Infinity Fall

I have yet to play Lone Echo or Echo Arena. I do own Lone Echo but I just haven't gotten around to it, but I've seen enough gameplay videos of it to get a feel for how the movement in the game is done. When the developer of Infinity Fall emailed me about his game that I had never heard of, I got really excited when I saw the initial trailer of it on its Steam Store page. As with all of the Steam keys that I've accepted, I had no requirements or restrictions as to what I could say. You can hear them in the video, but it is long, so I'll list below the things that I like but also disliked about the game, as well as the things I think would be great if added. I love the feeling of floating in space. Launching myself out into a large room as fast as I can in order to be a harder to hit target, all while I shoot at enemy AI robots, it's a very badass feeling. Even when the game slows down and you grab onto your cover and move yourself around it is very cool feeling. I also like the levels change up between deaths so that you still have to be on your toes and you can't just memorize things through multiple deaths. The visuals and the music both gave me a System Shock vibe which meshed well with the evil, rouge AI story. For the negatives and things that I think are missing from the game, I'll just paste what I typed in an email to the developer: "Options menu, more things that we can change. Audio volumes with music as a separate option. In the video, so start out talking really loud and that's to make up for the music being so loud (on a side note, I really like the music in this. Has a cool techno vibe). Additional things for visuals would be nice, like super sampling and being able to disable bloom. Controls, sort of an extension of the options menu, it would be nice to change different bindings. For me personally, it would feel more natural if I used the grip buttons for grabbing onto surfaces and such, rather than the touchpad, so it would be nice to toggle between those to choices. As for the gameplay, I like that the hands simply moving into objects can push the player back from those objects, rather than the hand just clipping through the object, but I think it would be really, really cool if swiping out hands across a surface while we are already gliding through the air didn't stop us right there. It's a little hard to describe this, so I'll just link to a clip from the fantastic film Event Horizon. If you've never seen it and don't like blood, then I apologize for parts of this clip, but it's the closest thing to what I'm thinking of. My links should take you right to the parts I'm referring to, [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LEa0FN1bf8&feature=youtu.be&t=9s]HERE[/url] at the 0:09 mark, [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LEa0FN1bf8&feature=youtu.be&t=36s]HERE[/url] at the 0:36 mark, and [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LEa0FN1bf8&feature=youtu.be&t=1m3s]HERE[/url] at the 1:03 mark, as well as a few other times, you can see how the character is keeping his momentum going by paddling with his hands. This would keep the pacing of the combat. Not sure exactly how you would do it, maybe require your hands to be moving a certain speed against a surface and the physics take in account your previous velocity and the force and direction of your hand. I mentioned in the video at one point the ability to have very small jet packs on your wrists. There was a lot of times I would have liked them for when I launched myself but was slightly off on my direction and a little push could have set me right on my course, but also, there were multiple times that I pushed off into space but at such a slow speed that I just had to wait a while until I got close enough to grab something. Finally, it would be nice to be able to bring up a menu without having to leave the current session. Something to pause the game in case you must take off the Vive or you just need to adjust a setting." The developer reply favorably to my email. A future patch will likely include the visual and audio additions as well as the option to toggle between controller inputs for grabbing objects/walls. He even liked the idea of the wrist mounted propulsion, so hopefully something can come about from that. I also found out that the developer is still busy in school, which is crazy to think that this was made by someone still in that stage of their craft. Very impressive.

UPDATE: I finished the game, it was pretty satisfying. The game ended just at about the time that things seemed to be getting a bit too repetitive. I encountered a bug on the first major boss fight where the door wouldn't open. I simply went to menu and restarted the boss fight and this time the door did open. I stand by my original review, it's still pretty accurate. Note: the game took me two hours, but keep in mind the crappy controls on the Touch probably made the game longer than it needed to be. [u]I played this game on the Oculus Rift with Touch Controller [/u]. The only problem is actually the same problem as on the HTC Vive, the choice to make grabbing on to objects to propel yourself is the click joystick control scheme (it's the touchpad on the Vive). Obviously, this is a very bad decision on the Touch controller as it is very uncomfortable to have to click on the joystick several times as part of core gameplay. In fact, I had to stop after 40 minutes because my fingers were starting to feel cramped from repetitive stress. I have no idea why this was used versus the trigger button which doesn't seem to be utilized at all. I did manage to get to Testing area 3. The core gameplay is very simple, but engaging and fun. If you have played Echo Arena then you know the locomotion method in this game. You're in zero gravity so you're grabbing on to objects and pushing off and zipping around in space between objects. It can be very fun, especially for VR veterans who don't experience nausea. If you experience nausea, I recommend selling your VR headset and just forget about VR gaming. The graphics are not as good as Echo Arena. In fact, they are just pretty basic. The sounds too are pretty generic. Most of the information that you need to progress in the story is actually from written words pasted on electronic bulletin boards spread out in the different areas. However, they are pretty hilarious and actually adds to the vibe of the game. You know, you're the last survivor, something terrible happened, the robots/aliens/computers have gone rogue. You know the story. But it's executed brilliantly. The gameplay, so far, has been find x and then shoot a and b. The twist is that you're in Zero g and the locomotion method which makes it fun, even if it is simple. Despite the terrible control scheme, I enjoyed this game. I thinkt he dev is a 1 man/student team? If so, I'm impressed. Sale price rating 8/10, some of the best $3.74 you can spend on steam VR, would be a 9 if control scheme improved (and worth the normal retail price), could be a perfect 10 if gameplay was more varied on top of those things

Warning: You can get VR sickness from this game. However when playing I had a beer before that and didn't think about that before playing. With that said and out of the way, that is one of the only downsides so far. Infinity Fall brins a new kind of way to move around in the VR world, and it is a lot of fun / exilerating to move around in this game. However, pace yourself / play in short intervals because it doesn't feel right when half your body goes through the ground. I found the best way to handle this is to sit / neal on the ground to prevent your mind from being tricked. Keep the room you are playing in cool, and take breaks often. The game has its pros and cons and I give them credit for the unique concept. Pros: -A lot of fun to move around at high velocity -Gunplay is great and distracts your mind a bit from some sickening points -I have no idea what is thrilling about moving at high velocities at walls/floors but I love it. Cons: -Gameplay starts out slow and took awhile before enemies were introduced -I have to play in small intervals to prevent sickness

2 Minute Video Review: https://youtu.be/U0TdoIg_yNI Will you like this game? It totally depends on how you feel about the movement system. I found the combat exciting, but your milage may vary. I explain better in the video above.

This game is definetly fun but there is one big flaw with the game. It takes a while to get used to the movement system and in the process you will get motion sick. I've played a good bit of VR up to this point and never once got motion sick but this game did it in 22 minutes. The movement system is nice at times and trying at others due to the fact that you can sink into the floor requiring you to pull yourself out first. The graphics remind me of duke nukem almost but the music was decent. For 75% this was money well spent.

Recommended, with a caveat. I refunded this because £12 is too steep for an indie-quality game that is an hour long. It is fun though. I would suggest either more content or a £5 price tag. Also, some form of locomotion (a jetpack maybe?).

Wow the movement mechanics on this game really works and is quite immersive. Just need some more puzzles type situations and maybe a hand thruster and it would be even better.