INFERNO CLIMBER Review Summary

A charming, content-rich game with creative, varied and challenging fun, though it requires a controller, has controller issues, tedious death recovery and poor, imprecise controls.

Charming and content-rich game: Many reviewers find the game charming, fun, and packed with content. It is described as an interesting action RPG with a lot to offer.

Creative and varied gameplay elements: Reviewers praise the game's creativity, with numerous interesting ideas like throwing items to distract enemies, using environmental interactions, and unique puzzles. The game offers a lot of variety in enemies, hazards, and traps.

Fun and challenging gameplay: Reviewers find the game fun and challenging in a Dark Souls-like way, with solid combat and rewarding exploration. The difficulty is fair and surmountable with skill.

Weapon variety and combat depth: Combat offers depth with various weapons, each having different attacks and stats. Weapon swapping becomes less clunky with playtime, and equipment drops encourage hunting for strong gear.

Runs well and controller support: The game runs smoothly at 60 FPS at 1080p and works completely with a PS4 controller without extra software. Keyboard and mouse rebinding is also available.

Controller requirement and issues: The game heavily relies on an Xbox controller, with many features like lock-on and menus not working properly with other controllers or keyboard. Button prompts and mappings are often wrong or unclear, and rebinding is limited.

Death recovery is tedious: Dying forces players to use a different character to retrieve lost equipment or souls, often requiring extra items or farming. This system adds frustration and repetition, especially when attempts are difficult or poorly equipped.

Controls are poor and imprecise: Many players find the controls awkward, unresponsive, and overly complicated, leading to discomfort and a lack of precision. This affects both combat and movement, making the game feel janky.

Visual and audio flaws: Graphics are outdated, blurry, and inconsistent, with ugly character models and art style. Sound effects and music are lackluster or too quiet, and translation errors are present.

Combat flaws and jankiness: Combat is simplistic, janky, and lacks depth, with issues like launch attacks, poor hitboxes, and a useless parry system (not implemented). Animations are sluggish, and getting knocked down leads to brutal beatdowns.

Unique death recovery system: Multiple clusters describe a distinctive mechanic where upon death, players must use a different character to retrieve the corpse and lost items, with some noting that otherwise equipment and upgrades are permanently lost.

Souls-like classification: Many reviewers explicitly categorize the game as a Souls-like or Souls-like action RPG, often noting similarities to Dark Souls in structure and combat.

Action RPG combat and platforming: The game blends action RPG combat with platforming elements, featuring dodging, stamina management, and timing-based attacks.

Hunger and food mechanics: A hunger system requires players to eat regularly, with food spoiling over time and causing HP loss when the meter is empty.

Survival and resource management: Survival mechanics include managing hunger, inventory, and gathering materials, with an emphasis on preparation and resource management during dungeon exploration.

Severe Optimization Issues: Many players report severe frame drops and stuttering, even on high-end hardware. Performance often falls below 60 FPS and is not fixed by lowering settings.

Inconsistent Performance Reports: While some report flawless 60 FPS at 1080p, others experience severe issues, suggesting performance may vary greatly depending on hardware or configuration.

Unplayable on Modern PCs: Some users state the game does not run at all on modern systems, making it completely unplayable. This is echoed by reports of extremely low FPS with minimal hardware utilization.

Erratic Frame Rates: Frame rates fluctuate wildly, jumping from high to single digits multiple times per second. This is observed on systems that handle other demanding games smoothly.

Poor Graphics Despite Performance: Graphics are criticized as looking outdated (like an Xbox 360 title) yet still cause performance problems, indicating poor optimization.

Negative overall recommendation: Multiple reviewers explicitly do not recommend the game, especially at its price, and advise buying other games instead. Some mention refunding the game.

Avoid this obsolete version: Reviewers strongly advise against buying this Steam version, calling it obsolete and directing players to newer versions such as Inferno Climber Reborn on the Switch or Microsoft Store.

Appeals to Souls and Zelda fans: The game is recommended for fans of Dark Souls and Zelda, offering a similar experience. It is also suggested for those who want to experience the magic of Dark Souls for the first time again.

Only buy on sale: Several reviewers recommend purchasing only at a discount due to the game's flaws or price. Some suggest reading reviews first and buying if still curious.

Challenging and punishing difficulty: Reviewers highlight the game's high difficulty and harsh punishment on failure, making it unsuitable for the faint of heart. It is recommended for players seeking a challenge and interesting mechanics.

Community fair range: $15.00 - $25.00.

Game completion: 60.0h.

Reports describe a grind-heavy, punishing experience where early friction persists; one reviewer finds exploration fun initially but then tedious, and no cited event clearly turns the game fun.

Friction: Never-ending farming for levels, gear, potions, and food; Harsh death penalties and extra respawn steps, including corpse retrieval; Need to use another character to recover a lost soul; Tedious inventory management and weapon-swap or bow controls; Opening lore dump instead of show-not-tell storytelling; Repetitive, punishing enemies that make stuck areas tedious.

Soulslike Grind Veteran: Farms levels, weapons, armor, potions, and food while enduring death loops and weapon durability. Motivation: To conquer a punishing old-school action RPG through soulslike challenge and incremental gear and level progression. Stance: buy.

Nostalgic Retro RPG Fan: Approaches the game as a retro RPG, valuing difficulty and vintage visuals over modern presentation. Motivation: To relive the challenge and aesthetic of classic era RPGs with a nostalgic, difficult adventure. Stance: buy.

Control-Scheme-Sensitive PC Player: Plays on PC with preferred input devices and rejects setups that require or assume a console-style controller. Motivation: To have comfortable, clearly supported controls and avoid being forced into an awkward controller scheme. Stance: no buy.

Steam Deck: Steam Deck audit finds no launcher, anti-cheat, crash, or unreadable UI evidence, but controller input and remapping failures plus occasional frame drops create notable friction. External non-Xbox controllers appear especially problematic, while the game still launches and can run for some users.

Frequent Dark Souls comparisons: Many reviewers compare the game to Dark Souls, often unfavorably, describing it as diluted, inferior, or lacking key strengths. Some note it mixes ideas to differentiate itself, but overall the comparisons highlight shortcomings.

Zelda comparisons and differences: The game is often compared to Zelda titles, with reviewers noting differences such as lack of puzzles and different tool progression. Some find it more complicated and saturated than Dark Souls and much harder than Zelda.

Steam version outdated: The Steam release is the old version, lacking the Reborn version available on Microsoft Store, and has not been updated since 2016. Arc System Works has not added the Reborn version to Steam.

Developed by Arc System Works: Arc System Works is the developer and publisher, known for the Guilty Gear series. However, the Steam page indicates it was actually made by around five people.

Miscellaneous details: Various small details include new stages in v0.2.01, a Dreamcast font at the start, encyclopedia text being fun to read, tips from a dog, Death Contract costing 60CP, at least 8 skills, Unity engine, and the first trailer being a walking simulator.