Review: Big Sky Infinity
Coming to the PlayStation Network this week, Big Sky Infinity will be available with the cross buy promotion attached to it. What this means is you buy one version and get the other version free! PlayStation Plus subscribers will get both versions for free on launch day. Ripstone along with VooFoo and Boss Baddie attempts to make Big Sky Infinite looks shake up the shooting genre, but can it pull it off? Lets find out……..
From the get go, you will see a wealth of game modes waiting to be unlocked. These range from straight up arcade mode through to your more hardcore settings such as boss rush and nightmare modes. To begin with you may want to try out practice mode where you can play with unlimited lives and help teach you how best to play the game. Yes the game looks basic at first glance, but its the way in which the game unfolds that changes things. A twin stick shooter with a difference is putting it mildly. Armed with a gun and a drill, your goal is to kill enemies with your gun whilst blasting through planets using the drill. In these planets will be power up pads that when hit will grant you better buffed weaponry. Playing Classic mode is where the true bulk of the game lies. Collect shards in game to spend on upgrading and improving your ship. Adding a shield or a mine that shoots out randomly are just a few of the things you can buy in the shop. If you want to upgrade your ship then you can buy shards from the PlayStation store in the form of in app purchasing. This will only upgrade your ship faster so to be honest its not a must have at all.
Back to the game, what keeps it fresh and different are the levels. For every time you play a game the levels are randomly generated meaning you never get the same game twice. Bosses will appear at any given time throughout the game. I even had a boss fight spawn at the very beginning! Levels are bright and colourful with random things happening all the time from enemy placement to special effects like a red and black slowdown filter on screen. Its things like this that keep you playing. With full online leader board support and constant connectivity to the servers, pausing the game and bringing up friends scores are just a click away. The game does have multi player aside from the leader board chasing. Horse is its name and its basically a score attack style mode where you can play against others in a asynchronously fashion. You can play against friends or randoms so fear not. The music will not be to everyone’s taste and the narrator is really annoying! luckily you can turn that option off and I advise that you do. The other problem I tend to find is if a lot of enemies come on screen you get noticeable lag and slowdown. This doesn’t happen a lot but when it does it kind of ruins the fast fluid feel of the game.
For as much as the game looks the part and in some places plays the part, be wary of one thing and be prepared to accept it. YOU WILL DIE ALOT! the game is one of those where you must approach it differently to other shooters. You will get killed for the stupidest of things or encounter a boss and have no way of knowing how to beat him. This is a game design feature and not a problem. You need to learn how the game plays and take your time with it. Explore the many game modes available to you. You wont be able to learn bullet patterns or strategies as the game is random and I’m yet to play the same game. All you can do is take it play by play and be ready to re act. Lasting less than 5 minutes on your first go is to be expected. The more time you put into the game, the more you will ultimately get out of it. I hated the game at first as I felt like I got cheated out of many lives. But now….well I’m still crap but I last a longer. The game is kind of like when you first lose your virginity, you know you have to last as long as you can but you know its not gonna happen. Where as in life you will get an “its ok you were excited” response, in this game it will be a humorous caption on a game over screen. Just dust yourself off and jump back on.
For the few problems the game can have, the positives far out weigh them and you will enjoy your time on it especially with the leader board chasing stuff keeping you motivated. So look forward to enjoying the game this week on PlayStation Network.
