Infernal review (PC)

The predominant and somewhat unlikely appeal of Infernal is that it essentially tries nothing new. While such a statement is perhaps too rife with cynicism to begin what I can safely deem as a mostly positive review, I assure you I intend not to lead you astray. With such buzz in the games industry for the next big and better product, Infernal makes its bed amongst the classic run-and-gun but ultimately enchanting shooters.

Of course, run-and-gun alone breeds little admiration without solid gameplay mechanics, interesting storylines and a flashy graphic or two, but after having completed the game in a meagre but lengthy two or three sittings, Infernal's appeal is outwardly quantifiable. Pretty much.

Diabolical mission

You are Ryan Lennox, a once proud employee of Heaven's Etherlight secret agency, now turned minion of the anti-Christ after you discover the heavenly Gods are after your blood. Your job is to overthrow heaven's attempts at making the world forever good with a rather unorthodox mind-control device. The Devil, of all people, recognises the plight that would come about through such an act and sends you on your way to, 1) Ensure the perpetual balance between good and evil, and, 2) Pummel a good few Bible-Bashers along the way.

In order to do this you're given, or rather supplied with, a hefty amount of firepower. Naturally, since you're now the Devil's wingman, you are imbued with what he himself describes as “true power”. I'm not sure this statement is utterly without error since a term such as 'true power' harbours a certain omnipotent element, and you are anything but. However, you certainly do gain a few quaint abilities that maximize not only the body count, but the fun involved in racking it up.

Beam me up

Metropolis opted to throw the player straight into combat by excluding a tutorial to explain your devilish powers, and although this means the action starts pretty much as soon as you hit 'New Game', it also means a large part of it is plagued with mini pop-up tutorials upon gaining a new ability. This adds to the element of surprise, I guess, but it's also one hell of an atmosphere killer.

Nonetheless, the powers at your disposal add a substantial amount of diversity to the shooting and key finding. While most of the them arouse a good level of adrenaline when interlinked with the usual gunning, there are a couple that let the more 'supernatural' side of Infernal down. teleportation, being the first of two evils, entails the natural definition, but not only is it more of a physical projection than total relocation, it's also completely useless for anything but flipping switches. Equally as gimmicky is the telekinesis ability; most objects in-game – including enemies – can be targeted and moved, but, once again, its usage is shamefully minimal. Not only is the ability more like teleportation than the teleportation ability, it's also completely dilapidating for Lennox in that, when in telekinesis mode, he moves at a ludicrously slow rate, open for a quick and easy death.

Staying alive

ennox's lesser power of healing and 'searching' dead bodies becomes far too gimmicky in later parts of the game since you seem to be executing it every few steps. I'll admit it looks cool with a nice red glow as the body of a dead enemy floats up towards your hand, but I think Metropolis' agenda for adding it in was less than wholesome. Firstly, there are no health packs in Infernal so if you want to stay alive – which isn't too hard since Lennox can seemingly absorb a few thousand rounds before batting an eyelid – you must 'reap' from your enemies. In large fire-fights this becomes troublesome since, if already low on health, attempting to scrape longer before hitting reload by absorbing your enemies places you into the process's mini cut-scene leaving you clearly open for attack – and, of course, death.

Secondly, considering the game's already colossal use of resources to power its mighty aesthetic, I wonder if masquerading corpse-removal as an integral part of the game was, in fact, just to keep memory usage to a minimum. It certainly seems that way.

They're not all so sacrilegious, though. The first and most-used power is (un)fortunately the best of the bunch. While the left mouse button fires off a standard shot, the right utilizes your powers of the Abyss, delivering a super-powered round with the added aesthetic of a blazing right arm. Considering this power is practically the default, it's surprisingly superior in comparison to the competition. It's functional with any projectile weapon as well; Ninja stars, handguns and rifles are all available for demonic augmentation, and the feeling of destruction brought about is more than palpable. It's quite exhilarating to track a running enemy with a glowing Ninja star in-hand before burying them below a hail of perfectly reactionary crate, barrel and particle effect fragments.

Gritty combat

Combat in Infernal is admirably raw and gritty. You're kitted out with a nice variety of weapons, some delectable Hell-powers and a whole army of grunts upon which to demonstrate your proficiency, but amidst the cosmic balancing, there lies a rather regrettable void. Infernal is definitely fun, but once you arrive at the final boss, retrospection leaves you wondering what you've actually achieved throughout the experience. While abundant with Rambo-esque action, the game itself is rather empty. Endless key-finding and amateur puzzle-solving do little to compensate for the uninspiring AI. This in turn makes no challenge of the game except sections where you're completely out-numbered, and these are only a problem if you're running low on ammo or Mana. Part of Infernal's charm is the very thing that lets it down, and that makes it a tough one to rate.

The actual game-play, that is, though. All other elements of the game are practically flawless, and while this just sends you to another world when you're mid-action, it also screams reminiscent of a GFX card tech-demo. If your computer's got the hardware to hand, Infernal will use it and, I must say, to incredible lengths. With my AMD X2 4600+, GeForce 7950GX2 1gig and with 2gigs of RAM, I could run the game very comfortably with everything from textures to shadows to anti-aliasing at maximum. At this setting the game is nothing short of jaw-dropping, but in some scale-down tests I did, you're still in for a treat with a less powerful machine.

Impressing Newton

Most note-worthy are the lighting and physics since these really power the experience. If you happen to be in possession of an Ageia PhysX card, Infernal is one of the newest games to put it to use. Don't worry if you don't, though, since those without still get to benefit from a nifty little physics engine installed with the game to boost whatever you've got. With or without, Infernal has some of the best physics I've ever seen. The hit-detection and reaction mixed with the superb ragdolling effects make blowing up and shooting people more fun than ever, even just to see them flail about.

That which makes Infernal great is the very thing that holds it back from being amazing. The action is very well done, sometimes enthralling, but never progressing beyond the 'shoot him, find key, open door, shoot him...' formula makes the game just a tad too empty to proficiently prosper. The game is gorgeous and sports some truly masterful physics, but it's just way too repetitive and, for lack of a better word, simple to mingle amongst the big guys.