Sumer Or Later, I’m Going To Get You
HIGH A new stealth-strategy title! Flamboyant, powerful character abilities.
LOW Enemy setups are not always interesting. Experience system is underbaked.
WTF Injecting guards with a body-dissolving acid!
Anybody mourning the 2023 closure of Mimimi, the studio that revived the stealth strategy genre with an impeccable trio of games — Shadow Tactics, Desperadoes III, and Shadow Gambit — need only know the following: Artificer’s Sumerian Six is worthy to carry on the legacy of this niche but incredibly compelling caviar genre. It’s a robust, meaty entry into the category and a must-buy for those already tuned in to this type of experience.
For those on the outside looking in, “stealth strategy” is a newish term coined by Mimimi for the genre that what was previously called the “real time tactics” genre, or sometimes just “Commandos-likes,” as the 1998 release from Pyro Studios established the style and mechanics that everything following it built upon.
Each entry in this genre — and there are probably less than 25 — controls like a third-person real time strategy game at a fundamental level, as players tell their units where to go and what to do by clicking around on the screen. However, unlike an RTS, stealth strategies put players in charge of a handful named units, each with a set of bespoke abilities. They are often tasked with infiltrating large, intricate levels to accomplish goals like blow up this building, assassinate that target, steal this document — it’s the usual stealth title skulduggery.
The levels are concatenated layer cakes, intestinal and rife with looping pathways and bristling with guards. Figuring out how to use characters’ abilities to sneak by (or simply kill) is, as many before have said, akin to solving a puzzle, and they often have many different solutions. Any one stealth strategy level can take upwards of two hours to complete, depending on the player’s approach.
I’m convinced huge swathes of players would vibe with stealth strategy’s particular flavor. Anybody who enjoys immersive sims or savors good stealth… even puzzle gamers and fans of programming titles would be delighted with the genre, but I can understand why it’s sometimes a hard sell. Describing the mechanics does not do justice to their brain-nourishing interplay, and screenshots — while pretty — do not often look dramatic.
Sumerian Six has the advantage of an appealing, pulpy setting. It concerns Enigma Squad, a group of specialists operating abroad during World War II. They discover a resource called Geiststoff, which offers the potential for unlimited energy. However, they decide it’s too much for humanity to handle, so they hide their research — all except one member who hips Hitler off about the stuff, thus giving the Nazis a Lovecraftian edge in the ongoing conflict. The rest of Enigma Squad, along with a couple new members, set out to stop him.
The first, brightest joy of any stealth strategy is seeing the characters and their powers, and Sumerian Six gives players a charismatic suite of six heroes. Many abilities will be familiar to Mimimi fans — Wojtek can turn into a werebear and do an area kill similar to Mugen’s Sword Wind in Shadow Tactics, while hothead infiltrator Sid has a blink-style kill skill, a la Afia in Shadow Gambit. These parallels feel affectionate and considered rather than lazy, and the abilities are so cool on a base level that I wouldn’t care even if it were shameless cribbing. Artificer came up with some wonderful powers of their own too — scientist Rosa can plant a hidden bomb on any enemy and detonate it remotely. Slightly sinister psychiatrist Siegfried has a standing camera that renders a slice of the level invisible. What happens in the cone stays in the cone, and it’s extremely satisfying to take out Nazis right in front of their gormless compatriots.
Key ingredient number two are the areas and enemy set-ups. Levels in Sumerian Six are built differently than those in their spiritual predecessors. Often they’re more linear with fewer routes through, but they’re still satisfying. More problematic is that the enemy groupings and patrol routes are noticeably less complicated than the devilish, layered patterns in the Mimimi games. I never felt stumped, never spent whole minutes scrutinizing vision cones for an opening, cross-referencing them with the abilities at my disposal – and thus never experienced the rush that comes from dismantling a room impossibly full of guards in an intricate, choreographed sequence of plays as considered as a chess Grand Master’s mid-game moves.
Sumerian Six still delivers a load of pure, uncut, if somewhat lesser, enjoyment. I think it’s possible to go non-lethal, but killing is encouraged, both on a thematic level and a mechanical one, with an experience system. Concocting elaborate plans to off Nazis never gets old (players will kill Third Reich personnel in droves) even if the action doesn’t rise to the highest of refined heights.
Killing enemies, accomplishing secondary objectives, and finding special crates dotted throughout the level gives characters experience, which in turn levels up their abilities. These level ups do fairly tame things, like expand the range of an ability or reduce the noise it makes. I can see what Artificer was going for, but I’m not a fan of this system. The best thing that can be said about it is that the aforementioned crates are often located in optional areas, with denser enemy setups. However, I’d rather do these rooms because I want to, not because I feel like I have to to keep my characters caught up on the power curve.
But seriously, ignore the carping. The standard of quality for the modern era of stealth strategy games is very, very high. Sumerian Six is not at the front of the class, but it’s still a great entry, and a highlight of 2024. I spent more than 30 hours dispatching fascists with the Enigma Squad, still have two levels to go, will absolutely finish them and someday return for another run. Stealth strategy, when done right, is just that good, and Sumerian Six is absolutely done right. Bravo, Artificer. Sequel please.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
— Ben Schwartz
Disclosures: This game is developed by Artificer and published by Devolver Digital. It is currently available on PC. Approximately 31 hours of play were devoted to the game, and the game was not completed (yet). There are no multiplayer modes.
Parents: Sumerian Six centers around lethal takedowns of guards. Although the character models are small, the various kill animations are graphic, with blood, bones, and other gore depending on what action is being done. Most enemies are Nazi soldiers and there is much Nazi iconography throughout. There are some monster-type enemies as well. The script includes occasional bad language and some characters drink, smoke, or urinate on screen.
Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are present.
Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. All subtitles can be altered and/or resized. there are no audio cues necessary for gameplay. This game is fully accessible.
Remappable Controls: Certain functions are remappable. Keyboard bindings can be completely customized, but there’s only one setup for controllers, it can’t be changed.
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