When drinking craft beer and listening to metal in the real world just isn’t doing it for you and you need an escape from your escape, now you can drink beer and listen to metal in a video game. OK, so maybe SEUM: Speedrunners From Hell is actually more than just beer and metal, but those were the two prominent features that caught our attention. The video game’s Croatian developer, Pine Studio, describes it as “the world’s only competitive heavy metal first-person platformer.”
So, the setup for this game, near as I can figure, is that the protagonist was attacked by demons who tore off his arm and stole his beer (“limited edition Walrus Ale”). In the ensuing battle, he managed to replace his missing arm with that of a dismembered demon, and his new appendage can shoot fireballs. Gameplay entails tearing through peril-laden levels as fast as possible and reclaiming your stolen brews as you go—all set to an original heavy metal soundtrack. Though the beers aren’t the centerpiece of the the game, there’s apparently some hidden benefits (beyond intoxication) to gathering them as you “race across and jump over platforms and bounce pads while shooting fireballs as you battle to reach an exit portal in the minimum amount of time.”
SEUM: Speedrunners From Hell was first released via Steam about 18 months ago and has more recently been made available for XBOX and PlayStation4. An expansion DLC called The Drunk Side of the Moon came out in October.
