SOLIUM INFERNUM

A forgotten classic gets one Hell of a revival

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Developer/publisher - League Of Geeks

Format - PC

Origin - Australia

Release - 2023

Lucifer has disappeared from Hell, leaving behind an empty throne and an entire underworld’s worth of archfiends eager to fill it. The throne being strictly a singleseater, and demons hardly being known for their trustworthiness, the result is inevitable: all the scheming, betrayal and dark rituals we’ve come to expect from a political party leadership contest. It’s this jostling that powers Solium Infernum – both the forthcoming strategy game from Armello developer League Of Geeks and the 2009 iteration on which it is based.

Trent Kusters, co-founder and director of the Australian studio behind this significantly expanded reimagining, refers to its predecessor as “a diamond in the dark”. A delicious blend of Civilization and boardgame design, Solium Infernum was almost entirely the work of one man, Vic Davis. Davis wandered into videogames in his 40s, bringing a knowledge of Macromedia Director (“a program that was designed to make DVD menus,” Kusters points out) that he leveraged into a handful of cult hits, and then all but disappeared himself.