Sulfur

Indie development has a habit of chasing trends until they bleed, but Stockholm-based Perfect Random has managed to find a fresh vein. Sulfur, released on Steam on October 28, 2024, enters a market currently obsessed with extraction shooters—a genre defined by the sweat-inducing fear of losing everything—and injects it with a shot of “modern-old-school” adrenaline. You play as a priest, though your sermons are delivered via lead and gunpowder, navigating a world that feels like a fever dream born from a collaboration between Pendleton Ward and a 90s id Software developer.

Perfect Random is positioning Sulfur as a bridge between the hardcore tactical misery of Escape from Tarkov and the frantic, procedural loops of Enter the Gungeon. The premise is simple: go into the unholy dark, kill grotesque monsters, loot everything that isn’t nailed down, and get out before you become a permanent fixture of the dungeon floor. If you die, your gear stays behind. It’s a high-stakes gamble that relies on the player’s ability to balance greed against survival.

The studio’s decision to adopt a “darkishly cartoony” aesthetic is its masterstroke. By wrapping visceral, gritty action in a vibrant, cell-shaded wrapper, they create a tonal dissonance that keeps the experience from feeling overly self-serious or dour. It’s a game that understands the inherent absurdity of its premise—a holy man cooking gourmet meals in a cave to buff his stats before using a cursed rifle to explode a demon’s head—and leans into it with confidence.

• Weapon Customization: A deep, modular system allowing for attachments, enchantments, and “cursed” builds that radically alter fire rates, damage types, and projectile behavior.
• Inventory Tetris: Survival is as much about spatial awareness in your backpack as it is about aiming, requiring players to constantly reorganize loot under pressure.
• Procedural Extraction: Dungeons are randomized, forcing players to weigh the risk of pushing deeper for “one more chest” against the safety of a successful extraction.

The core of Sulfur isn’t the shooting—though the shooting looks excellent on paper—it’s the decision-making. Every successful run begins in the safety of your hub, where you engage in the ritualistic preparation that defines the extraction genre. Checking your ammo means engaging in Inventory Tetris, a survival mechanic that transforms your backpack into a puzzle. Choosing whether to bring an extra medkit or leave space for a potential high-tier attachment is the kind of friction that makes every excursion feel meaningful.

The Gameplay Loop: Greed vs. Godliness

Once you plunge into the procedurally generated depths, the “old-school” FPS DNA takes over. The movement is designed to be fluid, and the gunplay is built around tactile weight that many indie shooters miss. Weapons are designed to feel distinct; a heavy revolver kicks with authoritative violence, while a modified SMG rattles with a frantic energy. But the standout is the Weapon Customization. This goes beyond adding a red dot sight for a small accuracy boost. You are bolting enchantments onto frames that can result in “cursed” weapons—tools of destruction that offer immense power at a psychological or mechanical cost. It encourages experimentation in a genre that usually punishes it.

However, the shadow of the extraction mechanic looms over every encounter. Sulfur is punishing. It does not respect your time if you do not respect its rules. A sudden difficulty spike or a poorly judged leap into a room full of grotesque enemies can end a long run in seconds. Losing a favorite customized rifle because of greed for a pile of scrap is a design choice that never quite loses its sting. This is where the roguelite elements shine; while gear is lost, the knowledge and meta-progression keep the “just one more run” hook firmly embedded.

Survival and Strategy

Beyond the barrels of your guns, Sulfur asks you to manage your humanity. The inclusion of cooking for buffs adds a layer of strategy that feels organic rather than tacked on. Finding ingredients in the filth of the dungeon and turning them into essential stat boosts creates a rhythmic lull in the action that heightens the tension of the next combat encounter. It forces engagement with the environment as a scavenger, not just a tourist with a gun.

The progression can occasionally feel farm-heavy. To reach the truly “wild” builds, players will need to spend time in the lower-stakes areas grinding for specific components. While the variety in enemies and room layouts mitigates the boredom, those looking for a strictly linear narrative might find the mid-game loop a bit repetitive. Yet, for those who find joy in the optimization of a loadout, this “grind” is simply the work required to build a better monster-slaying machine.

Visually, Sulfur is a triumph of art direction over raw graphical fidelity. The cell-shaded look is sharp and clean, and a 2D-adjacent game of this scope is light on hardware, making it accessible to modest rigs. The character designs are imaginative—disgusting, yet charming in their cartoonish simplicity. The atmospheric sound design deserves a specific nod; the ambient noise of the dungeons is built to create a sense of dread that the bright colors initially mask. When the music swells during a firefight, it’s punchy and driving, perfectly matching the frantic pace of the combat.

On Steam, the game is a natural fit for Mouse and Keyboard. The precision required for the high-intensity gunplay makes the mouse the superior tool for delivering “holy justice.” The UI, while stylized, is designed to handle inventory management well with drag-and-drop mechanics that read as intuitive. A fast, responsive frame rate is critical for a game where a single frame of lag can mean the difference between extraction and extinction, and the lightweight art style is well suited to delivering it.

Sulfur is a rare breed of shooter that manages to be both approachable and utterly ruthless. Perfect Random has navigated the fine line between frustration and reward, delivering a package that feels distinct in a crowded genre. It demands attention, punishes arrogance, and rewards ingenuity with some of the most creative weapon systems in recent memory. It’s a game about the terrible, wonderful anxiety of carrying a backpack full of gold through a room full of monsters. We rate it a clear recommendation for genre fans—provided they can stomach the grind and the occasional difficulty spike.