Overall, this game left me in shambles as I would feel a sense of extreme dread as I made progress throughout each world as I never fully knew what reaction any of my decisions could cause. However, it gave me a sense of relief and wonder when I would solve the puzzle given to me and continue forward to see what challenges awaited me next.
It’s survival horror, but it’s not scary. It’s a puzzle game, but those are not so challenging either. And still, everything fits perfectly. Infernium causes addiction with its difficulty, causes frustration with its graphics, causes anguish with its sound quality and wonders us with its design.
Infernium is a survival horror game with a creeping, insidious kind of logic. It gives you very little to go on and punishes nearly every wrong turn you take. If you’re a fan of old school survival horror you might get into this one, but most other players will probably just get frustrated with the repetition and trial and error.
While the game has tons of personality with an interesting concept, a fun challenge in some areas, and even a New Game+ feature that adds new surprises, it's ultimately a Frankenstein's monster of other games cut together. If leaving players lost and confused in Hell is Infernium's goal, then it has succeeded.
When you’re being chased it’s honestly such a heart-pounding moment. It simply misses the mark in other areas needed to be considered a truly great game.
Infernium seems like the kind of game you’ll either love or you’ll hate. Either you’ll adore the way it mashes together a bunch of different ideas, or it’ll frustrate you to the point of wanting to never see the game again. I definitely fell in that latter category, but it’s a mark of how distinctive this game’s vision is that I wouldn’t begrudge anyone who sees it the other way.
Infernium delivers a strong visual representation of Hell that bucks the standard trend in entertainment media. Sadly, the game also plays like hell with poor controls and frustratingly obtuse design choices.
SummaryInfernium, a survival horror approach to Pac-Man. Dive in a non-linear beautiful portrait of hell, die in a prison without bars and overcome a brutal penitence.