Infestation

From the developers of Elite comes the tale of one buggy's lone fight against an extraterrestrial menace. Yes, you in your motorised steed get to participate in a 3D shooter of extreme averageness. It's not all bad news, though. The way you can upgrade your buggy is rather interesting as you're given different weapons and abilities, which see you evolving into a... oh, forget it, it is all bad news.

It's the manoeuvrability of the vehicle that's the main problem. If you drive too close to the enemy they'll start to fire at you. But can you skilfully dodge the oncoming barrage and fire back? No, you have to either stay still and take it or tediously wheel around keeping your target locked on while they constantly whittle down your energy. But having a strafe mode on a buggy would be stupid, wouldn't it? Not as stupid as getting blown up by a surprisingly precise, relentless gun turret while you move around like a toddler on a tricycle. It's even worse with mobile enemies. Hell, just stay out of range and shoot rockets at them. They probably won't notice.

Get a couple of upgrades and gain some tolerance of the controls and things balance out a little. Well, things might if it wasn't for the rest of the game. If anything was a model of dullness through over-familiarity, Infestation would be it. It's not that there's anything awful about it, it's just that it's hard to get excited or enthusiastic about the whole experience. There's just nothing about the game which makes it stand out. It's the gaming equivalent of Emmerdale. And multiplayer? Playing with those controls? No thanks.

If this is the kind of thing Frontier Developments is putting out at the moment, it's a brave man who doesn't cross his fingers doubly hard for Elite 4. Infestation may not be a total stinker but it just doesn't cut it.