The original 'Twin Stick Shooter'
Infantry Online is a multiplayer combat video game. Originally released in 1999, the game was taken offline by Sony Online Entertainment and the servers shut down in March 2012. The Infantry community subsequently took control of the game and re-launched it independently at freeinfantry.com
Infantry Online is essentially a precursor to more modern Twin Sticks shooters like Geometry Wars. However Infantry Online was noteworthy for offering multiple game modes, more of which can be created by the playerbase using freely available creation tools. The specifics of Infantry's gameplay varies greatly based on game mode and has included everything from quite complex action R.P.Gs with a huge variety of character stats and equipment options, to more conventional class-based team capture point games similar to Battlefield, to off-the-wall gimmicky modes like GravBall!
Infantry Online contains examples of the following tropes:
- Air-Vent Passageway: In the 'Bug Hunt' game mode the aliens (but not humans) can use air vents to move around the map unseen.
- Alien Blood: The aliens in the 'Bug Hunt' game mode explode in sprays of green blood when killed.
- Attack Reflector: The 'Repulsor Charge' equipment is available in most game modes; the charge repels projectiles and sometimes even other players in a small area around the user. Use the Repulsor on an enemy explosive and it might fly right back in their face for predictably painful results. Of course your opponent probably also has a Repulsor so this may lead to a brief attack reflecting duel.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Heavy machine guns can put out way more shots than other guns but can't be fired while the user is moving. In Infantry dodging projectiles is essential to survival so using a heavy machine gun is a death sentence against any decent opponents. The exception is the Heavy Weapon Trooper's Assault Cannon in 'Bug Hunt!' since most of the alien enemies have relatively weak projectile attacks.
- Blood Sport: The 'Gravball!' game mode is basically Soccer with the options to use a Jet Pack or Hover Bike and gun down your opponents.
- Bloody Murder: When the aliens in 'Bug Hunt' die they spray gouts of blood that can damage human players that contact it. This often results in a case of Taking You with Me if the alien has already injured the human with a melee strike before getting killed.
- Bug War: The long-running game mode 'Bug Hunt!' pits various classes of human Space Marine trying to rescue scientists from a research station against an alien swarm. Although most of the alien types look more like Reptilian Aliens than insects.
- Bullet Hell: A crowded part of the map in a two team competitive gamemode often resembles an especially chaotic Bullet Hell shooting game.
- Capture the Flag: CTF is an objective in many game modes with the most popular team CTF map usually being 'Twin Peaks'.
- Critical Encumbrance Failure: Game modes that let a player choose his own equipment assign a Weight to each item as a way of balancing different pieces of gear and preventing the player from carrying everything at once.
- Damage Typing: Most game modes contain at least two damage types: Energy and Kinetic. Energy shots are usually better at draining the target's Energy while Kinetic typically drains more Hit Points. The R.P.G game modes feature many damage types and equipment designed to resist or enhance specific types, leading to complex character setups.
- Digitized Sprites: Most of the graphics in Infantry Online consist of digitized sprites.
- Friendly Fireproof: It's impossible to damage your teammates in the vast majority of game modes. However if your shot hits an ally it will be blocked by their body, which somewhat limits the amount of Bullet Hell projectile spam possible in team games.
- Grenade Spam: Hand grenades in Infantry Online bounce off terrain, explode on contact with an enemy, and inherit most of the throwers movement momentum. All these features make it possible for a skilled player to pull off impressively precise 'trick shot' grenade tosses, although simply spamming them can also be effective. For better or worse, most game modes put strict limits on the number of hand grenades a player can hold in his inventory to limit grenade spam.
- Hover Bike: Hover bikes have some of the fastest acceleration and top speed in Infantry Online. They're somewhat uncommon since most game modes don't include them, but the bikes are a major part of GravBall!
- Hover Tank: In the game modes that feature vehicles the hover tank is typically the most durable one available.
- Isometric Projection: All the graphics in Infantry Online consist of 2D sprites displayed in a forced isometric perspective.
- Jet Pack: Several game modes let either a certain class or any player who picks one up use a Jet Pack. The Jet packs greatly increase the user's top speed but also increase his inertia and momentum, making it harder to change directions.
- One Bullet Clips: In Infantry Online the player never needs to reload manually and his reserve ammo is counted in individual shots left. The only exception is a handful of 'realistic' game modes, such as 'Boarding Action', in which the player gets a limited number of magazines he can manually reload with.
- Painfully Slow Projectile: Almost every game mode has slow projectiles as this is a major component of skillful Infantry Online gameplay. Shooters must exploit the game's physics and environments to make their shots hard to avoid while simultaneously using the same to avoid return fire themselves.
- Pinball Projectile: Most Energy-type guns shoot projectiles that can ricochet off obstacles a certain number of times, giving them some indirect fire capability.
- Recycled In Space: 'Cosmic Rift' is basically Infantry Online in space. However Rift has much different physics, with basically no friction to slow down the momentum of a player's spaceship and much faster top speeds.
- Regenerating Shield, Static Health: Most game modes give the player a regenerating Energy gauge into addition to static Hit Points. Energy gives a proportionate amount of Damage Reduction: 100% of max Energy blocks 100% of incoming damage, 70% of max Energy blocks 70% of incoming damage and so on. Energy is drained by hits but different weapons usually cause different amounts of energy drain per hit. Furthermore certain weapons and tools also cost Energy to use, making the player temporarily more vulnerable when he drains his Energy to use them. Managing Energy is one of the more nuanced and complex aspects of Infantry Online's gameplay.
- RPG Elements: Some game modes let the player gain experience to level up his character and add stat points to improve his character and unlock new equipment with. 'EOL Crater Alpha' is usually the most popular of these RPG modes.
- Short-Range Long-Range Weapon: Some game modes attempt to include a Sniper Rifle or other gun specialized for long range targets. The problem with this is that aiming at off screen targets involves an awkward control scheme for 'zooming out' to view off-screen areas, leaves the user unaware of what's near him while aiming this way, and is generally more trouble than it's worth. Therefore long range guns will still mostly be used against targets directly in front of the shooter.
- Short-Range Shotgun: Shotguns fire many projectiles simultaneously in a wide angled spread from the shooter, and the projectiles can only travel a short distance before dissipating. These shots will do huge total damage if they all hit and shotguns also tend to be effective at draining Energy shields but are ineffective against the Damage Reduction of heavy armor.
- Sentry Gun: The more complicated game modes often feature an engineer type character class that can build and maintain a Sentry Gun. Invincible Sentry Guns also defend the spawn points in many game modes to discourage Spawn Camping.
- Stealth Expert: Some game modes have an 'infiltrator' character type that can hide himself from radar, use electronic countermeasures to disable a Sentry Gun, and even use Invisibility. Sometimes the infiltrator will also get enhanced detection tools to find and counter other infiltrators.
- Videogame Flamethrowers Suck: Flamethrowers in Infantry Online have very short range and an even slower than typical Painfully Slow Projectile. On the other hand they can hit multiple enemies with the same projectile and will leave burning areas on the ground that will hurt enemies that move through them, so flamethrowers can be ok defensive weapons. The Heavy Weapon Trooper's flamethrower in Bug Hunt can actually come in handy since the aliens specialize in close range swarming attacks.
