Solium Infernum was a turn-based strategy phenomenon in the early 2010s. Instead of taking the fight to the usual strategy arena—historic battlefields, high fantasy landscapes, space colonies—it featured a group of fanatics fighting for supremacy in Hell, inspired by John Milton/Dante. It was developed at Adobe Director by Vic Davis, a legend of the tabletop scene whose primary work is with board games, and who has since retired from game development. In an interview with the game developer (opens in new tab) in 2010, Davis bravely declared that he wanted to “make games that take 90 percent of the player base out there.”
A very noble undertaking, and one that has seen its legend grow largely among fans of the complex political strategy sim. Now, 12 years later, Armello studio League of Geeks has announced a “re-imagining” ground-up of Solium Infernum. In addition to throwing off the shackles of Adobe Director’s graphical austerity, the League of Geeks project will “take some liberties” while also adding more modern multiplayer functionality.
Here’s what it looked like:
(Image credit: Cryptic Comet)
…and here’s what it looks like now:
(Image credit: League of Geeks)
The original was a play-by-email affair, and while the modern version would also be turn-based, it would be much easier to dive for five minutes each day to pull off missions that could famously take up to six hours to complete. . These week-long, simultaneous multiplayer campaigns are still ongoing, but there will also be shorter, more snackable 2-4 hour singleplayer campaigns built around the stories of each archer. Eight of the original’s five are playable archers.
The most striking thing about LOG’s reimagining is certainly the graphics, and in particular the representation of each of the archers. It bears some of Armello’s stylistic quirks, but with an unapologetically hellish twist. The map itself – which is random, and retracts into itself in all directions in a diabolical twist – inherits the ruined barrenness of the original, adding a sense of true scale and dimension.
“It’s a natural progression for us as Solium Infernum was a major inspiration for Armello,” League of Geeks co-founder Trent Custers told me, adding that Davies was very enthusiastic about the idea of restarting the game. adopted. “We did a bunch of paper prototypes for Armello, and the actual main version of the prototype that made it into Armello was when we added some elements from Solium infernum.”
(Image credit: League of Geeks)
I was shown the gameplay demo of Solium Infernum, which started around turn 10. For newcomers to the game (like me!) it can be surprising how much of the foreground is diplomacy in Solium Infernum. Yes, it is possible to be a fire and brimstone beast, but careful manipulation, hard bargaining and finesse with your opponents is often the order of the day. The original game had a 50-page instruction manual, so rest assured I’m over-simplifying things, but there’s a reason to admire the enduring cult of Solium Infernum: there’s very Running under the hood.
While they have obvious appeal in narrative-driven singleplayer campaigns, Custer sees Solium Infernum as a tool to destroy friendships. It hasn’t given up on its complexity, but the asynchronous approach means that that complexity is boiled down to manageable daily turns. “The time that has elapsed between 2009 and 2022, as technology has gotten better and the reach of being online and pinging for notification, has increased. [has improved]Well, there’s some real traction. We can deliver a grand political strategy game set in Hell, a harrowing, friendship-destroying strategy, in bite form.”
As fans of the older game would expect, Solium Infernum will be a PC-only affair when it releases in 2023. You can wishlist it on Steam (opens in new tab). See some more screenshots below.
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(Image credit: League of Geeks)
(Image credit: League of Geeks) (Image credit: League of Geeks) (Image credit: League of Geeks)Source
