Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists offers a compellingly grim journey through bespoke hellscapes, blending intricate tactical gameplay with rich, emergent storytelling. Developed by the team behind King of Dragon Pass and Six Ages, the game presents a unique "tactical narrative" experience where players guide hand-picked parties of adventurers through diverse and imaginatively rendered underworlds. However, while the game excels in its world-building and narrative depth, a reliance on randomized challenges can sometimes make progress feel brutally futile.
The game begins in the Eternal City, a nexus point from which players embark on quests into one of four distinct hells. These environments, ranging from the frozen taigas of the Midnight North to the surreal Hell of Nightmares, are a testament to the developer's imaginative prowess. Each location is steeped in implied culture, tradition, and history, contributing to a deeply immersive experience. Players are tasked with missions, such as reclaiming the spirits of murdered princes, which necessitate careful party formation and strategic engagement with the trials ahead.
Party assembly is a crucial early step. Players cobble together an incomplete picture of potential recruits' talents and traits, which form the core gameplay mechanic. During randomized, turn-based trials, these traits function as game tiles. Success hinges on matching a character's traits to the specific demands of an encounter. For instance, nominating a sailor or scout to navigate a treacherous chthonic sea would offer better odds than a poet with hydrophobia.
When the party composition aligns well with the challenges presented, Thousand Hells can feel like a personal mythological epic. Players can orchestrate heroic feats, utilizing improvised cunning against otherworldly creatures and crises. Such moments might involve hewing the head from a titanic eel in sunless waters or bartering with a swarm of brain-bats using a philosopher's pickled organs.
Yet, more frequently than desired, players may find themselves watching their party slowly unravel due to a series of consecutive defeats. These setbacks often stem from randomized traits that prove inapplicable to the quest's specific encounters. The core issue lies in the limited influence players have over who performs actions. While a party of four can be assembled, only one character can be nominated to handle most tasks in any given encounter. This character can draw upon one trait from each comrade, but an unfavorable initial shuffling of talents can lead to a sense that a run was doomed from the start due to a misallocated skill.
Even with a warrior ideally suited for a duel, the game might not present the necessary combat-related traits when they are most needed. If a character is combat-trained but the available tiles are consistently tied to less relevant attributes like ugliness or religious devotion, their effectiveness in a critical fight diminishes. Injuries sustained in one encounter further complicate subsequent challenges, as a weakened character may be unable to contribute effectively to further battles or tasks.
Thousand Hells features exceptional procedural storytelling and richly imagined hellscapes that are a significant draw. However, its commitment to relentless challenge without readily available recourse can lead to sessions marked by back-to-back miseries. The game is available now on Steam.