I’m not a superstitious man, but the first time I pressed A to proceed to Nimbus INFINITY‘s main menu, it threw up a fatal error and crashed to desktop. I felt like Dante Alighieri reading the inscription on the gates of hell. Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate. It wasn’t the best start, is what I’m getting at. The feeling turned out to be rather on the money, as there was a lot in Nimbus INFINITY that rubbed me up the wrong way. As a first proper step into a beloved genre, it wasn’t selling it.
The actual mech combat isn’t the main issue, mind you, as you’ll see as we pick it apart. It’s just an unfortunate fact that no matter how solid the core, things will always be dragged down if the set dressing isn’t up to snuff. In this case, moving the game from Japanese to English left Nimbus INFINITY with a bizarre feeling throughout, which no amount of giant robots could salvage.
Dōmo Arigatō Misutā Robotto
Alright, let’s start with the reason we’re here: mechs. This is my first foray into the genre, unless you count Shogo: Mobile Armor Division. Which you probably don’t. Our mech, or ‘Battle Frame’ as it’s known, in this case is Warspite, a high-tech mech with a fully customistable loadout. Weapons can be tailored from distant sniper shots all the way up to shotguns. I went for a mid-range feel, with some heavy shoulder mounted cannons for anything that had a bit of muscle to it. Worked quite well, even if things did tend to whizz past a little too fast for my weary brain.
Still, actually controlling the mech feels nice, once you get used to it. Nimbus INFINITY‘s slightly wonky controller support didn’t help, but after the first mission I was merrily whizzing about. It’s nice for space to actually feel properly three dimensional. To actually attack, you lock on to enemies and keep them if your sights as they zoom around. It works well, even if most of the combat does dissolve into little yellow circles winking out of existince in a hail of bright lights. Our hitbox felt a little oddly shaped too, especially when dealing with lasers. Fighting larger ships, though, can feel downright exciting.
A Little Less Conversation
I carefully used the word ‘can’ in that last sentence, because everything else in Nimbus INFINITY brings it down a little. Let’s start with the writing. It has the hallmarks of something that’s been translated directly into English. The main ones being the characters all getting confused about who’s talking to who and a general awkward feel to the conversations. As for the plot, well it follows on from Project Nimbus, which I’ve not played. It’s a mish-mash of political intrigue, with some promising notes. Didn’t have much of a chance to catch up on it though, as a lot of it is layered over the gameplay. Hard to concentrate on someone wittering in my ear when I’m facing down a giant wall of missiles.
Not that I’d want to listen to them much anyway, due to the pretty poor voice acting. All lines are delivered strangely slowly and without any real emotion. Especially the British characters, which feels a little personal. I can’t help but feel that the developers just used the initial script read for every actor. That or the actors were exceedingly drunk. At times, I wondered if it was going for a deliberate B-Movie feel, à la Earth Defense Force, but it seems to be playing everything straight. There were strange misprounciations of both Japanese and English words too. Even simple ones like ‘biplanes’. I’m guessing they weren’t given any notes with the script. Perhaps they were just locked in a cupboard and told to record all their lines in five minutes or they’d be blasted by a laser. The captain does a passible Keith David impression though.
Fatal Error
There’s also a strong sense of instability throughout, like Nimbus INFINITY is being held together by sellotape. It crashed multiple times for one, which required a full restart of the mission – including the visual novel sections. Given the writing and acting, this grew to be excrutiating. Other minor gripes include some awful sound mixing and a sickening camera wobble during cutscenes. That, and the constant filling of the screen with bright lasers made it hard to figure out what was going on.
Which brings us back to where we started: the mech combat. When the music gets going and you blast forward into the enemy lines, it’s exciting. Fun, even. To me, though, it just boiled down to locking on and spamming the trigger until everything died. It came alive most in the one-on-one fights. The final boss fight was the most exciting, as it used all ranges – even melee. Then it was done and the game was over. I felt like I was finally getting it and it was gone. What it left me with was a profound feeling that there’s an interesting core buried somewhere in Nimbus INFINITY. It’s just a shame it’s dragged down by everything else, leaving it simply sub-par.
(Nimbus INFINITY‘s Steam Page)
