Solium Infernum

I put a colour-coded spreadsheet together after my third multiplayer loss, and even then it took two more games before the Prestige economy clicked. That friction is real, and you should know about it before you buy. Solium Infernum is a turn-based grand strategy title, a remake of Vic Davis's 2009 cult curiosity, rebuilt by League of Geeks (the Armello team) for a modern audience. The core loop is politics dressed as demonology: you are one of eight Archfiends competing for Hell's vacant throne, and the path there runs through diplomacy, dark rituals, schemes, insults, tribute demands, and the occasional legion clash. Crucible combat exists but it is not the point. Battles are small, brutally decisive skirmishes where the psychological read on your opponent matters more than army size. If you came here for Civilization-scale warfare, you will leave baffled. The eight Archfiends, names like Mammon, Astaroth, and Murmur, each play differently enough to reward experimentation. Your turn starts with two actions, expandable to six over the course of a game, which means every single decision has an opportunity cost baked in. Do you move legions to contest a Canton, or spend an action sending Loyalists to gather Tribute at the Bazaar early so you get first pick of the cards? Do you spend a turn filing a formal Insult against a rival to drain their Prestige, or save the slot for a Ritual? That rotating Regent mechanic, where turn order shifts each round, adds another layer: knowing when you move relative to your target can be the difference between a perfect ambush and a wasted scheme. These interlocking systems are where the game earns its Metacritic 85 and its Very Positive Steam rating. Newcomers should know what they are walking into. The tutorial is competent and the in-game Encyclopedia Infernum is thorough, but there is still a meaningful gap between understanding the rules and understanding how to win. Solo play against the AI is functional as a training ground, and the scenario mode operates as something closer to a structured challenge, which is genuinely the best place to sharpen your reads on the mechanics before going online. The AI in standard skirmish is not threatening enough to punish bad habits, which means some players coast to a first victory and assume they have mastered it. They have not. The real game begins the moment a human opponent files an Insult you were not expecting at turn 30. Asynchronous multiplayer is the headline feature and it genuinely solves the biggest scheduling problem in the strategy genre. Games support two to six players, with turn timers configurable up to a week per move, all hooked into Steam's notification system so you never have to sit at a lobby waiting. A full game runs roughly 50 to 60 turns, which in a live session can stretch to four or five hours, a real ask. Async pulls that across days or even weeks, making it viable for people who simply cannot block out a full evening. The social texture that results, plotting via Discord between turns, watching a fragile alliance erode over three days of in-game messages, is unlike anything else in the PC strategy catalogue. The single-player experience is a reasonable way to learn, but the game's full personality only surfaces when humans are trying to read and manipulate each other. The presentation commits hard to its infernal aesthetic. The map drapes Hell in blacks, greys, and bursts of deep red and gold, and the card art for Legions and Praetors is grotesque in all the right ways. Music becomes repetitive over long sessions, and the three map tiers are visually flat compared to the richness of the UI elsewhere. Neither is a deal-breaker. What matters is that the interface stays readable under pressure, and it does. For strategy players who live in the decision layer rather than the visual one, Solium Infernum is a very comfortable place to spend dozens of hours, provided you bring at least one friend willing to be betrayed.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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