"Comprehensive Infected Review"

In a time where the PSP lacks original software, Infected comes out just in time for the holiday season. Literally. When compared to all but two of the original PSP games, it holds itself pretty well, although it's not too hard to beat The Con, Coded Arms and Untold Legends. It will be hard to beat games like Metal Gear Ac!d and Lumines. Infected is a fun game, and its humor definitely helps it, but you expect it from Planet Moon Studios. But when the ‘humor' doesn't work, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

It's Christmas season in New York City and the shopping season is splendid. But, the city soon realizes that infected are everywhere, roaming through the streets, infecting hopeless civilians. You take the role of Officer Stevens, who is immune to becoming an infected, so you must clear New York City of the infected ‘problem.' Only towards the end of the game you find out how the infection spread.

The core gameplay is this: kill all of the infected required in the mission. At the beginning of the game, you start out with a handgun and your ‘viral' gun. You lock on to the infected, and then shoot it with your handgun until it loses all of its health. Then you must use your viral gun to kill it. This gives you points, which enables you to use different, stronger guns. The key to the game is getting combos. When multiple infected are close by, a blood cord, or tether, are attached to them, indicated that a combo can be performed. These tethers will only appear once the infected lose all their health. Once unlocked, items appear occasionally like X2 points or viral chainsaws. Gory goodness galore!

Missions vary slightly with ‘Kill ‘em All', Helipad, and Defender missions. Kill ‘em All is very straightforward: kill all of the infected. Helipad missions have you rescuing civilians from the infected by grabbing as many as possible and putting them into helicopters. Once you save as many as possible, you have to kill all of the infected. Lastly, Defender has you protecting a large amount of civilians in contained areas. How do you save them, you ask? Well, you must kill all of the infected. Although the missions differ ever so slightly, you always have to kill all of the infected. You will kill more than 1,000 infected, and only be half way through the game. It's repetitive, hectic, arcade like gameplay. This game is fun, but not for everyone; it'll wear most gamers down after the first five or ten missions.

Surprisingly, the game was founded over the idea of a great multiplayer game. Why is this surprising? It's not inspiring, and it's not fun. This type of lock-on and shoot to kill gameplay just doesn't work, especially since all of your weapon, health, and speed that have been unlocked in the campaign mode carry over to the multiplayer experience. But that's not why it's not fun. The reason it's a waste of time is because you inevitably take turns killing each other. It takes no skill. The idea behind Infected was that over local multiplayer or online head to head matches, you spread your own custom virus to people you beat. You see, you create your avatar at the beginning of the game, and this is your ‘virus.' If you do beat someone online, you can check a global positioning map, and it shows who you infected, and where. The concept is groundbreaking, but the execution is so poor, it's astonishing.

New York City. This is the only location this game takes place, but each section are look distinctly different. For example, you can go into the subway, or Times Square. So instead of making different environments, the frame rate is solid, but it lags a bit when a lot of enemies are on-screen. Usually, though, the game runs very smoothly. Also, the explosions that go on when you kill the infected are quite remarkable, and to add effect, red smears appear all over the screen. Too bad the enemy character models aren't that detailed, or varied for that matter. All in all, it's an impressive looking game.

The most confusing part of the game is the music. It has a variety of songs from Slipknot, and other heavy metal bands, which matches the gameplay, but it wears you down over long play sessions. The confusing part is this: is this game trying to be humorous or an over-the-top action game? I understand that it can be both, but you're first briefed in a comedic matter, and then your placed in the city, killing infected in a gory mess while heavy metal music plays in the background. The transition just doesn't work. At times it does take itself seriously, and at other times, it just doesn't. Which one is it Planet Moon Studios?

The online component was implemented to seal the deal, but it in fact lessens the experience; it's not as addictive as one might perceive. Thankfully, though, the core gameplay is entertaining and satisfying. It definitely benefits from being a portable game and its arcade like play-style. This game should only be played in short bursts, because it's easy to plow through it in a few hours. Infected is a fun, but confused game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/28/05