Big Sky Infinity has a lot going for it. It’s cheap. It’s one of the relatively few games that supports “cross-buy” for both PS3 and PSVita. It has an excellent licensed soundtrack. Its particle effects and explosions make it visually interesting and fun to watch. Beyond these few things though, there isn’t much to love. Imagine a hybrid between Geometry Wars and a side-scrolling Galaga. Sounds like a recipe for an endless well of entertainment, right? At first, you’ll be sucked in. Each time you restart the game, the order of the bosses and battles is randomized, so every death made it feel like new each new game. For the first few hours I felt trapped in a constant cycle of replaying and retrying, making a smidgen of progress every time.
The problem with Big Sky Infinity is that the randomized pieces eventually repeat. The structure of the game feels built around reusing content. In the campaign, you kill to earn starbits that you spend on upgrades for more directional bullets, occasional explosives; pretty basic power-ups. In a different game, these persistent boosts could make the player feel empowered as time goes on, like an RPG. But, unlike an RPG, upgrades don’t accrue fast or in any obvious way. Instead, most upgrades seem inconsequential, like a tenth of a percent increase in power or an extra bullet every eight seconds. What could have been replaying for fun and XP feels like the worst kind of MMO grind. Environments are flashy and interesting, but it doesn’t modify gameplay. Bosses are interesting and play more like puzzles, but there’s only a handful. Big Sky Infinity has a habit of repeating itself.
There are twelve different modes, but almost all are identical to campaign, albeit with a slight tweak like a time limit, spawning with random power-ups, or no shooting. Some of these are interesting, but are mostly side distractions that can’t stand on their own. This wouldn’t be so damning if the campaign carried the fun, but no mode ensnared my attention for more than a few minutes. If genocide against BSI’s geometric enemies were more fun, I could excuse how repetitive the whole thing feels. After all, Tetris deals with four basic shapes and is one of the world’s most memorable. But, BSI couldn’t be further from this philosophy of simple variety.
Speaking of avoiding simple variety, there are many, many different types of enemies, which are nearly indistinguishable from one another. Each is meant to behave differently, attack differently, and look different but it’s typically a vague blob of indistinguishable enemies. If they were different, visually, it could be easier to tell them apart and give some a sense of meaning. As it is, none of the enemies have even half the personality as the green shapes in Geometry Wars 2.
That’s the thesis of Big Sky Infinity; flashy and interesting at first, which fades once you recognize that appeal is only skin deep. Big Sky Infinity is, at best, a distraction for a few days. Don’t expect to lose weeks to this middling shooter, but do expect to an excellent first impression.
5.5/10
