Adventure in the arcade

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When I saw the title, I thought I'd been sent a copy of the latest Repton game. I was wrong - there are no little green-skinned critters in this one.

As amatter of fact I am not completely sure of the storyline at all, as the scribbled sheet of instructions that accompanied the pre-production copy contained only a list of the keys to use.

Infinity is an arcade/adventure game on a large scale. The playing area is a series of interconnected screens and on the surface level these are usually linked horizontally. However, there are plenty of opportunities to play Jack and the beanstalk, shinning up and down trees to explore new areas.

You progress in true adventure fashion through a level hampered by hazards - which tend to be of the physical variety like crevasses that are too wide to jump and walls that are too high to scale. A devious mind and a stout heart are often enough to bypass such obstacles, but failing that there are useful objects to be found and used.

I'm not sure whether the instructions would have helped, but I sometimes had difficulty in deciding what some of the objects were. I attempted several unsuccessful leaps from a cliff, hoping that an umbrella Ihad found would slow my descent - but alas, I died every time. A brief conversation with William Scales - one of the two programmers - revealed that my umbrella was in fact a pickaxe. No wonder I fell like a stone.

Another useful tip I gleaned from him was that any object currently being carried could only be dropped or activated in the location where it was meant to be used. Armed with this information, I proceeded to press the Use key whenever I had half a suspicion that one of the two objects being carried may be of use.

With watering can in hand I attempted to water every plant in sight, but to no avail. In desperation, I tried it with a giant redwood and hey presto - even big trees benefit from a little love and attention.

Down in the subterranean levels you will encounter extremes of heat and cold. Whatever you do, don't attempt to jump when there are stalactites above your head - the consequences are dire.

The game's graphics are large, reasonably well detailed, and smoothly animated, but I was a little annoyed by the collision detection routine. On numerous occasions I had avoided death at the hands of a flying beastie by a good half centimetre when the program judged me to be deceased. Come on guys, play fair.

On the plus side, you can save your position to disc at any time and there is also an enhanced version for use with the Master. Infinity is a competent arcade/adventure game that scores highly on the adventure front. You can exercise your brain while flexing your fingers.

Jon Revis