Playlogic is a company that makes a wide range of compelling titles that rarely make it to the US. At this year's E3, they had a selection of mostly PC games worth more than a casual glance, but the one that really caught my eye was the hellish third person action game Infernal. After I had fallen over dead the sixth time, I was informed that the demo was set on Hard. Lucky for me and other easily frustrated gamers, the final version will come with three levels of difficulty, so people can set the challenge to whatever they're comfortable with.
Ryan Lennox is a top intelligence agent who just happens to be a devil in disguise. Not only is he quick on the trigger, and even quicker to duck behind cover, but he's got a fist full of supernatural tricks to give him the edge against his unrelenting enemies. Teleportation is nice for passing straight through fences to flip hard to reach switches, or sneak up on unsuspecting foes. In the demo for instance, there was an enemy who could only be killed by nailing the air tank on his back, and since teleportation only lasts a short time, I had to be quick on the trigger to leave him writhing in agony.
There are a number of other powers, such as the ability to levitate objects, to clear obstructions and show off the complex physics engine. There's also a straight up burst of raw mana that hits hard, but also eats up your power supply. With a game this tough, it's nice that you can drain the souls of fallen foes or even turn their bullets into health for a limited time, if you have the mana to spare. When you're running low on both, you'll be able to flip on your goggles and sense rare health and mana supplies to fill you up again. With this many abilities, it's possible to go through the entire game without ever touching a gun, to show them what a real devil can do.
You can also go the other way, playing through the game as a more traditional third person shooter. Then you'll be ducking behind cover while mastering a diverse selection of weaponry, with an assortment of clever hi-tech gadgets. Enemies will still be fierce, but you can pick up and use any gun they drop, from machine guns to flame throwers, to even up the odds. Up close, the action turns to melee fighting, which doesn't do a lot of damage, but staggers an enemy enough to keep them from shooting you in the shins. The final game will also sport a wide selection of drivable vehicles, from cars to bulldozers, but this feature wasn't available in the E3 demo.
Let's stop talking about gameplay, and gush about just how beautiful Infernal is. The screenshots don't do it justice. They fail to capture just how detailed the character models are, and how richly the textures shine under the complex lighting effects that give these surroundings a tangible feeling of depth and reality. Nearly all the objects with the locations can be interacted with, whether being busted up or shoved around, or consumed with a fiery particle-based explosion that gives the Ageia physics engine a workout. One enemy was blasted so hard from the explosion that his head was jammed against the wall, leaving his legs dangling. It's something you've seen in Half-life 2, but Gordon Freeman was never able to send Combine soldiers flying with a fiery blast from this right arm.
