‘Infernax’ Review: A Charming but Too Conservative Retro Romp
Infernax vows to banish demons and other foul creatures starting next Monday, Valentine’s Day 2022. Is this a quest worth embarking on?
Berzerk Studio‘s biggest game yet aims to renew the classic Castlevania formula, with an extra touch of Zelda II for good measure. Does it succeed? Yes, most definitely. Does it bring enough innovations and charm to the overcrowded market of “metroidvania” titles? That’s debatable.
I’ve had just enough fun with Infernax during my review time. I also believe it’s a highly polished indie release that most folks will enjoy. But, if we look at the sheer amount of awesome games which have gone out and achieved the same with more striking personalities and fresher gameplay ideas, it might be hard to recommend Infernax as a top tier pick.
Infernax kicks off when Alcedor, a famed knight, returns home only to find out “an unholy magic has spread throughout his land while he was away.” The mission is quite simple: destroy every grotesque beast roaming your once-peaceful lands and break the seals that block access to a castle overtaken by an unknown evil. It’s pretty standard stuff which sends you away to explore every corner of the map and to defeat a number of bosses (each found in a different keep) before you can fight the being responsible for everything that’s happened.
It’s hard to deny Infernax hits its objectives with relative ease. If you’re looking for a gory love letter to Castlevania II and Zelda II, you’ll feel right at home — it also looks the part, plus the pixel art in the cutscenes is gorgeous. Otherwise, you are better off with an extensive list of fantastic metroidvania titles, both from indie developers and big publishers, that dared to venture beyond the classics and nurture new mechanics and systems.
Games like Shovel Knight and Blasphemous (to name a couple) have shown us you can take big swings and even deconstruct the classics while honoring them. Infernax has a dark sense humor and Souls-ish influences, and that’s pretty much it — everything else is retro to a fault. Thankfully, the controls in Infernax are snappy, because there’s no reason good enough to make a modern 2D game janky on purpose.
Infernax isn’t a long adventure, and that’s okay. In fact, I’m glad it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Problem is… the overworld’s level design isn’t very interesting. And you’ll spend a fair amount of your playthrough going back and forth between major areas. Things pick up inside the main keeps, which channel that retro gauntlet energy much more efficiently. However, some of these dungeons feel like one-trick ponies — as soon as you figure out the main “gotcha” gimmick of each keep, the challenge dwindles immensely unless you’re an impatient player.
Boss fights are more exciting, and while challenging, never feel unfair. Again, they’re retro to a fault (and can often be cheesed), but I guess you’ll be enjoying what Infernax does if you stick around past the opening hour. It’s here where I must bring up the matter of checkpoints — Classic Mode offers the greatest challenge, as all XP and gold are lost upon death, and checkpoints are few and far between; Casual Mode makes it so you only lose a portion of the XP and gold earnings, and almost doubles the number of statues where you can rest. With how annoyingly the game handles progression and how much it encourages backtracking to optimize your chances of success, I cannot recommend Classic Mode in good faith unless you want to be challenged every step of the way.
Quite often, I found myself wasting a few minutes returning to the nearest inn (spoiler: they’re not close by in most cases) before facing a boss that crushed most of my health bar with a single blow. Why? Because they’re the only places where potions can be replenished. Yeah, “praying spots” will replenish Alcedor’s strength and allow you to save, but they don’t fill the essential health (or mana) flasks — even Dark Souls games do that. I’d “git gud” if the treks between areas were fun, or if grinding XP to power up Alcedor wasn’t a matter of side-scrolling between screens back and forth. That’s not the case, so Infernax‘s hardcore/true mode only comes off as a poorly thought-out way to elongate the game.
I wish Infernax had more tricks up its sleeve, I really do. There are really inspired bits of platforming and riddle-solving, plus some interesting secret areas and bosses to hunt down, and its comedic bits are funny most of the time. Moreover, there are several moral choices peppered throughout the game which lead to small side quests and, eventually, alternate endings. Even the soundtrack is good and packs a punch! So, why can’t I love this game? Because I’ve played it already. As I was smashing my way through the game’s (admittedly impressive) final section, I could only think of how much I wanted to play substantially bolder metroidvanias which I had already beaten instead of replaying Infernax to unlock another ending. That not-so-secret Contra mode though.
There’s plenty to love in Berzerk Studio’s latest release, but I personally think I’ve had enough of metroidvania titles which play exactly like Castlevania did 30 years ago. And no amount of polish and crude jokes will make me feel differently. That’s just me though. I’m fully aware that most veteran gamers are gonna love this one. Just don’t forget to check out its cooler relatives afterwards.
Infernax launches February 14 on PC (Steam), PlayStation and Xbox consoles, and Nintendo Switch. It’s hitting Game Pass day one, too.
Thanks to The Arcade Crew (publisher) and Tinsley PR for the PC review code.
Francisco J. Ruiz is that guy who has watched Jurassic Park a thousand times and loves Star Wars. His hunger for movies is only matched by his love for video games. He graduated in English Studies from the University of Malaga, in Spain. As he keeps writing about what he enjoys (and doesn’t) for websites all over, he’s continuing his studies.
