My Video Review of Infernal Machine

Tibor

Member
Great review! I have always loved this game... I've only played on Nintendo and its a little buggy, but it does a great job capturing the mood. Lots of quiet solitude and puzzles to solve. The big venomous spiders still make me jump. Overall, I like the balance of action/fighting to puzzles/thinking better than most games. I like the plot and the settings. Honestly, if someone took this game and just updated the graphics it would be fantastic.

Thanks agains for bringing it to the forefront!
 

Lambonius

New member
Definitely a great and underrated game. The controls are a bit clunky and the game has something of an "invisible wall" problem (try jumping Indy diagonally across gaps around the corner of a wall, and you'll see what I mean,) but otherwise does a great job capturing the Indy feel and shares some of the same tone and humor as Fate of Atlantis. It doesn't look THAT bad, either, considering its era. I'm trying to think of other games in the genre from 1999 that look significantly better, and I really can't. It's noticeably better looking than any Tomb Raider game, for example. I only wish it was possible to play it properly in widescreen, but the game crops any resolution that isn't 4:3, and the menu bugs out.
 

Phlip

New member
On the subject of the graphics, I was comparing it to the Tomb Raider that came out the same year - here's a quick moment of it to see how it compares. Graphically, it has bump maps, fog effects, skinned joints and higher res textures.
 

Lambonius

New member
Phlip said:
On the subject of the graphics, I was comparing it to the Tomb Raider that came out the same year - here's a quick moment of it to see how it compares. Graphically, it has bump maps, fog effects, skinned joints and higher res textures.

Infernal Machine has decent fog effects, if you have the options turned on in the settings and the right graphics card. I'll grant you skinned joints, but the textures are really not any higher in resolution in Last Revelation, and the level geometry is definitely more sophisticated and complex in Infernal Machine. Last Revelation (and the sequel, Chronicles) still use the basic Tomb Raider engine, with level geometry based on cubes. The blockiness is very noticeable, even in those later games in the series. I actually just finished a playthrough of Last Revelation before starting Infernal Machine (I've been on a Tomb Raider-style game kick lately,) and I really feel like Infernal Machine looks unequivocably better than any pre-PS2 era Tomb Raider game. Subjective opinion, of course. :)

Where Infernal Machine really falls flat in comparison to Tomb Raider games is in the clunkiness of the controls. Lara was always so much more nimble and fluid in her movements than Indy is in Infernal Machine.

In any case, your review is very well done. I'm just picking nits for the enjoyment of the discussion. :)
 
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Phlip

New member
Yeah man, it's all subjective. :) Personally I can get over the extra blockiness in favour of what definitely is in my opinion, better textures and fog. The textures can be spread over such large surfaces in IF that they go so blurry and there's next to no fog or bump mapping.

I enjoy the discussion. :)

I'm probably going to do a couple other reviews: Temple of Doom, Tomb Raider Cradle of Life, and Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness, in a similar "underrated xxx review".
 

Bjorn Heimdall

Active member
Very nice review.

I never caught this back in the day, and I still don't want to bend over backwards to get it, but hopefully it will see a gog or steam release at some point, I'll be there to grab it then.
 

Phlip

New member
kohlmark said:
Marvelous!! Great work!

P.S.: Is ist possible that there had been some cheating 0:56, 2:31
At this point of the game, there is no shot- or machine gun :-D


Thanks for this review!
Thankyou, and yes, I had cheated galore for demonstration purposes. I didn't want to limit myself to only being able to show off a particular weapon in only a few choices for levels. :)
 
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