Every once in a while a game gets announced that even surpasses your wildest dreams of what a game should be. To me Infinity: The Quest for Earth is becoming that game. Before I start praising and worshiping it again, I think it would be better to explain some features of the game. Hopefully after that, you and I have the same thoughts of this game.
Infinity in short: What type of game is it? Infinity is a massively multiplayer online game set in a persistent futuristic universe, currently in development.
Keywords:
Open ended gameplay
Real-time fighting (twitch based)
Persistent universe
Exploration
Storyline and missions
Features:
Procedural universe
Newtonian physics
Seamless planetary engine
Astrophysics
Development status:
The game is it's "pre-alpha-stage", meaning that a lot of work has yet to be done. It's likely that an early-alpha test will take place somewhere in the first half of 2009. The final release can be expected somewhere in 2010-2011 (maybe even 2012).
Some of you probably have heard of the game Elite. This game was released in 1984 and was a big hit for that time. It was the first game that featured procedural generation, therefore it had a massive game-area, while the system requirements remained average. Not only the game-area was procedurally generated, all action and events were too, therefore it had a nearly unlimited gameplay, and it never got bored. In many ways Infinity resembles this game. Infinity too is procedurally generated, but instead of thousands of planets, it will have billions of planets. In fact, it contains an entire galaxy, ready to be explored. Because of this massiveness, you will be able to head for an unexplored region of space, and set up your own base, without anyone ever knowing (there will also be a core-are, where more action takes place). Infinity allows you to do whatever you want, you can trade, you can own buildings/cities/planets, you can be a mercenary, you can be the head of a company, you name it. The most wonderful feature of procedural generation, is the absence of loading-bars, everything is reachable in a seamless way. Imagine you are on a planets surface, looking up at the sky. Every single dot, spot or smear is accessible, every star, nebula and planet can be explored and all without the use of loading bars (just as in real life).
*Seamless travel video 1
*Seamless travel video 2 Note: these videos are made on the unfinished engine, with certain features left out
Besides the massive game-area, Infinity will also contain a large amount of ships in many classes. Some of them are 1-person shuttles, others are cities/factories of their own. All of these are in the correct scale compared to each other, and compared to the world around them (so even the 6km long ships are dwarfed down by planets).
Some of the ships that are probably going to be in the game (all untextured):
A comparison between 2 ships:
The best part (imo) of this games development is that regular people (people like you and me) can contribute. That way it has a large variety of styles and ideas, resulting in lots of different and beautiful ships.
At the moment I have nothing to say anymore, below is the website of this game, as well as a link to the only playable part of the game (Infinity Combat Prototype), followed by some graphics of the games development. Infinity website Infinity Combat Prototype
If you have questions, you can ask them below (i'll try to answer them, but i'm not a developer, so i don't know everything. You can also ask your questions on the infinity forum, which is accessible through the main infinity website.
i checked that project out some months ago. - its ambitious, and - i don t believe it will work. - like freelancer, its too much that is attempted to be included... with a VERY strong emphasize on the graphical presentation. - ( bit like the trees - thats details that are, in my opinion - pointless and will slow down the game )
there are a lot of ideas that freelancer was supposed to have... and a lot of ideas that the game "frontier" already showed ( seamless planetary landing, multiple cities on a surface, hundreds of ships from a scout up to a cruiser etc ) - but frontier - while being huge, got lost in features.... and the player himself got lost in all that was offered. ( it was a space simulation with supposedly "real" distances and a real feeling of being part of the universe, which resulted in rather no contacts with other ships at all, cause the real universe is a little too big for two ships to meet if they don t want to )
i do hope that infinity does not suffer from the same problems and will find a good mixture between playability ( arcade vs. simulation ) and a compromise of performance and presentation. - like i said... ambitious but i m not yet convinced.
This game has a huge potential, but Jinx has a point.
Can't wait to see something more than the Proto.
Only Thing I dislike about the game is that when you steer your ship. You feel like the world is turning around you, instead of you turning about it. It kinda give headaches.
Way to solve this would be to do like in FL, when you turn, your ship moves a bit in the screen, thus giving you an opposite effect
If it comes off and is all that's been promised, it'll probably become one of my favourite games of all time.
Unfortunately I really don't think they'll be able to do all they've said they will considering their budget and their ambitions. It's just all too much. Let's hope not though.
A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.
~H. L. Mencken
Hmm... well, it IS ambitious. It might not work. It might go the way of FL, and come out with few of the intended features. Of course, it might turn out just as good as they say it will be. It's up in the air right now, and we don't know how this is going to land. I definitely hope that this comes out as well as they promise. If it does.... it will be incredible.
I've been watching the Infinity boards for almost 2 years now. The way it's going, classify it along with Duke Nukem Forever.. that's how long you'll be waiting for the release.
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