Sulfur's adorable but deadly dungeon crawling nails the tense thrill of exploring the unknown
Raise hell in this FPS roguelike.
Don't be fooled by Sulfur's cutesy little goblin demons. Behind their simple, cell-shaded good looks, these are vicious little creatures intent on sinking their fangs into your weak and tender flesh. They are undeterred by your priestly garb and assortment of guns and wakizashi sword, and will leap, poke and shoot at you with savage abandon the moment they clap their beady yellow eyes on you. But these attacks are ultimately little more than nicks and scratches compared to the task ahead, as you've been promised a way to salvation through these ever-changing caves, and a chance to take revenge on the witch that burned your town church down and everyone in it.
Or at least that's according to your magic amulet, which seems to have a mind (and no doubt agenda) of its own in this capitvating FPS roguelike. It's never a good sign when something professes to be both your conscience and friend (or whatever convenient metaphor you need to help make sense of this cursed situation), but the prospect of being able to turn back time and save your flock from the witch's fiery damnation is just too tempting to ignore. So once more unto the breach you go, rising from your very own grave to claw your way through its titular hellscape one demon corpse at a time until you're powerful enough to take on the evil that brought you here.
It's a delicious premise whichever way you slice it, and it's backed up by tense and desperate gunplay as you fight your way through each level. Things start off simply enough, throwing moderate groups of demons at you as you carefully explore its proc gen caverns, but as your ammo supplies and health items start to dwindle, your search for new weapons and restorative foodstuffs becomes ever more frantic. Sulfur keeps its upgrades very close to its chest, and while corpses will occasionally spill out coins and questionable chunks of meat (and even the odd shoe sometimes) to use back at your ruined church base, you'll need to seek out its rare and unpredictably placed treasure chests if you want to expand your arsenal beyond your basic starter pistol.
These guns come in all shapes, sizes and calibres, and they rattle and kick with satisfying heft. Of course, as you'd expect from any roguelike worth its salt these days, you learn to not grow too attached to any of these new discoveries, as the moment your health bar hits zero, everything in your inventory gets wiped clean. Or does it? This is where Sulfur comes into its own, for as long as your amulet has enough charge (which can be topped up by reaching its carefully spaced out waypoint shrines), you can return to your base at any time, allowing you to horde your hard-won items and concoct more thoughtful, tooled up character builds to give you a better chance of survival.
Naturally, the risk of losing it all still persists no matter how thorough your preparations are, but that's precisely what makes Sulfur fizz with such nervous excitement. You know that restraint and caution will help you win the day, but the temptation to be greedy and get the most out of each run, to say nothing of giving in to your own curiosity to see what lies round the next corner, is often your own worst enemy. It's a tension that matches the theme of its religious framing, too - if the amulet is your priest chap's supposed shoulder angel, then you, the player, are very much the devil cosying up on the other side.
I also just love the very soft grotesqueness of it all - the way your sword slices will cut through a demon's body right through to the bone, its cartoonish guts pouring from the wound; and how the strange, black ooze and eldritch eyes bubbling out of the doors of your church (and the mouths of its survivors) back home just seems like part of the furniture. There's something sinister going on here, but its Steam demo only gives you the briefest glimpse behind the curtain, and I'm itching for more. Thankfully, Sulfur's upcoming early access release isn't far away - landing on Steam sometime next month in October, just in time for spooky season - and if it can continue to walk that tantalising tightrope of vice and virtue, then Sulfur might just have the makings of a devilishly good time.