Infinite Undiscovery (Xbox 360)
alt="Gustav the bear"/>Gustav the bear is probably the coolest character in the game.
I'm in the desert with a couple of 10-year-old kids and a runaway princess. While out here, I get attacked by a walking cactus, a giant bird and some sort of sand-based fish. On top of that, one of the idiots that I'm leading back to his newly liberated village has disappeared and I have to go find him. This sums up Infinite Undiscovery, the new RPG from tri-Ace and Square Enix: It's an exercise in frustration that has been peppered only lightly with fun.
When I opened up Infinite Undiscovery, I was excited by the prospect of running through an open world with my party and showing some bad guys the business end of my sword. I'm not completely disappointed on that particular aspect; it's the rest of the game that leaves something to be desired.
The game starts with your character, Capell, locked in a prison cell in a case of mistaken identity: Sigmund the Liberator, who is the enemy of the Order of Chains, looks exactly like you. The Order of Chains has bound the moon to the planet with, appropriately enough, giant chains, and only Sigmund can break them. After an intro in which you're rescued by one of Sigmund's friends, the adventure begins. Sadly, this is also where the frustration begins.
A screen full of irritating.
The dialogue and character backstories are cookie-cutter. There are very few shades of grey in Infinite Undiscovery and everyone acts as if they've lost their minds. The characters each see only their own points of view; God help you if you disagree -- until they completely change their attitude. A character may absolutely despise you and then suddenly decide to like you.
The storytelling is ludicrous: At one point, you have to save the father of a pair of twins, who insist on coming along to lend a hand here and there. Once the quest ends, they beg to join your Liberation force. These are 10-year-old children. Capell naturally says no, which prompts the kids to ask their mother who, in turn, insists that you take them. When you protest again, she asks the kids if they understand what they're fighting for. They say "yes" and join your party.
alt="Big red monster"/>The battles can be quite intense, especially against big, red, killing machines.
The only enjoyable part of the game is the combat. While wandering through the world, you run into the occasional group of enemies, but unlike other RPGs, there is no special combat mode; the game transitions seamlessly into combat. Each of your party members will engage the enemy and act as designed while you chain together hits to form a combo. Different combos and strikes provide different bonuses such as health or extra experience. Unfortunately, opening the menu screen does not pause the action at any point in the game. This may have been intended to add an element of excitement to the proceedings, but it's not as exciting when you're desperately trying to heal yourself during a massacre.
Besides standard combat, you will also enter a Dynasty Warriors-like mode where you must fight through a larger contingent of enemies either before a time limit or until a certain goal is reached. This mode is the most fun and rewarding, which is good, since the game was designed as an action-RPG.
alt="Dying"/>This is usually the menu you see right before you die while trying to apply a potion.
Little else is enjoyable about the game experience. The characters range from dull to irritating, and the world isn't fun to explore since it's mostly devoid of life. Infinite Undiscovery also boasts a save-point system that might make you bash your head into a brick wall. There's really nothing I enjoy more than fighting for 20 minutes to get to a boss fight, losing, and having to do it all over again because there were no nearby saves.
Although Infinite Undiscovery is one of the more attractive games for the Xbox 360, the graphics do have problems. In terms of design, all of the faces are missing that certain something that makes them looks natural. Instead, they look lifeless and wooden. In combat, there is a good chance you'll experience some graphical lag during special moves that take away character control. Luckily, the lag rarely influences your actual performance and is easily overlooked.
alt="Character close up"/>As far as in-game graphics go, Infinite Undiscovery is among the best.
While all of these negative points are frustrating, they're nothing compared to playing this game and thinking about what it could have been. With an excellent graphics engine (stuttering aside) and entertaining combat, you'd think that tri-Ace and Square would have a hit on their hands. Instead, it's bogged down by poor writing and some strange gameplay design choices.
If Square were to make a sequel, one would hope that it would hire a new writing staff and streamline the game experience. As it is, I can't in good conscience recommend Infinite Undiscovery to anyone.
This review was based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.
