[EGD] An Rpg Crumbled By The Classes

Infinitum is a game created by dreamlink

Welcome to yet another EGD review, this time on Infinitum, a game entry by two rather very obscure members: Dreamlink and Magmalord. I have never played any games by either and had no idea about what to expect. The title seemed intelligently named so I assumed that the same would apply to the game. It was like unwrapping a mystery dumdums pop; you never what you’re gonna yet. It could be the ever delicate and delicious raspberry flavor or it could be the disgusting taste of cotton candy. Whatever it is, I sure hope it’s raspberry.

One thing that instantaneously drew me into the game was the class selection. By the looks of it, it was as if I had stumbled into RPG Eden. There were three rather mysterious and distinct options, each with seemed intriguing, unique and shrouded upon them was that vague feeling of the unknown. It all seemed to be playing out perfectly until you actually choose one of them and play the game where you would later find out that they are highly unbalanced. For those whom were wondering, I chose Pyro during my first play through and boy did I freaking regret that decision. Most of the enemies in the game wielded long ranged weapons, and since the Pyro class only gives you close ranged weapons, you are at a distinct disadvantage against your foes. You might as well just surrender as you’re being blasted away by minions and probes cause they can hit you a mile away while you can hardly hit them at all. Really, the only optimal class was Blaster. It gave you a freak ton of bullets, like tens of thousands of bullets which literally made the game way too easy as you can freely just blast away without ever being afraid of running out of ammo. The unevenness of the classes was a huge letdown for me and it will inevitably lead to the downfall of the next category…

Enemy placement has always been of importance. If you can constantly avoid all enemy interaction due to the bad placement then the game borings. If there are too many foes then the game becomes crowded and perhaps difficult if you don’t provide sufficient power ups. Infinitum seems to put this category into two very different perspectives. On one hand, the enemy placement was pretty good if you chose the Blaster class from before. The majority of the enemies are long ranged attackers whose advantage can easily be negated if you are also wielding a long ranged weapon. For the unfortunate choosers of the Pyro class however, the game becomes an absolute mess and nightmare. You can hardly even land a single blow onto any of the enemies because you basically only have a midget sword and a one inch flamethrower. While you are trying to get up front with your enemies, you’re health will have already taken it’s toll from their long ranged attacks. Had the creators of Infinitum actually token the classes into account, the game could have been an excellent RPG. Because they didn’t, this game is reduced to getting the right class in the beginning so that you can actually ‘survive’ the game. Now, if we were to disregard anything related to the classes, the enemy placement would still be sloppy. On more than one occasion, some of the enemies just basically committed suicide by jumping into a fiery pit of lava. Not very clever in my eyes. Had the creators of Infinitum spent more time on this, this game could very well be feature worthy.

If there was one annoying aspect of this game, it has to be the traps. On one hand, the traps were pretty good, even forgiving and merciful. They kept you on your toes and kept you wary of your environment. On the other hand, things get ugly. In one of the later levels in the game, and by late I mean like ten to fifteen minutes into the game, there is a switch. A little itty bitty tiny orange switch. It’s innocence seems profound. What could it possibly do to me? In most games, hitting switches is a good thing. It opens up a new path and so on; switches in the old days tended to be friendly and kind. However, as I innocently touched the switch, bam! Orange blocks protruded from the abyss and I’m trapped with no way out. I’ve just wasted fifteen minutes of my life. Are you serious? If you are going to make a long, difficult game and want to make a trap that renders the game impossible to proceed, put it in the early parts of the game so that I can easily get back to where I was. To simply waste those precious fifteen minutes is just… unforgiving. Next.

The puzzles were pretty decent. It mostly composed of hitting switches here and there. Nothing too stunning. The platforming element was pretty good; you had to be wary of your environment for this game pretty much discouraged leaps of faith. The game did feel a bit crammed and clustered at times but that’s not much to complain about. Overall, I didn’t really adore the level design but it was good. It was perhaps the best aspect of the game; the shine that the game had. Now, contrary to how much I was criticizing the enemy placement, I did find some that were creatively placed as well, such as the ones that could attack you but you couldn’t attack them, therefore forcing you to move through the area quicker to lose less health. I found that one creative. The scenery seemed well in place and the game was actually pretty fun. The bosses were also creative, albeit a bit flawed because as I remembered, one of the bosses consisted of two enemies and one of them ended up killing the other. Again, could have done some improvement on that one.

Infinitum had several flaws, many which basically destroyed the game entirely. It was like watching a magnificent mountain crumble to pieces only to later find out that they were made of straws. The class element in the game was entirely unbalanced, the enemy placement ranged from creative and decent to poor, and that orange trap was what drove me away from this game. It had a ton of potential and it strangely enough was rather fun and captivating to play but the flaws were just too numerous to ignore. So with all of that settled, lets score the game:

Game-play: 8/10

Puzzles and Traps: 2/10

Fun Factor: 9/10

Enemy Placement: 2/10

Creativity: 6/10

Execution: 5/10

Final Score: 32/60 (F) 53% Awesome

Judgment: Is this game feature worthy? I have no doubt that it will be featured by EGD, since EGD pretty much features any decent game or it has had a history of doing so. If you ask me, if the creators removed the orange trap and made the classes more even then the game would be feature worthy. This game was certainly more than I expected from two rather unknown members. Despite the criticisms, I believe they did a pretty good job on it altogether to be quite frank. Good day.