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Time to return to Hell as SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell is receiving a huge update today, introducing the feature the community has been longing for ever since the game first walked the Earth: An easy to use, full-fledged level editor to create your very own death track with full Steamworks integration. What better way to. Full list of all 28 SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell trophies - 10 bronze, 12 silver, 5 gold and 1 platinum. Full list of all 28 SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell trophies - 10 bronze, 12 silver, 5 gold and 1 platinum.
SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell is the most “metal” game ever since last year’s glorious Doom. From its aesthetic, art style, and soundtrack to its attitude and brutality, the whole game is a nod to heavier and faster styles of metal. As the developer calls it, it’s a mix between Super Meat Boy and Quake III Arena, and I can’t help but think the dev is quite right. The game features the most absurd and over-the-top story I’ve seen in a while: the devil shows up in your trailer, severs your arm and steals your beer. You go back to hell with a new devilish arm to catch him and get your beer back. Ridiculous and straightforward.
Can’t complain about that.Think of SEUM as Meat Boy in a first-person view, set in hell, with trash metal being blasted in the background. It’s as challenging, unforgiving, brutal and infuriating as the indie classic, with an added layer of challenge by having a very small time limit in each level. A very small, brutal, sadistic time limit. The same Meat Boy levels of sadism.Visually speaking, SEUM is a big mixed bag. On one hand, the art style is great.
The hellish landscapes are fun to look at, even if way too much orange is used throughout the whole game. The game also features a phenomenally fast framerate, a must in a game like this. On the other hand, the game boasts a visual style that I can only describe as “Made by Unity.” Have you ever played a cheaper Unity game which featured this cheaper and less detailed graphical style, with bland shadow effects, weird lighting and overall simple polygons? That’s what I felt with SEUM‘s visuals. It reminded me of, a game I reviewed a few months ago. Same low-budget visual style which didn’t resonate very well. Well, at least the soundtrack and voice acting are pretty good, if not a bit tongue-in-cheek and over-the-top, which is generally a good thing.
I didn’t even pay attention to the parody of the MS Office paperclip while I was playing!Even though SEUM is supposed to be infuriating by nature due to its level of difficulty and time limits, the game becomes even more infuriating because of its controls. It’s been a while since I’ve last seen controls as sensitive as these. One little millimetrical flick on the right analog stick and your camera goes completely haywire. SEUM was clearly developed with the mouse and keyboard in mind, and it’s noticeable due to the completely bonkers camera sensitivity. Given the fact that there are a lot of puzzles requiring quick reflexes and perfect aim, you better head into the options menu and tone down the camera sensitivity as much as you can.
It won’t help you much, but it will make things a bit more tolerable. Were I able to play this game with a mouse and keyboard, then the score would have been totally different.The game isn’t just limited to running to the finishing line like a famished leopard trying to catch a succulent gazelle. There are lots of traps and puzzles scattered around the levels to give you, literally, hell. They aren’t exactly complex, but given the fact some levels give you a mere ten seconds to reach the finish line, even the dumbest light switch can be a real migraine-inducing nightmare and a potential reason for you to throw your controller across the room.
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Add in the aforementioned sensitivity and you’re in for one hell of a challenge.SEUM can be extremely infuriating at times, either by intentional design choices like its challenging nature and time limits or by unintentional flaws such as the excessively sensitive controls, but I’ve constantly felt that usual “just one more attempt” feeling present in a lot of difficult but fun games. In the end, this game is just like a death metal album: at first, it’s just too loud, violent, repetitive, uneasy and uninteresting. As you keep on playing, you’ll find out it’s quite fun, even if it’s still loud and uneasy.It’s not a game for everybody, but it’s an interesting pick for those craving for a new challenge.
Just remember to attach some cushions to your controller as you’re going to feel the urge to throw it out the window.Reviewed on Xbox One.Also available on: PS4, PC.Copy of SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell provided by publisher.
Welcome to Hell, and good luck getting out! SEUM: Speedrunners From Hell is a first-person speedrunning game where you run your way through Hell after a demon breaks into your apartment and steals the last of your brewskies! In addition to the standard sprinting through levels, you’ll use super powers like the ability to shoot fireballs and reverse gravity to battle your way through a variety of obstacles. Search for hidden beers on each level if you want to unlock all the levels and stick it to the demon!The GoodFor what could have been a very ordinary game, SEUM hits a lot of points that make it a fun, addictive game. In addition to its standard story mode, it also has an endless mode, and a speedrun mode (which consists of speedrunning through a series of eleven stages in one shot). I have been a particularly big fan of the endless mode because each time you restart endless mode, it is randomized. This I felt like this forced me to get better at the game in general because it forced me to be adaptable to different levels.While I spent a lot of time dying or failing levels in SEUM: Speedrunners From Hell, it didn’t get aggravating in the way that so many games can.
SEUM has a quality that makes you want to continue attempting levels, learn from your mistakes, and force your way through. SEUM was tough, but in a challenging, fun way that many games like this miss out on.The BadThere were only two issues I really had with SEUM. First, I struggled with motion sickness the first time I played this game, so if you are sensitive to motion sickness or dizziness in video games, I would avoid this. There are many settings to help combat this, and I only experienced it the first time I played, but I know that for some people, this can make a game unplayable.
The only other real issue I had was that I experienced a lot of times where the game would get hung up on loading screens. While this didn’t happen excessively, it was noticeable and became a distraction a few times.The AchievementsSEUM has a great achievement list for how straightforward of a game it is. Comprised of 27 achievements, they range from the standard “complete the game style” to a wide variety of achievements focused around the number 666 in one way or another (including, but not limited to, finishing a level in exactly 6.66 seconds, shoot a fireball 666 times, and jump 666 times). There are also achievements for performing certain actions, like finding a skeleton surrounded by Pokeballs (although I won’t tell you where this is)!
Overall, one of SEUM’s strongest points is in its achievement list, improving the replayability vastly. The VerdictI think what I found to be really appealing about SEUM: Speedrunners From Hell is the ability to just pick it up and play for a little while at a time. It is enjoyable, has a variety of game modes to keep things interesting, and a nice achievement list to keep you coming back for more.
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