It's nearly inconceivable to find anything passable among the trash that rages throughout the repetitive adventure.
WHAT'S WRONG - lusterless action; boring and cliche storyline; depleted potential for powers; dreadful enemy A.I.; textures and environments poorly done; voice acting is laughable; no multiplayer; zero replayability
Working for the dark side isn't all that bad according to Infernal. In the conflict between good and evil, being on the evil side can offer something fresh and tempting. Not very many people enlist for evil, but perhaps Infernal wants to change that. Ironically, a decent definition of Infernal is "extremely evil and cruel". How is it ironic you say? Playing this game is extremely evil and cruel. Having simple access to this game is extremely evil and cruel. While the box art looks like the game can be nothing but just senseless fun, I would agree to this statement if you took out the fun part, as Infernal is anything but fun, and only calling it senseless is sufficient enough.
Infernal has you guiding Ryan Lennox, a hell-bent man once an acquaintance for Everlight (the good guys), but now working for the likes of evil after Everlight booted him out . Mr. Lennox is then offered a deal by Satan himself, and with that, Lennox gains hellish powers that will accompany him. Everlight wants to get rid of Lennox once and for all, but Lennox decides he won't be going down without a fight, and swears revenge on Everlight and everything associated with it. If anything, the good versus evil storyline has been done many times before and there is no need to go through another storyline like that. Usually, you control the forces of good, but in Infernal, it's the bad side that you're on. That still doesn't help the cliche storyline of good and evil, and in the end the story is just a bore.
Alongside your powers are your guns. Infernal consists more of shooting rather than using your powers. As far as your arsenal is concerned, you have the usual Assault Rifle, Dual Pistols and Sniper Rifle, along with different types of weapons such as the Melter, Flamethrower and a Heavy Beam Gun. Sadly, more than half the weapons available are either inaccurate or weak. Whether it is to spice up the challenge is beyond me, but even the weapons that are supposed to be powerful, such as the Assault Rifle, completely suck and are otherwise useless. Later on in the game you do get at least some more weapons with potential. Surprisingly, out of all the weapons in the game, there is no shotgun or anything similar to it. It would of been a decent idea considering the action in the game, but then again, the people at Metropolis would of most likely made it too inaccurate or too weak.
After killing your enemies, you're not finished. You have the ability to search their bodies and devour their souls. Devouring souls will net you health, weapons and ammo. Unfortunately, there is a process to this which proves to be blatantly annoying. The effect of it is okay, but it's not okay if you have to keep using it every time you want health or ammo, and that is exactly what you have to go through. All of this rolls up into one big chore that you have to constantly continue doing, and you have no other choice but to do so if you plan to get anywhere further. You also receive items alongside health and ammo, and with these items, usually keycards, you can continue on. Sure, it may have worked with DOOM back in the day, but as for the present, searching for keycard after keycard is tedious in the best sense of the word.
The A.I. happens to be a mix of terrible and tantalization. At times, the enemy will pinpoint where you are exactly, and will begin firing as soon as you leave your position. Even with the added stealth aspects in the game, they are completely otiose as they know where you are. Despite using your weak weapons, the enemy doesn't tend to resist your attack and just opts to die. There is no need to flank as you can handle the enemy in any position. As you progress through the game, enemies will only be more durable and will come in larger numbers, and that's just about it. Boss fights are incredibly boring, simply because they are just regular enemies with a lot more health. All you need to do is shoot, retreat and regain your mana, then continue on. I like to think of boss fights being exciting and enthralling, but Infernal's boss fights shut me up real good.
Infernal believes that it has strong action to go along with a fun experience. This is where the experiment goes horribly wrong. No, it is not a fast-paced game because when you have to devour souls to gain health and ammo, which takes several seconds for each body, that effaces the fast-paced action. You are left with a few moments of lame action, followed by a few minutes of devouring the souls to gain what you need. All this comes up to pointless action, and also a blatant lie from Metropolis who went on to claim that Infernal was a quick paced action game. With that, here is my response: Try again.
Infernal may look like good eye candy, but if you rip it apart to the bone, we have a different observation. The physics are weak, especially for this type of game. Bodies fall sloppily, and the destruction of different objects all perform in the same fashion. Throughout the game, you'll be running through the same looking corridors with the same looking textures. Not only that, but even the textures are poorly done and look completely awful. Ryan Lennox himself looks misplaced, and everybody else look no different. Your enemies for the most part look the same. Just like the corridors, the environments don't have anything going for it, so don't expect much flavor that hasn't already been seen. However, I can say one good thing about the graphics. The sight of Ryan devouring a soul looks cool, but I can go right back on the offensive, since that sight gets old quick when you keep doing it.
The audio that you get out of Infernal is pathetic at best. The worst part of it all? While the music and sound effects are all equally bad, the voice acting digs its own grave into the abyss of atrociousness. Whoever voiced Ryan Lennox seemed like a bored fellow with a boring voice. Add that to the cheesy and repetitive lines and you have yourself a disgusting result. When a fight breaks out, you begin to hear some crappy attempt at rock that becomes irritating as you progress. Enemies yell at you, using the same lines, and that becomes irritating as well. Sound effects become dull and soon enough the game just rehashes them instead of creating new ones. It's hard to go beyond laziness, but Infernal's audio proves me wrong yet again.
Infernal does not have any multiplayer, which could of alleviated the already terrible game a bit. Multiplayer could have worked with Infernal if tweaked right, but we can only speculate. It will take you roughly 5 to 7 hours to complete the game, and I can guarantee you that there will be nothing more to do once you're done. Only five levels are available from beginning to end, which isn't a lot to begin with. The powers available will have their novelty worn off after beating the game, and quite simply, you really aren't able to do anything else but replay the game. Anyone with a right of mind wouldn't bother replaying the game, as it's an accomplished mess. Heck, it may be hard to get through the game the first time through. ===========================================================
Infernal wants you to believe that it is fast-paced, non-stop action, but there are many instances where that statement can be adjusted to something more fitting. Like stated earlier, the game is not senseless fun, but just overall senseless. Infernal is hammered with dull action, a cliche storyline, tedious progression, and a lot of other significant things. Metropolis doesn't even attempt to increase the longevity of the game, despite the fact there isn't any longevity to begin with. It's nearly inconceivable to find anything passable among the trash that rages throughout the repetitive adventure. All this wraps up into one giant ball of failure. If you're looking for something that's worth your time, don't bother with this junk. It'll only make things much worse for you.