SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell is a hardcore, ultra-metal first-person platformer that challenges you to run a Super Meat Boy-style gauntlet, dodging whirring blades and bounding across wicked death pits. Survive all that pulse-pounding action and leap into the finish line portal to claim total, rockin’ glory.
The demo for SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell delivers just enough action to whet your appetite with ten introductory levels for you to try out. As you sprint down the dungeon corridors, you’ll be able to shoot fireballs to destroy obstacles and even throw out teleportation spheres and flip gravity to cross tricky platforming sections. Each level has its own online leaderboard, and you’ll be able to compare your score with other speedheads around the globe. However, if speedrunning isn’t enough of a challenge for you, you can always try to collect all of the hidden beer cans spread throughout the levels to unlock some special secrets.
The controls, modelled after the Quake games, aren’t perfect yet. The movement is a little slippery, which is manageable, but the jumps are a pain in the rear, requiring ultra-precise button-tapping. Nine times out of ten, the game doesn’t give you the benefit of the doubt when it comes to jump timing and you’ll find yourself careening off platform edges if you aren’t careful. SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell still needs some minor tweaks to get to a place where each death —and boy howdy, are there a lot of deaths— feels warranted. However, the game does get a lot of things right. For example, when your fireball hits its mark, your avatar throws up the sign of the horns. This allows you to keep running as you aim and fire, helping you to shave precious seconds off your run time. It’s little details like this that show the care and thought put into the game by its developers.
The full game promises an additional one hundred levels, four wicked power-ups, an endless mode, and ten original metal songs to fuel your inner, race-god fires. If you enjoyed Quake III Arena but always thought the game could benefit from a speedrun mode, SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell is for you. So let’s rock and run: the ancient halls of Valhalla await!
Note: The Alpha demo build clocks in a hefty 280 MB, so make sure you’ve got some killer jams to listen to while you wait.
Check Out The SEUM: Speedrunners From Hell On Steam Page
Download The SEUM: Speedrunners From Hell Beta Demo (Win, Mac & Linux)