Sulfur’s adorable but deadly dungeon crawling nails the tense thrill of exploring the unknown
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
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.
