The Haunted Hoard: Infernax (Xbox Series X)

Infernax isn’t afraid to wear its influences on its sleeve, the game even making direct references to games like Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest in enemy and area design. However, while those two NES sidescrollers both had you destroying monsters constantly, they were bloodless skirmishes. Infernax revels in its ability to depict the bloodshed inevitable with trying to repel the demonic invasion that comprises its plot, areas often having cobblestones slick with blood, creatures and people trying to protect themselves crumple into bloody piles, and some of the monsters are certainly made more horrific by having their guts hang out or flesh peeled back. The old school graphics do keep this platformer from feeling outright gruesome, but with things like every type of death having a specific animation where the world turns red and black and you witness the hero’s brutal end, it’s clear this game enjoys its darker look at the journey of a hero in a land besieged by murderous beasts.

 

Infernax begins with Duke Alcedor returning from fighting in the Crusades, but in his absence the Duchy of Upel has been overrun by demons and monsters. A few towns exist in relative safety still, but knights continue to fall in battle repelling the constant aggression of animate skeletons and the machinations of cultists. With only a mace and shield in hand, the duke heads out to try and restore order and defeat the source of the unholy creatures, but the Urzon Citadel where the leader of the demons seemingly lies is sealed. Alcedor must travel across his duchy and defeat the demonic underlings residing deep within dungeons, but this story doesn’t just have to be a tale of a force of good coming to banish evil from the land.

One other way Infernax sets itself apart from its progenitors beyond an abundance of blood is there are a few points along the adventure where moral choices can send it on a different path. While you can’t identify where exactly Alcedor stands in terms of his morality at any time, the way he behaves will actually influence which ending of the game you will receive as well as leading to a few smaller events occurring along the main adventure, with things like whether you oppose the cult or not depending on how good or evil you’ve acted at key moments. Sometimes it might be something fairly straightforward that tests your moral character like a brigand on the bridge bribing you to look the other way while he harasses travelers, and there is usually some sort of benefit to going either way with your choice. Sometimes it might be different versions of a spell like one that heals you for free but the evil choice instead has you damage enemies with its version of the spell to regain health. Other times though it can be a bit less clear what the right choice might be, as the game is willing to toy with softhearted players as not all pleas for help may be genuine. If you do accidentally make a poor choice for your intended path, save points require active saving so resetting is an option, but you can also offset some choices with things like donations at the church. However, seeing the different outcomes will emphasize that sometimes there are no easy choices on this path you walk, the consequences even for doing the right thing not always pretty. The scope of a choice is often limited to a specific area and you’ll still be doing the main seal-breaking adventure regardless of how you play it, but there are certainly moments with a big footprint like if you choose to break down a dam to flood a town.

 

Quests are fairly common and quite rewarding as well, some of these tied to the handful of moral choices you’ll be asked to make while others are tasks to complete while out exploring the interconnected world of Upel. Some of them can even lead to small dungeons with their own unique monsters and boss, and while each one usually involves some sort of special action rather than just doing a bit more monster fighting while out and about, the fact they almost all pay out with a good deal of gold makes them worthwhile to pursue regardless of their scope. When fighting the demons of Infernax you’re guaranteed to get experience points for almost every creature killed no matter how weak, but gold will only sometimes spring out of their corpses and still in fairly small amounts. The different towns each have shops that sell incredibly helpful items like upgrades to your mace and armor, new spells (some of which are necessary for progress), and upgrades to your lives and potion flasks. Save points don’t exist in dungeons and are the only place you get free health refills, but in a dungeon or out and about in the world you can utilize spells or potions for healing and even if you do perish, you can revive on the current screen if you have a life in reserve. Gold is handled fairly well so you can’t become a powerhouse too early, but beyond the instant death dangers of falling down pits, into lava, or into water, some later areas do become far more manageable thanks to the upgrades you purchase from the fruits of your fairly interesting labors.

Battle in Infernax is often fairly simple because Duke Aceldor’s options don’t expand too much over the course of the adventure. You do eventually get a few special maneuvers like an upwards thrust that gives you the option to reach more heights, but its committal nature means it often won’t have a good chance of hitting a foe or will leave you open to attack. It’s clear the extra movement options are navigation tools first and just so happen to involve mace thrusts to move you around with more ease, but they do expand the way dungeons can be designed and you definitely learn to fear instant death pits so navigating around them can be tense. Such techniques also give the broader world map a bit more to do in it, the dungeons often straightforward with a branch or two but the areas between them can have secrets or new routes open as your movement options expand. The enemies you face do test your ability to use your basic mace swing and shield well though. Your shield is up when you don’t attack and can block things like thrown spears, but your mace has a split-second wind-up so you need to make sure you’re aren’t leaving yourself open as you go for a strike. Skirmishes are still often quick and involve rapid mace strikes if the foe can weather them, but most enemy types do have some way to make you think a bit about your approach. Some creatures will duck to fire at your feet that your shield won’t protect unless you do the same, others can appear from unusual places like teleporting mages or mermen leaping out of the water, and flying foes require you to scope out safe landing spots since you can be battered back if you’re not careful or are ambushed by a foe who flew through a solid wall.

 

It is a bit of a shame that your attack options aren’t broader. You do get magic spells that can deal damage but magic power isn’t easy to replenish and saving that resource for healing spells seems smarter than using some lightning to clear out a room of basic baddies. Area layouts and boss battle arenas still try to make sure that things can be quite dangerous for the player to make the fight involve some motion and picking your opportunities to strike well, but once you do start to reach the point you have decent armor or enough potions to offset incoming injury, some later bosses can be more blindly battered. Usually instant death danger tries to come into play to make up for this, a sloppy player likely to be knocked into lava to make up for the dwindling danger of actual enemy attacks, and having save points spaced out well means sometimes you have to make a perilous run back if you want to preserve progress or press forward with diminished resources.

 

One thing that helps the enemies still get in their licks to lead to those moments is the fact that experience points are always popping out of their bloodied corpses, the player only able to spend these at save altars to get some of those key helpful upgrades of higher attack damage, more health, and more magic power. It’s another incentive to perhaps double back and something that can make the prospect of pressing forward more terrifying as you know you might have to cross something like spinning waterwheels where floating eyeballs are looking to bump you into the water along the way. However, with every kill putting you at least a tiny bit closer to a reward, it’s also easy to get pulled in by the promise of killing a foe you probably would have been better off ignoring, letting it land a hit that strains those resources some so you use up magic or potions before reaching a more difficult fight. There are two difficulty settings though, Classic having you respawn at your last save point with all progress lost when all your lives run out while Casual will have you keep some of the acquired experience and gold. Other changes like more save altars help alleviate the danger too, but while some moments like the waterwheels can lead to potential frustration, removing some of the risk also lessens some of the opportunities for more fights with real oomph behind them. Having such a difficulty option isn’t a bad thing, but it does feel like the action doesn’t hold up as well when some of the incentives for being cautious are removed.

THE VERDICT: While your attack options remain fairly simple in Infernax, the new techniques you do acquire help open up its world rich with secrets and a good mix of level design choices and battle incentives keep a sense of danger present. Every monster kill works towards some progress and quests not only provide unique experiences but sizeable rewards as well, the morality system even giving you the ability to shape the small story in a few key ways. Much of the thrill arises from moments that strain your resources so you need to make sure to approach your demonic opposition properly and treat hazards with respect, Infernax’s brutal and bloody world certainly putting up a fight that’s satisfying to overcome.

 

And so, I give Infernax for Xbox Series X…

A GOOD rating. While perhaps leaning on the threat of an instant death a bit much as you become capable enough to offset some of the threat posed by individual enemies, the reward system in place and the spacing of areas of safety like save altars does a good deal in making the player feel the impact of hits even from simple enemies. I don’t wish to condemn Casual difficulty, but Infernax does feel like it relies a lot on that building pressure as you press deeper into a dungeon or stray further from an altar out in the overworld, your resources eventually getting to the point they can offset boss battles a bit easily but the journeying required to get there leading to many little moments where you ask yourself if you want to risk taking another hit before a heal or wondering if you should double back to make sure you save the experience and upgrades you acquired. There are quite a few moments of excellent pixel art, creative boss designs, and amusing or helpful secrets that build up this game’s appeal even if the abundant blood splatters aren’t your cup of tea, and things like the morality system do help give this game some more life even after you’ve cleared it once. Quest design is remarkably well handled, not being too intensive for this game’s focus on exploration and action platforming but still providing many extra activities worth doing both for their content and payout, and those little extra considerations do help it rise above its inspirations in a few ways. It would be interesting if there was more room to play with your spells or alter your arsenal, even spells like the attack crow you can acquire mostly dealing damage outside of your control compared to things like the thrown weapons of the original Castlevania. Still, Infernax does have a good deal of entertaining and challenging sections that can diversify their dangers enough that you are still being tested in new ways.

 

Infernax’s bloody demon-slaying journey almost feels a bit like the idealized version of the games it most heavily drew inspiration from. Rather than having to accept the issues of Zelda II or Castlevania II, you can play Infernax and get a game that balances its difficulty well, gives you areas to explore and special secrets, and a good deal of difficulty but the ability to offset it through the fruits of your labors. It has a few ideas like the choices impacting the world and story that ensure it’s not just a cleaner and more enjoyable execution of ideas from 30 year old NES games, and with those and a heaping helping of brutality, Infernax carves out an identity that has its own interesting concepts to share.