SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell Preview

In an age where we have both a new DOOM and a new Mirror’s Edge, Pine Studio decided that these two things need to become one and SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell is the result. At the moment there’s only a demo that can be completed in about 40 minutes, but what a time it is: intense levels with tight controls and a fantastic metal soundtrack that I hope there’s more of.

Currently there are 12 levels starting from simple corridors that need some jumping, to a level that requires you to float through four rings to unlock the exit. To complete a level, you need to pass through a blue portal somewhere in the level, though since the levels are not all corridors this could be behind where you start. Each level has a par time that you need to beat in order to progress to the next level, and is represented by a bar at the top of the screen that slowly depletes. When successfully completed, each has a global and friends leaderboard to compare your scores, though it’s suffice to say that it’ll take a lot of practice to get onto the global boards.

Visually, this game isn’t going to set the world alight: both DOOM and Mirror’s Edge Catalyst certainly look better, but this works in SEUM’s favour: at the press of a button you can be instantly back at the start. The graphic style fits the game and it’s obvious what everything is supposed to be, so even though the assets aren’t triple-A quality you should be moving too fast to notice.

Enter the palace of spikes and floaty fire rings

The speed of the game is straight from DOOM: you move as if stopping would set your feet on fire. Bearing in mind the whole game is set in hell, that wouldn’t surprise me, but it’s nonetheless great to be instantly moving exceptionally quickly in a game all about speed. The movement system doesn’t end there, there’s a wall climb-esque thing that allows you to grab onto ledges, though in the demo this is mostly for collecting the beer cans.

These beer cans are purely collectables, items that you’ll never find if you’re going for speed runs but, if you take the levels a little slower and explore your surroundings, are obvious. That isn’t to say that they’re easy to collect; each level finds new and interesting ways of hiding the beer can, like up on a ledge to the side of the corridor, and you’ll need to use all the jumping skills you’ve accumulated to reach it.

Other levels require the use of an “overpowered power”: the two in the demo allow you to either teleport yourself or reverse gravity (this is how you float!). The teleportation power works by firing a ball of blue fire in an arc from your hand, and wherever the ball lands is where you’ll find yourself, be it on the platform you were aiming for or the fiery death pit you actually hit. The reverse gravity power is simply a flying power: holding right click makes you fly up, letting go makes gravity take over, normally towards a spike trap.

A close shave, or a closer shave?

The last power that you possess is one that carries across all the levels, and that is your left click red fire ball. This works similarly to the teleporting power, except the red fire ball will activate switches, break weak walls - where beer cans are normally hiding - and, if you fire straight up, kill you. I won’t lie to you, I spam this when I can’t complete levels fast enough, and while I know it doesn’t make me faster and almost certainly slows me down, I’m still going to be doing it.

I’m also probably going to be doing it in time to the music too, which is utterly amazing. Coming from DOOM, which has one of the best original soundtracks in a game and I won’t hear any word otherwise, this feels like more of the same. The tracks that I’ve heard fit so well with the speed of the levels, and metal and hell fit so well together that this game would feel weird with anything else. I’m hoping that, with the additional 100 levels coming with the full release, we get more songs. This is one game I’d happily buy the OST for, in a heartbeat.

So, to conclude, play this demo. I honestly think this could be one of the best games I’ll play this year, and this year has been great for games so far. At the end of the day, this is a 700MB demo that you’ll know if you like within 20 minutes, and it will cost you nothing. If you like it, you’ll find yourself replaying the levels over and over again, shaving milliseconds off your best time, and if you don’t you’ll be able to escape hell. If you ask me though, you’re missing out.