Published by: Playlogic / Eidos Interactive
Developed by:
Metropolis Software House
Release Date: July 2, 2009
Available on:
Xbox 360, PC
INTRO:
After getting tired of waiting for a really quality game to bring you folks,
I come armed with a review of Infernal: Hell’s Vengeance. I know the title
is tremendously original and just captures your attention from the get go,
but imagine the plot, as it too will simply blow your mind with its unique
twists and turns. You see, every thousand years, the Boss of Bosses is
blinded by a rare planetary alignment. Here, he can’t watch over the planet.
Now, the entire balance of good and evil is thrown off as Hell takes on
Heaven or something like that for the battle of our very SOULS! You play as
Ryan Lennow, who is essentially a rogue angel, and it is now your mission to
restore the balance. That sounds nothing like Hellblazer, I know.
GAMEPLAY:
I’m sorry as we begin, because I wish that I was reviewing another kickass
game. Honestly folks, it brings me no pleasure to rip on some of the crap
I’ve had to go through. I know at times we must suffer for our art, but
don’t let that make you believe that I hate video games and movies. I just
finished Infamous and enjoyed it, and recently watched the new Harry Potter
flick and it was great too! Unfortunately for us horror fans, a lot of the
stuff we’re dealt is trite and insulting, and this game is no exception.
A port of a PC game , Infernal is about as paint by numbers as it comes and is
unfortunately quite broken. Your aim is really herky-jerky and if you try to
mess with the settings, you’ll be sunk very quickly. Want to evade enemies?
Just double tap and you’ll do a weird invisible roll. This all sounds good
except that you do it all the time, especially when you don’t mean to, which
means you’ll be diving into bullets all the time.
You also get some infernal powers, which let you charge shots ,teleport and
just mess with dudes and take their stuff. The idea sounds good, but it is
executed very poorly and each one takes forever. These things are a clunky
addition to a game that seem more like an afterthought, and some of the powers
are awful, like Infernal Vision. Other powers are simply used as one-offs to
solve stupid puzzles.
The game’s execution is pretty
terrible too, as useless cutscenes show up ad nauseum at inopportune times and
just slow things down instead of providing proper development. Want health or
ammo? You have to use those stupid powers, which usually put you in harm’s way
while you fumble with the controls. There’s a cover system that often leaves
you vulnerable too, and you’ll stop using it after the first level or so.
Finally, my last gripe. How does a game made in 2009 not have an auto-save
feature!? If you don’t pause the game and save it, you’ll be starting all over
again. Every single time. Yeah, you’ll use up a ton of save slots to avoid
having to start this crap over again.
I’ve warned you- if you foolishly buy this and play for three hours and
die, it’s your own fault.
Gameplay: 3.5/10
GRAPHICS:
The graphics in this title are passable but nothing special, with a ton of
launch title-esque bloom lighting to just blow your mind. There’s also a
fair amount of slowdown, feeling like too much was attempted for this little
game to handle. Something about
this game feels unpolished and a little rough, you can see lots of lines and
some strange textures too.
Graphics: 5/10
AUDIO:
The sound isn’t very good either and the voice acting is very, very
repetitive. You’ll hear a lot of things over and over again until you want
to beat your head in. It doesn’t help at all that the script is terrible.
Everyone is pretty robotic, especially the NPC bad guys. Everything else is
quite run of the mill.
Audio: 5/10
FINAL VERDICT:
Sorry, this game doesn’t cut it at all. The plot is hackneyed, the script is
brutal, the acting is bad, the graphics are sub-par, the control is truly
wonky and the game has no autosave. I can’t recommend it to you, and I look
forward to bringing you the next game I have to review (insert title here),
which will almost unequivocally be better than this garbage.
Final Score:
4/10
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