3D INFINITY review for Xbox Live Indie Games
! February 1, 2013
3D Infinity has no reason to exist unless you own capable/compatible 3D equipment. Say what you will for the technology in its current form, but titles like this sell the concept arguably better than Hollywood.
Imagine the final Death Star trench run from Star Wars, captured from behind Luke Skywalker’s heroic X-Wing fighter. That is 3D Infinity. There is little sense of place; the game merely cycles three procedurally generated backgrounds with spiraling, winding tunnels and increasingly furious enemy ships.
3D Infinity harkens back to Space Harrier or any number of Sega’s wild shooters of the day with their stock, hand animated scrolling techniques. The difference is in the technology, backgrounds here are smoothly polygonal and intensely exaggerated to poke at the viewer as they travel through a world that just is.
Maybe this indie title has a narrative. If it does, it only comes through out of modern necessity. You can call the player’s ship, “Player’s Ship,” for all that it matters. The real meat comes from the use of technology.
To 3D Infinity’s credit, there is enough here to dazzle even the 2D minded. Adjusting to the pace and learning hit boxes is all it takes to enter into its realm of static objects primed to kill and pattern-following, polygonal shapes that inexplicably want you dead. Somewhere on these spinning hexagonal frames lies guns that shoot green lasers or plasma or something. Whatever the case, it damages Player’s Ship on contact.
There is less content to 3D Infinity at $5 than there is in most $1 Xbox Live Indie games. Sparked to life purely on challenge and scoring, the trio of recycled stage designs mix up location-based objects and speed up the longer you stay alive. There is only one boss design at the end of each stage style too, a crane-handed and shielded machine that tries to grab and shoot for sufficient challenge.
Yes, the game is infinitely (pun intended) gimmicky, and here that is okay. With the full breadth of stereoscopic 3D (and to a lesser extent, anaglyph red/blue) behind it, the game does not take a performance hit, with sharp resolution and smooth 60fps frame rate. The simple texture work ensures the need for processed information stays low.
Offensive power is maxed from the outset. Players need only to work for a shield boost that will occasionally pop-up deep within the frame. The need for additional weaponry is low anyway, a static, impenetrable line of vulcan machine gun firepower penetrating deep into the background while lock-on missiles handle the rest. The mixture works, and makes taking down entire lines of enemy armadas satisfying.
Two buttons and an analog stick later (and a dodge with the bumpers), 3D Infinity has mastered the simplistic art of the shooter in a different perspective. For its anemic faults in content creation, the indie effort excels at technology and scoring runs. No, 3D Infinity is not hardcore with deep scoring systems, just basic enjoyment that comes from seeing things explode deep into an artificial frame created by polarized glasses. Use it to show off and gain some cheap thrills.
