Infernal
Posted October 9, 2007
Developed by Metropolis Software and released by Edios, Infernal is a third person shooter viewed from the perspective of Ryan Lennox, a fallen angel turned mercenary for the forces of evil. The Devil recruited Lennox to take down EtherLight, an organization run by Heaven that’s creating a mysterious device designed to suck the willpower out of humanity. While the premise ultimately appears promising, the execution of the presentation leaves much to be desired.
Ever start watching an action movie in right smack in the middle? That’s exactly the feeling that encompasses the player when Infernal cranks up. I wondered around in a daze for the first few levels waiting for the narrative to unfold. Exposition is a lost cause and the cut scenes, while dripping with style, are tremendously lacking in substance. Additionally, the characters exude stereotypical behavior and the dialogue is just plain laughable. For a game that relies so heavily on mid-level movies, I’m amazed some of the cut scenes made it into the final code.
Gameplay
Besides the intro level, there are five missions to complete in the single player campaign. Missions are broken into smaller sections, with the occasional mini-boss shootout in the middle of the main mission. The obvious goal is to kill everyone and everything in your path, typically with a non-stop stream of bullets. On the way, Lennox will be forced to interact with various types of objects to pass through certain areas. Oddly, the developer didn’t include any mini-games to hack computers or disable security cameras.
The enemy AI is ridiculously awful, especially when dealing with cover. In some cases, the enemy will stand out in plain sight 2 feet away and allow the player to shoot them. They make no attempts to move out of the way. In other cases, enemies use nearby cover to hide behind. Sadly, peeking out to shoot is more like taking 2 seconds to move into a shooting stance before firing. While the boss AI is a bit more involving, they also suffer from some of the same problems that plague the foot soldiers.
The weapons included in Infernal are ho-hum, standard issue firearms. Pistols, machine-guns, flame-throwers, sniper riles, and rocket launchers can all be found among the various enemies. You can also find a few types of small explosives such as grenades and motion detection / radio controlled bombs. But the real fun occurs when you get access to the hellish soul powers.
The soul powers, awarded by Satan, offer extraordinary abilities for Lennox to incorporate into this repertoire. He starts you off with a bit of fire and works your way up to teleportation / levitation. Levitation is particularly entertaining, especially when taking out enemies with nearby objects. It’s great for the rare moments when the player runs out of ammo. Additionally, you recharge all of these powers by sucking the souls from nearby downed enemies.
One of the main problems with soul sucking / looting bodies is that it takes far too long. A circular meter pops up on the screen after hitting the action button near a body and it takes a few seconds to complete the search. Additionally, the design requires the player to look at the body directly for access. The clunky interface holds the player back in most cases and becomes immediately boring after the first intro level.
Graphics
The visual quality of Infernal is definitely the tip-top aspect of this release. The lighting effects are especially eye-catching and the explosions are brilliant. The level environments are very diverse and the textures are heavily detailed. The character models are expertly crafted and change nearly every level. The main downside is that Infernal requires a hefty machine to push a high resolution. The frame rate can suffer dramatically on inferior hardware. Also, the camera angles are often skewed when teleporting or even walking around.
Audio
The voiceovers aren’t necessarily low quality as it’s the writing that makes the delivery seem corny. Lennox has a decent voice actor, which occasionally sells the one-liners. The sound effects are fairly standard and wholly uninteresting as gunfire sounds far to similar between weapons. The musical score is actually pretty solid and fits the religious nature of the title.
Overall
Infernal is a speedy single player experience that’s over in about 5 to 7 hours. Ironically, I was excited to complete the title quickly to end the lackluster, repetitive gameplay that plagued Infernal. The horrific enemy A.I. and the sub-par fighting mechanics destroy any entertainment value that existed in Infernal. Add in the absence of a multi-player mode and you have a title not worth buying. Don’t waste your time on Infernal, just leave it to collect dust on the store shelf.
Ever start watching an action movie in right smack in the middle? That’s exactly the feeling that encompasses the player when Infernal cranks up. I wondered around in a daze for the first few levels waiting for the narrative to unfold. Exposition is a lost cause and the cut scenes, while dripping with style, are tremendously lacking in substance. Additionally, the characters exude stereotypical behavior and the dialogue is just plain laughable. For a game that relies so heavily on mid-level movies, I’m amazed some of the cut scenes made it into the final code.
Gameplay
Besides the intro level, there are five missions to complete in the single player campaign. Missions are broken into smaller sections, with the occasional mini-boss shootout in the middle of the main mission. The obvious goal is to kill everyone and everything in your path, typically with a non-stop stream of bullets. On the way, Lennox will be forced to interact with various types of objects to pass through certain areas. Oddly, the developer didn’t include any mini-games to hack computers or disable security cameras.
The enemy AI is ridiculously awful, especially when dealing with cover. In some cases, the enemy will stand out in plain sight 2 feet away and allow the player to shoot them. They make no attempts to move out of the way. In other cases, enemies use nearby cover to hide behind. Sadly, peeking out to shoot is more like taking 2 seconds to move into a shooting stance before firing. While the boss AI is a bit more involving, they also suffer from some of the same problems that plague the foot soldiers.
The weapons included in Infernal are ho-hum, standard issue firearms. Pistols, machine-guns, flame-throwers, sniper riles, and rocket launchers can all be found among the various enemies. You can also find a few types of small explosives such as grenades and motion detection / radio controlled bombs. But the real fun occurs when you get access to the hellish soul powers.
The soul powers, awarded by Satan, offer extraordinary abilities for Lennox to incorporate into this repertoire. He starts you off with a bit of fire and works your way up to teleportation / levitation. Levitation is particularly entertaining, especially when taking out enemies with nearby objects. It’s great for the rare moments when the player runs out of ammo. Additionally, you recharge all of these powers by sucking the souls from nearby downed enemies.
One of the main problems with soul sucking / looting bodies is that it takes far too long. A circular meter pops up on the screen after hitting the action button near a body and it takes a few seconds to complete the search. Additionally, the design requires the player to look at the body directly for access. The clunky interface holds the player back in most cases and becomes immediately boring after the first intro level.
Graphics
The visual quality of Infernal is definitely the tip-top aspect of this release. The lighting effects are especially eye-catching and the explosions are brilliant. The level environments are very diverse and the textures are heavily detailed. The character models are expertly crafted and change nearly every level. The main downside is that Infernal requires a hefty machine to push a high resolution. The frame rate can suffer dramatically on inferior hardware. Also, the camera angles are often skewed when teleporting or even walking around.
Audio
The voiceovers aren’t necessarily low quality as it’s the writing that makes the delivery seem corny. Lennox has a decent voice actor, which occasionally sells the one-liners. The sound effects are fairly standard and wholly uninteresting as gunfire sounds far to similar between weapons. The musical score is actually pretty solid and fits the religious nature of the title.
Overall
Infernal is a speedy single player experience that’s over in about 5 to 7 hours. Ironically, I was excited to complete the title quickly to end the lackluster, repetitive gameplay that plagued Infernal. The horrific enemy A.I. and the sub-par fighting mechanics destroy any entertainment value that existed in Infernal. Add in the absence of a multi-player mode and you have a title not worth buying. Don’t waste your time on Infernal, just leave it to collect dust on the store shelf.