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Get Infected

GameCore is CBSNews.com's gaming column written by William Vitka.



Infected is an over-the-top 3rd person tongue-in-cheek gore fest for the PSP that finally provides Playstation Portable users with an original game and not some weak rehash of a PSOne title.

The story is simple: You are Officer Stevens, a cop working for the New York Biohazard Team. It's three weeks before Christmas and a virus that turns anyone infected into a flesh eating psychopathic zombie is spreading through the city. The only way to save New Yorkers is to pump the viral horrors full of lead and splat them with your blood.

To paraphrase the game: Worst shopping season ever.

Well, maybe for the innocent civilians, but it's one fantastic bloodbath after another for you.

The zombies in Infected aren't quite zombies in the Romero "Night of the Living Dead" sense. They're more like the abominations in Peter Jackson's pre-"Lord Of The Rings" flesh and entrails fiesta "Braindead."

They're peppy jerks. They can jump and they can mutate. Aside from the standard zombie tactic of whacking you repeatedly and biting, they can also spew green goo that the game describes as some kind of pus concoction.

But you've got plenty of weapons on your side: pistols, shotguns, machine guns, a rocket launcher and upgrades like firebombs and "street cleaners" that create small scale nuclear blasts. Oh, how the cannibal freaks fly.

Another arsenal addition is the special viral gun filled with your blood. Turns out you're somehow immune to the whole "Whoops, I've become a friggin' zombie" thing. Once enough holes are put into the Infected with ballistic weapons, you can discharge a shot of hemoglobin and burst the otherwise unkillable monsters like ripe watermelons.

Hygienic, no. Fun, yes.

You can also trigger special chain reactions that take out several flesh eaters at once. This not only creates an entertaining level of gore, but also rewards you with extra points, health refills, shields and other special items. It is very much worth your while to cause as much carnage as possible.

The graphics are good and the game is smooth. The only noticeable slowdown is when the screen gets filled, and I mean filled, with zombies and exploding carcasses.

The missions and areas are reasonably varied, getting increasingly larger as the game goes on. You'll find yourself in Times Square, Central Park and Chinatown as well as a couple more New York scenes. The levels are simplistic, but suit the frantic game style. My only issue with them was that you can run through most objects except cars, helicopters and buildings.

The sound effects are decent, though the gun blasts could be improved. Where the audio really shines is the soundtrack and the interstitial voiceovers from your superiors.

The music in the game is wonderfully heavy. Slipknot, Chimaira and The Agony Scene are among the bands that you'll hear as you rip through body after body. While it's not quite the Behemoth, Pantera and Slayer I usually fill my head with, I'll take it over the pop crap most people seem to enjoy.

As for the voiceover work: it's absolutely hilarious. I would like to think that the fine folks over at Planet Moon spent a lot of time listening to Firesign Theatre and Monty Python because I definitely feel the need to justify my cackling on the N train home.

Another plus is the ability to customize your Officer Stevens. Pick your body type, gender, outfit, hair and color scheme to create a personal avatar. In addition to the initial choices when you start the game, you'll be able to unlock even more.

It's not only a very nice feature, but also important when it comes to the wireless multiplayer where you can play with eight friends ad-hoc or go head to head over the internet.

As for actual multiplayer types, you've got your standard deathmatch and team deathmatch as well as Mad Cow mode. What's really entertaining is the actual Infection system whereby players' unique avatars are passed from PSP to PSP like viruses.

Let's say you're playing a friendly deathmatch game. You get the snot beaten out of you because you're lame. Now you're infected and you will find the avatar of the person who beat you running around in the single player game trying to continue kicking your butt. Now, to get rid of this menace, you're going to have to dominate someone else in multiplayer and infect them.

This is a fantastic title from Planet Moon. It's definitely off-color and how far over the line the humor goes may irritate some people, but Infected is a must-have for PSP gamers. Majesco (if you don't own the outstanding Psychonauts, you're a fool) should also be given a huge amount of credit for continuing to publish games that really work on being original and clever and are not just mainstream excretions.

Infected is rated 'M' for Mature for blood and gore, strong language and intense violence. My bread and butter! The game will hit store shelves November 15th.

By William Vitka

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