Play-tested the Hell Out of It
I can't help but wonder just what sorts of combination of factors I missed during my tests. This game is not straightforward and easy to plan out; there are tons of different items, leaders, powers and upgrades in the game, and it was impossible for me to test all the combinations. It reminded me a bit of what I think when people talk about Magic the Gathering, how they have to keep coming up with rule fixes because of new, unforeseen combinations. There aren't nearly as many in Solium Infernum thankfully, but there are enough that testing for them took time.
All those combinations of objects lead to some interesting strategical choices. Other strategy games have tended to pigeonhole you into a few discreet paths to victory, but Solium Infernum feels wide open by comparison. I tried all kinds of things, from brutal conquest where I tried to just wipe out everyone, to stealing my enemies' resources, to manipulating events to make sure my territory got much bigger at the expense of my biggest rival. Once, one of my leaders got to be so good at arena combat that I focused on arena combat exclusively, taking out champion after champion and racking up points while the leader kept leveling and getting better and laying down the hurt.
What It Is, What It Isn't
You start out by creating an archfiend using a point-buy system, assigning traits and attributes. Every one of them matters, let me tell you, and pay special attention to the open victory conditions, which often can give you a huge chunk of points if you manage to complete them. When you first start out, though, a well-balanced character is probably the best idea. After some processing time you are shown your particular chunk of Hell, with a randomly determined starting legion (based in part on your how important your character is in the hierarchy of Hell), randomly placed stronghold, surrounded by other places of power that you can take over, and other enemies who want victory themselves.
You have an interface which lets you bid in a bazaar on legions, commanders, manuscripts, relics, and artifacts, each of which performs a different function. You gather resources which you can use to spend on the above, or use in rituals, pay for upkeep on the rare powerful legion with upkeep, or enable certain targeted events. You move legions around on the map, capturing sections of Hell that will rope you 1 point per section at the end of the game, trying to move your legally recognized territory to the point where you can attack the Places of Power, which give you points per turn, and sometimes special abilities. Since you aren't allowed by the laws of hell to immediately attack your neighbors, there's a "diplomacy" screen which basically lets you start a war with your enemies in different ways. When your legions are successful, they level up, letting you select stat increases. Your own character can also level up by sacrificing resources, assembling certain manuscripts, or through affixing relics to Places of Power, and all your character's stats help enable it to wage war, gather resources, act more frequently, and rain fire down on the enemy.
All of the action is resolved simultaneously through a series of phases that are processed at the end of your turn. Everyone tells the computer what they want to do ahead of time and it sorts out who beat who to the punch, who bid more, whether or not your secret ritual beat your enemy's resistance, et al. The goal of the game is to accumulate the most points, which means you're the one most fit to rule (although there are some abilities which can turn this on its head!).
On the Design
On the Theme
For someone who doesn't take such imagery and themes lightly, it was shocking to me at times to see some of the detailed paintings that represent the horrors you can find in Hell. And at times I wound up thinking of my own philosophy in connection with what was on screen, but I'm of the ilk that thinks any game that provokes thoughts like that is already noteworthy. At first it was a bit unsettling, but all of these images and random acts of slaughter just helped cement for me that Hell is not a nice place to live. That said, Cryptic Comet's version of Hell is a lot of fun to play around in.
Update: November 26, 2009 (Happy Thanksgiving!)
Solium Infernum is up for purchase, and there's a demo available with less stuff than the full version. If you're in the mood for some unconventional strategy that's different every time you play, check it out. I'm proud I had a chance to work on it in my own small way.
Apropos of the stuff I said earlier, I both had a really neat gameplay moment, and I also stumbled upon an error which will probably have to be corrected in a patch.
The gameplay moment, at least, was great: There's an event which means that some of Heaven's angels come down and basically kick everyone's butt until they're either pushed back or they destroy enough of Hell that they get bored and go home. Well, the event got triggered, and the first legion they attacked was thankfully not mine. The legion they DID attack, though, happened to be holding an Eye of Revenge (I think it's called that, anyway), that, if the legion who carries it is defeated, defeats the attacker! Instead of the angels continuing their rampage, which probably the rest of creation would have been happy about, they got knocked back instantly. Was a nice synchronicity that I didn't expect :)
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