Luke Schneider of Radiangames is one of those people who often makes it painfully obvious to me, how incredibly lazy I am. Since the creation of Radiangames in March of this very year, he has gone on to create and release, not one, not two, but three full games. And if you think for a second that means he has tossed quality out the window in favor of it’s degenerate cousin quantity, you’re sadly mistaken. So, without any further fanboying, lets get on with why we’re here, Radiangames latest title Inferno.

Gameplay

Now usually when one reviews a twin stick shooter of just about any kind, I like to immediately reach for and dust off Geometry Wars for a smattering of comparisons. I however, am bored at the thought of once again doing that, so I’m not going to. And quite frankly, it wouldn’t even be appropriate because they are just simply too dissimilar.

Inferno is a twin stick shooter. But hold on, it’s not what you think. For starters, the game is not framed in a box or even planted on the surface of a sphere. Instead, this game takes on almost a top down adventure feel with its walls, obstacles, and even a bit of character development to work and tweak.

One thing I always like in my shooters is different weapons. While Inferno doesn’t actually have different weapons it does allow for modifcation of the base weapon, which suits my needs for variety just fine. As you progress through the game you are able to select various modifiers that will add spread, power, and even enemy seeking features to your weapon.

While we are on the topic of weapons, this is a great time to talk about one of Inferno’s most unique features. In addition to your main ship, which accounts for the bulk of your weapons fire, you get an additional set of semi-autonomous fighters that contribute to your offensive capabilities. The particularly cool feature of these little guys are their dual aim, they will not only fire in the direction you are firing, but will also fire at other things around them of their own volition.

Just about everything else in the game is fairly standard. There are numerous enemy types, all with fairly unique behaviors that must be understood, as well as mechanics that can be used and sometimes abused to make your life slightly less short. Additionally there are boss fights, as well as a few different modes and difficulty levels to keep you playing for awhile.

As rosy as my outlook on the game so far has been, I do have a few gripes from the gameplay perspective. I did feel like the Plus mode which allows you to restart the game with all of your upgrades, to be a little lacking in the “more” or in this case “Plus” category. I would have really liked to have seen the little ally fighters get a bump from a maximum of three to at least five. Not because it is more difficult, but rather because it would simply be more awesome. As a bonus trivial gripe, I also would have liked the proximety mines in the game to have taken on an offensive role in play. It would have been cool to have been able to sheild up and bum rush the bombs to clear a room of tricky minion units.
But that’s all the quips you’ll get from me, I’ve got no more. The gameplay is just wonderfully polished and ready for your Microsoft Points.

As an important side note, the game does have a multiplayer mode, a mode which I can only assume adds a pretty substantial value to the game. However, I was not able to test the game in multiplayer mode so I cannot confirm this. I do know that it looks pretty damn cool in the screenshots though!

Audio/Visual

Here is the pitfall to having released a game as beautiful as JoyJoy. Radiangames set the bar tremendously high for themselves and in the case of Inferno, they seem to have dropped the needle on a Rastafarian beat and limboed right beneath it. That’s not to say the game looks bad. Quite the contrary, it looks perfectly fine. But, it just isn’t the pure unadulterated delight that JoyJoy was to look at.

The ships in the game look good. Simple in design, identifiable by color, and they have a little bloom going on that looks nice. The projectiles of the game are a little less exciting as they were in JoyJoy but they do their job just fine. Really the main sticking point is the background, it seems to be just a particularly dark background with some cloud texture applied to it. The colors change a bit from level to level but doesn’t substantially change the feel of the environment.

The music and the sound effects of the game work very well for it. Especially in situations where there is a lot going on and the sound effects really become a primary source of information regarding losing a pod or taking a hit. The destinctive sounds, really keep you in the know. The music is quite fine, it suits the game perfectly and is smooth enough not to allow repetitive ness to intrude during long play sessions.

Summary

Inferno is a win. Its hook is its gameplay, and its visuals, while not as awesome as JoyJoy’s, do nothing to adversely effect the quality of the final product. The game will set you back 80 Microsoft Joybucks and yield a return that vastly exceeds that in entertainment.