Interurban Era

The last few maps have really tested my suspension of disbelief, but it remains an engaging journey. There were some puzzles that I'd 95% solved, but didn't quite get whatever I was trying to manipulate, be it a stuck valve or set of circuit breakers, to behave properly. It forced me to return to the walkthroughs posted on steam threads a few times just to make sure I wasn't missing anything.

It's that kind of thing that takes me OUT of the game though. I had to use the official strategy guide for RIVEN as a kid to get through some of the more obtuse puzzles in that game, and IDK. I like the experience of playing a game with puzzle elements, but do I enjoy solving similar puzzles across such a vast game as INFRA? There is some relief when I encounter a circuit breaker I know how to operate, or the controls on one of the mining locomotives, but there almost needs to be more variety or less variety? I understand the mark is different for everyone though.

I'm enjoying the protagonists' narrow scrapes through a crumbling city, and despite some architectural gripes, it's been a remarkably good, but stressful game for me to play.

Now in real everyday life when I ride transit, I'm inspecting the inside of the metro stations for spalling concrete and leaking panels, haha! The worst part? I'm actually spotting real hazards now and THAT makes me uncomfortable.

It's akin to when you learn the art of kerning type and then misspaced le tter i ng begins to bother you increasingly more often and you can't "unsee" it.

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So, a LOT has happened. I left the steel plant for a water treatment facility and it pays to wander around a much of these maps as possible. Easy keycard entry with a bit of creativity. This facility was one of my favorites. Perfect blend of complexity and challenge to get this water treatment plant working again, safely. Impressed we got to do a bit of "science" by taking water quality samples and adjusting the output accordingly. Also ate a psychedelic kebab someone left on the counter, that was fun. (Not many games give you THAT experience, let me tell you!)

This led to the water treatment offices, which the first image shows off what might be going wrong in the "big" picture, which was a good refocus after surviving the (unrelated to the main plot) steel mill. From there we crossed an underpass which lead to a poisonous dead end, or so I thought!

If only learning from fatal errors in real life was as forgiving as INFRA.

The next space was a hacker den in a disused canal maintenance pumphouse, which was, I believe, a manageable entrée into active/passive security measures we might see in future facilities. This was the first puzzle I needed to look online for a solution because I really wanted to figure out a few of the mysteries within. Sadly the solution was RIGHT there and I didn't see it right away. Silly me. It made the final piece of the puzzle underwhelming, so I don't think I'll be going back to finding solutions online. (or I may eat my words, watch this space!)

The subplot of the glowing mushrooms influencing the population of the city never fails to amuse, and the next few puzzles revolved around learning more about that. You end up seeing one of the worst maintained pieces of infra in the game, and it will definitely kill you if you aren't quick on your feet!

The pay off is substantial, if you find the right room. A masterpiece of environmental storytelling any "true crime" podcast or mystery thriller fan would absolutely lose it over. A few things I'll keep secret happen next, but eventually you find yourself in the basement of the Steel Workers union building.

One of the most evil things happens in this building: as a gift to the union reps, they gave out sugar free Haribo gummy bears, which if you are to believe the reviews of them online, cause a very personal infrastructural failure after eating them.

Klaxons, alarm bells, fire alarms, and other warning systems follow you wherever you go. Mercifully, you can disarm/reset fire alarms from their panels so you aren't given a headache while solving a puzzle.

The Union Office was a nice light puzzle in a calm environment after the most stressful situation yet in the canal. It is connected to the metro system via a lobby door, or, as I found out, the pay toilets HVAC system if you're more adventurous.

The Metro system is actually pretty logically designed, the stations are also pretty nice. I'll do another post on them sometime. I found this whole part of the game (obviously) very fun, and the adorable little inspection motorcar you get to drive (realistically) was such a treat after my gripe with the steel mill locomotives.

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Often when you play a video game, you play a presumably fit, presumably younger character. Our protagonist is ostensibly a middle-aged cisgendered Finnish male. He's not capable of double jumping or taking flying leaps without mortal consequences. It's kind of a fascinating new way to explore roleplaying AS him, specifically. A lot of his limitations I do not currently share being more limber and younger (for now) so I was getting frustrated often when he couldn't match my own agility. It really gave me an epiphany that this could be a fascinating thing to explore more in RPG's in the future. Imagine a first person RPG where you're a grandma with the physical/sight/hearing limitations that come with it, I've yet to see it, and it'd be fascinatingly challenging to play.

That brings me to less fascinating limitations though. The Stalberg Steel mill must have been one of the earliest levels they designed, because it has ISSUES. Wayfinding is more clunky than previous levels, and I felt my own knowledge of steel mills and railroads actually broke my suspension of disbelief when playing it. The intra-plant mill railroad which is used to move the ladle cars around the plant has track so unrealistically sharp in curvature as to be laughable, not least of which some truly illogical switch placement that was clearly a rush job by the level designer.

The improbably tiny locomotives that shove the ladle cars seem deeply inadequate to move a 750-1000 ton ladle car after the blast furnace pours the molten steel and slag out of the refractory and into the ladles. Real mills have somewhat petite narrow gauge locomotives, but not glorified speeders! They also assumed the mill operated like DC model trains with an electrified 2-rail system, the direction of which (for the puzzle) is controlled like a model train from a control room above the shop floor instead of from the locomotives. ABSURD!

Considering the immense map size, I wish they'd just have modeled the plant accurately 1:1 scale. I do enjoy that you follow the process of steelmaking in reverse, entering in the delivery shed, going through the rolling mill to the ladle pouring room and blast furnace, up the blast furnace to the cupola of the blast furnace, satisfyingly ridding the skip cart down to earth and into the iron ore pile. I feel a single day's more research and having access to historical plans could have made this level shine far brighter, but the constant spamming of my suspension of disbelief left me colder than the slag stuck in the steel ladles.

Also, the game has up until this point been rather gorgeous to look at considering the limitations of the game engine it uses. The view from the top of the blast furnace was so broken with tiled LOD textures, it kinda robbed me of the reward for making it through what, from a puzzle standpoint was pretty fun.

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The tunnels led to an entirely unremarkable pumping station (not pictured) that was a delightfully challenging puzzle. I appreciate this deep into the game was the first computer controlled puzzle versus doing it up front. The tactility of all the heavy electrical equipment so far really gives this game charm. Through a pipe access hatch reminiscent of the secret facility across the lake from Covenant in Fallout 4, I cautiously followed a (thankfully clean) 5' diameter pipe back into the fresh water tunnel.

Beset with a challenging side quest to figure out how to get to a highlighted note on a pipe, I was rewarded with my first taste of the game's "strongest beer" which apparently causes on-brand hallucinations. It was incredible. I found an impromptu sauna and a hilarious ad-hoc outhouse.

Next I was having flashbacks to Oregon Trail II (in color!) as I learned how to raft down the underground tunnel in a similar fashion to how you take your wagon down the Willamette river at the end of that game. Remarkably fun callback, and very challenging navigation. I'm thankful that the killscreens don't set you back too far so the pacing of the game is excellent, but not grueling. If I had to restart the ENTIRE river journey portion after dying each time, I'd have quit the game and never touched again. Mercifully, it reset moments before you made your navigational error with enough time to course-correct.

Frank Lloyd Wright used to design spaces with the concept of "compress & release", where you'd enter through a normal entry door into a tight space with low ceilings that leads you into a cavernous space replete with indirect lighting bouncing off the beautifully shaped/detailed ceiling. The level designers definitely took inspiration from this (as did many actual industrial architects of the 20th century when designing the kinds of structures we're exploring) so it's nice to see this in a game too.

The most spectacular pair of these so far has been the first atrium where you see the sky after a long time underground (first picture) and the spectacular end of your rafting adventure (last picture). These follow some of the tightest parts of your journey, so it's a nice risk/reward cycle. You'll want to solve the watertight door light puzzle to see what's behind door B2, BTW, it's worth it.

I've been trying to find as many notes and sidequests as possible while going through, making mental notes should I want to replay this game sometime as well. With an embarrassing amount of hours poured into Fallout 4 ( 544 hours) and Fallout: New Vegas ( 256 Hours) I always enjoy learning lore in worlds from written documents, computers, etc. Environmental storytelling is something I cherish in games, and this one doesn't disappoint.

My partner remarked that it reminded them of "Stray", which I gleefully played months ago and found very very very beautiful and satisfying. I remember INFRA getting written up on Rock, Paper, Shotgun years ago, and me wanting to snag it. I'm extremely glad I did. More decrepit beauty to come.