PSPs “INFECTED” by Clever, Gruesome New Shooter

by Louis Bedigian

“The most interesting thing about Infected is that YOU can infect the world!”

September 23

Things haven’t been the same since my comrade died. We’re not sure yet what killed him, but I think it had to be one of them crazy monsters. They call them specimens; creatures we experiment with. But they’re just monsters to me.

September 30

Lab tests proved my theory to be correct. However, they also revealed something we were unaware of. Before he died it seems he became infected with a virus. The nature of the virus is unknown. We can only conclude that he got it from that hideous monster.

October 10

Got bit last night, my hand’s been throbbing ever since. Hard to write. Hard to think. Hard to get job done.

October 15

Feeling really itchy. My hands…they’re so itchy! AHHH!

October 23

Hungry this. Morning I was. Hungry so I ate cat food. Dog food was gone.

October 31

Itchy… Itchy scratchy. Hungry. Very—

The paper is torn and the rest is not legible.

Poor Bob. He worked for an evil pharmaceuticals corporation, hoping to be successful in big business. But where did it get him? Pain, itchiness, and the uncontrollable urge to eat meaty things.

Guys like Bob the Zombie, Al the Annihilated and Harry the Hypnotized have been popping up in survival/horror games for years. Now with Infected, a clever third-person shooter, players can become their favorite survival/horror character – including Mike the Mutilated Maniac!

Let’s not forget about Jerry the Gelatinous Glob of Goo. Everyone wants to be him.

Since we’re all dying to get Infected, we didn’t waste any time in tracking down the game’s Lead Designer, Jeffrey Sondin-Kung. Jeff discusses the gameplay, the virus, and how you, me, and everyone else have the potential to infect the world!

Infected is referred to as a run-and-gun shooter, but it's much more than that. Start by introducing us to the basic gameplay elements (shooting, running, enemy conflicts, etc.), and then bring us into Infected's unique world by telling us what makes this one of the most interesting PSP titles to date.

Jeff Kung: Infected features a third person shooter gameplay utilizing a twin gun action arcade shooting system. The zombies are worn down by your ballistic gun in your right hand (and there are a bunch of different guns to choose from) and when the Infected turn from yellow to red, you shoot them with your viral gun in your left hand.  Not only that, you can strategize and get several Infected turned red and grouped together (zombies are dumb that way) and then splat one of them to cause a chain reaction. This is what we call a Combo Splat! The bigger the Combo Splat, the bigger the points and goodies!

But the most interesting thing about Infected is that YOU can infect the world! Yep. By winning in multiplayer matches over Ad-Hoc Wi-Fi or Infrastructure mode, you actually infect the other person’s PSP with your custom made viral avatar! What does that mean? The loser of your multiplayer match now has your avatar running around their single player levels. All the zombies have been replaced by your avatar. Now, there are two ways the losing player can get rid of the infection on their PSP. 

1. Go back into those infected levels and clean out every single instance of your avatar.

2. The infected loser must win 3 consecutive multiplayer matches to wipe your avatar off their PSP.  This results in your virus getting spread at least 3 more times to other player.

Once you’ve infected other players with your virus, you can then log on to our servers via your PSP and actually track your virus as it spread all over the world!

Can we get a cleanup crew over here or what?  

How do players and NPCs become infected in the first place?

JK: NPC’s are always targets for the Infected. They live (or rather died) for infecting Civilians.  Once they see a yummy Civilian running around, they head straight for them, knock them down, and start chomping. The player will have no idea how long the Infected will take to munch on the Civilian before they turn into a zombie, so they have to rescue them fast! As for players, as was stated above, player get infected from other players in multiplayer matches.

This game is Wi-Fi enabled, so I can potentially play with and infect gamers from all around the world. How many can battle simultaneously?

JK: The Infrastructure mode multiplayer supports 2 players. Ad-Hoc multiplayer supports up to 8 players.

Is there a limit to how many people I can infect?

JK: Nope. So get out there and INFECT THE WORLD!!!!!

What happens after you infect another person's PSP? Are they forever doomed? Is there an easy way to get out of it? Can I taunt the losers?

JK: You can certainly taunt the losers! You do that by infecting their Infected game with YOUR custom made avatar. Your avatar, once infected on the loser’s PSP, replaces all the Infected zombies in certain levels and it’s there that you will have the satisfaction of taunting the loser! But that player won’t have to worry, they can get rid of your virus by playing through those levels and wiping out your avatar or win three consecutive multiplayer matches.

Heads will roll when parents get a hold of this game! 

Is there a reason behind the madness? Does the game attempt to clarify what's causing the infection?

JK: Nobody knows where this Infection came from, what caused it, or what the cure is. The CDC is looking into the epidemiology of this infection but so far, there’re no firm theories. One thing is for sure; Officer Stevens is infected but is immune to the effects of the virus. [Is he] a carrier, perhaps?  But Stevens is the last line of defense against the Infected. Until the Infected are rendered under control, research into why Stevens is immune will have to wait!

How is the player supposed to deal with this deadly threat? On second thought, I don't know what the long-term effects for this [virus?]. Is it strong enough to kill a human?

JK: It’s not that it kills humans… the insidious nature of this virus is that it turns humans into the living dead! They become the very monster that tried to eat them. But the player deals with it by being one of them! Officer Stevens is infected with this virus but is immune. Not only that, Stevens’ blood is highly explosive when it comes in contact with Infected blood. So the viral gun actually draws a tiny bit of blood from Stevens, puts it in a gun shell, and once launched and penetrated into an Infected, the shell releases the tiny drop of blood causing an internal chain reaction that almost instantly explodes the infected zombie in a mass of blood and meaty chunks.

Can it infect animals?

JK: No.

Are there any strange creatures that you'll encounter in the game that definitely aren't human, but aren't quite animal either?

JK: Given time, the Infected can grow into a monstrous creature simply called the Giant Infected.  This gruesome thing lumbers around and is extremely tough. In fact, Giant Infected have been seen to pull their own intestines out and throw them at people as a weapon!

In addition to the standard weapons (shotguns and handguns I'm guessing), we'd love to hear about the viral weapons that were designed for the game and how they infect and affect our opponents.

JK: The Viral gun (and only one is needed) is biomechanically attached to Officer Stevens’ left arm. Because Stevens’ blood is highly volatile when it comes in contact with an Infected, the gun will actually draw a tiny bit of blood, place it in the shell, and when launched and penetrated into an Infected, it’ll release the blood and cause a massive, near instant explosion. 

Who says zombies can’t dance? 

From what I've seen of the game the graphics are coming along great. Talk about the visuals and what the developers/artists did to achieve this level of detail. Is a special engine involved?

JK: The artists and engineers worked extremely hard to come up with something that gave us fantastic visual fidelity AND super lightning fast performance. This is extremely difficult on any platform but even more so on a small (but powerful) handheld such as the PSP. A lot of sweat and brains went into making this game look as beautiful as it does. Everything you see on the Infected screen was touched, iterated on a million times, and reiterated on another million times by our artists and engineers.

Thanks Jeff for all the gruesome details!