If I went to hell, I can’t imagine the first thing on my mind would be trying to pull off a bank job with a crew of fellow damned souls. However, in freshly announced tactical RPG Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists, that’s the sort thing you’ll be doing, with plenty of choice and consequence if things go pear-shaped.
Thousand Hells is the latest cool thing from Six Ages and King of Dragon Pass devs A Sharp. While they’re working with Kitfox Games as publisher again, there’s plenty of different stuff going on, including a move away from world of Glorantha as a setting. That’s in favour of fantasy pastures new, inspired by myths of the ancient proto-Indo-European, Norse, and Mesopotamian varieties. Oh, and a dash of Hieronymus Bosch’s lovely paintings.
“I’d like to push procedural storytelling in a new direction, both in how the quests are generated and with the narrative game that lets you use your team’s traits to resolve situations by making story choices, not just dice rolls,” A Sharp founder David Dunham said of the game. “And it’s fun to see the system that Robin Laws and I designed put to use by other writers.”
Thousand Hells revolves around four heroes making the toasty jaunt to hell, each of these folks being “procedurally generated with fears, desires and personalities”. Once there, your job is to pull together a team with different skills and a set of temperaments that won’t result in blowups midway through the “trials of the underworlds” you’ll be trying to overcome. There’s a “mysterious ambassador” you’re contracted to do it all for, which doesn’t sound ominous whatsoever.
The stakes, if it wasn’t clear, are high. “Use the strengths of your party in over 200 unique dynamic narrative encounters,” reads the game’s blurb. “Skills will change depending on your team’s successes and failures. Avoid combat by sending your bard to calm the nerves of bandits. Hire a demonologist to communicate with a possessed book. Take the risk and reap the rewards, otherwise you’ll end up with a broken arm, or worse.”
Sounds like a game that might be my cup of tea, provided I can still hold said cup of tea after I’ve had these things my hands are attached to violently wrenched out of place and put in casts. In all seriousness, any game that has four different types of mastermind and art as surreally majestic as this is well worth a look.
If you want to swot up on A Sharp’s previous work, here’s our Sin’s review of Six Ages. Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists doesn’t have a release date yet, and you can wishlist it on Steam here.
