So last night, my wife and I decided to try out one of our newest games (we constantly have several that we own but haven't played yet, and it's becoming a problem!) and we settled on Inferno. So, we popped a packet of samosas in the air fryer and set to work learning the rules for this monster of a game.
Now, to say that the product was high quality would be an insult to the creators because Inferno is a truly beautiful game. The art style is incredible, and the pieces are very high quality. Both my wife and I spent a good 30 seconds stroking them when we popped them out of the inserts, going "OMG, have you felt these?!"
Play
Now onto the actual game. Inferno has a very daunting instruction book, and we spent over an hour getting our heads around the actual play. Made just a little slower because me and my wife kept going back to ensure we had understood correctly. But it's deceptively simple when all is said and done.
Each player's turn starts by either moving a soul from the graveyard to the first layer of hell (Limbo, if you're curious) or moving a soul already in hell to a lower level. Each soul is a certain colour and must reach its corresponding level. They move onto a 'shield' with a symbol, and that symbol represents where your 'family' in Florence above can play its action this turn. Once the graveyard is empty, multiple new souls are added to the graveyard and are ready to be moved. If you have no family left, you accuse a sinner, who is executed and ready to be moved into hell. Once someone is accused, Dante moves further into hell, spreading cheer and rewards to the players. You're trying to fill every layer with souls so you can score maximum points at the end.
Now, that's a VERY watered-down description of what is essentially a beautiful and VERY deeply strategic game. There's so much more to it! There are fraud cards that allow you to up your sin track, which is incredibly important to the end game. There are two 'leaders' that can be controlled with the right actions, moving around hell (for the first game, it's advised you use Medusa and Minos, so we did), who can be used to try and stop your opponents from successfully getting a soul where they're going and scoring, or allowing you to score when they do.
Nitty Gritty
Now onto the nitty-gritty of Inferno, where I'll break it down a little more for those of you who want a bigger breakdown.
There are two currencies: Florins and Drachmas. Florins are used to buy 'guests' and to convert to Drachmas. Drachmas are your main currency for doing nearly everything and are also used to pay or bribe Charon. Drachmas are also used if you want to play one of those fancy Fraud cards I mentioned earlier. Guests are used when you want to accuse someone, and the guest must be the colour of the area you want to accuse in.
Your player board consists of your 'tower' and your house. When one of your meeples accuses someone, there has to be space in your tower for them to hide, as getting people executed is not a popular decision with their friends and family. Your meeple will stay there until you visit a specific location which allows you to move them back out. If your meeple accuses someone in one of the outside locations using a guest, they have to hide in the same level as the guest used to accuse the person.
Whatever location you accused in is represented by a particular colour of sin, and a matching soul is added to the graveyard for their all-expenses-paid (by you!) trip to hell,
hoping to avoid the anger of Medusa who will petrify them. At the bottom of the hell section of the board, there are multiple different trackers that you can manipulate to your advantage or to disadvantage your enemies. When you accuse someone, you can move your beautiful little skull up on the matching tracker, which at the end is multiplied by the next tracker along.
The final tracker is the River Styx. It's a clever little action that can be taken by sacrificing multiple souls of the same colour to move your skulls up the sin tracker. Both my wife and I thought this would be very overpowered, but it was actually ridiculously well-balanced. But to be honest, that could be the tagline for this entire game: 'ridiculously well-balanced'.
First-time Tips and Tricks
- Spend your first few turns building money, both Florins and Drachmas, as well as increasing your family size. Although accusing is one of the methods of increasing your sin score, it's not the only way.
- DO NOT sleep on the fraud cards. I didn't use one until two-thirds of the game, and it definitely showed when, as usual, my wife beat me into the ground at the end.
- Use the powers of the two entities in hell. I didn't take full advantage, and I should have.
- Pay attention to BOTH sides of the fraud cards. They all have both an instant and an at-the-end power. I spent a few turns trying to fill 'my' layers of hell when my cards at the end would have done it for me.
When we tallied the scores of course my wife beat me into submission by around 20 or so points and got to experience first-hand the true bottom level of hell, my wife's smug look and the ‘its ok you’ll do better next time’ tone of voice.
2 Player Final Review
All in all, Inferno played incredibly well as a two-player game. The turns (once we understood the mechanics) played quickly, and the depth of strategy in this game was deceiving. We spent the first few turns happily wandering around Florence and accusing people, then panicked when we realised that wasn't the play at all and we were burning through chances to score end-game victory points. This radically changed both our playstyles. It's competitive, but we both missed several opportunities to screw each other over (we're just not that kind of player to be honest!), but there was definitely scope for us to do so had we wanted to.
Likes
- This game is challenging from both sides of the screen. Both sides have a lot of work to do, so it is never boring.
- The realistic light mechanic is something I have never seen before and works incredibly well.
- The wounds, conditions, and items can literally turn the tide of a turn and are well-balanced.
- Double-sided game board and three different killers ensure good replay ability, and the game itself also ensures it.
- It's priced well; on Zatu it is around £45 which is a VERY fair price for this game. With additional expansions being cheap as well. (We only have the base game and cannot speak to what they bring.)
- The box is one of those beautifully well-planned-out boxes that has spaces for everything.
Dislikes
- This is both a like and a dislike for me. There are only three killers, and whilst all three are unique and play completely differently and would play differently depending on whose running them, we need more!
- Size is an issue. The board and investigator board are large, and on top of that, you need space for multiple different cards, player boards, not to mention the killers side of the board. But as always, if the game is good enough, you will ALWAYS find space, being massive nerds like me.
- The killers board could do with some mini flashlights, so they don't have to lean over their screen constantly to see what is covered by the investigators flashlights.
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