In Infernal you take on the role of Ryan Lennox, an ex-angel
banished to earth in mortal form. Ryan has a tendency to be just too much
of a rebel for the Heaven crew. Now though, he has bigger problems -- his
former employers are trying to kill him. So I know what you're thinking:
“If he was an angel and his former “employers” are trying to kill him,
then....” Right. If you can get past that part of the game's premise, it
can be enjoyable. It's the age-old basic idea of two opposing factions. In
the game these are Ether-Light, the agency of good and Abyss, the agency
of, well, not so good.
Story
Our story opens in a glitzy, downtown night club. Ryan is speaking to
Barbara, an Ether-Light agent and possible unrequited love interest, on
the disadvantages of being human. In the midst of their small talk
helicopters suddenly appear over the night club (which conveniently has a
glass roof so you can easily spot helicopters) and Ryan's cell phone
rings. The caller informs Ryan they should meet at a cemetery IF Ryan
survives. To top off the evening, lovely Barbara pulls out a gun and aims
it squarely at Ryan (the NRA card in her wallet should have been a dead
give away before the date). There is a pause as Ryan stares in shock at
Barbara, who blurts out: “I'm sorry Ryan, now get out of here!” If you're
smart you'll take her advice because there are a whole lot of gun-toting
Ether-Light soldiers (identified by the glowing blue logo on their
uniforms that looks strikingly similar to the new U.S. Air Force symbol)
who appear from literally everywhere and try their hardest to shorten your
earthly existence.
This first segment is basic training for the game. As you run,
attempting to avoid the bullets of your aggressors, various hints will pop
up containing directions on game control and features. You'll also get
your first introduction to some of the game’s odd dialog as the
helicopters' loudspeakers blare out: “Put your gun down and you might just
live!” all the while multiple opponents are happily unloading various fire
arms into your now mortal body. Needless to say, don't listen to them,
keep shooting and get to your destination.
Once at the cemetery you are introduced to the only character in the
game with some real personality -- Lucius Black, head of the Abyss agency.
He wants you to become an Abyss agent and, unfortunately, this seems to be
your only chance for survival. Your goal will be to recover documents or
some piece of unknown (but apparently important) technology, which has
been developed by the brilliant, eccentric scientist Dr. Wolfe for the
Ether-Light agency. The advantages found in working with Abyss are the
powers you are given, as such you agree to take on the task.
So, ex-angel turns to fallen angel....
The remainder of the game takes place in a variety of locations and
sets you up with a nice, albeit basic, selection of weapons and gear. The
Infernal powers you are granted (more about those later), on the other
hand, are very cool -- or hot, depending on how you look at them. The
goals for each location or “Act” are clearly stated by the temporary text
interface that appears when needed. Also, Lucius Black stays in constant
contact with you through a compact headset. Apparently, Hell is now in the
new digitally-enhanced cell coverage regions. The actions needed to get to
each goal are again straightforward; shoot anything in your way, use your
cool new powers to get through unusual situations and generally leave a
little chaos in your wake.
Game Play and Controls
One feature I'm glad the game lacked was the now common check point
save system. You have the ability to save as needed in up to ten slots.
There are also quicksave (F5) and quickload (F9) functions available as
well as autosaves just prior to the location changes.
Battle and controls are, for the most part, very straightforward. The (W,A,S,D)
keys are for movement with a double-hit on the same keys for a quick roll
in the respective direction (which also turns you invisible while you
roll, handy.) The mouse is used for directional changes of view. A mouse
left click is your fire button and a right click engages one of your other
cool (or hot) powers, the Infernal shot. This power granted by Mr. Black
is the ability to infuse your weapons shots with Infernal mana. So like
many RPG's (role-playing games) you have a mana bar that decreases as you
use your various Infernal powers. This works with all the weapons, which
range from hand guns, assault rifles, and submachine guns to beam weapons.
Personally, I found that the handgun and assault rifles packed the biggest
punch with the Infernal shot; the others just seemed a waste of mana.
The scroll wheel on the mouse allows you to switch between weapons.
It's not that intuitive at first, but you just need to remember which
silhouette represents which gun in the dynamic on-screen weapons
inventory. Hitting the (Ctrl) key will switch the scroll-wheel function
to your other item inventory which includes grenades, special binoculars
and a neat gadget that gives you the ability to move large objects from
one place to another. This includes opponents, dead or alive. Those
inventory items are activated by the (F) key and, in the case of the
teleport/telekinetic device, the left mouse button is used to select, hold
and release the object or person you want to move. Just remember to look
at the lower right hand corner to see what item you have engaged before
hitting the key. There were several times in the heat of battle that I had
grenades already selected and assumed my teleport/telekinetic device was
active. This caused my character to toss a grenade at the objects I wanted
to move. These were only a few feet away and, well, since there is an
active physics engine loaded with the game, the grenade did a nice
bouncing reverse arch, only to land squarely at my character’s feet with a
resulting explosion and associated sudden decrease in health points.
Another cool power is teleportation, though not in the Star Trek sense.
Teleportation lets you temporarily move a fair distance past barriers to
accomplish a specific goal (such as disabling a security monitor),
allowing you to pass through to your objective. The power is activated by
hitting the (Q) key and then using the mouse to aim and the left mouse
button to select the spot to which you wish to teleport. Like the Infernal
shot, teleporting uses mana. Your mana will automatically recharge if you
are in proximity to a location that is compatible with your Infernal
powers. If you are close to places associated with the Ether-Light -- such
as churches, cathedrals or well lit areas -- your mana drains. You can
replenish your mana by killing your opponents. You can also replenish your
health by draining your opponents’ souls after they are down and, at the
same time, taking their weapons and ammunition. Doesn't sound pleasant,
but remember -- you're no angel.
Puzzles
In a few areas you are faced with some basic logic puzzles that you
need to solve in order to get from point A to point B. These are usually
solved either through the use of your teleporting ability, the
telekinetic/teleport gadget, shooting or climbing. There really isn't
much jumping involved at all in the game. None of the puzzles should prove
to be too challenging, but in a few cases they will have you running
around for a bit, wondering: “How the heck do I get in (or out) of this
place”?
Graphics
Slick. That is the word that best describes the developers’ product in
this case. If you have a gaming PC that can handle the game at the maximum
settings, you're in for a treat. I think the minimum requirements for the
game are well underestimated and you should opt for those closer to the
recommended. The graphics are very well done, game play and character
movement is smooth and virtually without glitches -- with one minor,
albeit annoying, exception. One of the movement features of your character
is the ability to “stick” to a wall. This means that your character does
the typical “back against the wall peep around the corner” movement seen
in so many action movies. This is cool, but in some cases he gets stuck in
a minor time warp for a few seconds, moving at a reduced rate until far
enough away from the object. In that second or two you can take a good
deal of damage, since opponents tend to be both very good and aggressive
shots.
The locations of the game are varied; from a Monastery of cloistered
and very, very well armed monks to an aircraft carrier. Considering how
slick and smooth the graphics are, I personally wish the developers would
have put more imagination into the locations. While well done, many lack
any real visual “bang” that would separate them from a movie set. You run
through hallways, up and down ramps, over fences and open spaces that have
rather spartan detail. The premise of the game could have opened up a
number of unusual and imaginative locations, but we are given the like of
an abandoned steel mill and rail yard.
Sound, Voice Acting, Music
Acceptable. The theme music is a kind of heavy metal James Bond sound,
which I liked. It's not too obtrusive, but heavy enough to add to the
somewhat edgy style of the game, and it takes fairly good advantage of a
multi-channel sound system. Sound effects are equally good, with
convincing footsteps, object movement sounds, gunfire and explosions.
Voice acting by the main character and Lucius Black is well done, although
the script itself can be a little mundane. Ryan lacks any real charisma,
playing your basic smart-mouthed bad boy most of the time. The voiceovers
you hear on your opponents’ radios range from battle banter to laughable
quotes that (I think) might be the result of a translation barrier. A
common exchange you will hear during the game:
Security Patrol: “The
enemy is in the area.”
Response over radio:
“Shoot him dead, over and out!”
That's about as deep as it gets, so don't expect any revelations or
epiphanies during battle. There is also a point during the game where your
character pairs up with Barbara. Her constant reminders about your lack of
time become grating after awhile, reminiscent of Bart and Lisa Simpson’s
whining: “Are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet, are we
there yet!” until you reach the point where you begin to think about
collecting one more soul for your shelf, if the game would only let you.
Summary and Conclusion
This game received mediocre reviews, mostly, I think, due to its very
old-school style. If you can get by the odd premise, the
less-than-striking settings and the sometimes mundane banter, you can have
a real blast with Infernal. It sets up difficult enough challenges
that your average gamer will need to replay the boss showdowns to get
through them, but not so much as to make you throw up your hands in
frustration. It's basically a linear shoot-‘em-up romp that gives you a
chance to be bad for a time. It doesn't have much “re-playability” (what a
word!), but I would still recommend it, especially for the reasonable
price for which it can be found at some online game dealers. Don't look
to be blown away; just have some good shooter fun.
Overall Rating: B-
Game Requirements (The truth is somewhere in between)
Minimum:
Operating Systems: Windows
2000, XP, Vista (admin rights required)
CPU: Pentium 4 1.7GHz or
equivalent
Hard Drive: 2GB Free Disk Space
Ram: 512MB
Graphic Cards: Supporting Pixel
Shader 2.0 -Nvidia GeForce 5960/ATI Radeon 9600 or better
Recommended:
Ram: 1GB
CPU: Dual Core 3.0 GHz
Graphics Card: Pixel Shader 3.0
Compatible
Sound: Sound Blaster X-Fi
Series
Gaming Machine Used (PC):
Custom Build – Asus 680i SLI
Main Board, 4GB DDR2 800, 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, Wester Digital Raptor
150GB HDD, two XFX 7900GT video cards in SLI, Lite-On 16X DVD-Rom Drive,
Logitech 5.1 Surround Sound through a Creative X-Fi Platinum Sound Card.
Operating System: XP
Professional 32Bit
Game Settings
Resolution: 1680 x 1050 (4x3
perspective on a wide screen monitor)
2x Anti aliasing
All other graphics settings at
maximum
Difficulty: Medium (selections
available are Easy, Medium and Difficult)
