Reseñas

• gamedeal user

  Sep 27, 2021

  difficult to recommend, because it's so...understated. but i'm going to anyway it's a slow burn, and i'm not even sure Loiste Interactive fully understands what they stumbled upon. between the dramatic tone shifts and the level of detail that extends so far beyond what's expected out of a game like this, there's so much passion here and it's hard to tell why, because everything that makes Infra good is so subtle. here's what Infra conveys: the feeling of being where you're not sure you're supposed to be, taking in this unusual part of the world, doing whatever you need to do to get things done, and moving on. despite Infra being so slow, it never wastes your time, because being able to spend time in these places is its own reward. and sure, there's parts of Infra where that good curious feeling drifts away, but it always comes back, stronger and more immersive than ever. Infra's rough and depends on the player to keep exploring despite all kinds of adversity. telling someone to play this game is like telling someone to go outside - there's nothing proving going outside will be fun, there's just the chance of something interesting, and there's a lot of stuff outside, like water and trees and light and cars and secret tunnels and mysteries to solve. even if you'll probably get stuck and probably want to go home after a few hours dealing with pipes and tunnels, i still recommend.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 16, 2016

  Infra is not your average game. There are no guns here, but there are still bad guys and monsters. There are no soldiers, spies or saboteurs, but there is a battle taking place. There are no jump scares, creeping horrors, or panicked flights from hordes of undead, but Infra can still scare, unnerve, and frighten you. Just not in the ways that you would expect. You take the role of Mark Siltanen an industrial engineer from a firm who has just taken over the maintenance contract for the city of Stahlberg, and you are about to have the bad day to end all others, and maybe everybody else's day toboot. You could use the words 'Walking Simulator' to describe Infra, but that definition barely scratches the surface of what's going on here. You could say that Infra is a puzzle game, but you'd only be talking about the tip of the iceberg. You could say that Infra is a job simulator, but you'd still be missing the real point of what is going on. Yes, Infra is an Indie Game, and a bit of a klunky one at times. With a smattering of wooden character sprites and voice acting recorded on what sounds like half a dozen different setups that needs better post production. But that's not why you should buy it. The chewy chocolate-fudge centre of this game may take some of us a little while to get to, but when we do, it should give everyone pause. If you've ever worked in one of those big, Star-Wars-scale industrial environments where a moment's inattention in the wrong place can end your life without so much as slowing down the machinery that just turned you into paste then Infra won't take long to get under your skin. The cracks in the walls, the leaky pipes and barely functional equipment. . . If you've ever worked in heavy industry and had to find a new workaround to each successive problem, and/or deal with OHS and get management to take things like this seriously, then the reaction will be instinctive. Like me you'll be thinking about all the dominoes that could be toppled by that half-flooded generator room or tainted water pipe. I realised that the game had me completely immersed when I found myself backtracking time and again to keep turning off the generators in said half-flooded room only to find out I wasn't yet past the point where I needed to have them running. At its brilliantly mundane heart, Infra is an interactive cautionary tale, and one that hits close to home for all of us. All around us we are surrounded by tecnologies and systems that we take for granted and that is the spot where Infra builds the edifice of tension that makes up the game's core. Because despite the cinematic license with which Infra's story is presented, the Bad guys and monsters are entirely human, perfectly possible. The horrific scenarios that play out have happened in our world before and they are doing so right now, even as we sit here unaware of their unravelling beneath our feet. Perhaps what is more horrifying is that it doesn't take corporate malfesance and corruption on a grand scale for those little scenarios to play out time and again in the real world. All it takes is a moment's distraction for one person at one step along the long process of getting water from the city dam to your kitchen sink. Games like Infra should be made, they NEED to be made, and in greater numbers (and yes a little extra polish would be nice too), about things other than psychotically emotionless Space Marines turning the seemingly endless ranks of disposable mooks into hamburger (or some minor variation thereof). Because if Infra can give you pause the next time you take a ride on the subway, the next time you flick a light switch, or turn on a tap, then it has succeeded in a way that few other games can, because you don't have to suspend your disbelief very far at all for Infra to work its magic.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 7, 2021

  Wow... what a game! I bought this, on sale, a few years ago and then a friend said it was boring and depressing so I never played it. Boy, was he wrong! Infra is a first person multi-faceted 3D game. The environment is VAST with an incredible level of detail in all locations. Turbines, offices, tunnels, factories, water treatment plants, dams, mines... the list goes on. You play as Mark, a structural engineer working for National Consulting Group. Based on problems with infrastructure in and around the European city of Stalburg, you are tasked with inspecting and documenting the status of facilities and projects. Along the way, you repair equipment, uncover evidence of neglect and corruption, and wind your way through location after location. You walk, crawl, jump, ride mini-trains, take elevators, and navigate with a boat. You are equipped with a flashlight and a camera (both of which use batteries at an alarming rate). Collectibles include taking photos, finding documents, locating geocaches, and making repairs. There are also quite a few keys, key cards, and entry combinations to be located before you can advance. I enjoyed the voice overs (which are not terribly professional but fit the characters) and the sound track. Machines whir, tunnels collapse, steam hisses, and doors crash closed. It is a very immersive game and has quite a few 'wow' moments as a scene unfolds before you. Most of all, I appreciated the save system (quick save, auto save, and 4 explicit save slots). There are a number of timed escape and/or repair tasks and the quick save was my salvation. It let me save part way through and not have to start over when I failed or time ran out. Despite the auto save feature, I saved my game constantly (especially after difficult tasks). Achievement hunters should know that 100% requires a minimum of two times through Infra - one run getting almost all collectibles/achievements and one run ignoring most of them. While some achievements are automatic as you progress, others require finding secret areas or performing tasks that have consequences in later chapters. How one could accomplish some of them without a guide is beyond me. The geocaches, in particular, are hard to locate even when you know where to search! There are two ways to approach this game: (1) Dive in with total disregard for achievements and muddle through, or (2) Use a guide as a road map to ensure that you experience all areas of the game and find all collectibles. Either approach requires you to open every door and look in every corner. For the observant gamer, there are a plethora of batteries distributed across all areas, fun (and weird) things to see, and alternate paths to check out. However, the incurious gamer will soon find themselves in the dark with a dead camera! I fell in love with this game. I chose to use a guide for my first pass through because I became overwhelmed by the environments and the machinery. It took almost 70 hours to get all but two achievements and experience the 'good' ending. Now, I am free to go back through, not thinking about collectibles. I can spend additional time exploring the narrative told by the documents (notes, audio tapes, video tapes). I can proceed through a mysterious door (that I skipped) and see what's on the other side. It is a rare game to hold my attention for so long and have me wanting more after this many hours. I highly recommend jumping into Infra (with or without a guide). I think it will appeal to those who enjoyed titles like Aporia, Valley, or Lethe... games with lots to do and see, while fixing things along the way. Games that let you freely explore and experience the delight of discovery while learning a backstory through bits and pieces. However, Infra is not for those in a hurry... it is a VERY long game. Post Script - I finally reached 100% and experienced all 3 endings. Infra has a delightful way of handling the different outcomes, with circumstances reflecting actions/decisions made during the game. I think this is one of the best set of endings I've seen since Eastshade.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 18, 2022

  57 hours later and I have finished my first playthrough, and wow. I was [i]expecting[/i] a walking simulator and interactive novel type of experience. What I got was a lore-rich, atmospherically consistent blend of like, Bioshock, Half-Life, and Firewatch. I cannot do enough in my life to make sure more people play this game, because it's a top 3 for me. You're a civil engineer/structural analyst named Mark who has been sent onto the field to take some photographs of structural failures and any "important documents" you happen upon. This begins Mark's urban exploration journey into the VERY WELL fleshed-out "concretepunk" world of Stalburg. Many of the locations Mark encounters are in serious disrepair, and require the player to solve a few logic puzzles a la Half Life/Portal to progress further. Don't feel bad when you have to look up some walkthroughs. Over the course of your journey, though, as you read the aforementioned documents, you will find yourself uncovering a deep story of corruption and cover-ups. And that's just the surface-level plot. The game rewards you for investigating the maps beyond the linear play route, and as you do your own investigating, you may uncover things about a cult that preys on the homeless, or a biochemical weapon sold by a company specializing in nukes, or a privatized slum that uses the welfare money of the impoverished to line their pockets while forcing the residents of the slum to use a valueless, artificial currency while they grow addicted to a poisonous mushroom species. And none of that even speaks to the old companion ARG that came with the game. It is not a horror game, but you will notice the longer you play a growing feeling that you are not alone and that in fact you are being watched. The creepy murals interspersed throughout the game don't ease that worry either. This game is so, so satisfying to play, and I have left it feeling like I've genuinely been to and explored every inch of some strange, empty, abandoned city. Just take lots of pictures and make lots of saves because the platforming in this game can be a little hard to get used to! Genuinely a favorite of mine, and I find myself recalling back to older maps in the game and feeling in AWE that this game could have THAT MUCH in it. Please play this game.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 2, 2020

  INFRA is a highly unique, interesting game. Walking through abandoned structures taking pictures of cracked walls and broken equipment doesn't sound all that interesting, but somehow the developers managed to pull it off, and make it last for far longer than anyone could expect. The level design is certainly the key factor that keeps the game engaging throughout the first two acts. The developers have gleaned a surprising amount of variety from such a mundane setting, as you move from open forests to claustrophobic sewers, into dilapidated factories and modern treatment plants. Levels often have multiple branching paths that each contain their own separate puzzles, providing you with an alternative route if you can’t figure out the solution to your current one. You would expect the setting of underground infrastructure and abandoned buildings to be limiting, but each level is designed to play to the strengths of its location. The linear tunnels in the Sewers give you a clear idea of exactly where you need to go to progress and what rooms relate to each other. Minimizing travel time between each area and avoiding confusion when multiple individual puzzles are present. Whilst the much larger Steel Mill instead places more of a focus on exploring with an ever expanding central location: Solving chains of puzzles to unlock doors to other sections, all leading to a final goal. There’s plenty of optional content in each chapter too, with additional puzzles that have long lasting effects (A puzzle I solved in Chapter 2 was required to enter an important secret area all the way in Chapter 7!), many instances of environmental storytelling and numerous collectible lore documents scattered around, providing extra detail on the town of Stalburg, its people, and a deep conspiracy that builds to a satisfying reveal over time. And with the potential available to them, the developers thankfully showed restraint with Horror elements. Even in the darkest and most cramped areas, I never once felt scared and was always able to continue on without caution. The developers never betray your trust, despite the perfect horror settings you venture through. There are two jumpscares, but they’re only part of two easter eggs that take some effort to activate, so you should never encounter them on the main path. The puzzles themselves mostly rely on repairing and manipulating machinery, with occasional Half-Life style physics puzzles and exploratory sections that require you to search for a key item (Often fuses) to change up the pace. The majority of puzzles make it very clear what elements you need to focus on and to what degree you can interact with them through obvious buttons, levers and indicator lights, even if it’s not immediately clear what the device even does. It lets you get straight to experimenting with solutions and figuring out what you actually need to accomplish. Annoyingly the Water Treatment puzzles are exempt from this. You’re shown a digital view of the area and the current status of each component there, but without any indication of what the final result is meant to look like. This often led to irritating bouts of trial and error without even knowing if you were making progress or undoing it. These were my least favorite parts of the game. Looking for photograph opportunities quickly becomes an addiction. Carefully scanning the walls of every corridor you walk through, searching every room for any trace of damage just to hear that satisfying success notification from your camera. It’s a constant drip feed of dopamine. The camera’s battery requirement prevents you from holding it out permanently and just sweeping over the environment for the picture indicator, and is balanced such that you shouldn’t ever run out entirely if you search levels adequately. Completionists will have their work cut out for them. Unfortunately, things start to go downhill in Act 3. It feels like an entirely different dev team took over. The tight corridors and clear paths are replaced with sprawling city blocks and entire towns to wander around. The puzzles suffer greatly, as the game turns to making you search these giant areas just for a few random items scattered around them. After the brilliant reveal, the conspiracy subplot fizzles out with a weak ending, and one of the last few areas is literally just a maze you need to drive an unwieldy vehicle around. The final chapter does return to the style of the prior acts, but the bulk of Act 3 was a disappointment after everything that came before it. Regardless, I would still highly recommend INFRA to any fans of first person puzzlers or walking simulators. Even a year after finishing I routinely think about the game, there really is no other game that provides an experience quite like it.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 2, 2018

  [b][i]Infra[/i][/b] is an atmospheric first-person adventure/exploration/puzzle game. You're playing as someone who inspects infrastructure for a living. Basically someone who looks at bridges, buildings, roads, and so forth to make sure they are safe for use. No guns – the only things you'll be shooting are pictures. Your inventory is quite simple – just your camera, flashlight and batteries. Most of your time in [b][i]Infra[/i][/b] will be spent solving puzzles involving buttons, levers, and platforming. [b][i]Infra[/i][/b] runs on the Source engine, and makes good use of it; crumbling buildings, murky water, vibrant caves, and green foliage stand out quite impressive. The ambient noises that comprise much of the soundtrack works well. If you're looking for an interesting take on the first-person adventure puzzle game that will make you scratch your head, this is for you. If not you might wait for a sale. [b]THE GOOD[/b] - Graphics looks great - Sound works well - Excellent puzzles [b]THE BAD[/b] - No maps - You can't review the photos - Your objetcive is fuzzy [h1]7/10[/h1] DISASTER | BAD | MEDIOCRE | OKAY | [b][u]GOOD[/u][/b] | GREAT | AMAZING | MASTERPIECE [quote] [i]If you like this review, then please consider giving it a thumbs up. I've also reviewed other games that you might find interesting. If so then[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/27418263/] please click here.[/url][/i][/quote]
• gamedeal user

  Jan 13, 2023

  INFRA is not for everyone. It caters to very specific tastes. If you <*> are interested in civil engineering and infrastructure maintenance <*> enjoy walking around in realistic environments <*> want to find every story scrap, audio tape, and hidden object <*> appreciate surprisingly deep stories about corruption and conspiracies then this game was made for you. Is it too long? Yes. Can the puzzles be frustrating? Yes. Did I enjoy it? Also yes.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 8, 2021

  Infra is one of those idiosyncratic games that leans so hard into its niche that alienating a mass audience is inevitable, and yet will end up being the all-time favorite of a small group of people. The niche, in this case, is some combination of “people who love the physics puzzles and Eastern European aesthetics of Half-Life 2 and would enjoy the game more if it had no combat” and “people with a genuine interest in all the banal, ignored infrastructure that makes urban life possible.” To wit: whereas most video games open with explosive action or quiet character introductions (followed by explosive action), Infra opens with a powerpoint presentation about the state of decaying infrastructure in a Baltic city. Your character controls the slides. Most people will find this boring and faintly ridiculous; I loved every minute of it. It’s not just that I appreciate novelty in games, and the verve of spitting in the wind, but that I love interactive spaces where I learn about places and systems I’m unfamiliar with. Over Infra’s many chapters, you’ll explore decaying dams, power plants, water treatment facility, sewers, and other sorts of infrastructure that most of us take for granted, and while Infra is in no way a simulation (it’s very much a Source Engine game, with all the environmental puzzles and slightly wonky physics that entails) it approaches its subject matter with a mix of seriousness and enthusiasm, and really sells that the scenario pictured (in which pretty much all of a city’s infrastructure is sold to private interests and left to decay) can be compelling horror, in its own way. There’s an attempt to make a sort of Big Conspiracy plot and narrative out of all this, and it’s an entertaining diversion, but it’s not what you’re here for; you’re here for strangely relaxing walks around urban decay, using your phone to take pictures of every issue you find.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 28, 2022

  This game grows on you like fluorescent mushroom, like radioactivity in a nuclear experiment gone wrong, like a cancer that’s beautiful in its luxuriant, fanciful proliferation*. It starts in absolute mundanity: you’re given a flashlight, a construction worker helmet and a camera and you’re sent off to do your job assessing the damage to city buildings and assets, but it eventually evolves into a sort of magical realism so fragile that you’ll have to visit by night, when everyone’s asleep, with your flashlight barely flickering, so that you do not dispel it with your very presence. It’s like a rich and flavourful RPG world that you’re visiting from another dimension, it went quiet just a moment ago and you move freely among its folds and wrinkles, taking in its complexity and mind-boggling design, but never actually being there. I know the INFRA in the title stands for infrastructure, but it may very well stand for infra-reality, because that’s how you’ll be experiencing the world of the game: from underneath, from a hidden dimension accessible only to maintenance men (the underground tunnels you’ll have to navigate for most of your playthrough are a clear indication of that), like the world had been put to sleep with a terrible, deadly disease and you’ve been allowed access to its innermost functions and features in an off the record mission to find a treatment for it. And yeah, you’ll say, I get it, game, the world we live in, that we see around us, is built on another, hidden world, accessible only to its designers and people who make it function, great! But that’s only one layer to the titular infra metaphor. In its best moments the game goes even deeper, to a second layer, which I can only describe as the most striking representation I found in another game to that iconic impossibility in Planescape: Torment’s pregnant city: the crumbling, decaying world is sensing its ending approaching and is giving birth to a pulsating, magical infrareality that you’ll be able to visit at the core of this game. * Pirandello writes about something like that in L'uomo dal fiore in bocca and it’s also how Miguel Piñero describes his deadly disease in Leon Ichaso’s biopic: “Cirrhosis: sounds like a fu*king flower!”.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 16, 2016

  INFRA is a game that I first saw on Greenlight about a year ago. I was getting worried with the time it was taking to deliver BUT now that I have seen what they delivered I am blown away. The puzzles are great. They almost reming me of Myst in some regards. And the enviroments are amazing. I wasn't even aware the Source Engine could look this good and run so well. There are a few bugs at the time of this review (launch day) but I have confidence that they will be quickly attended to. The price of 14.99 USD is a very fair asking price for this game. If you decide to purchase make sure you spend time to explore each area to it's fullest. There are little goodies hidden all around the map. The subject of the game really is interesting. I found myself wondering about what sort of underground cities are beneath the city I live in and how much effort it must take to keep it running. When walking around INFRA I feel less like I am walking around river controls and steel mills and more like I am walking through an ancient tomb that has become overgrown and has started to decay. I can't wait to see what else these developers have in store for us. EDIT: This game has no real horror elements. It is more of a puzzle game. That being said there were several points where I had a chill run down my spine or a feeling that something was not right was felt mostly due to walking through the decaying areas alone with nothing but the sound of wind and the structure creaking around me. It is no walking simulator with the amount of puzzles and a few fast paced scenes. There are no zombies or slendermen or Nazis but the enviroment and the structures are working against you.