Infantry

"Was A Good Game...When It Was Free"

I forget when, but I remember that a few Christmas's ago, I was bummed I didn't get any of the games I wanted. So I decided: Hey, I got a computer...why don't I get an online game to play? Of course, the only other game I had played before that was Dark Ages (back when it was good), so I figured all games on the internet were good. So I searched and later that morning, I found the Sony Station Client, complete with three games. Of course, one of those three games was Everquest, and they weren't letting you play THAT for free. So I was with two choices: Tanarus or Infantry. Infantry sounded like the sound choice, so I went with it. Turns out that my impression of Online Games wouldn't be dented for another six or so monthes, because Infantry was the most fun I ever had.

At that time I was using a Dial Up. And let me tell you that lag time was never an issue. And when they added zones, I went nuts because they were the most fun I'd ever had. Eventually, I found other games and played those more than Infantry until, eventually, I stopped playing Infantry all together.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Upset that Everquest was still booting me of their server while I was using a CABLE MODEM, I went back to an old friend...Infantry. The first surprise, though, was that my Station Client was out of date. So I went to download the new Client. The process of finding the new client took me a good 10 minutes. Nowhere on the Infantry site or the Sony Station site did it tell you where you could download the client, like it did when I first downloaded it. But I could live with that.

I installed the new client and got onto. It was an odd format, sure, but it was a bit easier. I finally got to the game select page and had decided to play one of the less populated games to get back in the groove of things. Here's the first surprise: the ammount of players playing was 90% lower than it was a few monthes before I stopped playing. I didn't know why, but a game that once had litterely thousands of players scattered amongst ten or so games now had maybe two hundred people playing, if that. There were games that were extremely popular at one time that were player-less.

So I went against my previous decision and played one of the Skirmish Zones. It was somewhat fun, except for the fact that everytime you killed someone, they immediatly accused you of cheating. And if they killed you, they'd give you a lame ''Kill Macro''. Apparently, this was the ''No One Is Supposed to Die'' game.

But I didn't care. I was having fun killing the people that would complain so much. Ignoring them was simple enough. So I went on my merry way enjoying myself...for about 15 minutes. Then I was booted from the game because I did not SUBSCRIBE to the game.

I went and I subscribed for a Station Pass. Luckily, I was an Everquest subscriber, so I got a discount. I logged on, waited a bit, and began playing again...for a whopping 30 seconds. Then I was disconnected again. Turns out 30 seconds would be the most I could play the game for, because I'd be disconnect quicker everytime after that. I doubt that was the fault of the game, but hey, me being disconnected while I was on a cable modem only happened while I was playing a Sony Station game (Infantry and Everquest). So it makes you think.

Needless to say, I unsubscribed and uninstalled Infantry and the Sony Station client. I would be happy never to see Infantry again. What once was a good game (when it was free), has resorted to an experience where you pay $6 a month to be hassled by the idiot players. My advice: AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 07/02/02, Updated 07/02/02