Solium Infernum Multiplayer Hands-On: Solving Strategy's Biggest Pet Peeve

If you're a strategy player who likes getting a group of friends together to enjoy some friendship-destroying fun every so often, you'll know that organising a gaming session is incredibly hard work. Whether you're at school, university, or dealing with all the pressures that comes with adulting, it is nearly impossible to grab a group of people for a solid five hours to start and finish a Civ game.

Most strategy players have therefore given up on trying to play with friends, but Solium Infernum differs itself from the pack by actively encouraging its playerbase to get stuck into multiplayer and challenge their friends to see who can become the ruler of Hell.

I've touched on Solium Infernum's asynchronous approach before, but I've never actually had a chance to give the multiplayer a go until now. Previously, I've dug into the game's single-player modes, and while they are finely crafted, it's hard not to see the focus placed on ensuring Solium Infernum is going to be fun with all your friends, no matter if you have 10 hours or 10 minutes a week to put into it.

As soon as you've set up a game you get to pick from one of the eight Archfiends, each of which have their own sickeningly grotesque and gory design as well as unique mechanics that fill them with personality. You'll know immediately whether you're drawn to the finance fiend that is Mammon or the simple, bone-crushing suffering that Astaroth provides. For those that have played the original, you'll likely be dismayed to know you can't make your own horrible Archfiend, this makes the experience a bit more digestible for newer players, as well as giving us a layer of depth on the devils we do have that customisable leaders likely couldn't provide. Personally, I've always been more of a fan of seeing a roster of fleshed-out characters than just creating my own leader, as the latter often feels like putting an impossible wall in front of you when all you want to do is get into the game and betray your friends.

It's worth noting that there are ways to make your own build of a sorts in Solium Infernum, as you get access to rings, amulets, and crowns that give you various buffs in your game. With three slots in total, you can equip 3 rings, an amulet and a ring, or a crown, and most of these buffs will remain private, so even if your opponent can sort of guess what playstyle you like based on the Archfiend you pick, you can shuffle it around a bit to keep them on-guard.

Otherwise, Solium Infernium's multiplayer is largely the same as the singleplayer (which I've written about here) in terms of how you manoeuvre your forces to try and take over Pandemonium. There are a bunch of settings you can tweak to spice up each game, but as is always the case with multiplayer strategy, the linchpin of it all relies on you and your friends making moves outside of the game, lurking in the shadows and waiting to betray one another while holding a false smile on your face all the while. If - by some miracle - you do manage to get a group together for a few hours, the game accomodates that, but most impressively, it lets you go from seamless turn-by-turn gameplay to asychronous multiplayer at the drop of a hat. If you've got something you suddenly need to go and take care of, the game allows you to slip out and then keep it going whenever you're back.

Turn timers can be set all the way up to a week, and due to the compatibility with the Steam app, you'll get a notification on your phone to return to the game. It means that in some ways it's a bigger commitment, but in others it actually means you might be able to complete a strategy game you start with your mates, something that is going to be invaluable to any multiplayer strategy enthusiast.

The fact that you only get two moves a turn also means that if you really have limited time, you can just put in your orders and then leave the game. Some may find that your orders are limited frustrating at first, but it evolves the strategy formula quite well to me, as it means you've not only got to think about what you're doing, but how much of a priority you need to put on each play you make.

The depths of the mechanics, the gorgeously bleak look of Hell, and the artistic choices for the units and Archfiends were already enough to make Solium Infernum stand out, but the asynchronous multiplayer exists as icing on the fleshy, burning hellcake, solving one of the biggest problems people have when it comes to playing strategy with their friends. If you're lacking friends who enjoy strategy, there's also matchmaking, which again just means Solium Infernum is opening up the gates of Hell in the best ways possible.