My time with “Strike Suit Zero” was an overall positive one, even if game’s problems prevented it from reaching its full potential. Enter “Strike Suit Infinity”, a separate sister game in the series that does not require “Strike Suit Zero” to play. Where “Strike Suit Zero” put you through a single player campaign, “Strike Suit Infinity” is all about high scores. Yes, that’s it. No campaign, no multiplayer, no kidding. Just you, endless waves of enemies, and your wits. Think of it as an “endless mode” of sorts…why they couldn’t have included it in the core game is beyond me. At any rate, you’re probably wondering to yourself, is it any good?
Strike Suit Infinity (Windows)
The main menu will allow the player to start a new game, view leaderboards, and adjust game options. The options menu touches on everything found in its sister game: screen resolution, audio sliders, keybinds, fullscreen toggle, graphics quality…you get the idea. Once again, I opted for the mouse and keyboard approach and it worked fine for me, except for one major gripe. A bug in this particular game prevents me from binding movement actions to the arrow keys. This is rather disappointing, as I dislike the WASD play style. Starting a new game allows you to choose among three different suits and have at it.
Editor’s Note: The keybind issue with the arrow keys appears to either have been patched or resolved itself.
One of my biggest gripes about “Strike Suit Zero” was the horrific voice acting…well, there’s none of that here. I’m very pleased that the game focused on what made “Strike Suit Zero” appealing: space combat. The game is played over a series of rounds, with your goal being to get score multipliers and earn as many points as you can. If you’ve played “Strike Suit Zero”, you’ll notice a few new enemies out on the battlefield, though the combat still feels the same. That, of course, isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
In between rounds, you’ll be able to purchase weapons and reinforcements with credits. I’ll go on record in the here and now to say that this is the part of the game that intrigued me the most. I would have loved the ability to call in reinforcements on some of the previous space sims I played. “TIE Fighter” was one such game, but I sure could have used the help in some of those “X-Wing” missions. Reinforcements range from fighter to capital ships, each one varying in cost and power. How you balance your weapon stocks and your reinforcements are ultimately up to you.
The better you do, the more credits and points you earn.
I’ll opt to keep this review short and sweet, mainly because there’s not much more to this game than I’ve already outlined. If you played and loved “Strike Suit Zero” for its combat and enjoy “endless” modes in other games, then “Strike Suit Infinity” would be right up your alley. It looks and feels a lot like its sister game, but is a bit more “arcadey”. The dogfights are definitely intense and enjoyable, so you won’t be bored plowing through ship after ship after ship. All in all, “Strike Suit Infinity” is a great addition to the series. Seven bucks (as of 7/25/13) might be a bit much for just an endless mode style game, so you may want to wait until it goes on sale.
Final verdict: 7/10
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You can learn more about and purchase the game by visiting the following websites:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/234160/
You can view video play sessions here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DuUpJZMzg0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSHXs4klwaU