Review: Big Sky Infinity - PlayStation 3 and PS Vita (From Wandsworth Guardian)

Review: Big Sky Infinity - PlayStation 3 and PS Vita

3:12pm Friday 4th January 2013 in Freetime By Mukti Paul, Games contributor

Big Sky Infinity is a scrolling twin-stick shooter that promises a different experience every time you play the game with randomly generated levels.

Indie developer Boss Baddie has taken simple gameplay mechanics and added a multitude of modes to give fans of the side-scrolling shooter a game they can keep coming back to.

The game starts with a basic tutorial with a commentator that is love or hate - thankfully he can be turned off.

Gameplay consists of tackling large waves of enemies and occasional bosses. The ship is equipped with a drill that shuts off your guns allowing you to fly through planets and asteroids, which does add some unique elements.

Your ship can be upgraded over multiple plays and the game also features a levelling system which will increase the difficulty. Powering up your ship definitely adds a lot of replay value to the game and will definitely make you come back for more.

Visuals are bright and colourful. Especially in today’s sea of games using gritty browns and dull greys it is nice to see something so visually stimulating. This does have the downside of the screen becoming a bit too chaotic and making it difficult not to be killed by all the pretty colours.

Big Sky Infinity has an adaptive difficulty, which will challenge players the better they are at the game, but as levels are generated on the fly this can be hard to notice at all.

Due to the nature of the game players may constantly find the game having huge difficulty spikes and becoming extremely difficult by the time they have maxed out there ship.

With so many different modes on offer there is something for players of all skill levels. The randomly generated levels are both a blessing and a curse, with the sense of progression being removed. Some players may fell cheated out of a high score by a particularly difficult enemy spawn.

Game modes normally involve surviving as long as possible on one life, but there are variations that will allow you to play at your own pace, play with no power-ups or have your guns disabled.

Multiplayer on PS3 involves playing locally on the same screen with up to four players and the Vita version relies on challenging online friends or just any other players for the highest score in a game of ‘Horse’.

The game also includes leaderboards, allowing you to compete against friends or the world’s best.

Big Sky Infinity is part of the Cross-buy scheme meaning if you buy the PS3 or PSVita version you will have both versions of the game. The game is said to have cloud storage meaning both versions of the game will sync, however at this time I was unable to ever get this feature to work.

Overall Big Sky Infinity is a great game for fans of the genre, but is not for everyone.

The Vita version means you have small bursts of entertaining gameplay on the go, which is where the game really shines. However, custom soundtracks and local co-op make the PS3 version just as appealing as the Vita version.

Verdict: 7/10