These are the names of some of the Legions you can recruit in Solium Infernum: The Defilers; Vile apostates; Iron Maidens; 10,000 screaming bastards. You want to recruit 10,000 Screaming Bastards, right? Of course you do. Who wouldn't?
It's a powerful theme. The throne of hell is empty and all the devils are mocking. You're one of the Archfiends, a Mammon or a Lilith (how many video game Liliths do we have so far?), so you raise some legions, practice some dark arts, stand in the back of some, and compete – through the medium of change. based strategy with synchronous twists – to rule in hell.
Under the hood there seems to be a lot of the original Solium Infernum, of which this is a remake. I only know the 2009 version secondhand from the accounts of the doomed souls who attended one legendary game diary, but core elements like the order of combat in ranged, melee, and then hell, as well as stats like Deception and Prophecy remain the same. One change is these Archfiends – in the original you created your own devil, a hellish Build-A-Bear, while in the remake you have eight to choose from with preset stats. Although you can change the relic loadout, Astaroth will always start with a few points of Wrath and a unique diplomatic ability that allows him to enter open hostilities for a turn.
Diplomacy is important to Solium Infernum. Hell is rule-bound and bureaucratic, which provides good explanations for both the things that limit you and the way you deal with them. The claimed territory can only be exceeded if one is engaged in a formal vendetta, which can be triggered by insults or demands. However, it only lasts a certain number of turns and requires the use of prestige points under the condition that you, for example, take three hexes in three turns, capture a place of power, or destroy a legion. If you create enough vendettas, you can become embroiled in a blood feud and then attack your opponent's stronghold directly. However, this is a long-term goal that requires a number of preparations. “I just want to attack Belial with my 10,000 screaming bastards,” you say, and a fiend with a suitcase replies, “Of course you have to fill out these forms in triplicate first.”
The goal is to accumulate enough prestige points, whether through winning battles, completing plans, or performing rituals, to impress the conclave, who will appoint the next Pit Boss somewhere in the 50th round or wherever you do that have set a limit. There are other ways to win, as Solium Infernum is all about finding ways to subvert the rules, but most of the time it seems to come down to a choice – truly the most hellish form of decision-making over control.
In order to find and exploit the loopholes in the laws of Hell, you have to understand where they are, and this is where Solium Infernum let me down a bit. When I engaged in Deception, I was able to perform a Dark Divination to reveal my opponents' stats and their inventory levels. However, after performing the ritual, I had no idea how to actually find the information. Turns out you can click on the icons at the top right of the screen to see summaries of the other devils, which I had to beg another dark master – Google – to know. Other things remain opaque. I have engaged my praetors to fight many duels on my behalf, and have won several, but I will be damned if I understand how they are decided.
Solium Infernum does have an encyclopedia where you can look up rules, but without a search function it's not particularly useful to me. Instead, I relied on learning by playing, which works but can be frustrating. It's like playing a board game where you only find out the rules when other players use them to beat you up. I didn't know that someone could simply summon a host of angels, as if they had left the door to hell unlocked, and that angel would instantly destroy my best legion. Cool, cool, cool, I learned something new. I also learned the hard way that units I almost defeated can heal by simply being near a stronghold or place of power, and that you can raid a person's vault for the money Stealing something she's been collecting for an entire round is also cool, good to know.
The topic makes up for a lot. Not just because it's fun to be a devil fighting for souls, delivering insults to Astaroth and summoning armies of guys straight out of a Warhammer Chaos army to beat him up, but because the pain points feel appropriate. It's a sadistic game because of course it is. Everyone in this is a sadist, and those 10,000 bastards are screaming for a reason.
Solium Infernum is available at steam.
