"This Game is One Disease I'm Happy to be Infected With"

If you own a PSP, you are most likely aware of all the great games currently out or coming out soon. However, Infected may have gone under your radar by just a little bit. Not a single other PSP game has hooked me in the same way this has.

You play as Officer Stevens, a rookie cop in New York City. Right around Christmas time, there is an outbreak of zombies. Bodies are piling up and more people are getting infected. However, you are immune. Not only that, but your blood is the only thing that can kill them. You are the world's last hope.

When I first heard of this game, I figured it was just another typical action game or a shooter/ survival horror blend running off the popularity of Resident Evil 4. Nope. It's really a lot like an old arcade game. The game is actually very simple.

You have two guns: your primary weapon and a blood gun. You start with just a pistol, but as you kill more zombies, you get better weapons like shotguns, machine guns, rocket launchers, etc. Once you deal enough damage to the zombies, they turn red. This is where the blood gun comes in. Your blood is the only way to really kill the zombies, and shooting them with it deals the final blow, causing them to explode. So what you want to try to do is get a bunch of “red” zombies right next to each other and blow them all up. Getting combos like this nets you more money and more points towards better weapons. Not too hard to learn, but not shallow either. Most of the missions involve you either killing all the zombies in a certain time limit, getting a set amount of combos, or rescuing people.

The graphics in this game are really incredible. They have sort of a cartoony look which matches with the total carnage pretty well. It is really colorful and really vibrate. Easily one of the best presented PSP games. Further more, the loading times aren't bad at all. Before the levels, it loads while you read all of mission objectives, and after the levels, it's more of a short breather. The load times are really only about five seconds long, so nobody should complain.

The music is also really well done. Heavy metal is constantly blasting during the game. And not just generic stuff, but from bands from the likes of Slipknot, Chimaira, Ill Nino, and the Agony Scene among others. Even if you don't like these bands, the music matches the game quite well.

There are a bunch of characters to unlock. Like about 30 of them. Most of them are really customizable too. Among some of the unlockable characters are all the members of Slipknot and Majesco mascot of sorts Bloodrayne. But why all the characters? Because there is really strong online play. Both local and worldwide, you can play deathmatches against other players. But the best part is when you beat someone, you infect them with your virus. You can track your virus all around the world and see all kinds of nice statistics about your play.

This is the type of game that you are supposed to pick up and play for only a few minutes. However, that's not the case because it is really hard to put this game down. While just this game may not be enough to convince someone to buy a PSP, if you have a PSP, you must own this title. Seriously, go get it.

10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/06/06