Two of the more brutal periods in human history were the Dark Ages and the NES era of the early 90s.  Both would chew up all involved and spit out the desiccated husks of those who'd just wanted to survive the era, although at least with the NES it was more a destruction of the spirit.  Infernax ties both eras together into a brutal package of 8-bit styled carnage, as gory as it is unforgiving in its demon-killing carnage.  There's only one way to handle a cursed unholy evil that's overtaking the land, and that's with a crushing mace, strong armor, and a little bit of magical backup.

Infernax is a tribute to a number of 8 and 16-bit gaming styles, putting a huge amount of Castlevania II into its Metroidvania action.  Duke Alcedor has returned after the soul-crushing violence of the Crusades only to find his home overrun with monsters.  The walk from shore to town brings with it zombies, floating eyeballs, and huge weird insects, and the town itself is under siege from a vicious giant.  The townsfolk live in fear and the guards are just barely hanging on, so Alcedor won't be getting any rest from skull-splitting carnage any time soon.

Once the town is secured Infernax starts to open up.  The initial path to town had a couple of minor side areas, but the townsfolk need are ready to help their duke get ready to properly explore the area.  Alcedor starts off with a strong jump, a mace that packs a nice punch, and a projectile-blocking shield that won't come into play until a bit later in the game, but his health is only four bars and he doesn't yet know a single spell.  This doesn't leave a lot of room for error, but beating on enemies earns gold and experience to buy some breathing room with.  The armorer has an empty flask and a single defense upgrade, while the magic shop sells an extra life and the first shield spell.  Not only that but the altar save points fully heal Alcedor plus let him spend experience on attack, health, and magic.  Enemies and traps are relentless and Alcedor's death-count will be high, but at least it's a start.

Death comes in two forms in Infernax, depending on which mode you're playing.  Classic is what you'd have gotten in the NES era, in that once the stock of lives is gone so is all progress back to the last save.  Casual is notably kinder, though, in that not only are save points more frequent but you get to keep a percentage of earned gold and experience.  To top it off, in Classic mode you can always choose to switch to Casual when you die, but this is a one-way ticket that can't be reversed.  It will be tempting, though.

The thing about Infernax is that it can be brutally difficult.  Eventually Alcedor gets a healing spell, an upgrade to the shield spell that brings a little health with it, extra lives, healing potions, and of course more health and the magic to keep him alive longer.  That's just not going to be enough, though, because the map is covered with a good number of ways to die.  Shambling zombies give way to axe-throwing skeletons, the drifting eyeballs get upgraded to something more similar to Castlevania's medusa heads, teleporting enemies toss around fireballs, and when night falls an even tougher group of monsters appear.  It's a war of attrition that requires a methodical approach, carefully learning each area before heading back to the nearest save point to heal up and try again.  The world map isn't so bad overall, especially when Alcedor finally learns the spell that lets him teleport back to a save altar, but the dungeons are brutal.

The primary quest is to shatter five gems to open up a dark keep, and the gems are guarded by bosses deep in the heart of the dungeons.  These areas aren't all that big overall, but they make up for it by requiring Alcedor to be careful and pay attention.  Traps shoot arrows, spikes drop from the ceiling, and the enemies are more than happy to knock Alcedor right into a pit.  The problem with pits is that they're a one-hit death, instantly knocking off a much-needed life and setting Alcedor back to the beginning of the room if he's got any lives left.  Taking on a dungeon is generally a series of expeditions, exploring as far as possible in order to find a key or new ability before heading back outside to save at the conveniently-located altar.  Generally it doesn't take more than two to three trips into the dungeon to clear it, assuming you ignore all the repeat journeys from dying, and survive the boss fight at the end.  Which, if you can get to the boss with a spare life or two, won't really be all that much problem.

One of the odd things about Infernax is that bosses aren't all that hard overall.  They're very pattern oriented and don't have too many attacks, so it doesn't take much to learn them.  The caution you pick up from waiting for a teleporting fireball-throwing demon to materialize with the right timing so that you can jump up and take him out while also avoiding an arrow-trap pays off, and while it might require a healing spell to get through the boss fight it's generally not a problem if you don't forget to keep an eye on the health gauge.  Honestly, this isn't any kind of complaint, because a Dark Souls-style encounter waiting at the end of a monster and trap-filled gauntlet that's also got a series of deadly one-hit-kill jumping puzzles would be one thing too many.  Infernax knows when to go hard and when to back off, and that's what makes its difficulty so appealing.

Closing Comments:

Infernax is a fantastic throwback to 8-bit gaming, and while it may not be fully faithful to the era thanks to its color palette, number of sprites on screen, and unbroken English, it gets the rest right where it counts.  The grim-dark story of Alcedor's fight against the invading darkness is broken up with moments of humor, several of which pay direct tribute to Castlevania in ways that Alcedor will immediately regret.  Not to mention entering the Konami cheat code on the title screen starting up a new save in straight-up Contra mode.  The story also comes with several choices along the way, allowing you to have Alcedor try to walk the righteous path or turn evil, and sometimes the law of unintended consequences makes what seems like the right choice lead to the bad outcome.  It's a dark, violent, bloody world that feels great to smash your way through, and while it might take some repetition to clear the harder areas Infernax is always worth the payoff.