Set in the more arcane period of World War II, the Nazis are back to their usual thing. Not playing with Tiki torches and handing out polo shirts but bringing about world domination with experimental tech and some more special powers. You play as the children and friends of Alistair Sterling, an engineer, and member of a group post WW1 that included scientist Hans Kammler to work on a mysterious device powered by Geiststoff. Geiststoff was supposed to give the war-torn Europe in ruin a chance to rebuild with unlimited energy. It failed in a freak accident and the group disbanded, leading Kammler to turn to the only man who embraced the arcane.

Sumerian Six is very pulpy, from its head, where it has drawn a little mustache of a historical figure, to its very bottom with its art style which at a distance looks normal but up close looks like a graphic novel. If you’ve played a Mimimi Games title before, you’ll be at home with Artificer and Devolver Digital’s new release. Right down to the somewhat awkward controls and repeated chat as you stab your way through the high castle and beyond trying to take down Kammler and the Nazis in this colorful globe-trotting adventure.

To start you control Alistair’s two kids, his son Sid adopted from the Hashemite Kingdom of/Mandatory Iraq as well as his biological daughter Isabella. Eventually, you’ll recreate the gang Kammler and such were part of with Rosa, Wojtek, Alistair himself, and Siegfried Von Adelsberg. Each has a set of special skills you can use to distract, kill, and stealth around Sergeant Schultz and his tunnel-visioned friends. All in a highly stylized stealth action, very true to the pulp fiction of the era itself without losing the qualities that make it fun.

Sumerian Six isn’t very original in the broad strokes: The Nazis have been promised something by a mad scientist, the magic comes from the Africa/Arabian region, and the heroes must send the boche into a hole, only to resurface 70 years later. Going in, you know roughly what’s going on. However, once you’ve figured out the controls using WASDFGHC and almost everything else for your quick actions, the gameplay with certain characters becomes quite fun. Rosa is a bit of a scientist herself and has created a syringe full of body-dissolving acid and something called a “Human Bomb;” to quote Michelle Gomez that one time, “You’re my favorite.”

As I said, starting off 0.6 of a mile from the bridge over the L93, I think the balance of powers isn’t handled perfectly. Sid’s special power at the start is his ability to “Hitchhike,” which means he can possess people but he can’t control them. Compare this with Rosa’s dissolving acid, stunning link, dispersal gas, and human bombs, I used her far more because you can plant a bomb in bodies that haven’t been destroyed. Comparably Sid’s (and others) gun has a limited amount of bullets, is of course loud, and you need to be within a certain range. Call me a psycho, I’d rather make Nazis a bunch of unwitting suicide bombers.

Where Sumerian Six works well at establishing itself is when you get deeper into the story and the world. Sid is constantly looking for his dad’s approval but wants to protect his sister despite their bickering, each of the group has a sense of who they are separate from each other but with powers that complement one another, and the overall world building around the threat of Geiststoff. There are comparisons you could make to the Wolfenstein series of course, but I’d argue that’s more in the design of the Geiststoff-powered Panzerwolf, Geist, and the threat around them.

Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think it is outright said that all of the powers come from the original Geiststoff experiment and subsequent testing. I’ve said it a couple of times now, Sumerian Six is a pulpy action flick with Nazis, so if you look too deep into it there will be cracks; Izzy and Sid’s powers came from what exactly? However, very little of that matters, to begin with, at least to the overarching portion of the world and such, it is a simple good vs evil, interpersonal relationships bubbling up, and romp of a good action-based time.

The reason I’m so up on the storytelling of Sumerian Six in the first place is that it is doing what I say to do all the time. It is the thing Dark Souls also does, for those that always need that carrot dangled in front of them. The world tells the story and sometimes you’ll get actual conversations while you are doing things on missions. The occasional stylized cutscenes explore a bit more of the story, but it doesn’t stop gameplay every few moments. Nor is it overly long, with writing that desperately wants to tell you just how much research the writers did on Mesopotamia.

There is the occasional in-engine cutscene from that isometric view that mostly establishes a new character or a new level, and for the most part, everything is done through the gameplay. Though when introducing characters there is that Guy Ritchie introduction thing that Borderlands is known for in gaming. The only gripe I have about that as it introduces new heroes and villains alike is the design that puts an extra rectangle just off from the square behind the characters. It only “annoys” me because it seems like a box for some info on the characters being introduced but isn’t.

I’ll admit that I did run into a few bugs. I don’t think they were anything too game-breaking, but there was a point where you are introduced to the alarm system being increased in difficulty. Basically, if an alarm sounds within a certain area around a device, more Geiststoff-powered Nazis show up to have a chat, but if you kill it they won’t appear anymore. Sounds great. One of the first instances of coming across one of them, something else broke after breaking the device, and every time an alarm went off the increased difficulty Nazis would still appear.

On the less serious and more funny side, I’ve seen Nazis T-posing about 50 years too soon as well as the Fast Forward button sticking from time to time. Though on a technical level, those aren’t important, performance is. The recommended specs are a GTX 1080, 8GB of RAM, and an i7 (or equivalent), and for the most part as far as I understand the PC I’ve reviewed on either equals or exceeds these specs. Running everything (except motion blur) on ultra at 1080P I’m mostly getting 60FPS, though it is worth noting that I’m also using DLSS on performance mode and still seeing an occasional dip to the 40s. Menus and cutscenes are seemingly locked to 30.

Typically I abhor DLSS because it makes things look odd, similar to interlacing/artifacting in some cases. I’m seeing that a lot less and the only notable instance I’ve spotted was the marker showing where characters will stand if you click where your mouse is currently placed. Perfectly still, it looks fine, but when moving the mouse around or rotating the camera, it makes the marker look a little blurry or jittery. Otherwise, this use of DLSS doesn’t affect the graphical style or the quality as I’ve seen with other titles.

The truth is, Sumerian Six is simple isometric stealth fun distilled into a syringe and injected into your eyeballs. Sure, you’ll Quick Save like a coke fiend with paranoia, but that’s standard when you are crap and have trouble figuring out the puzzle in front of you. That’s all Sumerian Six is, a puzzle game where you can use your bear-man to devour or mad scientist woman to make Nazis unknowing suicide bombers. Maybe sometimes you’ll use Alistair Sterling’s jump pads or Siegfried’s “Soul Bolt,” which I thought he only used on Roy.

Ultimately, Sumerian Six is one of the stand-out games of the year for me, which is sadly a backhanded comment on the year on the whole in my opinion. Even among the visually interesting or mechanically varied titles I’ve played this year, Artificer proves as it did with Showgunners that the studio can make fun, simple isometric titles with over-the-top cartoonish violence. Topped off with a world built from the tales of Gilgamesh and the entire Sumerian world at the time, all to create this arcane obsession that the Nazis had. It is simply delightful if you ignore the screams of Nazi men bursting like balloons filled with Acid.

A PC review copy of Sumerian Six was provided by Devolver Digital for this review.

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Sumerian Six (PC) - Review

$29.99

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• "Human Bomb" nuff said.
• A fun, arcane-filled, Nazi killing romp.
• The Fast Forward button is a great addition.

Cons

• Controls can feel a little clunky to get used to.
• Minor performance dips.