Worst Games in the World #2 - Infernal: Hell's Vengeance (Xbox 360)
Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 1:22 pm
Meant to post this for a while now, but never really got around to it. Anyway, here's my second review in this series, which I promise will be more regular now. After the "fun" platforming of TMNT, I moved onto a "fun" third person shooter. It's Infernal: Hell's Vengeance!
--
Why? That was the first question that crossed my mind when, during the third mission of the game, I'd decided I'd had enough. Why was I playing this game? Why was it so bad? Why was it even released on Xbox 360?
The first question is easy enough: I was playing it for this feature. I've always been aware that Infernal, a third person shooter, had never been particularly good, and yet I always found myself looking at its Achievement list, thinking the points it had on offer can't be that difficult to attain. Seeing as though I'm a little bit of a Gamerscore whore, when it came to picking games out for this feature Infernal pretty much jumped to the top of the list.
Unfortunately, the points aren't that easy. It's a pretty straightforward list, although I found out after starting the game that difficulty achievements don't stack, so you'd have to play through three times. I'm not sure why you'd want to do that, it was a real struggle to play for as long as I did, and I didn't even finish it.
Second question - Infernal is as bad as it is because nobody ever really sat down and planned out what they were doing with the game, or at least it doesn't feel like they did. The storyline is threadbare, the story of a man who used to work with Heaven, but now works for Hell to exact revenge for something or other. It's poorly told, and your character seems reluctant to want to help, but does so anyway. This story has been told before, and Infernal feels like a Chinese Whispers version. It's all messy.
Gameplay wise, it's not actually that bad. It plays like your normal 3rd person shooter, albeit with some pretty nice supernatural powers, but unfortunately that's where the comparisons finish. There's no autosaving anywhere in the game, which is usually a standard feature in this genre. In fact, it's standard everywhere. But not here. There were a number of occasions where I'd forgotten to save and then died, once on the next level, meaning I got dropped into the prior level's boss. Load times are also very long, which is odd considering where this game originates. More on that later.
Oh, and those aforementioned powers? When you get given them, there's either no explanation as to how they work, or a very brief, poorly described one. It's a shame, as could have actually made the game's plentiful firefights quite enjoyable.
Graphically, it looks better than TMNT. It looks a HD PS2 game, and not a very good one at that, but no real moments where you look at the game and think it looks horrible. Passable is a more likely word to use. Again, this is one of the greatest compliments I can give the game, which says a lot.
Third question - I have no idea. As well as coming out on the 360, Infernal also came out on the PC. Whether the developers felt they'd generate more revenue by releasing a piss-poor HD port two years after the PC one or not, I don't know, but I do know that in the end it was pretty much pointless, as I don't think many people bought it on either platform.
On Metacritic, this game has somehow garnered a score of 61/100, with one reviewer calling it "mindless fun". I think we were playing a different game, as I didn't think it was fun at all.
Worth Playing?
Quite honestly? No. I really wanted to try and finish this game, but it was just so hard to care for what I was doing, or even figure out where I was meant to be going, that I gave up. If you really wanted to milk it for Achievements, the list itself seems simple enough, but then as previously mentioned you have to play through the game three times. You'll be bored before you even finish the first one, and questioning your will to live on the second.
But if, after reading this, you still want to play Infernal, I've got one question - Why?
--
Why? That was the first question that crossed my mind when, during the third mission of the game, I'd decided I'd had enough. Why was I playing this game? Why was it so bad? Why was it even released on Xbox 360?
The first question is easy enough: I was playing it for this feature. I've always been aware that Infernal, a third person shooter, had never been particularly good, and yet I always found myself looking at its Achievement list, thinking the points it had on offer can't be that difficult to attain. Seeing as though I'm a little bit of a Gamerscore whore, when it came to picking games out for this feature Infernal pretty much jumped to the top of the list.
Unfortunately, the points aren't that easy. It's a pretty straightforward list, although I found out after starting the game that difficulty achievements don't stack, so you'd have to play through three times. I'm not sure why you'd want to do that, it was a real struggle to play for as long as I did, and I didn't even finish it.
Second question - Infernal is as bad as it is because nobody ever really sat down and planned out what they were doing with the game, or at least it doesn't feel like they did. The storyline is threadbare, the story of a man who used to work with Heaven, but now works for Hell to exact revenge for something or other. It's poorly told, and your character seems reluctant to want to help, but does so anyway. This story has been told before, and Infernal feels like a Chinese Whispers version. It's all messy.
Gameplay wise, it's not actually that bad. It plays like your normal 3rd person shooter, albeit with some pretty nice supernatural powers, but unfortunately that's where the comparisons finish. There's no autosaving anywhere in the game, which is usually a standard feature in this genre. In fact, it's standard everywhere. But not here. There were a number of occasions where I'd forgotten to save and then died, once on the next level, meaning I got dropped into the prior level's boss. Load times are also very long, which is odd considering where this game originates. More on that later.
Oh, and those aforementioned powers? When you get given them, there's either no explanation as to how they work, or a very brief, poorly described one. It's a shame, as could have actually made the game's plentiful firefights quite enjoyable.
Graphically, it looks better than TMNT. It looks a HD PS2 game, and not a very good one at that, but no real moments where you look at the game and think it looks horrible. Passable is a more likely word to use. Again, this is one of the greatest compliments I can give the game, which says a lot.
Third question - I have no idea. As well as coming out on the 360, Infernal also came out on the PC. Whether the developers felt they'd generate more revenue by releasing a piss-poor HD port two years after the PC one or not, I don't know, but I do know that in the end it was pretty much pointless, as I don't think many people bought it on either platform.
On Metacritic, this game has somehow garnered a score of 61/100, with one reviewer calling it "mindless fun". I think we were playing a different game, as I didn't think it was fun at all.
Worth Playing?
Quite honestly? No. I really wanted to try and finish this game, but it was just so hard to care for what I was doing, or even figure out where I was meant to be going, that I gave up. If you really wanted to milk it for Achievements, the list itself seems simple enough, but then as previously mentioned you have to play through the game three times. You'll be bored before you even finish the first one, and questioning your will to live on the second.
But if, after reading this, you still want to play Infernal, I've got one question - Why?