Portable zombie splat

• Graphics: 8/10
• Sound: 8/10
• Gameplay: 7/10
• Replay Value: 5/10
• Overall: 7.5/10

Infected is fun and fast-paced zombie splatting fun, but it suffers from an extremely short single player mode and an online mode that, while encompassing some novel ideas, fails to fully live up to its potential.

The dead now walk the streets of New York City. They look at you with soulless eyes, stalking you with pure contempt and rage. The city streets are becoming a desolate wasteland of rubble, torched vehicles and corpses. The isolated pockets of the living hopelessly flee in terror as the increasing numbers of zombies descend upon them with bloodthirsty rage threatening to turn them into one of the "Infected". There is only one thing worse than this insurmountable terror; it's interrupting one of the biggest Christmas shopping seasons ever!

Infected is a thoroughly enjoyable 3rd person arcade style blast-a-thon that provides as much fast paced, heavy metal infused zombie exploding mayhem as it does humorous tongue-in-cheek social commentary. The single player mode is short and the online multiplayer gets old too fast, making infected a "fun while it lasts" game perfectly suited for portable gameplay.

You take on the role of officer Stevens, an anonymous rookie cop who has been discovered to be immune to the zombie virus, and that the slightest drop of Stevens' blood on a weakened zombie or "Infected" causes an explosively violent reaction - literally. Officer Stevens' appearance is up to your tastes, as you choose your name and are given a number of different character models or "avatars" to choose from with customizable outfits and colors. Options also exist to unlock a multitude of other models, including members of the band Slipknot and Majesco's videogame vixen Bloodrayne.

In the game Stevens carries two weapons, a ballistic weapon in your right hand which you will use to weaken healthy zombies until they glow red, and on the left is a gun hooked into Stevens' bloodstream, which can shoot drops of blood at high velocity capable of making weakened zombies "splat". If you can manage to get 2 or more weakened zombies close enough to each other, you can then splat one of them and set off a chain reaction of exploding zombies sending out bloody chunks in every direction. The game tallies this up as a combo, with bigger combos equaling more points and better power ups.

For completing each level you are awarded gold, silver or bronze medals based on your performance; and accumulating medals unlocks more single player levels. The better your medal upon completing a level the more cash you earn to buy new avatars, weapons and power ups. Level objectives are always one of three things in Infected: "Kill all infected", "Rescue civilians" or "Protect civilians". A little more variety in level goals would have been a welcome addition.

Levels are broken into multiple zones that you can travel freely to and from via underground subway hubs, with locations of the remaining civilians, infected and the next zone with a handy overhead map. There is a good range of zombie fodder for you to splat including fast moving, slow moving, giant sized, even weapon wielding undead. At times the levels are crammed with zombies and flying zombie chunks as far as the eye can see without a hint of slowdown.

The level design provides a believable recreation of famous NYC locales such as Central Park and Times Square, with overturned flaming vehicles and boarded up stores thrown in for atmosphere. The soundtrack is about as metalcore as you can get, featuring tracks from Slipknot and Chimaira to name a few, which compliments the frantic pace of the gameplay.

Infected's online multiplayer suffers from a one track mind; you cannot choose your opponent and matches are strictly one on one. With the auto targeting feature, online battles aren't very fun, it's just a case of who falls first which is confusing considering ad-hoc multiplayer supports up to 8 players and offers multiple modes. Winning a multiplayer match "infects" the other user's game with your avatar and can spread to other users they battle, with your infection's progress traceable via an in game browser. This would be a lot more interesting if the online multiplayer was actually fun.

Infected provides loads of fast paced zombie splattering fun across 35 single player levels, with lots of unlockable avatars and power ups. Each level lasts only a few minutes, making this a great "on the go" game. The controls are spot-on and easy to pick up, possibly the best control scheme I've seen so far for 3rd person games on the PSP, but the game is extremely short and doesn't offer much replay after you've completed it. It's a shame the online multiplayer falls short, leaving Infected to be short but sweet, with some humorous cinematics and mission briefings, foul language and lots of exploding zombies.