Nyheder
Deity-slaying co-op roguelike 33 Immortals releases on Epic Games Store March 18
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Steven T. Wright
“The release of 33 Immortals will mark a monumental milestone for Thunder Lotus,” said Creative Director Stephan Logier. “We’re proud to finally be able to deliver a genuinely unique co-op experience. We look forward to seeing how players will tackle the challenges of facing God’s wrath together.”
Thunder Lotus is best known for Spiritfarer, which explores themes of grief and death through cozy, low-stakes gameplay. The chaotic hack-and-slash action of 33 Immortals cuts a very different profile. This roguelike's vision of the afterlife is strongly influenced by Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, including Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, even going so far as to include Dante, his beloved Beatrice, Virgil, and Charon as guides. For those who are curious about 33 Immortals, we've rounded up some EGS pieces that deliver more details on this highly promising upcoming title.
As Creative Director Stephan Logier discussed in an interview with EGS that explored the game's spiritual themes and setting, the team at Thunder Lotus endeavored to immerse itself in not only the Divine Comedy, but the time and place that Dante inhabited. Even the game's player count reflects its origins: Each section of the poem has 33 chapters. He also expounds on the game's hand-drawn art style and basic gameplay concepts.
Players will begin their epic quest to escape the afterlife in Hell, better known as "Inferno" in Dante's telling. Game Designer Cem Ertekin detailed how 33 Immortals is designed to capture the expansive feeling of an MMO raid within the more casual confines of a drop-in multiplayer game. To set the tone for the experience, Thunder Lotus crafted an unusual depiction of Lucifer as the game's first boss, a mammoth, three-faced monstrosity half-submerged in a frozen lake. Ertekin explored how the number of players left alive in your group when you fight Lucifer can make a big difference, but that great players can make up the gap with enough skill and fortitude.
Lucifer is only the beginning of the game's over-the-top boss battles. In another interview, Ertekin reveals more details about the first sinners Adam and Eve, who block your path to the golden gates of Paradiso. Where Lucifer's attack patterns are slow and hard-hitting, this twosome's offense is quick and relentless, with constant aerial threats. True to the MMO raid-theme, this boss also asks your party to perform sub-objectives in the middle of the fight, like destroying three sigils spread across the map by Adam. It's all very hectic, but with enough coordination and practice, your ragtag group will eventually conquer this threat.
Besides its central co-op roguelike concept, 33 Immortals' most striking feature is perhaps its mgrim yet colorful art style, which draws from the rich tradition of medieval religious art. As Art Director Estefania Tastan explained in our feature article, the team looked at depictions of the underworld from Dante's own era to inform their artstyle, such as those by the painter Giotto. Throughout the process, they created a world of devils and demons that still functions according to its own internal rules, which you could argue is the entire premise of Dante's afterlife.
With all this said, it can be tough to imagine what a 33-player roguelike run actually looks like, and what you can expect from the experience. We spoke with Stephan Logier about the specific procedure that each run follows, and how the specter of permadeath means that you have to try to save as many of your allies as you can from the very first moment. In an interview, we played the game firsthand in an open beta, struggling to take down the intimidating Lucifer after a number of thwarted attempts.
With 33 Immortals, Thunder Lotus has crafted a game that balances stiff difficulty with the joy of teamwork and cooperation. The game has the potential to inspire an entirely new wave of co-op run-based games, and we can't recommend checking out its spiritual warfare for yourself firsthand when it drops in March.
33 Immortals will be available on Epic Games Store in early access on March 18.