Upon loading up Infinite Space, players are quickly introduced to the game’s central character, Yuri. Yuri dreams of traveling the stars, and his ambitions are quickly realized when a spaceship crash-lands on his planet. Given his own craft to helm and a crew of colourful characters to command, Yuri sets out on a quest to explore the universe and locate strange artifacts known as epitaphs. Players initially do battle with pirates and other seedy groups, but eventually get enveloped in a growing conflict threatening interstellar peace and security. Infinite Space’s characters are likeable and the story cleverly structured. The personalities of your crew are somewhat clichéd, but that can be forgiven owing to the game’s anime foundation.
You can upgrade the smallest details of your ship.
To move your fleet from planet to planet, you have to navigate through a complex system of routes and space lanes. Whereas Mass Effect’s map took a simple zoom-in and out approach, Infinite Space’s layered galaxy map takes some practice to get used to. The system is functional, but the developers have imported too much detail. As the game progresses, you have to perform some serious brain-bending exercises to calculate your jump to the next plot point. Plotting your armada’s course is only half battle, as path-finding in general can be difficult. It is seldom clear exactly where you need to go, so you will find yourself going back-and-forth multiple times in order to progress forward.
Once players get planet-side, you can save the game and replenish your fleet’s health and fatigue. While on the ground, you can drop by the local drinking hole for a talk with your crew and other NPCs. You also have the opportunity to do some serious upgrading. Players have plenty of choice when it comes to dictating the design and direction of their space-faring fleet. As you travel between ports, the game unlocks designs for new weapons, ship classes and other mods. RPG fans and gamers who enjoy customizing the smallest details will really enjoy this aspect of Infinite Space. You can spend hours tinkering around with the various positions of your crew in order to improve ship efficiency. Designing the layout of your vessels with Tetris-like puzzles also helps inspire the feeling that you’re a in commander of a fleet of spaceships.
Between hubs, Infinite Space allows you to sit in the captain’s chair and face the numerous enemy fleets waiting to destroy you. Players dictating the progress of battle, with the chain of command flowing directly through the Nintendo DS stylus. You issue instructions via orders listed on the lower screen, and players can see the results of their actions play out on the top screen. For example, ordering a barrage of an enemy vessel yields an animation of the opposing ship being fired upon and subsequently being blown to smithereens.
The efficiency of attacks depends on the state of the enemy.
Players need to choose their orders carefully, as the efficiency of attacks depends greatly on whatever the enemy is doing at a particular moment. You also need to be within weapons range of the opposition, which can be completed by activating your ships thrusters. However, before you can even issue an attack command, there has to be enough juice in the battle gauge on the left had side of the screen. The battle gauge recharges slowly, with different attacks drain varying amounts from the bar. Unlike a game like Pokemon, in which you can take all the time in the world to decide what move to use, things go much quicker in Infinite Space. As battles play out in real time, the game demands your full and constant attention. The ship-to-ship battle system keeps the adrenaline pumping, and makes a nice change from other turn-based role-playing titles.
However, there are times when the game makes you undertake turn-based battles. When planet-side or stuck on an enemy ship, you may have to engage in melee combat. You can choose attacks that are utterly devastating or you can accidentally go with moves that do next to nothing. It can take a few moments for your characters act on their orders, and foes have a strange knack for countering that majority of your commands. Melee encounters are in such contrast with the innovative real-time space battles, and feel clunky by comparison. Thankfully, you can avoid these battles for the most part, except at specific plot points.
In space, no one can hear you scream in frustration.
Like many other RPG’s, Infinite Space suffers from the same problems that have been plaguing gamers for years. First off, the system of save system is atrocious. Players have to endure numerous encounters, in which there are smaller intermittent battles, all with no save point. Further, there is no opportunity between fights to replenish the crew’s fatigue meter or repair broken spaceships. You can also be unlucky enough to suffer an instant game over if your crew is completely wiped out in a melee battle, or your flagship is destroyed. Making it through these sections is a feat in itself, if you don’t give up in frustration after the third or forth attempt. If you do choose to persist, grinding is usually the only feasible way of making your fleet strong enough.
On the presentation side, Infinite Space is a mixed bag. The anime, as you would expect, is certainly on par. At times, it feels like you're back watching Saturday morning cartoons. The in-game command interface for space battles is functional and robust. However, the visual presentation of ship-on-ship battles is blocky and uninspiring. Every spaceship is bland in design and somewhat similar to the next. The limited voice work is overly dramatic, bit fits with the setting. The Nintendo DS speakers often struggle with the background music during space battles. The soundtrack, which quickly gets repetitive, also downs out the remarks of your crew and other sound effects.
Infinite Space is an ambitious title, but after several hours in, players may find the game much too big for its boots. There is undoubtedly much to enjoy in this 40 hour sci-fi adventure, such as the innovate real-time space battles, detailed fleet management and entertaining story. However, the navigation and path-finding is far too complex for a game of this magnitude. When you factor in the do-or-die prolonged combat, many will find this quest too frustrating to endure. However, if you have the persistence and willpower to overcome the game’s shortcomings, Infinite Space may be the closest you will ever become to commanding a fleet of magnificent space machines.
It's no wonder there is so much shovel ware out there if games that have this much depth and are this fun get such a poor score. Game critics have a lot to answer for, if they refuse to support quality games like this one.
, I meant no disrespect, I just believe as a reviewer it your responsibility to support quality & enjoyable games, not nitpick. A lot of people who understand Palgn's review criteria might not be deterred by the review score, but the simple fact is, there are a lot of people who will pass on a great game because of the low score; we do have to pay for them after all.
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