Infectra

Genre: Puzzle / Real-Time Strategy

Players: 1

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Review:

Infectra is a Puzzle game with Real-Time Strategy elements released on PC in 2020 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2021. In this game, players are trying to evacuate a colony planet infected with a deadly disease while healing healthy people and fighting off those who have turned violent.

Infectra makes use of fairly simple 3D visuals, with people represented as tiny walking figures – blue if they’re healthy, yellow if they’re infected, and red if their infection has caused them to turn violent (read: zombies). It works, but the tones of dull brown and grey combined with the generic-looking buildings makes it hard to distinguish them from one another, and the choice to go with 3D visuals is odd given that the game won’t let you change your camera perspective.

These visuals are backed by a subdued soundtrack that may be fitting for the grim events being depicted, but doesn’t stand out as being very memorable. Occasionally you’ll also be treated to cutscenes of commercials and news organizations that attempt to set a satirical tone, but this tone clashes with much of the rest of the game, and its amateurish production doesn’t help matters either.

As for the gameplay, players are limited in where and how they can place structures – the maps you play on are split into large tiles, with only one building per tile. What’s more, structures like gates seem to require being placed only in areas bordered on either side by two walls – any other spot makes for an incomplete fence that can be easily circumvented. Beyond this, there’s not a whole lot to the strategy here, and there isn’t really enough building up of resources to make this a compelling Management Sim either. At the very least, I can say that this game makes good use of the Nintendo Switch’s touchscreen, but that doesn’t exactly save the game from its shortcomings.

In the end, while it may be particularly topical right now to release a game about epidemics and quarantines, or perhaps you may think it to be crass and opportunistic. But either way, Infectra is a game that just isn’t especially fun to play, and doesn’t really succeed with its satirical elements either. It’s not terrible, but no matter what you came here looking for, you’re likely to be disappointed.

tl;dr – Infectra is a Puzzle game with Real-Time Strategy elements that has you evacuating people during an epidemic. Unfortunately, nothing here is especially compelling – the presentation is dull, the satire misses the mark, and the gameplay is too limited to be all that interesting. No matter what you’re looking for in this game, you’ll likely find something elsewhere that better satisfies what you want.

Grade: C-

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