Infantry

"Infantry, quite possibly THE greatest online experience."

Infantry: An free online game brought to you by Sony, although Harmless Games owned it a while back.

This is perhaps one of THE greatest online games that has graced the internet. Instead of being a game, Infantry is actually a gaming engine which supports various play modes, or ''zones''. There have been more than 20 zones running in infantry, each with it's own objectives. Here are the basics...

Gameplay: The most important aspect of any game, Infantry shines in this category.

-CTF- There are various classes you may pick (Infantry, Heavy Weapons, Jump Trooper, Infiltrator, Combat Engineer, Field Medic, and Squad Leader), each with their own advantages and disadvantages. There is also a gigantic store, where you buy weapons, armor, items, etc. The objective is to capture all the flags for your team and hold them for a certain amount of time. This zone attracts most of the players in Infantry.

-Skirmish- This is a slightly more realistic zone. The objective in this zone is to capture static (non-moving) flags for your team, and hold them for a certain amount of time. This is different than CTF because CTF has moving flags and not static. There are different classes in Skirmish also (Marine, Grenadier, Ripper, Medic, Squad Leader, Sniper). However, there isn't a store for this zone, which offers less replayability than CTF. My favorite type of Skirmish is ''Battle for Kliests Ridge'', formerly called Mechanical Skirmish, because it features multi-player tanks, in which there must be many people to operate a single tank. This is alot of fun when ''tank laming'' with people you know. ^_^

-GravBall- This is a fun way to experience Infantry in a whole new way. GravBall is liking play soccer, only with weapons and hoverbikes. You try to pass and shoot the ball into the enemy goal. However, there isn't multiple class/store, but there are many items laying around on the field. The playing field is changed quite often also (every month or so), to offer a fresh, new zone.

-Boom Ball X- Another ''sport-type'' zone in Infantry. This is like playing Foosball, only with boomballs (ball-like weapons that explode on impact) and jetpacks. In this zone, you must choose which area you would like to play in (Forward, Midfield, or Goal). Forwards try to shoot the ball into the goal. Mids try to pass the ball up to the forwards. And Goalies have to prevent the opposing team from scoring a goal, and try to pass it up to the forwards. This is an easy zone to get used to, but hard to master.

Audio: There is a lot of sound going through your speakers as you play infantry. You can hear muffled gunshots from a battle far away, or loud grunts as you toss a grenade. You can distinguish each weapon from their sound.

Graphics: Infantry is a 2D game. Which means graphics aren't a major part of the game. Although these graphics may seem quite bland and repetitive throught each zone, there are new player models and graphics in the newest zones, Bug Hunt and Boom Ball X (the latest version).

Leagues: Leagues are the backbone of Infantry for the more experienced players. There are many leagues such as: CTF Players League, Skirmish League, Gravball League, Boom Ball X Players League, etc. It is quite hard to join a squad (AKA a clan in other games) however.

Community: Unfortunately, the community in this game is quite terrible. Most people cannot play the game without being called a ''lamer'' or a ''newb''. This is why the ?ignore command is quite useful in an Infantry career ^_^. Once you get to know people and play with them, you'll feel like close friends too ^_^.

There are other problems with Infantry too, however. The Sony Client or Launchpad has not worked on many computers for unknown reasons, these are necessary to run Infantry. Also since the purchase of Infantry from Sony, new content for Infantry is going rather slowly. Uncountable people have stopped playing because of this.

Infantry has kept my interest since the starting of the year 2000, and I see no reason why I should quit even now. I suggest you download the game right now at www.infantryzone.com , you wouldn't regret it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/21/01, Updated 12/21/01