Topic: Infinity Runner (Wii U) Review

[Daan]

Turn into a werewolf and sprint your way to the end of this endless runner spectacle.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/42511/infinity-runner-wii-u-review

When it comes to games that I can easily play, endless runners definitely fit the bill. Their action orientated focus make them never go stale and there is always the drive to do it all better. This is what Infinity Runner, the latest game from Wales Interactive, does right in a nutshell. It is flashy, understandable and mostly fun. There are, however, things that could have made it more charming.

The story is a perfunctory one. You are a science experiment that tries to escape from a highly secured ship. A British sounding woman guides you through and gives you advice to understand what is next. You will need this dearly, because everything on the ship is trying to kill you. Not just even enemies, but obstacles will try to stop you dead in your tracks. And in some moments, you suddenly change into a werewolf. Yes, seriously. Infinity Runner has a charming B-movie vibe to it, but they never take it far enough.

The gameplay is, at least, very solid. You move left and right at a brisk pace, press various buttons to perform actions like jumping and try to get at the end of a level. While this may sound easy enough, the obstacles come at you quite quickly. You barely get any time to react, so failing to perform a certain move can be a painful ordeal. Luckily, there are checkpoints in place, so it never becomes too frustrating. Another thing that you have to keep in mind is that you are playing this from the first personperspective. This takes a little while to adjust to, but it certainly makes things more cinematic.

Infinity Runner is just a few hours long. There are various difficulty settings and an endless mode to play through, but it is all more of the same. The bigger problem is that the game is sort of a buggy mess. Cutscenes and sounds are sometimes cut short, overlap or wouldn't sync. Even weirder is that when you play off-TV, there is no sound at all. The visuals are decently put together, though some framerate dips are present to break the illusion somewhat.

Infinity Runner provides some decent thrills, but it isn't anything major in the grand scheme of things. The gameplay and levels are fun, even if they are plagued with some quick deaths. The bigger issues, which you will find in the game's presentation, can be less excused. Framerate dips and out of sync audio provide more problems than the game can chew. At the end of the day, I liked Infinity Runner enough to play through it, but that is about it.