Infinity Runner Review

Infinity Runner might just be the most aptly-titled game of all time. You never stop running. From the second you break out of your hermetically sealed chamber to the moment you stand toe-to-toe with the game's final boss, you're constantly sprinting along narrow corridors, dodging various obstacles and hazards that lie ahead.

You play as a test subject striving to escape the creaking confines of the eponymous Infinity space station as it tears itself apart, only to discover that you happen to be a werewolf. Other space werewolves like you stalk the ship, alongside hostile, green-blooded enemy troops, and it's through this admittedly rather cool premise from which the urgency to run and never stop running originates.

"Lemme out!"

The trouble is, Infinity Runner has the art style and production values of a '90s PSone game, and is essentially a 3D endless runner that proves an irritating trial and error affair all too often. It's plagued by issues too, whether it's frequent clipping or certain instances where a gameplay mechanic that works just fine every other time, fails to work at one specific point, for no apparent reason.

When you factor in rewards (and achievements) for completing the game without a single death, this kind of thing can be especially galling, and is indicative of some fairly sloppy game design. Then there's the hateful final boss battle, wherein the shape of the bumper button prompts are back-to-front, resulting in some infuriating moments of inadvertent failure. All of these combat encounters are rather dull, in truth, requiring simple, predictable button inputs and only relatively quick reflexes. The game can be a chore at times.

And while we're more than aware that Infinity Runner is a budget indie title, the number of reused assets becomes mind-numbing after a while. Leaping through the vacuum of outer space to reach an almost out of reach precipice is somewhat thrilling the first time, but the second, third, fourth and fifth times it happens in almost the exact same way soon proves a tad farcical.

There are seven different environments you'll run through (with two sectors apiece), each offering their own variations on the same obstacles to jump over, slide underneath or dodge to the left and right, but the sense of repetition creeps in almost immediately. Unfortunately, Infinity Runner is a bit on the drab side, and the gameplay, while occasionally enjoyable, soon wears thin after an hour or two.

Apart from completing the game on harder difficulty settings, Arcade Mode is where you'll find additional replay value in Infinity Runner, and it's here where accumulating greater scores and seeing how far you can run before your lives run out actually proves rather good fun. The unpredictability of facing randomly-generated passageways, hazards and rooms also keeps you on your toes, unlike the story where you'll have to retry the same thing over and over when you inevitably fail to predict what's coming next.

You'll be fighting these divs a lot.

Infinity Runner can be fun in small doses, and the achievement list makes for some nice, simple Gamerscore, save for the 'Bigger, Faster, Stronger' achievement, which requires you complete the Story Mode on hard without dying. This task is rendered almost impossible thanks to one shonky zipline and the werewolf wall-running mechanic, which seems to only work properly if you hit it in just the right way. There's little to no margin for error in some cases.

The rest of the list requires collecting thousands of little data packets, which appear in long chains, and accumulating a huge total running distance and overall score. It's a decent list that rewards extended playtime beyond the brief story, ensuring you'll want to dip your toe into the game's Arcade Mode for time trials and non-stop running challenges.

A neat diversion at a low price, Infinity Runner is worth picking up for a few hours of throwaway entertainment, but anyone hoping for something with real bite might find their money better spent elsewhere.