I’m not a huge fan of the term walking sim but it has become the standard shorthand for explaining a genre where you generally walk around to uncover more of the story. Some of these games really are just first person narrative delivery devices with little to do but walk from one location to another. Others require you to accomplish certain tasks before triggering the next story bit. These games are generally more involved and require a bit more investment from the player, like say Firewatch. Infliction: Extended Cut falls somewhere in the middle.
Inflicition is a first person narrative adventure game where you, in first person, walk around a house (and other environments) to discover the next bit of the story. It does give tasks to accomplish, but these are generally pretty straight forward to finish if you are exploring the house as only certain areas are open at certain times. Where Infliction throws a wrench in the works of the traditional walking sim though is by adding adversaries to the mix. In most cases, this adversary is a ghost lady that is very reminiscent of the creepy well girl from The Ring, but there are also other creatures to avoid.
The ghost lady seems to be the spirit of your dead wife that you most likely murdered. Oh and heads up, you play an abusive asshole with a drinking problem. The reason you are an abusive asshole is revealed over time in the game but I’m not sure I ever got over the fact that I was seemingly playing this asshat that terrorized his wife and daughter for years. Back to the ghost lady though, you can hide from her, which seems like a smart thing to do because otherwise she’ll kill you and you’ll be forced to redo the sequence you were attempting over and over again like you are in some form of purgatory. She can also be temporarily defeated by turning on a light when she is under it because, ghosts hate light or something. Turn it on at the wrong moment though and she’ll break the light and kill you.
I applaud the idea behind including the ghost to the proceedings because it does spice up what is generally a pretty straight forward narrative adventure game. Once the ghost lady started showing up, I was far more tense in the game and that really amped the uneasiness at how the game proceeds. It helps that Infliction has amazing sound design. Noises and voices overlap to just leave me feeling very on edge as I walked through the house and other areas. Few games or movies succeed in really getting under my skin but Infliction’s sound design certainly did.
And if you are looking to feel tense, uneasy, and on edge, Infliction does a good job. If you are looking for a satisfying narrative though, you might want to keep looking. Infliction starts off in a dark, dark place and then continues down that path to where I’m not sure I felt the narrative resolved itself enough for my liking and the implied notion that the player is controlling this despicable person as he tries to put his wife’s spirit at ease never really sat well with me. Yes, there is a tragedy that puts him on his downward spiral and yes, it is absolutely horrid but I just felt icky playing the game the more the story revealed. And maybe that was the point, or maybe I just missed the point and inflicted all this awfulness on myself but either way I didn’t really enjoy my time with the game.
This sometimes happens with stories that are too real and the reality is, take away the paranormal nonsense from this and the background is something that can and does happen. These stories should be told but they won’t be for everyone. And even myself, a huge horror fan, can only take so much reality in my nightmares. So, if you plan on checking in on Infliction just keep in mind that it is a game filled with excellent imagery and terrifying sound design with a really horrific story underlying the supernatural elements.
This review was written with material provided from the developer for the Xbox One. For more on our review process, please read here.
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