Inmortis Is The New Souls-like You Didn’t Know You Needed – Preview
Not just another Souls-like.
There’s clearly something about the Souls-like genre of action-RPGs that resonates with developers. The number of games directly inspired by From Software’s hit franchise can be overwhelming, and it seems someone announces a new one every week. There’s obviously something about the high challenge, dark fantasy worlds, combat-heavy gameplay, and dramatic boss fights that developers can’t resist. When done well, it can be an extremely alluring experience, but it can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Thankfully, Inmortis – a top-down Souls-like from French team Pecking Crow Studio that’s currently half-way through its Kickstarter campaign – seems to show some promise. As with most Souls-likes, Inmortis’ demo (available to all on the Kickstarter page) starts with very little setup. You arise, nameless and faceless, from a bed of Lovecraftian tentacles, before speaking to a big, bulky dude that could very well be a blacksmith.
He offers some cryptic clues as to the nature of the world, before disappearing and leaving a small dagger. It’s immediately clear from briefly chatting with the man who called himself Aki that Inmortis’ writing could potentially be quite engaging. It has the rustic and vaguely menacing charm of Dark Souls, but the localisation is a little rough. It’s a demo and it’s still early days, so it could just be a couple of accidental typos, but the clumsy writing can be off-putting.
The combat is the focus here, however, and that’s where Inmortis shines. With its animation-heavy attacks, stamina management, and an assortment of light and heavy weapons, the combat will feel immediately familiar to anyone versed in Souls-likes. It can take a little time to get used to the top-down perspective, which can obfuscate your positioning and obscure enemies. It can, therefore, be unclear if an attack is going to hit you at first, but it feels pretty good once you get a handle on it.
Of course, slaying your foes earns you the equivalent of souls – ‘favors.’ These can be spent at checkpoint shrines to increase your stats, which affect the typical assortment of health, defense, and damage. It’s seemingly standard Souls-like stuff, with stat options providing avenues for heavy or light character builds. There was no magic or spell-casting in the build I played, but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me to find them in the final game.
The main unique mechanic I came across was the curses that can afflict you if you’re not careful. It’s not clear how exactly they are inflicted, whether through chance or circumstance, but they can have a great impact on your experience. Curses seem to offer both positive and negative effects, such as increasing favors earned from enemies but causing you to permanently lose 50% of what you’re currently holding upon death. You can dispel these curses at any time with a seemingly plentiful consumable item, so I imagine there’s a certain sense of risk vs. reward that the developers are trying to push for.
Finally, there was the dramatic boss encounter, the part of the Souls-like that generates the most anticipation, building in tension until it’s suddenly released in a flurry of menace and aggression. The kind of encounter that punctuates the languid exploration of a Souls-like, providing a wall to bang your head against until it breaks through.
Fortunately, the encounter finally came. After aimless wandering (the environments are smaller than they appear, making it sometimes unclear where you’re supposed to go), I came across a large necromancer-type fellow who yanked a sword out of his torso before reigning terror down on me. I can safely say it was a worthy boss fight simply based on the sigh of relief I let out when he finally fell to the floor.
The brutality in Inmortis, along with its grim, apocalyptic fantasy world is surprisingly appealing. The sharp pixel art has a clarity to it that looks great and the visceral imagery reinforcing the Lovecraftian inspiration and brutal backdrop is unsettling and effective. There’s also an atmospheric score accompanying your uncertain exploration, one that flares up into dramatic arrangements during boss fights and can really rachet up the tension when it wants to. In its presentation, Inmortis can be quite mesmerising.
Ultimately, Inmortis is a promising Souls-like with meaty combat, a grim and ominous world, and plenty of room for variety and customisation. The experience that Pecking Crow is trying to make is an ambitious one. There are a lot of ideas here, both mechanically and presentationally, and the execution seems pretty competent. Only time will tell if the team can iron out the creases and build a world worth exploring, but this is certainly one to keep an eye on.