To a journalist PC Gamer Christopher Livingston had a chance to play Hermetica at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. The game demo is available at Steam. It takes place in Toledo, Spain in the 16th century, and is filled with characters from the bizarre illustrations of medieval books and maps.
A snail with a human head, a half-blueberry, a half-monster, a goblin riding a three-headed bipedal lizard, a rat on two legs next to a huge turnip with a human face. A large rabbit can bite the face and cut off the head. A man without a head but with a huge face on his torso ran around the arena, waving his arms and throwing poison at the character. There was a fight with a snail with a deer’s head, which did not slide but jumped. Then there was a deer with sharp horns and a woman’s head. This was only in the second arena.
In Hermetica, the player’s character, an alchemist, faces a bunch of monsters on each level as he moves from cell to cell on the map. The character doesn’t just stand there, but moves, just like the enemies. The cells of the arena are dotted with traps: some can hold you in place for several moves, lightning can hit a puddle of water, there is a trap that summons a creature that carries the character to a remote cell.
Each map has a movement pattern, and the character also moves forward when attacking. Levels contain alchemical ingredients that can be collected while moving and used in your laboratory to prepare improvements for the passage.
The situation gets worse at night. If you don’t complete the daytime bestiary quickly, the sun will set, the arena will darken, and only a few cells will be visible without a candle. In addition to the usual monsters, night gives rise to vampires — and they don’t look much like the standard image of Dracula. Pale, stocky, naked little demons with open chests and leathery wings twice as wide as their bodies. Their bite will bring a curse that can only be cured by holy water. The sun will eventually rise again, killing the vampire if it is still alive.
In the end, the creature that has the lower body of a vulture and a female head finished off the journalist character. The character was armed only with a knife, which is strange for an alchemist. Perhaps the game should provide some more authentic weapons. The game’s release date is — «soon», but you can evaluate the demo right now.