Infernal

The Good
Infernal: Hell's Vengeance is a basic shooting game that offers a simple premise of a good guy gone bad who now wants to kill everyone he used to work for. After the introduction players are dropped right into the middle of a gun battle and fight their way out. This stage introduces most of the controls and will get you far enough to figure out most of the rest on your own.

The Bad
Infernal can best be described as clunky in the gameplay department. In a normal game, players can switch between holding a weapon or not holding a weapon; Infernal offers no such option. This is a problem because most enemies get too close to shoot at, and even though a melee attack can happen if they get too close, most of the time you just waste bullets trying to kill these guys (there's also no button to aim your gun when firing, making it near impossible to accurately aim). The mana based powers as well as the jump button are rarely useful to you as well.

Infernal also doesn't feature automated saving. While this wasn't a problem several years ago, most players have rightfully become accustomed to automatic saves and check points. However, should you die in Infernal, you will be required to start all over again from the beginning of the game if you didn't save (you don't even have the option to continue after you die).

Infernal's graphics will have you wondering if you popped in an original Xbox game on accident. While nothing is overly buggy or even broken, with its blocky character models, jerky animations, lips that don't even come close to matching words, and poor environments, Infernal is just a hard game to look at (and considering its 2009 release, that's pretty bad).

The story is equally forgettable. Players take control of a fallen angel named Lennox (perhaps named after the manufacturer of office chairs or the computer systems) who gets fired from EtherLight (some angel bounty hunter club) and then strikes a deal with the Lord of the Abyss. With all the grace and compellingness of a straight to DVD knock off film (the kind that come in the thin cases that Walmart sells at 4 for $1), players will find themselves skipping cutscenes whenever possible.

The Bottom Line
Infernal is a game with an old school feel, but rather than a nostalgic trip to the past, the game is more like that guy who wears his high school football jersey while trying to pick up women by telling them how he won the big game in 1987: It just feels way too past it's prime and is uncomfortable to be around.

Overall, Infernal just feels like a game that was made for Play Station 2 back in 2004, and its outdated graphics, poor story, and bad controls would have made it a forgettable game even back then. And while its flaws can be excused on their own, combined they cripple the entire experience.

Players maybe tempted to buy Infernal (some copies can sell for as low as $2.99 at video game stores) but before doing so should keep in mind that there are far better games on the Xbox 360 and much better games on their old game systems gathering dust on the shelf.

The Good
3rd Person Shooters (or action games) games are rising. We have many games of this genre, most of them really good games, but there are many others which aren't. Max Payne is probably the best one, with a new concept of gaming inspiring many other games (infernal could be one of them). We have in mind many attempts of games trying to climb up to the top of this genre and then falling to the abyss of failing. We could talk about games like Enter the Matrix, which was a bad example of what shouldn't be done.

Max Payne is the perfect game, and using the Infernal's catholic connotations, it's the paradise of action games, a deep story, a perfect main character and a revolutionary gameplay featuring bullet time (for the first time if I'm not wrong). Max Payne is Heaven as Enter the Matrix is Hell, and Infernal is in the purgatory awaiting for something that probably will never comes. The game is in the middle, it's not the best game, but (for sure) it's not the worst out there.

The game is really simple, you have to kill everyone, nothing more. Sometimes you have to solve some easy puzzles, but it won't take time to find a solution to keep on with the game. There are many weapons, and three difficulty levels. It sounds as simple as it is, it has no special things to do, or secrets to find, just play the game once and you've seen all.

Game's not short, it has 4 missions, but they're long. Different stages and different enemies to kill too. Healing system is good and original. You can heal yourself absorbing the dead bodies of your enemies, and you'll get ammo from them too with this process.

The Bad
Infernal's beginning is promising. The first introduction level is very attractive, with many details in a modern building, shooting all the time and nothing more, pure action. But.. where's that essence during the game? When you start the real game you'll be waiting a mission including all those things that you saw, not just simple stages without remarkable details, but it never comes. You may want some futuristic stages or something like that, at least modern buildings, some office complex...

Gameplay is not as good as it should be. Covering system is ridiculous, and soon you'll realize that it's not necessary, so, you won't use it. Apart from that, throwing a grenade is a bit frustrating. They're useful and effective, but Ryan needs a lot of time to throw them.

Music changes during the game when the action comes, but there's just one song, and it will start playing every time that you see an enemy. It's good for the first 5 minutes, but then it's repetitive because you'll listen it a lot of times. By the way, ambient music for stages is good.

The main story is stupid, something like a science-fiction/action movie featuring angels, demons, and many other cliches, anyway, it's not the most important thing in a game like this... but the main character is a tough guy, so tough that you'll hate him soon. He will adopt an unbearable attitude during the whole game. Alex's a bit of a show-off and you will never like him (anyway, sometime's he'll make you laugh a little...)

The Bottom Line
Infernal's not a bad game, but it needs something more to be special and remarkable. Nice graphics, sound, gameplay... but not perfect! Not as bad as Hell, not as good as Heaven, just in the purgatory of video-games. It will be forgotten in some time, but it'll work as an action game.