When it comes to developer Berzerk Studio, the Canadian team has introduced a slew of different projects throughout the course of the studio’s lifespan since the founding back in 2008. Primarily, most of the games released from the studio is compiled on the team’s Newgrounds page featuring titles like Alienocalypse, Gunbot, Mechanical, and same-named Berzerk Ball. It wasn’t until 2016 that the team released Zombidle where ambitions would exceed past the confines of the flash game domain for Steam.
The year following in 2017, Zombidle released with a ‘Remonstered’ version on Valve’s storefront which introduced Berzerk Studio to a growing plethora of players. Follow suit, the team launch Just Shapes & Beats in 2018 which similar to Zombidle was met with glowing reception. However, the rhythmic experience despite its deserved reception does not fully personify the studio’s DNA like in previous work.
That only being one title that strands off from Berzerk Studio’s evident creative path, upcoming platformer Infernax will reinstate that image through metal music, gore, and nostalgic frustration of the team’s childhood. What this NES throwback title is, at least shared from the game’s Steam page, is to illustrate an encapture of the overly difficult experiences that were imbedded from playing the system as kids.
That is why at PAX East this weekend, I toyed with the available demo and spoke with the team on the upcoming project. Talking with one of the developer’s coders Mike Ducarme, I dissected some of the finer elements that makes Infernax. For instance the name: Ducarme shared that the team originally planned for the game to be titles ‘Infernal’, but decided that there could be more. Eventually morphing it into Infernax, which comes to sound cooler and “more metal,” Ducarme explained.
Doing my own digging for the game, I found out the game has been a project since 2015, or so I assumed. Ducarme clarified that the game actually kicked off as a side project even further back in 2011, slowly piecing itself together. But when it came to finishing the title, the team leaned towards Just Shapes & Beats to finalize development as more progress was made on the musical bullet hell.
He even claimed that the team never expected the game to actually kick off seeing how much gore the developer injected into the game. But as the project continued to come to fruition, Berzerk Studio decided to pump more violent bloodshed into the title as development continued onward.
Coming to my hands-on of the game has showed plenty of detailed aspects that I was not expecting such as notoriety, different endings, and side quests. For the core gameplay, the player instantly jumps into the world and faces the undead and other demonic creatures that treads the mortal plane. Illustrating some of the subliminal chaos that the team strives for that I enjoyed is that the demo actually starts with the player moving to the left side of the screen rather than right which is expected from most platformers.
Combat holds as expected with the player equipped with a mace and a shield to block enemy attacks. Different enemies require more hits which layers some strategy to the experience. And different mace iterations are shared to be in the full game which inflict other damage types as well. The spicier part of the fighting system is the spells that you learn from completing the story.
However, traditional storytelling we are subjected to with 8-bit platform titles are swapped with choice making, pivotal scenarios that will dictate the available arsenal you receive. In further detail, Ducarme explains that based on your choice to help or be a menace of the people will distribute different gameplay features. Not only that, but your decisions will alter segments of the entire plot which differs unique experience based on player decision.
Let’s say you decide to massacre the towns people of a village, the weapons you hone and spells to master will be affected. Even more, there will be side quests that you will stumble upon based on your level of infamy with NPCs. Before generalizing the storyline’s outcome, Ducarme did clarify that there are different endings, but that is settled through how the world perceives you rather than sprung through certain decisions made when progressing through the game.
Reiterating the team’s ambitions to capture the look of the game is achieved as the team mirrors the presentation of the NES era. But Berzerk Studio goes even further with the gore which paints the game in smaller doses. Watching the zombie-like enemies eating corpses as the blood blankets the ground and the same for attacking as well. When defeating the concluding boss, the player is drenched with the entrails from the foe and you can watch the bodily fluids drip to the ground. All are satisfying despite how minor these traits are for the game.
A side note not directly related to the presentation of the game, but the booth was a very comfortable setting in the loud atmosphere that PAX is. Being given the option to play the demo on a rocking chair with a knitted blanket is extra brownie points for creativity and ultimately making the experience comfortable.
If Infernax grabs your attention, make sure you got to the game’s Steam page to add it to your wishlist. Infernax is said to arrive to PC and Nintendo Switch nearing 2021.
