Infected: The Twin Vaccine

Infected: The Twin Vaccine
by Gogii Games

Available at:
Big Fish as Collector's Edition / Standard Edition
GameHouse as Platinum Edition / Standard Edition
iWin as Collector's Edition / Standard Edition




About the game

A new breed of virus has spread throughout the City of Oxford forcing the area to be quarantined and on high alert. The first reported case of the virus was found in 6 year old twin sisters Tiffany & Theresa Morrisey. Tiffany never survived the infection but Theresa made a full recovery and is now believed to be the key to finding a cure. In the chaos of a city-wide evacuation, Theresa goes missing. You must travel back to the abandoned city of Oxford to find her before the virus spreads globally. Be wary however ... you're not the only one back in town.

Main Game Features

• 220+ Scenes to navigate
  
• HD Widescreen mode: see more action!
  
• Customizable difficulty: set challenges how you like them
  
• Strategy Guide
  
• Blog Walkthrough (Big Fish)
  

The Collector’s Edition includes:

• Bonus Chapter
  
• Integrated Strategy Guide
  
• Behind the Scenes making-of video
  
• Wallpapers
  
• Concept Art
  

Click images to enlarge

Infected: The Twin Vaccine CE (Adventure-lite)

The options on this game are (hopefully) trend-setting.  I wish ALL casual games had this degree of adjustment available!  First of all is the Settings tab, from where you can choose full-screen, windowed, or wide-screen; custom cursor; quality (fast computer); and separate sliders for music, effects, and voice.  Then we have the Difficulty tab, and this is where it gets great... You have three choices for difficulty:  Casual, Advanced, or CUSTOM!  If you choose custom, you can use sliders to choose how easy or hard you want the hint recharge, minigame skip, and glint (aka sparkles).  How cool is that??    You can also turn off the tutorial and help text from this part of the screen.

You might have noticed that although this game is in the Hidden Object section of the forum, I've termed it an Adventure-lite.  There ARE hidden object scenes, but you will use EVERY. SINGLE. OBJECT that you find.

We have two tabs at the bottom of the scene, one for inventory, and when on a HOS, a to-find list.  Every object you find will go into your inventory to be used on the scene.  You could very easily make this an adventure game with no HO lists by switching to the inventory tab, then examining the scene before you.  You CAN figure out what needs to be done if you look and click.  VERY nice, I love that!   Sadly this formula does not hold true during the bonus chapter, having typical hidden object scenes, instead.

There is no mis-click penalty

The storyline is upsetting in a very Stephen King The Stand kind of way.  A heart-aching possibility for our future, and a reality from our past.  If the synopsis of the game is too hard for you to take, you won't be able to make it through the game.  This is a hard tale to bear, but it is handled well.  The story progresses via a combination of character interactions, recordings, and videos.  We have some extra story (and no hints!) in the journal.  We do have a map, but it's completely useless.  It's hard to read, and there is no jump-to option.  I'm not sure why they even bothered.

The game interface is a little bit clunky at times.  For instance, you may use a hint and get a hit on the scene you're currently on, but you don't have the item needed to interact there yet. >_<  We collect coins during gameplay, and when we use them, we keep having to click on the coins, click to deposit, click on the coin, click to deposit... They should have kept the coins on the cursor until we deposited all that were needed.  

Something else that bothered me is that some of the actions we were required to make either made NO sense, or were nearly impossible, physics-wise.  This is one of my pet peeves in games -- it REALLY bothers me -- and yet the game and storyline were good enough that I didn't get mad at the game, and wanted to keep playing.

We have both live actors and real life footage, and this is a game that did it RIGHT.  The devs did it in such a way that the footage beautifully blends with the graphics.  Far away, we can see the live actors, and as they move closer, they are overlaid with a graphic effect that makes them blend seamlessly with the other artwork.  Very nice!

CE Content:

• Bonus chapter
  
• 6 Wallpapers
  
• 15 Concept art
  
• Behind the scenes video
  

Bonus chapter:
I can't tell you what the bonus play is about, except that it's part of the story that I didn't expect to see, and is told from someone else's perspective, and that it takes place BEFORE the main story.  You will find 18 collectibles (keepsakes) during this part of the game.  The gameplay isn't as good as during the main game.  I could've done without the CE version.

The SE is excellent, despite my few gripes, and I highly recommend it (assuming that you can handle the storyline.)

Impressive Modern Sci-Fi
    

BASED ON COMPLETED GAME

It’s got it all. From excellent graphics and sound, to innovative HO puzzles, to challenging adventure gameplay and a gripping story.

In a nutshell:

• Brilliantly realistic and exciting opening scenes
• Real actors incorporated seamlessly
• Choose your level of difficulty, including a custom level
• Subtle but ominous music accompanying threatening ambient sounds
• HOs where each item you find must be used within the scene to get another on the list – the first game to do what is now the most popular adaptation on HOPs
• Believable story with emotionally valid conclusion

The one thing it DOESN’T have is a useful map. But hint is directional and the game logic is pretty obvious for the most part.

And the one thing I wish it didn’t have was a (relatively) long black screen during transitions. But that’s just being picky.

The game is simply outstanding.

I Recommend This Game!