INFERNO CLIMBER

Make no mistake, this is a really hard and punishing game, so it's definitely not for the faint of heart, but from what I got out of it, I felt it was a well-crafted experience for people looking for an even harder version of Dark Souls (or, based on the graphics, maybe more accurately a harder version of Kings Field)! As a Dark Souls esque game, from what it lacks in the gorgeously connected world and lore, it makes up for it in fun gamey levels with lots of interesting obstacles, and an interesting amount of 'immersive sim' elements brought forth by its survival gameplay. And while the game does lean towards being hard, no doubt about that, I found that I rarely died in my experience, and I credit this to the game being hard, but not in a cheap insta-kill lame way like many of these clones do: I felt like all traps and tricks were telegraphed nicely as long as you play cautiously and remain observant. Keep your guard up! The survival elements had both positives and negatives to them. Managing food and durability of items can lead to some dynamic adventures where you need to rush and improvise as things go wrong and supplies run thin. It's also pretty cool to try and manage your roster of heroes, keeping them trained and equipped so one can save the other if they die in their ventures. It's a bit of a similar feel to Darkest Dungeon in that respect. But in that same vein, they both suffer the same type of negative: the dreadful amount of grind that can happen and the miserable failure loop that you can possibly get stuck in, especially if you run out of heroes in your roster. Another nice thing was the 'immersive sim' elements as well, with elements like fire and such being able to cause interesting and logical chain reactions, and the ability to use items in your inventory in multiple ways. Short on a weapon? Eat some meat to get a leftover bone club, or throw one of your empty potion bottles at an enemy! You can actually kill slimes by pouring salt on them (and oh my, the first boss is a slime...) Again, though, it sucks when the sim elements work against you: if you're carrying a death contract to revive one of your characters and you get hit by a fire arrow? The contract burns away! Carrying all those potions and slip on a banana peel? Watch your potions shatter as they fall out of your pockets onto the floor! Augh! I'll admit, as much as I'm praising the game, I can't imagine getting any farther than I am currently because the tension keeps rising, and there is a certain amount of grind that the game needs that I can't commit to. But I definitely enjoyed my time: the first boss fight was a very memorable scrabble for me where I had to improvise like crazy, and I enjoyed the intensity of learning and exploring the dungeons and their many devious traps.