Being interested in seeing just exactly how the turn based dungeon crawler Infinite Adventures plays I decided to take a brief look at the demo the developers provided for the Kickstarter campaign. Before I go into my analysis of it I will point out that this is basically a combat prototype for all intents and purposes. You can see several options in the town screen, but the only thing that you can really do is rest up when you port back from dungeon diving. Everything else is greyed out. That said, it does give a pretty good feel for the meat and potatoes of the full game. Namely going into the labyrinth and killing things.
Just like in most of the other games of its type, Infinite Adventures plays out entirely in the first person. Once in the dungeon you’ll be moving one tile at a time, ever closer to the next encounter. Whether it’s a door, a treasure chest, or a groups of monsters you’ll be doing a lot of walking and fighting. The good news is that you’ll have a map that fills in the blanks as you go exploring so you’ll know where you’ve been should you be forced to teleport out to rest, sell, or buy things. You should not be getting lost in this maze.
Combat itself is pretty straight forward. Once you end up in a fight it’s basically your standard turn-based duel. You can go on autopilot by pressing the “auto fight” button, “Tab” by default, and just sit back and watch the monsters die. Or, if you’d rather be hands on, you can select each and every attack, spell, and ability that your team members have access to. Thankfully, you can heal during, before, and after each battle. Which means that as long as you’ve got the MP or potions on hand you don’t have to rest. Until you do run out of resources, at least. Then it’s back to town to hit up the inn.
I will admit that I didn’t get very far in the demo, mostly because I just wanted to get a feel for the gameplay but also because I got reckless and ended up killing off some of my team. I did, however, manage to make it as far as the second floor before deciding I’ve seen enough. And what I’ve seen does have a lot of potential for a turn-based dungeon crawler. Infinite Adventures allows you to have a six-person team from any number of races and classes, some of which seem to be unique to this game. Plus, I really do love the anime look of the characters. Most certainly a bonus to the overall experience.
And, speaking of experience, you’ll be leveling up your characters as you delve deeper so make sure that everyone’s alive at the end of each battle because if someone’s dead they won’t get any XP. Obviously. Infinite Adventures does show promise and I’m most interested in seeing how the full game plays out when it releases. As long as it gets funding. As of right now it’s really struggling with just slightly under two weeks left.
