Screenshot: Subdivision Infinity DX
If anyone has read any of my previous reviews, you’ll know that I love space games. I’ve spent a ton of hours in games like
Elite Dangerous, Kerbal Space Program, Eve Online, Everspace 2 and more. While
Subdivision Infinity DX had a few interesting things going for it, it’s an underwhelming experience.
Subdivision Infinity DX is a third person arcade space combat game. If you’re at all familiar with
Everspace or
Everspace 2 the gameplay in
Subdivision Infinity DX would be familiar, but only on the surface level. Unlike
Everspace’s open play areas and ability to jump to new locations,
Subdivision Infinity DX has you complete missions in a single location, with multiple missions in the same general location, with about five total locations, each with about five missions each.
Screenshot: Subdivision Infinity DX
Each mission in
Subdivision Infinity DX usually consists of the same objectives, which boils down to “blow these particular things up.” Which is okay, because an arcade space combat game really just needs good space combat, but
Subdivision Infinity DX is a mixed bag in that regard.
On first impression, I actually thought I was going to like
Subdivision Infinity DX’s combat. Shooting feels good, and the explosions and other ballistic effects have a satisfying
oomph to them, resulting in ship-shaking explosions. Of course, such shockwaves probably couldn’t carry through the vacuum of space, but a game like
Subdivision Infinity DX is more about fast combat than realism. Sadly, with little variation,
Subdivision Infinity’s combat started to feel same-y. And then came the grind.
Screenshot: Subdivision Infinity DX
After completing the missions in the first area, I had a strange problem: I was still too low level to really buy anything. I still had the starter ship, and mostly just had starter weapons. Then I started to notice the price tags—after completing the entire first chapter, I only had enough money to buy one weapon. I couldn’t even afford a new ship—that is, if I was high enough level for most of the selection. The more you play, the more experience you accumulate, and that unlocks new ships and weapons. But holy hell, is it a grind. If you want even basic upgrades, you’ll have to go back to already completed missions, and they just aren’t fun enough for that.
There is an additional mode you can play called “exploration” which opens up a couple more missions in each location. Exploration mode feels pointless, but it does have the possibility to yield currency that can be used to buy or craft new weapons and ships.
Screenshot: Subdivision Infinity DX
I’d like to say that I loved
Subdivision Infinity DX, but it really feels like an incomplete game. It gives off a great first impression, but it’s not something I could stomach playing for more than a few hours without wanting to do anything else. It has decent enough combat, but with nothing interesting to fight and nowhere interesting to do that fighting,
Subdivision Infinity DX just isn’t a fun game. It also has one of the worst names for a game I’ve heard recently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rePFU9_cDss
Subdivision Infinity DX is available now on PlayStation 5,
for PC via Steam, and on
Xbox Series S|X. Xbox One and
Nintendo Switch.
A PlayStation 5 key was provided to us for this review.
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