Infernal: Hell’s Vengeance review
When Infernal was originally released on the PC a few years ago, it wasn’t all that good, but still offered a few good hours of fun and some interesting concepts. Years later, the game has been ported to the Xbox 360, and while the developers have had all that time to improve what was wrong with the original game, they have done pretty much nothing. In fact, it’s even worse than the original.
Infernal is a third person shooter, where players assume the role of Ryan Lennox (who actually looks a lot like Ryan Reynolds), an agent who’s stuck in the middle of a war between heaven and hell. And he’s not just “sticking around”, he’s taking matters into his own hands, after Heaven “fired” him, he now works for hell. Well, the setting is interesting, at least. The action is your standard shooter, however, “standard” becomes a big word when Infernal features sluggish controls and an almost unusable cover system. It seems as it deliberately gets you stuck into cover when you need it the least, and vice versa, which not good for an action game. On top of that, the aiming system is far from perfect, and getting a headshot takes a lot longer to aim than it should be. As for headshots on moving targets; you can pretty much forget that.
The weapons to your disposal range from the usual pistols to automatic and semi automatic rifles. You also have the ability to use special powers, like suck ammo and health out of the dead enemies. However, this takes far too long to do so, leaving you exposed to enemy fire while you’re trying to get some ammo or health that way. Another of these powers let’s you teleport yourself and objects, which, surprisingly, works quite well, especially when solving puzzles. However, that’s power is only used rarely, which quite a shame.
The missions are very linear and all seem alike; get in, kill some enemies (usually monks), solve a puzzle or two that doesn’t make sense or shouldn’t even be there. Rinse and repeat. While they do look different, it’s only a disguise — it’s all the same. Technically, the game looks dated and doesn’t compare to any decent Xbox 360 titles (other than strictly budget games). In addition, the frame rate frequently stutters, making the game almost unplayable at times. The cut scenes, from the writing to the dialogue, are so horrible and over the top you’ll wonder if there was any quality control at all.
While the game features an original and compelling story and main character, it’s completely wasted by sub-par programming and game development. On top of that, there’s no multiplayer or co-op mode, not that anyone would wanna subject a friend to a game like this.
The Good:
Interesting original story
The Bad:
Sluggish controls
Dated visuals
Frame rate issues
Laughable dialogue and cut scenes
Feels very unpolished
Overall score: 2/10