de.tail

15/12/2016 - Finally finished INFRA…

… well part 1 & 2 at least. Now I guess I have to wait a year or so for the final episode. :(
At least I get to free up 15GB -ish of much needed hard drive space as my ssd is almost full to bursting!

INFRA

Anyway, I started playing INFRA again last night & I started dozing off while playing it - damn! it doesn’t half bore me to death during the walking only parts. It wouldn’t be so bad if I actually had a clue about where I am supposed to go & what I’m supposed to be doing, rather than the constant backtracking I end up having to do instead to find the correct place & then having to fiddle around with some buttons, switches & valves (or walves as the protagonist says). To be honest I’m finding the protagonist to be more of an antagonist as he spends more time breaking things & generally making things worse rather than better - or maybe that’s just me?

There’s a bit during part 2 where you come across a room full of covered up bodies. If you walk over them the protagonist starts saying amusing things like “oops! don’t mind me.” & “coming through”. I found that quite amusing. Was annoyed that I didn’t get an amusing achievement for it though - but we can’t have everything I suppose…

I guess it’s nice getting to see what a damage surveyor or structural analyst (or whatever he’s supposed to be - I’ve forgotten) is supposed to be all about, but whether or not it’s a realistic interpretation, I have no clue; other than the fact that I would hate having to do that as a job. Wading through manky sewers. Avoiding falling debris. Avoiding things that can fry me to death or melt my face off. I mean, thanks, but no thanks!

One thing I will say, is that the game has annoyed me at certain points, like when he’s clearly been within reach of getting back out into the real world & instead of figuring a way to get outside & flag a taxi back seems to be beyond his skill-set, even though he’s managed to both break & repair countless things on the journey so far… No, instead he decides the better way to travel is by going back underground & making his way through yet more deathtraps with plenty of harrowing near deaths escapes!

849 achievements (+9) 6 perfect games (+0) 352 games (+0)
Joe

This was a game that I was planning to play in the near future… but I never knew about it being episodic and I don’t think I can really handle the installation space at the moment for over a year! I did double-take when I saw how big it is lol. I’ve just checked and it’s listed at 25gb on my computer, yikes. Well you’ve definitely given it a mixed review at best, it’ll have to wait! Thanks for your thoughts as it’s the first time I’ve read any real comments about it :)

de.tail

I think this game really depends on whether or not you like walking simulators & also if you don’t mind ones that are mostly about exploring & less about narrative. There is bits of story & there are notes, documents & old news papers laying around that provide little insights, but for the most part you are just mindlessly walking around & clicking & pulling on random buttons, dials & levers while trying to conserve your flashlight & camera batteries. Oh, you also have to look out for broken things & things that don’t look right & take photos of them. You also have to take photos of the notes & other things you find laying around - I assume the protagonist plans on adding them to his report when he eventually makes his way back to the office.

One thing that will drive you insane (myself included) is listening to the character constantly say whenever you pick up or replace the batteries in your flashlight/camera is “I have x packs of camera/flashlight batteries now” or something to that effect. Or when taking a photo of something broken, he will say something like: “that’s not right!” or “someone should get that fixed.” & then of course there’s the one when you photograph a note “interesting!” - which isn’t all that interesting to say the least. :D

& yes, it’s quite a lengthy game; especially if you plan on trying to 100% complete it as you will spend ages meticulously combing around each new area looking for notes, geo-caches, photograph-able spots & things that can be fixed.