeteries, mines and other places with a haunted, hellish look. Demons, gore and sudden waves create a horror backdrop, but the game is closer to a frantic arcade shooter than a slow scare. The tone is pulpy action horror, and the four hunters occasionally punctuate the fighting with short lines. Its maps supply the eerie locations and changing hazards; the match itself stays focused on survival and combat.
That directness also means the game can feel demanding and repetitive. Enemies keep appearing, aiming can narrow your view while you ready a weapon, and the execution-based healing makes close combat part of the pressure. The mix of dense action and unfamiliar mechanics can make the learning curve steep. Beginner mode gives a gentler entry point, but the game still expects you to learn how the weapons, melee moves and map stones fit together. The challenge is a bigger part of its appeal than character progression or a campaign payoff.
The Haunted: Hells Reach fits your group if you want a compact demon-hunting session with arena variety, escalating waves and the option to play side-by-side. Inferno offers a defined finale, Survival removes the finish line, and the versus modes let friends take control of demons. It is less suited to a group counting on a deep campaign or a long-term build to carry from one night to the next. Pick it for its co-op fights, the strange hazards in each map and the chance to turn one more horde into one more score to beat.