Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival is a game that typically makes you fight against terrifying monsters. However, you could easily make a case that the mutated and deformed monstrosity that Marlowe becomes is the most brutal challenge of all that Hellraiser poses.
This hulking beast asks a lot of the player, with two distinct phases that require you to be mobile, accurate, and use your Genesis Configuration to your advantage to slowly but surely reveal Marlowe inside his new flesh prison and allow you to steal his heart.
Easier said than done, but with this guide, we assure you that you’ll come out the other end in much better shape than this false prophet.
How To Prepare
First of all, what I found suggest you do when you reach Zora outside the Church is to shop until you drop. By that I mean, sell anything that you’ve been storing that you don’t intend to use in the fight, and use that to stock up on ammo.
Ideally, I would suggest spending on shotgun and pistol/revolver bullets, as these will be most helpful during the second phase.
Here is the Loadout that we would suggest using:
- Pistol/Revolver
- SMG (Supersonic Bullets, Drum Magazine)
- AK-47 (Overloaded Cartridges, AP Rounds)
- Shotgun (Extended Mag Tube, Dragon Breath, Full Choke)
- Medkits X2
- Bandages in any spare slots
Melee is all but useless in this fight, you need to go in all guns blazing. Your shotgun is the most potent weapon you have, but your automatic weapons will come in handy in a pinch, and your pistol is very helpful in the later stages where you need to be accurate with your shots.
How To Beat Marlowe
Phase One
If you play your cards right, phase one can be surprisingly easy. Generally speaking, all that Marlowe will do during this opening phase is run at you and perform a melee attack, or throw rocks at you from a distance. The key here is to use the pillars around the room to take cover and stop him from running right at you.
However, you can all but cancel out this entire phase if you have a full suffering bar going into this fight.
If you use your Hell chains attack right away, you’ll be able to take him to the ground and incapacitate him, leaving the minions on his back open to close range shotgun fire. With the extended mag, you can easily pump them full of lead and take them all out before he even gets up.
Either way, the goal here is to kill all the enemies on his back, and when you do, Marlowe will stoop down and you can attack him properly. Do this and it will begin phase two.
Phase Two
This phase is a lot more involved and has a lot more gimmicks to understand if you want to take Marlowe down. But, it begins more or less the same. You need to take out the enemy on their back, and this will trigger the first gimmick.
This requires you to go to either the left, right or middle of the room and use the Genesis Configuration to pull up a spiked wall to hide behind, which Marlowe will mindlessly run into. Do this two times and that will progress the fight.
After shooting the enemy on his back again, the second gimmick is similar, as you’ll need to head to the left and right of the room and pull out a spiked lethiathan shape from the wall, and once again lure Marlowe into it.
Then comes the third, final, and easily most irritating of the gimmicks. To end the fight, you’ll need to shoot down rocks handing from chains on the ceiling, and have them land on Marlowe’s head as he passes under them.
Just note, this is a little tricky to time, so don’t be afraid to take off in a wild sprint to avoid Marlowe if you aren’t confident you can line up a shot. Plus, it is possible to softlock this fight because if you run out of bullets, no more beyond the ones that surrounded the room will spawn. Hence why I recommend stocking up on pistol bullets before taking on this fight.
Do this five times and then you can unleash hell chains for the final time, wrapping up this fight and seeing you enter the home straight as you return the final heart to Sunny. With this out of the way, you are close to now making a decision that will impact Hellraiser Revival’s ending.
