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Fall has begun and the temperature outside is now low enough that I can start using my computer as a heater for my room while playing graphically intense games. But wait, what’s this? A timely review? Has the world gone mad, or have I just backed too many Kickstarter games? Hm. Probably that second one.
Infinity: Battlescape is one of the big four space sims announced during the early 2010s alongside the mostly successful Elite: Dangerous, the broken dream of No Man’s Sky, and the juggernaut of promises and melodrama Star Citizen. Is it fair to compare a game that cost $332,620 to a game that has raised, so far, $235 million (+$46m for marketing)? And yet, that is what I found myself doing.
No Man’s Sky’s pitch was “every atom procedural” and was promised to have every feature under the sun (galaxy?). On release, the hype train came crashing down and the procedural generation led to repetition void of meaning – and the grindy gameplay didn’t help. Updates have ameliorated, though not solved, these problems. Elite: Dangerous carved out a niche with its serene beauty, a scale that felt “real,” and continuous development. Star Citizen is still very much a work in progress, but has a playable alpha and is making strides towards becoming a game that redefines scale for video games – if it ever comes out.
So where does Infinity: Battlescape stand? The Early Access for the game just released a couple days ago, so it certainly hasn’t had time to mature, but the draw is clear – you’re in a solar system battle arena: go fight. Unfortunately, that’s not really what I’m looking for in a space sim. I typically avoid fights until I’ve built up resources from trade routes and missions so I can stand to lose a few times. Worse still, the first fights you’ll probably find will so hopelessly outclass your starter ship that you’ll almost certainly die. Admittedly, I haven’t played enough to upgrade my ship yet, and my understanding is that the fighting system is fairly fleshed out in the long run.
The trouble is that everything (besides the combat) just makes me think of Star Citizen. There are planets and moons that you can fly down to, but Star Citizen’s look better. There are space stations, but you can’t get out of your ship and walk around them. You can warp from place to place, but the system doesn’t really have any weight to it – it makes travel seem trivial. Infinity: Battlescape has a lot fewer bugs and the systems are far more complete, but the experience as a whole seems to be missing several pillars of what attract me to space sims – in particular, trading and exploration. I’d like to note that this is probably my own fault – I just saw space sim in a complete solar system and backed; I didn’t really notice that the focus would be entirely on combat.
Before closing, I’d like to draw a parallel to another game – one that doesn’t have $235 million to spend – Rodina. I’ve reviewed Rodina before and mentioned that it really captures the feeling of emptiness and danger while not needing to be over-complex. While not a multiplayer game (which is a big “except,” especially since Infinity: Battlescape seems to have that part down extremely well), Rodina showcases its solar system and fight for survival with better style and clearer presentation than Infinity: Battlescape does. Infinity: Battlescape is still in Early Access and still has potential, but for now I must put it into Tier Three.