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Developed by Bezerk Studio and Published by The Arcade Crew, Infernax is a gritty mature platformer with bags of charm. The games intro has a strong retro feel to it with its graphical style. The great soundtrack and 2D graphics make it a fine blend of Ghosts and Goblins and Castlevania, though it leans more towards Castlevania in its references with two obvious nods that I noticed but there is probably more. They have steered towards a more adult audience with a lot more gore and violence than what you would expect in this type of game. The amusing warning message is something everyone should see as its tongue in cheek humour is felt throughout the game.
You play as Duke Alcedor who is tired of fighting at the crusades and wants to come home. However, instead of a warm homecoming, he was treated to a corpse tied to a cross being feasted on by crows. He then falls off of the cross but then proceeds to get up and walk in your direction menacingly. You then realise all is not as it should be and there is some evil at play. It turns out a mysterious book written by a madman containing powerful scriptures has infected the land and you need to restore order.
The game pulls no punches with its difficulty and gore. The first choice encounter you come across shows what the game is about. You have to make a tough decision and the outcome is shown in 2D glory with copious amounts of gore. You start with only your basic mace and 4 bars of health which won’t last you long unless you are cautious. Most enemies are not too tough to defeat but they make take a couple of whacks. If you try and rush you will come unstuck pretty quickly. It is a 2D platformer so it’s very simple to master the controls and the only part that felt odd to me was that to defend against projectiles you just face the right direction as Alcedor is wielding a big shield. But as soon as you move or attack the shield is lowered. That took a bit of getting used to but you only have to die once or twice under a frustrating circumstance to have it drilled into you.
The map of the area is not fairly large but then you also don’t move very fast so it takes a while to traverse some of the areas. You will also notice a lot of the areas have obstacles you cannot pass or areas out of reach. You know full well you will have to unlock certain skills and abilities before you can reach these areas so you know backtracking will feature heavily in the game. The game has you searching for 5 major dungeons which hold crystals that form a seal to the source of the corruption. Some of these dungeons have some puzzle elements to locate the dungeon and inside each dungeon, you will find some tricky platforming elements. Most dungeons contain a skill/ability which may help you with progressing to some of the previously unreachable areas and they also contain a boss. These bosses range from simple to downright mean but most of it is pure old school pattern learning. They are very rhythmic and you have to be patient. The magical spells you can find in the game can become important to progression. Some of the spells you find are needed to progress the game.
There are some RPG elements to the game as well and that surfaces with upgrades to the Duke. There are save points in the shape of shrines scattered about the whole map. Using the experience you garner from felling enemies you can choose to upgrade your strength, health or mana. The strength and health are paramount to survival and the mana not so much but it does come in handy later in the game. You also collect money dropped from enemies which can be used when you come across a trader which there are a few. Some sell you spells whilst others sell you an armour or weapon upgrade. You can also buy more potion storage space to hold more potions which is valuable later in the game.
As I mentioned before there are many nods to the Castlevania series. The first is the transition from night and day using a dialogue box. This is like for like and it has a small impact in certain town areas and also what enemies are shown in some areas. Another big nod is a bit of a spoiler but let’s just say if you kneel before a steep wall expecting to be whisked away, you are in for a nasty but comical surprise. I would say the game has a decent length to it for its game type. It could be done in about 2 sittings if you are decent at platformers or if you tweak the difficulty or even use the cheat codes supplied by the game for invincibility. It may seem short but I think it’s sufficient as these games are never meant to be massive and outstay their welcome.
Conclusion
Infernax for me is a decent platformer that is aimed at the older market. They have added in a lot of adult references and gore to make sure you understand it is not for kids. There are some fun comical elements, wonderfully tough decisions with surprising outcomes and challenging bosses which will test your patience. I am glad games like this are still being made as there is still a lot of joy to be had with this formula.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox Series S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
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