Gamer--freakz

Gamespot score:6.5(fair)

my score:7.0

(+)Pros:- Cool concept,- likable characters,- ship customization is incredibly addictive and overall very in-depth.

(-)Cons:- Combat is very luck dependant,- punishing difficulty,- repititive game flow.

Gameplay time:20-30 hours

The DS is no stranger to oddball games. It has seen games such as phoenix wright, trauma center, picross 3D and many others come and go. Infinite space is one of those oddball titles, theres almost no way for me to fully confirm it as a solo genre type. It mixes RPG, stragetic and many other genres to create something that is fresh and new towards its players. Fortunately, the game is relatively cool in terms of its concept, and that alone can suck players in. On the bad side however, is that the game is punishingly hard, and can definetely turn many players off. So, whats to expect in a game like this?




First off, the story is pretty one of a kind. You will either love or hate it. You star as yuri (who looks like some sort of homosexual dude to me. Yes, hes a guy), a young boy who always wanted to leave his planet to see and explore the outer space. He hires a transporter to take him out to space, but doing so, he broke his planet's law of forbidden space travel. The planet governer takes yuri's sister hostage, and he soon finds himself fighting the government itself to rescue his sister. After the rescue, it became obvious to yuri that he has been exiled from his home planet, and he goes to travel the universe to find out more about epitahs, something that was left for him. The plot soon becomes an epic battle between planets and organizations, and heats up to become something decently tense and exciting.




Either yuri is gay, or he's actually a girl.

Infinite space is somewhat of an RPG while you're not in combat. You navigate solar systems and go from planet to planet, stopping by on some to gather clues on where to go next, upgrade your ships, get new blueprints or just to fool around. Gradually exploring and clearing most of a system's planets will soon open you to a new system, with a gradually bigger community and more planets for you to stop by.

You repeat this process trough the whole game, as you jump from planet to planet, collecting and obtaining goodies as you go. When you stop by one of these planets, you can rest up your crew and heal up your ships, kind of like an inn feature. And of course, you can save your game. This makes planets like towns, sort of...towns that you will dreadfully need. You see, jumping from planet to planet sounds cool and all, but more than often you will get jumped by enemy encounters, most of which can wipe out your entire crew like its no big deal. After mauling through one or two random encounters....finally reaching a planet is like finding an oasis in a desert.



Things look pretty complicated on screen, but its actually not.

 Now then, the combat in infinite space is something that can take some getting used to. Its not like a usual RPG where if you over-grind you can take on 20 or 30 under leveled dudes and come out unscratched. In infinite space, taking out 2-3 enemy fleets can already bring your crew down to critical levels. Its hard to explain the main core of battle, since most of the time, you have to act quick, and tap those commands you see at your bottom touch screen as you see fit. You can move your ship back when you think the next enemy attack is going to completey blast you and you need some breathing space, you can move front when you think your enemy is losing badly and you want to end them quickly. You can select attack, dodge, barrage and many other options as you observe the battle flow and that gauge.

The battle gauge is key, and as it fills, you can issue your different commands. Some commands require alot of the battle gauge, while others require less. Its all about self observation and how you want the battle to turn out. However, a wrong move will easily lead you into defeat, seeing as how enemies come in overwhelming numbers or superior equipment 75% of the time, especially during story scenarios. Still, if you defeat your enemies, you are rewarded with good deal of experience, money and loot. These are more than enough to suffice the difficulty you faced when you do battle with them, and it feels very satisfying to finally beat an enemy crew or fleet. Pimping up your ships into total badasses are also a good past time. There are TONS of customizable parts and you can pimp your ship up to whatever way you want to.

As you can tell, the game is overwhemly punshing, and it seriously turns players off. You have no idea how many times I switched the game off in pure frustration of losing to a story driven fight about 5-6 times. Many a time the battles you face are nearly impossible, forcing you into battle after battle with a half destroyed fleet and tired out crew is just retarded. Even if you go out and start grinding like a pig to get top grade equipments, you will STILL get your ass whooped unless you play VERY well or have a tremendous amount of luck. Speaking of luck, thats what most of the battles require. If you have been doing well throughout an entire boss fight and suddenly the boss decides to fking DODGE YOUR BARRAGE, you know you are already screwed. And the melee fights, they are so luck based that you either curbstomp the enemies, or they curbstomp you. Its uncool, thats what it is. Also, the game brings you from planet to planet on story quests that make you run back and forth so many times between old locations, and they always ask you to blow something up. It gets predictable later on, and its repititive.

Infinite space is a punishing journey through the many different galaxies and planets. Its very satisfying at times and when you are customizing your fleet you will definetely have tons of fun, but prepare to get your ass kicked several times over. If you have a TON of patience and love to get whooped around like space junk, your time harvested into this will suit you well. If you get pissed off easily stay far far far away from this, its very hard and you will be flinging your DS all over your room.



Happy gaming.