Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Right – where were we?
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Solium Infernum’s borders get set early, and then don’t move by much. By turn 11, things were in the basic formation they were for the rest of the game. And this is it…
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Solium Infernum is a political wargame set in hell. Quinns and I and assorted friends started playing late last year. The game is now finished, and none of the friends survived. By which I mean, we all hate each other now.

This is how it happened.
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Hell – now there’s a setting for a video game. Hell lets a game’s artists and writers run naked and wild and free, and in just-released indie strategy game Solium Infernum it also happens to tease out some hugely intelligent design ideas. I’m glad for that, because it balances out the damage done to my precious brain every time I see footage from Dante’s Inferno. Man, that game. You take not only a nonviolent epic poem but the single most nightmarish and psychedelic setting known to Western civilization and you use it to make… a God of War clone? Are you kidding?

By contrast, Solium Infernum is a turn-based, play-by-email creation, and it’s my second favourite game this year. Good year for demons, I guess.

As I said, it’ll be a while before an RPS Solium Infernum review, but Quinns reviewed it over at Game Set Watch. What that boy said. He’s not entirely stupid.

You may be wondering why, after the release of the full game and the demo, we haven’t posted any more about Solium Infernum. Is it because we find it diabolical in more than just its theme? Nope. It’s pretty nifty. Quinns and I are at work in a game at the moment, and will be diarying it up when it’s all over bar the screaming. We’d do it as we were playing, but it’s the sort of game where there’s a lot of lying and sneakiness, so having a blog entry describing exactly how I’m planning on taking all of Quinns’ Iron would be a bad idea. Anyway! Much like Armageddon Empires, its’ a tricky game to get into. Quinns found this nifty and funny tutorial online. If you had trouble getting into the demo, it’d be a handy thing to browse.

I really am not after Quinns’ iron. No, really.

An lo! there was a cry from the pits. The turn-based-devil-’em-up Solium Infernum is now available to purchase. If you don’t want to throw cash down blind – and you probably should at least feel it out – there’s a demo available for you to play, which you can get here. To get a feel for the game, here’s my first-impression notes, though Tom Chick’s ongoing diary will be splendid at introducing some of the concepts you should be thinking about. There’s a manual in the actual game directory. Also, while there’s apparently a default player-archdemon, but it doesn’t appear for some systems – mine included. Vic suggests a basic martial demon, in which case, I’d throw down Martial 2 and Charisma 3. Make him a Duke and have Wrath at your aim. More on the Cryptic site and I multiplayer diaries when we get a game cooking with hellfire.

I’ve been craving Solium Infernum all year. It’s almost certainly going to be the last of the 2009 Unknown Pleasures to debut before the year wraps up. For those who weren’t around back then, Solium Infernum is a turn-based wargame that places you as an aspirant to the throne of hell. And frankly, that’s a perfect set-up for a game as I can think of. With late-Beta code, I’ve had a chance to prod around and see what I think.
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Armageddon Empires was our favourite turn-based strategy game of 2007. That Cryptic Comet’s next project is a political wargame set in hell is enough to get us to say things like “We’re hoping that Solium Infernum will be the greatest use of extraneous latin in a videogame since Deus Ex” with a straight face. We talk to Vic Davis about putting the Demons in Democracy and reveal the first in-game shots…
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We may have mentioned Cryptic Comet’s Armageddon Empires a few times. Just a few, you understand. So we’re excited that Chief-Cryptic Vic Davis has got less-Cryptic and revealed what Codename Brimstone is. It’s Solium Infernum and it’s a simultaneous-turn wargame which charts the battles between the Dukes of Hell for Satan’s empty throne, complete with six-person multiplayer. The nobles of the cities of sin duking it out? Pardon the pun: Hell, yes.

And since Vince gave us an early heads up, we’ve got more information and art beneath the cut.
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