Infernax is a modern attempt at a Castlevania-like style game, (brutal difficulty and all) with some newer game play sensibilities thrown in that make the game pretty interesting.
A great evil has spread across the land and you play, of course, as the only man who can save the day.......or not. The game features a pretty by-the-book story but with multiple endings that can make multiple play throughs a somewhat different experience.
The game in total features nine different endings depending on the choices you make. They range from playing the game as the good, fearless leader, an evil maniac, or less serious ones like playing like an absolute coward or a very, very lazy individual. Some of these are a little harder to obtain (the Internet is your friend) but the various options are a welcomed addition.
These multiple endings don't change much, a few of course will be tied to achievements/trophies and some will require a whole new play through (while others can be done by simply loading up your old save and doing things a bit differently) but they all unlock cheat codes for the game.
One of the retro additions to this game is a game genie-like cheat code area that you can find in your exploration. Infinite mana, unlimited money, more gore (this game is already pretty gory), or even paintball mode are just some of the cheat codes you can enter in this section and add a bit of uniqueness to the overall experience, though obviously don't change a ton in the core gameplay.
On the gameplay front, like I said previously, the game is a flashback to the NES games of old, AKA, brutal difficulty.
The game is hard but not impossible. Infernax has done a good job of making it a challenge without feeling too cheap. The old NES/Ninja Gaiden style damage take system is in place which is unfortunate, where your character when hit by an enemy will push backwards when hit, which of course can lead to you falling into a pit of fire/water/acid/death and having to start all over again.
Luckily if hard difficulty isn't your thing, the game does have easier settings that provide you with more saves, you keeping the exp and gold you've picked up and a few other bonuses that you don't normally get from the classic/brutal setting. Every time you die you have the option to change it up to the easier setting, though I don't think you can go back up to the more brutal setting once you've raised the white flag.
The brutal difficulty did have me take dungeons on verry carefully and very slowly. Luckily there is a save location right outside of each dungeon, so if you completely botch the beginning of a dungeon and want to give it a second shot without death being the reason, you can traverse back to the save spot, heal yourself and save, which will then finalize and have you keep any gold and exp that you've picked up to that point.
The experience can be used at these save points as well to upgrade your power, health or mana, so you can theoretically farm exp and improve your stats this way to help make things a bit easier if you are too stubborn to give in and drop to an easier difficulty setting.
The gold will also come in handy at various towns you visit, as you can use that to upgrade your armor, your weapon, purchase new spells, or purchase flasks that can be used to store health or mana potions. These things will also help make the game a lot easier as you progress. For instance, one of the various things you can buy are permanent continues.
On the regular classic difficulty setting, once you die, whether from too many hits or dropping into a death pit, you will start outside of the dungeon or your last save point, regardless of how far you've gotten into the dungeon. Did you die at the dungeon boss with one health bar remaining? Guess what, back to the beginning. Luckily, with these purchasable continues, if you were to die at a boss or at a section of the dungeon, you will start back up at the start of that section but once those are gone, they are gone until you get back to a save point where they will once again return.
When you do use a continue, your health and mana will start completely full again so it makes using mana in dungeons to try and extend how far you get.
Really the only game play flaw in these dungeons sections is the platforming aspects of it. For me, if a game is super challenging, I expect some pretty on point controls and mechanics to help make the game a bit easier or at least make it feel like your death wasn't the game's fault and purely on me the player. Unfortunately in Infernax, there are a few platforming sections that are just not good at all.
You'll have to make some pretty large jumps which you can make thanks to a charge attack you eventually will get in the game. Unfortunately, this charge attack can't be stopped once you're using it, so if you use it to go over a large gap but you're now coming up to a new gap or a pit of death and need to stop, you can't and you may end up dying from overshooting your target.
It's tough at times to predict just how much space you have for some of these jumps since you can't move the camera over to see if there are any surprises waiting for you.
There's also a rising attack that's used to help reach higher areas that a normal jump can't reach but you'll also need to use it in some platforming to jump down and around walls or sections in order to reach a new platform. The controls are just not responsive enough though for these areas and even after kinda getting the hang of it, the skills and controls just never felt good to do. It always felt like I was just making it by the skin of my teeth and was more lucky than getting good.
Bosses in these dungeons, while difficult, do have pretty easy to pick up on patterns that didn't require a ton of replays to pick up on. Mostly learning when/where/how to attack these bosses was the extent of having to figure things out.
You'll have to defeat five of these dungeon bosses in order to get to the end game boss. Each dungeon will have at least one spell or skill that will usually help you outside of those dungeons to help traverse new areas or help you complete side quests that you may choose to do.
These side quests are definitely not a requirement but do add to the fun exploration aspects of the game. Doing some of these quests will change what kind of ending you'll get as well so sometimes not doing some of these things is actually more beneficial depending on your personal goals.
Some quests feature fairly obvious morality options like choosing to help a guy destroy a dam or choosing to burn down all towns. Others will have more world changing effects that don't seem as obvious right away.
For instance, after agreeing to help a wizard get rid of a few randoms that decided to setup camp right outside his store, you can choose to stand firm and threaten them or choose to join them for a drink and hang out with them instead.
I chose to be righteous and demand they leave, which they did without much issue. However, after returning to one of the towns and being asked to help a potion seller bring his wares into town, the man was attacked and killed by those vagrants I chose to threaten. I took them down with ease from there but that town became the only one where I was unable to restock on health potions because of the man's death.
Overall, Infernax is a good time if you don't mind a challenge. It's got a great look, the music is pretty solid, it's got some replay value and the game isn't too brutal and frustrating, outside of some clunky controls on some of the platforming aspects of the game. It's not too long with the difficulty being the main thing that could extend the game out longer. Infernax is definitely worth at least one playthrough if retro feeling games or challenging games are something you enjoy.
A great evil has spread across the land and you play, of course, as the only man who can save the day.......or not. The game features a pretty by-the-book story but with multiple endings that can make multiple play throughs a somewhat different experience.
The game in total features nine different endings depending on the choices you make. They range from playing the game as the good, fearless leader, an evil maniac, or less serious ones like playing like an absolute coward or a very, very lazy individual. Some of these are a little harder to obtain (the Internet is your friend) but the various options are a welcomed addition.
These multiple endings don't change much, a few of course will be tied to achievements/trophies and some will require a whole new play through (while others can be done by simply loading up your old save and doing things a bit differently) but they all unlock cheat codes for the game.
One of the retro additions to this game is a game genie-like cheat code area that you can find in your exploration. Infinite mana, unlimited money, more gore (this game is already pretty gory), or even paintball mode are just some of the cheat codes you can enter in this section and add a bit of uniqueness to the overall experience, though obviously don't change a ton in the core gameplay.
On the gameplay front, like I said previously, the game is a flashback to the NES games of old, AKA, brutal difficulty.
The game is hard but not impossible. Infernax has done a good job of making it a challenge without feeling too cheap. The old NES/Ninja Gaiden style damage take system is in place which is unfortunate, where your character when hit by an enemy will push backwards when hit, which of course can lead to you falling into a pit of fire/water/acid/death and having to start all over again.
Luckily if hard difficulty isn't your thing, the game does have easier settings that provide you with more saves, you keeping the exp and gold you've picked up and a few other bonuses that you don't normally get from the classic/brutal setting. Every time you die you have the option to change it up to the easier setting, though I don't think you can go back up to the more brutal setting once you've raised the white flag.
The brutal difficulty did have me take dungeons on verry carefully and very slowly. Luckily there is a save location right outside of each dungeon, so if you completely botch the beginning of a dungeon and want to give it a second shot without death being the reason, you can traverse back to the save spot, heal yourself and save, which will then finalize and have you keep any gold and exp that you've picked up to that point.
The experience can be used at these save points as well to upgrade your power, health or mana, so you can theoretically farm exp and improve your stats this way to help make things a bit easier if you are too stubborn to give in and drop to an easier difficulty setting.
The gold will also come in handy at various towns you visit, as you can use that to upgrade your armor, your weapon, purchase new spells, or purchase flasks that can be used to store health or mana potions. These things will also help make the game a lot easier as you progress. For instance, one of the various things you can buy are permanent continues.
On the regular classic difficulty setting, once you die, whether from too many hits or dropping into a death pit, you will start outside of the dungeon or your last save point, regardless of how far you've gotten into the dungeon. Did you die at the dungeon boss with one health bar remaining? Guess what, back to the beginning. Luckily, with these purchasable continues, if you were to die at a boss or at a section of the dungeon, you will start back up at the start of that section but once those are gone, they are gone until you get back to a save point where they will once again return.
When you do use a continue, your health and mana will start completely full again so it makes using mana in dungeons to try and extend how far you get.
Really the only game play flaw in these dungeons sections is the platforming aspects of it. For me, if a game is super challenging, I expect some pretty on point controls and mechanics to help make the game a bit easier or at least make it feel like your death wasn't the game's fault and purely on me the player. Unfortunately in Infernax, there are a few platforming sections that are just not good at all.
You'll have to make some pretty large jumps which you can make thanks to a charge attack you eventually will get in the game. Unfortunately, this charge attack can't be stopped once you're using it, so if you use it to go over a large gap but you're now coming up to a new gap or a pit of death and need to stop, you can't and you may end up dying from overshooting your target.
It's tough at times to predict just how much space you have for some of these jumps since you can't move the camera over to see if there are any surprises waiting for you.
There's also a rising attack that's used to help reach higher areas that a normal jump can't reach but you'll also need to use it in some platforming to jump down and around walls or sections in order to reach a new platform. The controls are just not responsive enough though for these areas and even after kinda getting the hang of it, the skills and controls just never felt good to do. It always felt like I was just making it by the skin of my teeth and was more lucky than getting good.
Bosses in these dungeons, while difficult, do have pretty easy to pick up on patterns that didn't require a ton of replays to pick up on. Mostly learning when/where/how to attack these bosses was the extent of having to figure things out.
You'll have to defeat five of these dungeon bosses in order to get to the end game boss. Each dungeon will have at least one spell or skill that will usually help you outside of those dungeons to help traverse new areas or help you complete side quests that you may choose to do.
These side quests are definitely not a requirement but do add to the fun exploration aspects of the game. Doing some of these quests will change what kind of ending you'll get as well so sometimes not doing some of these things is actually more beneficial depending on your personal goals.
Some quests feature fairly obvious morality options like choosing to help a guy destroy a dam or choosing to burn down all towns. Others will have more world changing effects that don't seem as obvious right away.
For instance, after agreeing to help a wizard get rid of a few randoms that decided to setup camp right outside his store, you can choose to stand firm and threaten them or choose to join them for a drink and hang out with them instead.
I chose to be righteous and demand they leave, which they did without much issue. However, after returning to one of the towns and being asked to help a potion seller bring his wares into town, the man was attacked and killed by those vagrants I chose to threaten. I took them down with ease from there but that town became the only one where I was unable to restock on health potions because of the man's death.
Overall, Infernax is a good time if you don't mind a challenge. It's got a great look, the music is pretty solid, it's got some replay value and the game isn't too brutal and frustrating, outside of some clunky controls on some of the platforming aspects of the game. It's not too long with the difficulty being the main thing that could extend the game out longer. Infernax is definitely worth at least one playthrough if retro feeling games or challenging games are something you enjoy.