| Infected review |
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The last thing you'd want over the Christmas period is a nasty infection; that'd be guaranteed to put a dampener on your festive cheer. But oddly enough, it's what Majesco and Planet Moon Studios have decided to give PSP players with their latest title.
Set in New York two weeks before Christmas, instead of the typical festive bout of diarrhoea and vomiting brought on from undercooked turkey, the sickness running rampant is causing those infected to become flesh-hungry zombies. While that would certainly make the formulaic ritual of Christmas Day dinner far more interesting, no person in their right mind would want to swap places with the turkey crown on the dinner table.
Bitten during the initial feeding frenzy is one Officer Stevens, a member of New York's finest. However instead of developing an insatiable taste for all things human, it's discovered that Stevens is somehow naturally immune to the effects of the outbreak. Not only that but the officer's blood is now deadly to those infected, causing them to literally explode on contact with it. In light of conventional weapons being completely ineffective against the hungry horde, Stevens is scooped up by the boffins in the government's Bio-Containment unit and kitted out with a special weapon that siphons blood straight into an arm-mounted gun, in the process becoming the only weapon available for stemming the wave of carnage.
Which is a pretty apt term for describing the playing experience that Infected throws upon the player as limbs, bones, and blood fly in every direction. It's clear quite quickly that the designers have gone all out to obtain the game's Mature rating. There's more blood than on a slaughterman's apron at the end of a hard day's graft and more than enough frivolous use of bad language to make even the most curse-hardened individual take note (even inserting the F-word into the high-scoring combo tags that take up central position on the screen). That said, Infected certainly doesn't take its subject matter or indeed itself, too seriously – even the manual adopts a "yes, this is all incredibly silly but just accept it" approach.
The game is laced with cruel humour, usually through the cutscenes or the briefings given by the head scientist of the Bio-Containment Unit and the Chief of Police. However the majority of the gags do border on bad taste. Witness, for example, the opening cutscene where a small child in a wheelchair is mercilessly savaged for comedy effect by a number of the infected, the mayor who has his innards removed via his backside (complete with comedy farting sound effect) or countless other occasions where those with disabilities are savagely lampooned. Infected revels in its gore and general bad taste, making no apologies for what it sets out to do (and achieves) with real zeal. The extremity of the humour will certainly either repulse or compel, depending on the individual playing. The same can be said for the thrash metal music that accompanies the game, featuring eardrum-pummelling tracks by artists such as Fear Factory, Ill Niño and Slipknot (who also appear as unlockable playable characters in the game). While fitting with the whole atmosphere that Planet Moon Studios seem to have been aiming for, it will certainly deter and bash the senses of those who cannot stomach such a strong taste in music and may leave a large number of people turning it down (or even turning the PSP off).
Each level places the player in a certain part of New York ranging from Central Park to Greenwich Village with a set of objectives such as defending citizens, rounding up the uninfected and escorting them to Evac choppers, or simply clearing the area of all the Infected. In anything else but the simple sweep and destroy missions, the use of the radar is essential. In fact until players learn to make use of it, defending or collecting up civilians is a nigh-on impossible task. There is also a full map available at the press of the left shoulder button, but this is accessed in real time meaning there is no space for the player to sit and contemplate their plan of attack or best route forward (although it does mean they can race through the level in the map view to reach an objective quickly).
The lack of varied objectives in the game also means the whole thing feels repetitive for the game's thirty-plus levels. For the most part the later levels all seem to consist of the "rescue and evac civilians" missions which prove to be the easiest. The time limits/objectives in some of the others are quite tight, meaning there is a small challenge in progressing. Aside from those initially available, successive levels need to be unlocked by players meeting certain criteria (depending on the type of mission for that level) and obtaining medals of Gold, Silver or Bronze. Along with the medals comes hazard pay, used to buy weapon upgrades and extra health, speed or even more avatars which can be customised with varying accessories or skin shades.
Players have two types of weapons to master. Use of the pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, cannon and three different types of grenades is necessary to weaken the Infected sufficiently until the aura around them turns from yellow to red. Once this is done they are ripe for harvesting with the blood serum gun, causing bits of them to shower all over the screen. Bonus points are awarded for chaining zombie-splatting kills together, indicated by a red tether linking any weakened creatures standing next to one another. By firing at one of the infected links in the chain, a bloody domino effect can be set off which sends the points score (and meaty chunks) soaring, literally covering the screen with blood.
As the Infected are especially nimble (ala 28 Days Later), players will often find themselves surrounded by a large number of adversaries. While there is a targeting button to help lock on, this is not as accurate as it should be. Often players will find themselves cycling through targets frantically to catch the right one and this is particularly bothersome when surrounded by the large swarms of enemies encountered later on, or even just trying to set off a chain reaction. The Infected's ability to lob balls of hazardous yellow puss at the player (or even the more advanced creatures on later levels carrying rocket launchers) also make it a necessity to keep moving, with the game's targeting system often hampering things.
Determined to make use of the handheld's online capabilities Infected also has a healthy multiplayer system that allows players to battle in either Adhoc or Infrastructure games. Alongside standard deathmatch and team deathmatch, in Mad Cow Mode players are also afforded the opportunity to become a cow (the explanation for this bovine-related transformation again being to just simply accept it), with points being awarded for the amount of time survived before being blown into ragged cuts of beef by opponents.
Perhaps most interesting of all, winning in multiplayer causes you to 'infect' the PSP of defeated opponents, changing their avatar into your own (or vice versa if they get the best of you). Infecting other players' systems can only be reversed by transferring the infection on to three other players by defeating them in multiplayer, or by clearing three consecutive missions in the single-player campaign. The game also allows you to connect to the Internet and track the spread of your infection, seeing how well your own particular brand of contaminant is doing. It's certainly a novel addition with the kudos of spreading yourself around the PSP community in a bid to become the most virulent being quite satisfying. Sadly at the moment this does seem to be quarantined by the fact that there aren't many people playing online, although this will hopefully rise as the game gets released in more territories.
Bearing in mind the ethos of Sony's handheld unit is all about offering short bursts of portable gaming, Infected could be your ideal title for compact blood-soaked chunks of gory shooting fun. However those who are not immediately drawn to it or enamoured with its subject matter will doubtless find very little to sway their mind towards purchasing or maintain their interest, with Infected's repetitive nature and lack of longevity doing little in the way of making it a standout title.
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System: Sony PlayStation Portable
Genre: Action
Developer: Planet Moon Studios
Publisher: Majesco
Players: 1-8
Version: United States
Reviewed: Jan 2006
Writer: Jamie Davies
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Pros:
- Fun in short stints
- Infecting others over multiplayer is novel
- The humour will appeal to some...
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Cons:
- ...but not to others
- Targeting system can be a pain
- Repetitive missions
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Infected Video: 2.3MB
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