Od Studios -- Solium Infernum
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Solium Infernum -- by sector24, 2009-12-23 |
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Developer: Cryptic Comet
ESRB Rating: Not Rated
Genre: Turn Based Strategy
Platform: PC
Publisher: Cryptic Comet
Release Date: 11/26/2009
What is Solium Infernum?
Solium Infernum is a game eerily similar in scope to Dominions 3. The sudden disappearance of Lucifer creates a power vacuum in Hell and as an archfiend you have the strength and ambition to take the throne...or do you? The game is for 3-6 players and supports hotseat and play by email (PBEM). In the absence of human players you can substitute the game's AI controlled archfiends.
What does this game do well?
Much like Dominions 3, Solium Infernum's greatest strength is the source material and mythological references. The game is sort of a fusion between The Lesser Key of Solomon, Paradise Lost, with a little Lovecraftian horror thrown in for spice. You will face off against other archfiends such as Moloch, Balphegor, and Mammon. Your armies (called Legions) consist of Hell Hounds, The Fallen (angels), and a swarm of insects known only as the Creeping Doom. You can hire commanders known as Praetors to lead your legions with names such as Abraxas, Baraqiel, and Furfur. Your legions can harness the power of immense artifacts such as the Adamantine Golem, Hellfire Ballista, and Ark of Damnation. You may collect priceless relics such as the Book of Enoch, Crown of Fire, or even an alien in a jar. You can even collect manuscripts with names such as the Ritual of Agony, or assemble a Machine of Gluttony. The game's flavor text is rich and suggestive; sometimes a little disturbing but never filthy, and occasionally tinged with a pinch of insanity. If this is the kind of thing you're into, then there's a dark abyss of knowledge to immerse yourself in.
Because this game supports PBEM, everything is done in turns. A turn is broken up into 6 phases, in which all of the actions in phase 1 take place in order, then all of the phase 2 actions, etc. It is up to each player to prioritize their actions into one of the 6 phases. So for instance, if I want to move my legion onto the Great Wheel of Pain in order to capture it, but I also want to recruit The Iron Maidens from the bazaar, I have to decide which is more important. If I push my movement order to phase 2, perhaps another player will capture the Great Wheel of Pain first, but if I hold off on recruiting the Iron Maidens someone else may have already purchased their services by the time I get around to it. There is a lot of strategy and a lot of planning involved in each turn, even though the game starts off very slowly, only giving you two phases per turn. You earn the rest by increasing your character attributes or sometimes through other means such as purchasing the Book of Enoch, which grants +1 order per turn.
To keep the same player from going first every turn, each archfiend acts as regent one time before passing the regency to the next player. As the regent, your actions are resolved first, meaning your phase 1 action is processed before anyone else's phase 1 action, then your phase 2 action is processed before anyone else's phase 2 action, etc. You also get to draw an event card which is usually something that could change the entire course of the game either negatively of positively. For example you could call an Unholy Crusade which requires each archfiend to send a legion to battle the forces of Heaven. Or you could play a card which reduces the movement rate of all legions to 1 for several turns. Some cards you will want to play right away and some you will want to keep for a rainy day. Much like Texas Hold Em's big blind, regency moves around the circle of archfiends. Sometimes you will be able to act before another archfiend, sometimes after. Part of the game is making sure that if you absolutely have to go first, you set it up that way several turns in advance.
Most of the actions available to you require resources. Solium Infernum has four; first and foremost are human souls suffering eternal punishment, then blood, hellfire, and darkness. You acquire these resources by demanding tribute from your minions, and the game is quick to point out that an archfiend ALWAYS has minions. You can demand as much tribute as you have orders, but you first demand will always be the best and there are diminishing returns on making repeated requests in the same turn.
You use your resources for many things including increasing your personal attributes such as Wrath, Deceit and Wickedness with appropriate skills unlocking at each level, casting infernal rituals to harass and destroy your opponents and their minions, and most importantly purchasing items at the bazaar. As previously mentioned you can purchase legions (armies), praetors (commanders), artifacts (items that boost a legion), relics (items that boost your personal status), and manuscripts. Manuscripts usually come in multiple volumes and are very powerful but only if you collect them all. For instance a manuscript can boost your wickedness by 2 which is pretty cool, but another manuscript could lower all of your opponent's wickedness by 2 which is downright awesome. The bazaar is a very interesting feature because everything in it is first come, first served. Every time something is purchased, a new item appears in the bazaar next turn. If no one is buying, then no new items appear so it's important not only to snatch the best stuff as soon as possible, but also not to let the bazaar stagnate. You don't want a highly desirable item to show up only to realize that everyone is going to bid on it.
Combat in Solium Infernum is very straightforward once you get the hang of it. Each legion has 3 attack values; ranged, melee, and infernal. When sizing up your opponent, first you compare ranged values and the player with the lower value takes damage equal to the difference. Then the same for melee, then the same for infernal. If both legions are still alive, then combat goes another round. After 2 rounds, if both legions are still alive the legion that took the most damage retreats. Easy, right? Well once you factor in Praetors and Artifacts and combat cards, things can get messy. Praetors provide a flat bonus to legions such as +3 melee. Artifacts usually provide a flat bonus, but some have special abilities like double infernal damage, or lifesteal, etc. As an archfiend you can also create combat cards for your legions which are single serving bonuses that are discarded once they are used. Basic cards are just stat bonuses or penalties for your opponent but more powerful archfiends can change the rules completely such as forcing infernal damage to be compared first, or forcing two melee attacks in a row.
The objective of the game is to have the most prestige by the time the infernal conclave convenes to decide the next ruler of hell. This is calculated in a number of ways. At the end of the game you receive 1 prestige point for each hex you control (called a canton). You receive prestige for winning battles and owning special locations on the map called places of power. Certain relics also generate prestige, but the primary method of gaining notoriety is through diplomacy.
Solium Infernum has a very interesting diplomacy system that is fully functional even as a PBEM game. All your diplomatic efforts are delivered to the infernal conclave, who then make them public for all of hell to see. Then the next turn your opponent may respond, also through the infernal conclave. So for instance, you may demand tribute from Moloch, who must give you some of his resources or else. Such a demand requires you to "wager" your prestige. If he concedes the tribute, you get your prestige back, but if he refuses then the prestige goes to him. But such an affront does not go unpunished! If ever your opponent refuses a demand or shames you in front of the conclave you can demand a vendetta. This is a formal declaration of war, but in a very structured manner. As the wronged party you choose the terms of the vendetta, and wager more prestige on your ability to accomplish it. For instance you could say that you will destroy 2 of your opponent's legions within 5 turns. Or you could capture 6 cantons within 3 turns. Or capture 1 place of power in 2 turns. The more difficult the task, the more prestige you win if you succeed. Your opponent is not privy to the terms of the vendetta, so he has to defend his territory as best he can not knowing what you are after. However, it's important to note that the defender has no restrictions on how he can act. If your vendetta is to destroy his legions and he simply runs away, you could capture 6 cantons and still lose. Or perhaps while your goal is to capture his place of power, he is stealing your cantons and you could win the vendetta but still come out the loser overall.
Another way to solve a vendetta is a single combat in which you each hire a praetor to fight in the arena as your champion. Praetors have unique stats measured in skulls, shields, and orbs. A skull will deal 1 damage to the enemy praetor, a shield will prevent 1 damage, and orbs are used to cast spells which are generally unblockable, but also leave you open to attack. You set your praetor's combat orders up ahead of time, and then those orders are compared against your opponent's. If you both chose skulls as your move, you damage each other. If you chose shields and he chose skulls, each shield prevents 1 skull from damaging you. Luck is a small factor, but mostly it's about getting inside your opponent's head or simply having a better praetor as your champion. Praetors can level up through combat and can also read manuscripts which give them new combat abilities. A powerful praetor can be devastating as it allows you to make demands on everyone in the game because any vendetta can be handled without you actually having to spend any of your orders moving your legions around.
What could this game have done better?
Solium Infernum has a lot of cool features, and is quite an addictive game. However, it does have its flaws. For one, the avatar creator is cool, but not balanced. The most important choice is your rank which determines the power of your starting army and your diplomatic clout. A prince of hell can make bigger demands more often, has a more powerful army, and gets extra resources at the start of the game. A lord is the exact opposite; small army, no diplomatic clout, almost no resources to start with. You can also choose your starting attributes, and you can also choose perks like +melee damage proportionaly to your wrath, extra prestige from places of power, or even penalties that give you more points to work with. However, the perks are SO expensive compared to the other things you can buy, it's hard to take them seriously. Perks cost 6 to 13 points, while the difference between prince and lord is only 12 points. I'm not saying the perks aren't well thought out, but their prices need some balancing in order to make them viable.
The game's biggest problem is that it is slow paced. This is a heavy strategy game in which you have to plan things out several turns in advance. If you are trying to get a rare item to show up in the bazaar, you better be sure that you're the regent that turn so you can buy it first. If you're going to claim a vendetta against your opponent, you need to make sure that you can win it despite his best efforst to stop you. Using your resources frivolously can cripple you for a long time because they are very hard to accumulate in large numbers. It's just not a game you can sit down and "play". That is unless you are playing the AI.
Solium Infernum's AI is simply not up the task considering the game's complexity. The other archfiends can easily be bullied around. In fact you can make demands of all of them at the same time and they will give you resources and prestige left and right. If any of them refuse you can absolutely crush them with your legions or if they are too far away simply challenge them to single combat with your best praetor. Sometimes the AI won't even buy a praetor and you win by default. If you have enough places of power to put you in the lead, you can literally sit inside your stronghold and do nothing for 50 turns and win the game. The AI is not bad, but the game is just a little too complicated for it to provide a clever human with any real challenge.
Should I buy this game?
In many ways Solium Infernum would have been better as a physical board game. Many of the game's concepts are card based, there's not a whole lot of under the hood calculations, and it would be a lot easier to get your friends over to play the whole game over a 3 hour period than to play by email over a 3 month period. It is a very cool game, but not as a single player game. It really requires at least 2 human friends who are willing to play it with you, and I find it unlikely that most people would be able to pull that off in today's instant gratification video game market.
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