The Beautiful Low-Bit Gore of Infernax

[dropcap size=big]S[/dropcap]o the monsters from Dark Souls, Dante from Dante’s Inferno, Samus, and Simon from Castlevania decided to have a slumber party; and when they woke up Infernax was there. Infernax is in the metroidvania style of games in that it is a low-bit game, is open world, is 2-D, and it involves a single hero against limitless legions of enemies and bosses. What Infernax does to set itself apart from all the other metroidvania games is pretty simple. It has easy and fun gameplay that encourages exploration, it allows players to play the game their way, and it has enough gore to choke up a civil war surgeon!

Most of the gameplay in Infernax revolves around you beating enemies to death with a mace, a nice little change from the sword or whip from its metroidvania siblings. This mace can be changed out for other maces with different powers so you will never find yourself getting bored of using the exact same weapon over and over again. You can also pick up spells to use in battle and though none have been confirmed you can assume you will have the regular fire and ice but with the way Berzerk Studios have presented Infernax you will probably have some reality changing spells that will spin gameplay on its head. And how do you find these spells? By exploring of course! In Infernax players are rewarded for exploring with new weapons, spells, and treasure; which should give players the ability to play the game differently or defeat hard bosses. These bosses are the driving point of the plot in that they are terrorizing the players homeland so it is his or her job to kill them all. Oh the time of simpler games where evil would ultimately mean dead. Bosses are not just plot point either, they are artistic gamer masterpieces in 8-bit form that would be at home in Dead Space or Dark Souls if they had a graphics upgrade.

One of the best points of bosses in Infernax is that the player can attack them in any way. Infernax gives the player the ability to level up skills to give them the ability to play the way they want to. So if you want to stomp a bosses brain in until his head is firmly through his butt, that perfectly fine. And let’s say another friend wants to light the boss on fire from a distance and watch it fry like crispy bacon, fine again (if not a little weird). Infernax gives the player the ability to play the way they want to and not force them down a single path.

The most obvious characteristic of Infernax is not its awesome looking gameplay or its customizable abilities. As many artists say the first bite is always with the eyes and if my eyes bite into Infernax they will get a big wet mushy bite of blood and gore. The developers have gone out of their way to fill Infernax with enough blood, gore, bodies, fire, and impalements to satisfy even Vlad. In the background of most of the maps are the bodies of crucified and impaled villagers, the burned corpses of villagers, and charred trees; but that’s kind of a given. For any fans of Castlevania, Metroid, retro games, or gore Infernax is definitely worth checking out.