I’ve always said ‘If I’m going to hell, at least I’ll know people and the music is better‘. These words ring true in Solium Infernum, a grand strategy-style game from Mel(Hell)bourne’s own League of Geeks. A turn-based strategy set in the depths of hell, you vie for the mantle of rulership as your pick of seven different Archfiends of Hell.
Big names such as Lillith, Astaroth and Belial will be familiar to many players and serve as three of the seven available on release. In the Steam Next Fest demo, four are available to play.
Players familiar with games like Civilization or Heroes of Might and Magic will settle in very nicely with the hex-based Solium Infernum.
Solium Infernum Preview
You, as your chosen Archfiend collect tithes and tributes from your legion and minions, which can be used to upgrade your abilities, buy artifacts in the bazaar, and perform Rituals to enhance your armies. While collecting your tithes you’ll gain Prestige and Favour to launch or foil schemes against your enemies.
Hell is not chaos and anarchy though and Archfiends are beholden to Hell’s Infernal Conclave; essentially, Hell’s government. The Infernal Conclave plays a part in every facet of Solium Infernum. Even Archdevils bow to the Tax Office.
The tutorial included in the chronicles portion of the demo provides a robust learning experience for all necessary aspects of Solium Infernum and your interactions with the Infernal Conclave. You’ll need to make your way through the tutorial before unleashing your knowledge on the rest of the sample level which includes Skirmish mode against the computer. As per Solium Infernum’s Steam page, the game will support up to six players on release, unfortunately, this feature was not available in the demo. It remains, however, something I am very excited to try.
Set in the desolate realm of Hell, crags and hellish strongholds dot the surface and rivers of blood babble along their merry way. Sounds cool right?
It is.
Solium Infernum looks great, even at this early stage in development. The art style and vibe are something the team should be incredibly proud of. The Archfiend models are unique and interesting and the static art is exemplary.
However, it suffers from a bit of a lack of visual stimuli on the map. Different terrain and obstacles that aren’t just crags of rock to zhuzh it up a little would be nice to see and would break up the sameness of the landscape. That being said, I understand why the trope of “ruling a kingdom of ash” is always considered a hollow victory; gimme some gargantuan bones or sites of past battles!
Gameplay wise Solium Infernum handles well. The UI is reasonably user friendly but it takes some time to know where things are and what to do. I got a little lost sometimes but I’ll put that down to a skill issue for now.
Selecting units and giving orders was also a slight hurdle. I’m used to a fairly quick style of selecting and moving in RTS interfaces but Solium Infernum forced me to slow my actions down significantly and think about what I’m doing. This is great in a grand strategy, but annoying as a shard of obsidian in my cloven hoof.
A single click select and move, or a keyboard shortcut would have saved me a lot of wasted orders, and every order counts in the battle for the throne. Quality of life changes like that will make this game a constant in my Steam library.
Having the honour of trying the demo and my excitement of this being a local dev (Melbourne not the underworld) Solium Infernum seems to be a gust of fresh brimstone on a devilishly hot day. As you can tell, I’m leaning right into my new home in the pits.
Solium Infernum so far looks as though it will satisfy the gaming chair general in all of us. Its replay value is already very high in its demo state and I cannot wait for the full release. I find myself quickly jumping on for a quick skirmish after work to learn a bit more of the mechanics and things I can in preparation for launch.
Solium Infernum feels like it was made for strategy gamers and goths alike. Best enjoyed with a big, well-stocked snacky solo session right now on release, multiplayer is shaping up to be excellent. Working through the Chronicles on Discord night with the squad, issuing infernal challenges and backstabbing demonic plots to seize power and bragging threatens to be a damned good time. Because as fun as Solium Infernum is alone, it’s always going to be better with f(r)iends.
See you in Hell!
Solium Infernum was previewed on PC using digital code provided by the developer.
