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Good: Fast-paced arcade mayhem, map system, weapon upgrade system

Bad: Repetition, juvenile humor, collision detection

Winner of: The Worst Soundtrack Ever award. Seriously.

As it has become more and more apparent that the PSP has a genuine lack of decent titles in its library, owners of the system have been keeping a sharp eye out for anything with potential. Infected is one of those titles that has been talked about and anticipated as one of the possible purchase-worthy games for the portable. Unfortunately, upon its arrival, it seems that this title with potential has ended up being mediocre at best.

Basic gameplay involves running around madly and shooting a lot of infected citizens of New York. Several missions are of this "Kill 'em All" variety, and the gameplay is predictably mindless. You begin with a handgun and shoot the infected until they turn red. At this point, you can blast them with a shot from your Viral Gun, which will splat them into a million pieces. If any of these pieces (or the blood) hits nearby enemies, they automatically turn red. If these enemies are already red, they'll explode in a sometimes massive combo chain. At the end of each level, you'll receive money that can be used to purchase new weapons as well as health and speed upgrades. Weapons aren't handled in the same fashion as most shooters, meaning you can't merely select which to use. Each level will start with the handgun, and as you complete combos, you'll move up to the shotgun, machine gun, and rocket launchers. It's a unique system, and it's one of the better aspects of the game. This upgrade system makes you want to shoot like mad at the very beginning so that you can get to the rocket launchers quickly.

Later in the game, you'll see less Kill 'em All missions and more evacuation/save the civilian types. Some will require you to save X amount of citizens in order to get a medal. The map system helps tremendously in these missions, as hitting L will show you a full overview of the different zones in the level. Green dots are healthy citizens, and red dots are the infected. If the infected invade a green area, it doesn't take long for them all to turn red. Therefore, at the beginning of the level, it helps to plan out which areas to hit first to prevent widespread infections. Neglect an infected area for too long, and the creatures will go berserk, making them faster and stronger. Later on, you'll run into bigger and stronger Infected, such as the Giant Infected and the chainsaw-wielding Santas. Eventually, the enemies learn to use guns.

Made by the same developers as MDK and Giants: Citizen Kabuto, you can expect a lot of attempted humor in the cutscenes. The 'comedy' in Infected seems directed towards 13 year olds who still think that any use of the F-bomb is funny. While I'm certainly not against cussing by any means, I don't believe that a line is always funnier with the simple inclusion of a four-letter word. Some shows have cursing usage down to a hilarious science (South Park, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Deadwood), while others simply sound juvenile. Infected certainly falls into the latter. Even outside of this matter, Infected's humor is far from anything clever.

Visuals are decent for a portable, but still nowhere near the mark set by Wipeout Pure or Grand Theft Auto: LCS. There are tons of particle effects and splatting blood that perfectly fit the onscreen mayhem. Then again, there are aspects of the graphics that show a lot of laziness on the part of the developer. For example there is almost literally no collision detection. Environmental objects can more often than not be completely walked through. Try walking through a mailbox or a tree and you'll find that your character reacts like it's not even there.

Without any exaggeration, I can honestly say that Infected features the worst soundtrack I've ever heard in my life. It's absolutely filled with screaming, terrible metal. Whether it's Slipknot, Agony Scene, Pimp X, Chimaira, or any other 'artist' on the soundtrack, it would be generous to even call it music. Now, I'm not blasting it simply because it's not my personal taste in music (after all, I don't think Creedence Clearwater or Neil Young would go well with maniacal Infected-blasting), I'm blasting it because only a very small amount of gamers would actually like this music. Hardcore metal like this only appeals to a very niche group of people, and those that aren't part of that group are just going to want to turn the music off in the game. Other sound effects are bland and generic, and could have been taken from any mediocre shooter from the last ten years.

While the later levels are certainly more entertaining than the mindless early missions, there still isn't much replay value. Each level can be beaten with a bronze, silver, or gold medal, so there's a reason to come back if you feel like getting gold on each. Ad Hoc multiplayer supports up to eight players, but Infrastructure only supports two-player deathmatch. It may be worth a rental for fans of mindless blasting and terrible music, but Infected certainly doesn't make me feel any better about the PSP's current library.

Graphics: C

Sound: F-

First Play: D+

Last Play: D

Gameplay: D

Overall: 68% D+