I played a ton of games at PAX West back in September. In fact, I had an appointment almost every hour and they were often spread throughout the area. Somehow, I made it every single meeting and while I wasn’t able to share about every single session, there are several that stand out that I still think about. One of those games is Infernax, a violent display of retro-inspired, heavy metal brutality from Berzerk Studio, the same team behind the deliciously stylish Just Shapes & Beats.
This was one of my last meetings of that weekend. Tucked on the side of the room was a familiar entertainment center, a couch that had clearly seen many a sleepy body, and some classic 90s snacks and drinks. The guys gave me a quick rundown, handed me the controller, and me being the retro enthusiast that I am, I immediately understood what inspired these developers and what they loved about that era.
Infernax may be familiar to some, as the game was originally on Kickstarter about five years ago. In an interview at PAX West, Hunter Bond of Berzerk Studio told me that they actually refunded everyone that backed the project aside from a single penny so the devs could keep track and get all of those people the game. This kind of thing doesn’t happen often, so it’s cool to see Berzerk Studio go to this length.
Infernax can be described as what if Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link were actually good? That framework has been molded into something objectively better with the violence found in the Castlevania series turned up to a level that would make Adi Shankar roar with excitement. The story takes place during the Crusades where the protagonist discovers twisted abominations fueled by devilish magics that must be swiftly eradicated.
Players will be steadily working across body-strewn fields and decrepit castles as a figure of divine judgment. Various minor RPG mechanics keep players feeling strong but not overpowered as there are quite a bit of well-designed challenges to overcome. Enemies are cleverly placed, much like the original Castlevania to make traversal a matter of consideration and knowing one’s reach and tools.
For replayability, Infernax features moments where one must decide to kill or spare characters. The outcomes can be surprising and are a perfect way to entice players to go through the game several times to see all the various outcomes. Choosing to kill results in this absolutely nasty animation which punctuates the amount of blood oozing from every part of Infernax. The player’s armor even becomes more bloody as enemies are killed, which is a system that I’m sure took a ton of coding and testing to make it look right. Monsters also explode into bits and beating a boss can result in a scene reminiscent of a Slayer album cover.
One of the last things I was shown during the demo was the inclusion of a cheat system that was incredibly similar to the classic Game Genie tools. This system enabled some truly awesome modifications to the game, such as being able to play as a Contra-style soldier. I really hope that this feature, in particular, has a lot come out of it. Maybe it can become the type of urban legends that kept players sharing codes organically, where everything isn’t just on a few dozen websites. It’d be awesome if Berzerk just hid a few codes and only told a couple of people at conventions or something, just to see how long it takes for it to travel.
I absolutely adore games like Infernax where the general ideas of classic titles are expanded with modern sensibilities. There’s a ton of timeless game design to be found in retro titles. Needless to say, I am eagerly awaiting this release. Back in September, the goal was for the game to be out by 2020 but the Steam page currently has the release as date as “hopefully before the robot uprising” so there doesn’t seem to be something set in stone quite yet. There is a Switch version planned as well and a build has been used to demo the game at conventions.
For more information about Infernax, check out the official website. To see why Berzerk Studio’s designs stood out so much to me, check out my review of Just Shapes & Beats on PS4.
