33 Immortals arrives today in an early version on PC, Xbox Series, and Game Pass. Developed by the talented Canadian independent studio Thunder Lotus Games (Spiritfarer, Sundered, and Jotun), it's clearly one of Xbox's big hits on the independent scene, highlighted many times over, notably during the recent ID@Xbox. It must be said that the title has many particularly attractive arguments on paper, such as a universe largely inspired by the Divine Comedy, and a devilishly original concept. Welcome to Dante's Inferno, truly unlike any other.
33 Immortals and its very original vision of the Divine Comedy
After a very poetic and moving boat trip dealing with death and mourning with Spiritfarer, his studio stays on the theme and sends us with 33 Immortals directly to Hell. But not just any Hell, since it is inspired by the mythical Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. We embody, as the name of the game suggests, an Immortal, a tortured soul who must fight against the diabolical forces to earn his place in Paradise. He will have to go through Inferno and Purgatory to prove his worth, in a cohort of, we'll give you a thousand guesses, 33 Immortals. A value that is not there by chance, since it is the exact number of chapters making up the Divine Comedy.
Our adventure in 33 Immortals begins as our soul takes the form of a carcass equipped with a bow. We are greeted by Beatrice, Dante's wife, who offers us a short tutorial to see what we are getting into. We learn how to control our character and how to face the infernal forces, all from a top-down view. We quickly get used to the controls, which are very simple: movements with the left stick or the WASD keys on the keyboard, a dodge that recharges after a few seconds, a key for a quick attack, to hold to reinforce its effectiveness, and another for a special skill. At first glance, we might think that everything seems a little limited and "simplistic", but the whole substance of the gameplay of 33 Immortals is actually elsewhere. Once the tutorial is over, we are transported to the game's hub, where we meet Dante and Vergil, as well as other Immortals, played by players, wandering around like lost souls.
This is where we will return after each attempt to escape the Underworld, to strengthen our character with various elements unlocked during our wanderings, change his arsenal and his appearance. It is precisely in terms of weapons that 33 Immortals comes to densify its gameplay centered above all on cooperation. Currently numbering 4, we have the choice:
- The daggers, offering very mobile, but also fragile, melee gameplay, with quick attacks capable of stunning an enemy
- The sword, which strikes slowly, but can absorb enemy blows for a powerful counterattack, transforming us into a real tank
- The bow, which attacks from a distance with arrows marking enemies so that they receive more damage from our companions
- The staff, which sends projectiles in a bell and can slow down the diabolical forces to make them easier to eliminate
Each weapon finally has a "collaboration skill," which places a mark on the ground inviting our teammates to complete it to trigger powerful effects that can reverse the outcome of a fight. With this "class" system, 33 Immortals places a strong emphasis on the complementarity of roles in our group of 33 troubled souls. Here, playing solo will lead us irremediably to damnation. It is absolutely essential to progress with your companions to hope for redemption. Thus, the title is clearly not aimed at lone wolves. It is also strongly recommended to play it with a group of friends, to be able to coordinate and more calmly explore the Underworld that we are likely to revisit very often. You can, of course, start a game with complete strangers. In the absence of voice chat to develop your strategy, however, things become more delicate, and you will have to willingly or unwillingly follow the general movement if you hope to go as far as possible.
Let's take a quick look before returning to Inferno to focus on the artistic direction of 33 Immortals, which is both solidly crafted with its "hand-drawn" style, and quite gloomy in its representation of the diabolical forces. We are indeed treated to a particularly tortured bestiary, which plunges us properly into Hell. The advantage of such a graphic style is that the game can run admirably well in all circumstances, even on a very modest PC or the small Xbox Series S. We also bet that the title is likely to be a hit on PC/portable console hybrids like the Steam Deck, the ASUS ROG Ally, or on any device compatible with Cloud Gaming and the Xbox Play Anywhere program, accessible via Game Pass.
Hell is paved with 33 deaths
All this is well and good, but we have a soul to escape from Hell to experience the Ascension to Heaven. To do this, we will have to go through several layers of the Devil's domain, such as Inferno and Purgatory, the two zones (out of three) accessible in the early access of 33 Immortals. Given the limited playing time we were given, we were only able to visit the Inferno, and unfortunately, we weren't strong enough to go any further.
However, we had enough material to get an idea of the exploration loop that awaits us in 33 Immortals. Basically, we join a lobby of 33 players, who are scattered across a large map. This map includes many secondary objectives to collect resources to heal or buy various items, increase our stats, or open chests. These can contain treasures called Relics, strengthening our character for the current run, and others, called Perks, which can be used in future attempts. Relics, for example, grant us a damage bonus or life regeneration for the rest of our game, while Perks provide permanent effects like a lower death penalty.
As a rogue-lite, failure is likely to be very common in 33 Immortals. Fortunately, our companions can resurrect us before it's too late, but only once. Except that this comes with a severely reduced life bar, which can however be restored at altars, using a resource collected during our run. Given that the diabolical hordes are particularly numerous and robust, the cooperative aspect of the game becomes even more evident, as we risk losing a lot of time and life trying to get rid of them on our own.
This is especially true in what constitutes the pinnacle of exploration in 33 Immortals: the dungeons that can accommodate up to 6 players. At their entrance, they have an altar where they can spend bones to heal their character and their surrounding companions (the only way to heal in the game, apart from specific Relics), or acquire a key essential to open a chest filled with treasures... provided they complete said dungeon. This one will indeed flood us with enemies, with at the end one (and later in the game several) particularly dangerous mini-bosses. It is absolutely essential to approach it in a group, preferably with different weapons to take advantage of their unique abilities.
Once a certain number of dungeons are completed, others will open, but the difficulty will increase crescendo, with even more numerous and powerful enemies. Except that, of the 33 starting Immortals, some may have unfortunately fallen in battle. You will therefore have to continue clearing all the dungeons on the map with the last survivors, until you reach the final phase of the zone: the Ascension to the final boss. And here again, 33 Immortals will put the skills of the surviving players in the lobby to a (very) severe test.
A group Ascension that comes at the price of our souls
Regarding the Inferno, the final boss that awaits us is none other than Lucifer himself. And this Fallen Angel is clearly likely to throw a chill when you meet him. He actually sports a gargantuan form and functions exactly like a raid boss in a more conventional MMO: an endless health bar, truly devastating area attacks if you don't manage to dodge them, summoning hordes of monsters to slow you down, and phases where you have to be particularly efficient, at the risk of being eradicated in the blink of an eye.
During our 33 Immortals playthrough, we faced Lucifer twice (out of three attempts), but with fewer than 15 players still alive. Clearly, despite the best will in the world, a half-sized group was far from enough to beat him. This can be somewhat frustrating, as each game lasts about an hour. Runs are therefore particularly long, especially when playing alone and trying to cooperate with players without any means of vocal communication.
That said, we were in the company of players who didn't know the game any better than we did, with the exception of the developers themselves, and therefore hadn't unlocked various bonuses to make their characters more powerful. We're betting that the experience will be more enjoyable with more playing time, and preferably within a group of friends. However, we did appreciate the truly epic aspect of the fight against Lucifer, despite its extremely intimidating and punishing nature.
Fortunately, as in any self-respecting rogue-lite, failure is itself a reward in 33 Immortals. In addition to Perks and other ways to permanently strengthen our Immortal, completing various general objectives or with a given weapon also allows us to unlock other bonuses or resources to strengthen our arsenal and Perks. Given our relatively short time, however, we were unable to explore this part of the progression further. We will therefore have to dig deeper into the question in its early access version available today.
We are watching 33 Immortals… with an infernal fervor
Despite an early access release, 33 Immortals already presents a rather dense content, which allows us to really appreciate its ambitious attempt to mix MMO and rogue-lite in a cooperative experience that is definitely unlike any other through Hell. Thanks to its relatively simple gameplay, which intelligently encourages teamwork, and its solid artistic direction making it less demanding and accessible, Thunder Lotus Games offers us an original and particularly promising future independent gem. We are therefore monitoring its development with great interest. While waiting for its release in 1.0, we will certainly not deny ourselves the pleasure of diving back into Hell, this time with friends, to kick Lucifer's ass and see what other diabolical challenges await our troubled soul and 32 other companions.
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