Infinity Danger Review

I don’t remember much from my days spent combing through dozens of Xbox Live Indie Game releases every week, but I do remember Infinity Danger. This simple shooter with a healthy dose of replayability was one of the few games I’d found that stuck with me for quite a while. And now it’s come to iOS.

Infinity Danger is a twin-stick shooter with nothing but boss fights. Or rather one boss fight. A hostile alien mothership needs to be destroyed, but every time it gets shot down it comes back even stronger. The vessel’s weapons can (and will) level up to become more lethal, its shape will change in order to protect its weak points, and overall it’s just going to make players really work for each victory. This isn’t a game that’s designed to be beaten. It’s like an endless runner if it were actually an arena shooter. This also means that lives don’t matter. Players are actually “shooting against the clock" rather than losing the moment they're destroyed. When downed, they lose precious seconds. If they blow up pieces of the mothership, or destroy it entirely, they gain seconds back.

The concept behind Infinity Danger is as ingenious as it is simple. Just shoot stuff and don’t die - however the mothership becomes more powerful from fight to fight. I’ve noticed that the more I attack from the sides, the beefier the sides become. This tends to result in the front being left fairly unprotected. Of course once I exploit this weakened for a round or two it ends up becoming a wall of metal and guns just like the rest of the ship. But while the core gameplay is quite basic, there’s still plenty of opportunity for strategy. See, the more pieces attached to something, the tougher that something is to destroy. So players have a choice between whittling down various sections of the mothership to reach the middle, or focusing their fire on the central mass first thing for a more direct kill. Of course the latter also leaves them open to a hail of weapons fire.

Infinity Danger incorporates a slightly odd twin-stick setup that has players using their left thumb to move as usual and their right to aim. However, the ship will continue to fire even after the right side is released. This is handy for tense moments when players need to dodge for dear life while still shooting, but reorienting one’s aim can become something of a problem. Also, because the action can be so all over the place there were several moments when my thumbs ended up obstructing my view.

Even though the controls are a little tough to get used to, I can’t help but recommend Infinity Danger. It’s a great pick-up-and-play action game for short bursts of play or lengthier sessions. It’s simple, complex, and clever fun, and it only gets tougher the better one gets at it.