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If you've ever wished for a multiplayer mode in Hades, 33 Immortals has an even grander solution. The upcoming action-roguelike from Spiritfarer developer Thunder Lotus sees 33 online players venturing out into an afterlife, as modelled in Dante's Divine Comedy, to defy a cruel god as his wrath rains down upon you.
It sounds ambitious, but the innovations don't stop there. "We want to bring something new to action-roguelikes beyond the multiplayer aspect," creative director Stephan Logier tells us. "We thought about games like MMOs offering a big raiding experience, where tons of players join and cooperate together to face huge threats. Usually those raiding experiences are only available for end-game players. So we thought: 'What if everyone could experience raiding, not just the end-game players, but everyone who jumps in our game?'"
Teamwork makes the dream work
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To that end, 33 Immortals sounds like a Hades 2-shaped roguelike infused with MMO elements. It might not have the sprawling open world of some of the best MMORPGs, but the isometric camera angle paired with having 32 fellow players split across three groups looks set to emulate the feeling of one.
Action games aren't a novelty for Thunder Lotus. Though it might be best known for its cozy management sim Spiritfarer, fans might be surprised that the studio's back catalog boasts the likes of eldritch horror-infused Sundered. The theme of death and the afterlife pervades the studio's work, going right back to its 2015 debut release Jotun, so the fact that Thunder Lotus is here influenced by other religious theologies around the afterlife seems pretty on-brand – even if the gameplay might be unfamiliar to some.
"We wanted to make a multiplayer game with a lot of players, in a setting inspired by the Divine Comedy – the medieval Italian epic poem about Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven," Logier says, making a point that its multiplayer gameplay "lets players live their story together and not tell a linear story."
Playing alongside 32 others thanks to the game's matchmaking system (because nobody expects you to have that many friends online at the same time), 33 Immortals splits you up into three teams as you battle through the torture chambers of Inferno. Boons, here called perks, seem to be unlocked by breaking open chests found at the beginning and end of certain levels, provide useful power-ups to help you incur the wrath of your god – and lay waste to the denizens of Hell.
The number 33 might sound a little bit specific, but Logier says it's not without reason. "This number originally comes from the Divine Comedy that has 100 chapters and each section has 33 chapters. We thought 'ok, 33, it’s an interesting number.'"
Once Thunder Lotus started toying with its 33-strong headcount, the next question was how to make the game look and feel like one of its own. Aside from themes of death, dying, and the human soul, one unifying thread that ties 33 Immortals to the likes of Spiritfarer, Jotun, and Sundered is a shared 2D art style.
"We started exploring the idea of making a 2D multiplayer game by looking at how many players could fit on one screen during exploration and massive boss fights. We tried several numbers and settled on 33," Logier says. The studio's initial idea was to have 100 players, but 33 seemed more plausible following testing. "The game stays legible and it looks good [with 33 players]. So from a gameplay perspective, 33 players is really interesting—and from a Divine Comedy perspective it completely fits."
"We want to bring something new to action-roguelikes beyond the multiplayer aspect."
Stephan Logier, creative director
Despite following familiar roguelike gameplay mechanics – procedurally-generated chambers, permadeath, and an array of weapon-specific combat playstyles – Thunder Lotus found 33 Immortals still had some kinks for the team to work through. "Our challenge is to create a game where everyone can have fun jumping in and experiencing raiding with a large group of players. The game is very cooperative, social and there’s some intense and rewarding combat with lot’s of various enemies and huge bosses," Logier says of what we can expect in a playthrough, and just how far these MMO leanings will reach.
As someone who's frequently found themselves grumbling about not having a player two at hand for the big final showdown at the end of each Hades run, having 32 heroes sharing the load sounds like it'll be a welcome reprieve. Story-wise, I'm still feeling none the wiser in terms of what it'll mean to "live out a story" with my compatriots, but 33 Immortals has the potential to be one of the most unique roguelike games ever when it launches later this year.
