Subdivision Infinity DX | Nintendo Switch | Review

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The trouble with space is that it's mostly empty. Venturing into the unknown in a tiny spaceship in Subdivision Infinity DX, you feel that sense of scale immediately, as enemy ships, gun turrets and collectables flicker as pixels in the distance - particularly in handheld mode.

by James Michael Parry

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​@james_parry

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Developer: MistFly Games and Blowfish Studios
Publisher: Crescent Moon Games
Platforms: Steam, Nintendo Switch
Players: 1

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While almost certainly what developers MistFly Games and Blowfish Studios were going for, it can make things a little difficult to pick out at first. What you do get though is a space adventure you can jump into with both feet from the word go.

With a pokey little starter ship and some tutorial missions awaiting you, you’re introduced to your avatar - a fairly standard-looking white guy - and have a little text-based chat with AV-2, your friendly(?) robot “guy in the chair” who sends you on your missions and often updates you in the field.

Before long you’ll have started to build your supply of coins, used to upgrade your ship, but sadly the better ships and upgrades are level locked. This makes even the early missions quite challenging without taking the time to replay stages in order to make the most of the upgrades you can purchase early on.

​There are five star systems to explore, each with a few standard missions and a couple of exploration missions which have a very strong emphasis on the exploration, as you might expect, opting not to give you much in the way of direction of objectives. It’s here you’ll do the bulk of your grinding, uncovering hidden crates of supplies and taking down enemies.

​Battles can be a bit frantic, feeling like aerial dogfights as enemy ships whip past and force you to turn around in pursuit. Even your starting lasers lock on once you’re in range, simplifying the often tricky 360-degree targeting system, but enemies seem to have pinpoint accuracy from the word go, meaning you’ll find yourself running for cover (and eventual health regeneration) frequently. Manoeuvrability isn’t a problem, fortunately, with a boost for a bit of added speed and tight controls, once you’ve adjusted the sensitivity to your preference.

Subdivision Infinity DX as a whole doesn’t offer a huge amount of variety, and with limited progression and customisation on offer, at least early on, momentum can start to drain fairly quickly. If you absolutely need a space shooter to play on the go, though, Subdivinity offers a taste of the sort of experience you might expect from something like Everspace at a fraction of the cost. What you’ll miss out on is the depth, variety and graphical polish - though it’s a step up from something like Event Horizon or Vostok Inc. - and experience the odd bit of slowdown when things get busy. It all depends what you’re looking for in a space adventure.

Pros

• Controls are fairly straightforward, once you get used to them
• Simple presentation lets you jump right in
• Flying around and dogfighting in outer space

Cons
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• Graphics and production values don’t really impress
• Little variety in the formulaic gameplay
• Often difficult to make things out playing in handheld mode

6/10​