Let it Die for good this time
After its brief stint as a battle royale with Deathverse, Let it Die finally returns to its roots, bringing back its Souls-like dungeon-crawling gameplay, although now also featuring a PvPvE extraction angle, where one wrong move means losing your life and, more importantly, all of your equipment.
The original Let it Die was largely enjoyed by its fans as a PvE roguelike experience, and while it did feature asynchronous PvP elements, most of the player base didn’t seem to gravitate towards it, so developing a direct sequel that focuses on extraction and fighting other players is quite a bold move. Does it pay off? Well…
MSRP: $24.99
Platforms: PC (reviewed), PlayStation
Let it Die’s combat remains largely unchanged, featuring its usual unforgivingly long animation locks after attacks and dodges. Fighting enemies usually relies on getting a good first hit in, operating somewhat like a game of rock paper scissors around counters, guard breaks, and special attacks. Despite moving away from the mostly PvE gameplay loop the previous game centered around, Inferno still features some absurd enemy scaling that is used to artificially halt your progress, as after a couple of missions you transition from being able to fight against every enemy on fair but tough terms to being killed in two or three hits by anything, barely able to break an enemy’s posture, let alone deal any damage.
When it comes to the PvP side of things, Inferno drops you and other players into large maps filled with resources, giving you a timer and amount of SPLithium to collect before you can board one of the single-use escape rockets back to the game’s hub area. On paper, this would create the perfect scenario for ruthless PvP encounters, but there are two major issues that impede this: The first issue is that PvP doesn’t really feel satisfying; the game is pretty stingy with loot, so most players you encounter aren’t going to be carrying anything great, meaning erasing someone’s progress is just cruel and won’t benefit you that much. The second issue is that the game has a very small player base. It’s quite rare to find other raiders walking around, and when you do, they usually perform a repeated crouch or jump to tell you they don’t want to PvP, and that rule seems to be respected by most, meaning Let it Die’s player encounters are almost entirely avoidable.
In true extraction fashion, Inferno follows a seasonal format, with full wipes happening every three months through the Uncle Reset system. For those not familiar with seasonal wipes, that means everything you have done, including items collected and stashed, story progress, and meta upgrades simply wash away every 90 days, with the only exceptions being the items purchased through microtransactions.
Being fully honest, I think I’m simply allergic to Let it Die’s gameplay loop, regardless of the formula it takes. Inferno is definitely less scummy than the first game, which would purposefully try to frustrate you into spending money, but that frustration is still present, now coming from an even bigger loss of progress as its meta progression feels near nonexistent. While the first game was held down by its experimentation with a freemium gameplay loop, Inferno is held down by just not being fun. I feel nothing when I win, and I just feel like playing something else when I lose; there’s nothing here that makes it an engaging Souls-like, roguelike, or extraction game to play. There’s simply no fun to be had.
Alright, now to talk about the bit that can’t be avoided: Supetrick and GungHo have been very transparent about their usage of generative AI on Inferno, even specifically citing the places where it was employed. The developers claim that AI was used as a supplementary tool to create background music, environmental posters, and InfoCast background images, as well as to voice three major characters: the two InfoCast presenters, Goz and Mez, and Mom, the machine that brings you back to life whenever your current body is destroyed.
While I do respect the transparency, Inferno is the perfect example as to why GenAI simply can’t replace a creator’s vision, as it can do the bare minimum to look passable, but will fail at providing anything interesting or original for players to grasp. Much like every other Grasshopper title, the original Let it Die was a solid fusion of western and eastern cultures, dripping with an effortless sense of style thanks to its incorporation of mixed media and an unbelievable amount of effort put into showcasing underground artists through its soundtrack. Despite being part of the original game’s development, Supertrick largely misses the mark when it comes to adding these flourishes, as Inferno features none of the thick atmosphere present in the first game, as well as a pretty weak soundtrack. The very few bits of mixed media present, like Goz and Mez, are unfortunately muddled by their robot-like AI-generated voices, making Inferno a very sterile attempt at mimicking Grasshopper’s creative vision and unique style.
Let it Die: Inferno is a pretty miserable experience from top to bottom. Its gameplay is too clunky to be fun as a Souls-like, its extraction mechanics are half-baked at best due to a very small player base and aggressive enemy scaling, and its roguelike loop is not fun enough to justify its repetition or create a satisfying meta progression grind. This is a game where you never feel like you have any sort of edge against enemies, be it in PvE or PvP, and any amount of time you spend playing feels like a waste due to the eventual seasonal reset.
Inferno could have been a solid title if Supetrick put any sort of effort into actually improving the original game’s formula, but it instead comically doubles down on every single aspect that made it a chore to play, except now you have to pay an entry fee (which doesn’t mean microtransactions are gone, by the way). Inferno is a weird amalgamation of the first Let it Die and Deathverse, attempting to merge them into a PvPvE experience that ends up being for nobody. Maybe it’s time we simply Let it Die.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.