Solium Infernum is a name already familiar to many strategy game fans, especially those active in the community back in the earlier 2000s. League of Geeks has been hard at work on a reimagining of the older original Solium Infernum, If you aren’t familiar with the original, the game is set in Hell, and you play as a powerful fallen Archfiend. During Gamescom, we got to sit down with developers Trent Kuster and William Dyce for an exclusive interview about how the strategy system works in Solium Infernum.
When asked about what makes Solium Infernum unique, Dyce responded, “Every decision feels very impactful, because you have very few decisions to make,” declaring that, “there’s a lot of weight to everything.” Rather than bombarding players with hundreds of confusing, less significant decisions, Solium Infernum strives to provide you with a few, very impactful choices instead. The devs see this system as a “new model for a type of game that really should exist.”
Decision-making in Solium Infernum is “always an excruciating choice,” with “an intensity to the decision making that you just don’t find anywhere else.” With this kind of system, the devs hope for an experience that allows players with “busy lives” to “play a long game with friends on the other side of the world.” Dyce stated that he relishes “the challenge of trying to figure out how to make interesting decisions.”
With Solium Infernum, “it’s all about the strategic goal” rather than a grueling “labor machine,” a feeling that League of Geek devs are looking to “minimize as much as we can.” Instead of feeling laborious, the devs want decisions to feel “as interesting as possible.” They also acknowledge that this could turn certain players away, such as those looking for constant action or the feeling that they are constantly doing something.
To remedy this, Dyce stated, “We’re working very hard to ensure that the game is juicy.” Solium Infernum hopes to accomplish this by acknowledging player decisions more openly and stressing their importance. League of Geeks aims to “ensure that we acknowledge that the player has done something” and have “the interface say yes, okay, you know, I’ve heard you.” You make fewer decisions overall in Solium Infernum compared to games like Civilization, but those choices carry more weight, and the UI helps express that.
While you wait to experience Solium Infernum for yourself, you can check out a few of our other favorite turn-based strategy games. Alternatively, browse through some of these exciting turn-based RPGs if you’re searching for a more narrative-based experience.
Gamescom 2023 reporting provided by Ed Smith.