Game Reviews

Infestor

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iOS
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Infestor
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iOS
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Ravenous Games has built a reputation for creating tough-as-old-boots retro platformers and then cutting them up into bite-sized chunks. At first glance, you'd be forgiven for assuming that Infestor is a sign of the developer resting on its laurels.

The game's visual style is borrowed from League of Evil 2, and it features similarly difficult platforming sections as well. The big difference, however, is that this time round you're playing as a puddle of mind-controlling goo.

Goo explore

It starts with some preamble about biological weapons, then drops you into the fray. Moving your mind parasite around is simple, with arrows on the bottom-left of the screen moving you left and right, and two buttons on the right - one for jumping and one for taking control of nearby humans.

There are different types of humans for you to latch on to, each with its own skills. Scientists can jump high, jetpack wearers can double-jump, generals can open locked doors, and soldiers wield heavy weaponry.

Each level is essentially a simple puzzle. You need to work out where the humans are and what you need to do with them in order to facilitate your escape. Grab one to push a block out of the way, then blow him up so you can leap across a gap, then creep up on a guard, use him to shoot an annoying robot, and slip out through a grate in the floor.

Most of the time the gameplay is fast and fun, and the squelchy explosion that accompanies each leap away from an infested human is always worthy of a grin. Occasionally, though, there are frustrations, with humans getting stuck against the scenery, or the controls failing you right at the end of a level.

Infestor profile

Luckily, these niggles are few and far between, and when they do crop up the miniature nature of the levels means it's never too much of a hassle to tap the 'restart' button and head back to the beginning again.

There are 60 levels to work your way through, and while that might sound like a lot you'll have polished them all off within a day or two.

Still, Infestor is an enjoyable platformer with a clever twist. There are a few areas where it lacks polish, and for some reason it keeps flashing up achievements even when you already have them, but it shows that Ravenous Games is much more than a one trick pony.

Infestor

There's a lot to like about Infestor, and despite a few niggles it offers an engaging, novel platform experience
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.