Have you ever played a game that made you feel a bit dumb? Even after you’ve played through the tutorial, and played some of the main game. You still aren’t totally sure what you’re doing. Well, that’s how Solium Infernum had me feeling after my first game. I bumbled my way to victory against the AI. Along the way, I threw insults to the other Archfiends. I made demands for tribute. I fought in crucibles after not bowing down to others’ demands. Even though I wasn’t totally sure how I managed it I won. And I had fun doing it and reveled in the beautiful design.
Platforms: PC
Players: 1-4 Online
Genres: Board game, Strategy. Turn-Based
Developer: League of Geeks
Price: £33.50
Solium Infurnum Review
Satan has disappeared leaving his throne cold. As one of eight Archfiends, you will scheme, deceive, backstab, and fight to try and claim it for your own. Solium Infernum was originally a ‘play-by-email game” that came out way back in 2009 and was very well received. Although, I was entirely unaware of it. However, it has now been transformed into what is essentially a fully digital board game for up to 4 players.
There are several solo scenarios for you to take on where you sit in the shoes of the Archfiends and try to win the throne via objectives specific to those aforementioned fiends. With eight Archfiends to play with, there is a decent chunk of content to play through if you’re only looking to play on your own. That being said, the best way to play is undoubtedly with other people whether that be friends or strangers.
Plot & Scheme
Take turns in making your moves to try and best position yourself to win Satan’s seat. Whether you’re looking for immediate gains or planning something longer thought out, there is plenty of strategy for you to delve into. In fact there is an almost baffling level of things you can do.
With two actions to take per turn (unless you level up enough to gain another), you can move your army around the map, attack strategic points to gain control, and earn tribute. You can ‘seek tribute’ which can be spent in the Bazaar on Legions, Praetors, Manuscripts, and Artifacts. Which can be used to either bolster armies, use in duels with other fiends or grant access to powerful spells. Or spend your tribute leveling up perks or powers granting access to new rituals.
Additionally, you can interact with other fiends in diplomacy. Here you can make demands, insult them, or make proposals allowing you to walk in their lands or more. And that’s not even everything.
It’s a lot to take in
A lot is going on, and at first, I found it quite overwhelming to learn everything. To the point where in my later turns of my first game I had analysis paralysis for what to do. As I was still learning what all of the schemes and skills did or how they impacted the game. I just found that I wasn’t using them. I ended up just ‘seeking tribute’ each round and becoming very rich. The thing is, it worked the less I did the more my prestige score (the points you need to win) went up each round. Now, that is likely due to playing against the AI and them not being the hardest opponent. But, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. As they fought with each other and spent their prestige on I don’t know what I just sat back and watched the points roll in.
I think what’s worse is that I don’t totally know why it was working. Most of it I understood. For example, others tried to make demands of me – usually an amount of tribute, I would always reject them and challenge them in the crucible knowing I had a strong champion to fight with. I usually won those fights as a non-contest meaning they didn’t or couldn’t send their champion. Which in turn won me more prestige and tribute. It was easy to watch them fail as I sat comfortably on the sidelines swatting them away every time. With each passing turn, I would see my prestige score increase whilst theirs fell on failed schemes or rituals.
Doing it wrong?
I think that’s a problem though. I don’t feel like I should’ve been able to win by either not doing anything or not making use of 80% of the game’s mechanics. It seemed wrong that I was not only winning but winning by a landslide. I’m sure if I was playing against other players they would have cottoned on and taken me down some way. To be honest, I expected it all to crumble around me at some point. But it didn’t. I strolled to victory in my first proper game of Solium Infernum and it was fun.
Eventually though, as I played more things started to click and I began to understand how things affected the overall game. That being said, the fact that my do-nothing approach worked seemed to stay with me. Whilst it was fun to try out rituals I found a lot of them failed which then led me back to the seek tribute play as it was pretty effective.
It looks awesome
Thematically I think the game is brilliant. It looks fantastic with the map all shrouded in greys and blacks with pops of reds and golds here and there. It looks like a great version of hell and hellish wastelands. Furthermore, all the artwork on the cards for Legions, Praetors, etc is imaginative, grotesque, and awesome. There has been some real flexing in the creativity department. There isn’t really a lot else going on in terms of the gameplay as it very much plays and looks like a board game. Some basic animations play out when attacks happen but it’s fairly simplistic as you watch on from your elevated position.
It will either hit or very much miss
Whether you enjoy Solium Infernum will depend on a couple of things. Firstly, you will have a lot more fun playing with real people rather than the AI opponents. The deception and scheming side of the game is always going to be more enjoyable when you have a real person on the receiving end of your tricks. Having the reactions of your friends will far outweigh what the AI will offer. For that, you will need time and dedication as some games can go on for tens of hours.
However, if you’re happy to sit quietly and squirrel away on carving out your own little piece of Hell without the need for those interactions. Working your way through the solo scenarios then you can have a decent amount of fun.
If you enjoy learning complex mechanics and mastering how to screw over others then, again, you can have fun doing that against AI or players. For me, I felt like playing alone was a bit lacking. But having the time to get a group of players together to really get stuck into a game is tricky and I think that is a serious point to consider when wanting to play.
-Will
