RecommendedSteam player

01/16/2016

Infra is not your average game. There are no guns here, but there are still bad guys and monsters. There are no soldiers, spies or saboteurs, but there is a battle taking place. There are no jump scares, creeping horrors, or panicked flights from hordes of undead, but Infra can still scare, unnerve, and frighten you. Just not in the ways that you would expect. You take the role of Mark Siltanen an industrial engineer from a firm who has just taken over the maintenance contract for the city of Stahlberg, and you are about to have the bad day to end all others, and maybe everybody else's day toboot. You could use the words 'Walking Simulator' to describe Infra, but that definition barely scratches the surface of what's going on here. You could say that Infra is a puzzle game, but you'd only be talking about the tip of the iceberg. You could say that Infra is a job simulator, but you'd still be missing the real point of what is going on. Yes, Infra is an Indie Game, and a bit of a klunky one at times. With a smattering of wooden character sprites and voice acting recorded on what sounds like half a dozen different setups that needs better post production. But that's not why you should buy it. The chewy chocolate-fudge centre of this game may take some of us a little while to get to, but when we do, it should give everyone pause. If you've ever worked in one of those big, Star-Wars-scale industrial environments where a moment's inattention in the wrong place can end your life without so much as slowing down the machinery that just turned you into paste then Infra won't take long to get under your skin. The cracks in the walls, the leaky pipes and barely functional equipment. . . If you've ever worked in heavy industry and had to find a new workaround to each successive problem, and/or deal with OHS and get management to take things like this seriously, then the reaction will be instinctive. Like me you'll be thinking about all the dominoes that could be toppled by that half-flooded generator room or tainted water pipe. I realised that the game had me completely immersed when I found myself backtracking time and again to keep turning off the generators in said half-flooded room only to find out I wasn't yet past the point where I needed to have them running. At its brilliantly mundane heart, Infra is an interactive cautionary tale, and one that hits close to home for all of us. All around us we are surrounded by tecnologies and systems that we take for granted and that is the spot where Infra builds the edifice of tension that makes up the game's core. Because despite the cinematic license with which Infra's story is presented, the Bad guys and monsters are entirely human, perfectly possible. The horrific scenarios that play out have happened in our world before and they are doing so right now, even as we sit here unaware of their unravelling beneath our feet. Perhaps what is more horrifying is that it doesn't take corporate malfesance and corruption on a grand scale for those little scenarios to play out time and again in the real world. All it takes is a moment's distraction for one person at one step along the long process of getting water from the city dam to your kitchen sink. Games like Infra should be made, they NEED to be made, and in greater numbers (and yes a little extra polish would be nice too), about things other than psychotically emotionless Space Marines turning the seemingly endless ranks of disposable mooks into hamburger (or some minor variation thereof). Because if Infra can give you pause the next time you take a ride on the subway, the next time you flick a light switch, or turn on a tap, then it has succeeded in a way that few other games can, because you don't have to suspend your disbelief very far at all for Infra to work its magic.Show moreShow less

8.3 hours at review438 people found this helpful

Not recommendedSteam player

07/10/2021

I see that a lot of people like this game, and that's great. Makes me very happy to see that. However, I really struggled to enjoy it for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Infra is a very complex game that doesn't give you much in the way of guidance. Normally I'd be okay with that, but certain sections were almost headache-inducing in their design. Secondly, some of the puzzles don't give any indicators on what exactly it is you're supposed to solve, which is made even more difficult by the almost labyrinthian layouts of the maps. It got to the point where I was relying on a Steam guide to help me progress, something that I didn't want to spend my entire playthrough relying on. I lost my patience, and stopped playing. It's a slow-paced experience that didn't have much of a present narrative that was enough to keep me engaged. However, those who are looking for a complex puzzle game that doesn't offer much in the way of help, this could be right up your alley. The environments are gorgeous to look at, with plenty of opportunities to take some nice screenshots, and in the time that I spent, I didn't encounter any bugs. Maybe, I'm dumb, I don't know. All I know is that Infra just isn't for me. If you're willing to be confused a lot, and have the patience to persevere, you'll be fine with this. If not, I'd find something else.Show moreShow less

3.8 hours at review183 people found this helpful

RecommendedSteam player

02/07/2024

Alright. INFRA is done and dusted. I did almost everything you can do in this game. There was one repair I missed (pretty sure it was at the suburb construction site) for one achievement, and one activity I was terrible at and didn’t complete for another achievement. Plus one ending which I’d need to replay the entire game to get. What is INFRA? INFRA is a vast walking simulator/puzzle game with a focus on urban exploration like you might see on YT. So…a lot of decrepit buildings, tunnels, and such. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3154264932 You play as Mark, a Civil Engineer working as a Structural Analyst, who is tasked with analyzing an old dam and attached waterways. Along the way, you’ll take pictures of things you find that are of interest; and will, as you’re able, repair things that have fallen into disrepair. This is the majority of your actual activities. Things you’ll document with your camera include documents, broken machinery, broken concrete with rebar poking through, environmental hazards, etc…as far as repair, you might repair water processing plants, electrical grids, tunnel networks, and such. However, not all is well in the city of Stalburg, where you live and work. Corruption and corporate/political intrigue have allowed the city’s infrastructure to fall into widespread disrepair, and one failing system leads to other failing systems, culminating in a city on the verge of collapse. With that in mind, you (Mark) are quite the stoic character. No matter how dangerous the situation, you seem unfazed by it all. And this is presented in a believable way. Mark is just one of those unflappable dudes. As you work your way through the actual underbelly of the city, you face many near death situations. Most are directly caused by the state of things in areas you’re in. However, there are a couple instances where people play a more direct role in your potential demise. So…the game is highly puzzle-centric, and this is a game where having a notepad and pen handy is advantageous. Most puzzles have the solutions spread out in various documents. Occasionally, for some weird reason, the solution is offered in the area just beyond where it’s needed, but mostly, they’re where you can actually use them. However, many of the puzzles span several rooms or even several structures, and that can definitely lead to lot of feeling lost, backtracking, and so on. I lucked into a few of the more intricate puzzle solutions, personally, and there were a few that I ended up looking up the solutions to. Most are sensible though. There are a few time based sequences. All of these will have a few deaths attached to them until you sort out what you need to do. They mostly present as chase sequences, only you’re really running away from flooding, collapses, and explosions. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3155092703 Visually, this is an evocative game. It’s not all sunshine and roses. You’re mostly spending your time in dank, dark places; or in sterile lab and office building settings. Storywise, this is also evocative, and pretty realistic. No matter where you live, chances are there is a faulty infrastructure in place and a lot of patchwork fixes until something devastating or close to happens. Factory explosions, flooding, bridges collapsing, and worse. The story also dives into the intrigue that caused the situation here, mostly via documents and audio logs. The audio is very important in INFRA as well. It’ll indicate key features and objects, cause and effect of your actions, and generally provides a lot of atmosphere. Combined with the visuals, this game has all the hallmarks of a horror game, but the horror is absent, which is a funny dynamic. The voice acting kind made me chuckle, and it’s perfect for the game. Mark has such a dry personality, almost like Geralt, and the other actors seemed to have focused on a dominant personality trait. The story is affected by how diligent an explorer you are, be it with finding and taking pictures of documents and important things you see; the actions you take in each area, and so on. You will be locked out of one canon ending and a couple early endings if you’re not thorough. There is also a lot of meta humor and pop culture humor sprinkled throughout the game. This was a welcome source of additional entertainment. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3154742345 The controls were really tight. You mostly are walking and running, but there is also a lite bit of climbing and platforming. You are armed with your wits as well as a flashlight and your camera. Both are battery dependent, and you’ll be picking up a lot of batteries through the course of the game. My favorite area in the game was definitely Turnip Hill, which was the most story dependent area in the game, and the one with some of the most messed up stuff happening, lol. There also are two early endings here that I thought were really cool. This has a rating of unsupported for the Steam Deck. However, in practice, it’s actually 100% Steam Deck compatible. It required zero tweaks and was gamepad ready out of the box. The battery life was somewhere around two and a half to three hours for me. However, stability was an issue later in the game. This isn’t Deck exclusive. There seems to be memory leak or somesuch which will cause quite a bit of hard crashing. Not to the point of “F this game”, but enough to be noteworthy. As is often the case with lengthier and more detail oriented games, there’s plenty to talk about that didn’t make it into this review, but that’s really as it should be. All told, it took me roughly seventy hours (not all of which tracked) to complete everything missing the things mentioned in my intro. Somehow, INFRA managed to make Civil Engineering exciting, and the game gives a lot to the people who play it. It’s an easy recommendation, and very much a game you shouldn’t overlook. There’s really nothing else quite like it. If you found this review helpful and would be interested in supporting my Curator group, Robilar's Reviews, it would be appreciated. Cheers. Also follow IndieGems for more reviews like this one.Show moreShow less

51 hours at review107 people found this helpful

Not recommendedSteam player

02/14/2024

This game is not for me. Ultimately it is unsatisfying for my personality-type. I want clearly defined goals and puzzles that are challenging without being overly distant. I don't want to have to throw a switch in a dark tunnel ten miles away to activate and solve a puzzle ten miles back. This game also closes off areas that you feel inside your own head that you didn't finish because there is zero direction or reward in doing or completing anything. Most times I didn't know I HAD completed anything. And please don't give me keys with yellow labels and nothing written on them (maybe one of those, not many). For me, you give me a large story and small tasks (or quests or puzzles) that I can perform to advance the story and my character in the game. This thing started out with a corporate meeting. I hate those in real life (!) so maybe you lost me right there. Why would I want a game that feels at all like I am at work? And this IS a game, so if it's not fun, it's just busy-work, which I seriously don't like. So again... this game was not for me. I can tell a lot of work went into this game and there is nothing wrong with the game mechanics or rendering and I did not find any bugs and it never crashed. It just wasn't enjoyable enough for me to continue playing.Show moreShow less

6.1 hours at review83 people found this helpful

RecommendedSteam player

01/16/2016

INFRA is a game that I first saw on Greenlight about a year ago. I was getting worried with the time it was taking to deliver BUT now that I have seen what they delivered I am blown away. The puzzles are great. They almost reming me of Myst in some regards. And the enviroments are amazing. I wasn't even aware the Source Engine could look this good and run so well. There are a few bugs at the time of this review (launch day) but I have confidence that they will be quickly attended to. The price of 14.99 USD is a very fair asking price for this game. If you decide to purchase make sure you spend time to explore each area to it's fullest. There are little goodies hidden all around the map. The subject of the game really is interesting. I found myself wondering about what sort of underground cities are beneath the city I live in and how much effort it must take to keep it running. When walking around INFRA I feel less like I am walking around river controls and steel mills and more like I am walking through an ancient tomb that has become overgrown and has started to decay. I can't wait to see what else these developers have in store for us. EDIT: This game has no real horror elements. It is more of a puzzle game. That being said there were several points where I had a chill run down my spine or a feeling that something was not right was felt mostly due to walking through the decaying areas alone with nothing but the sound of wind and the structure creaking around me. It is no walking simulator with the amount of puzzles and a few fast paced scenes. There are no zombies or slendermen or Nazis but the enviroment and the structures are working against you.Show moreShow less

10 hours at review102 people found this helpful

Not recommendedSteam player

01/16/2016

Before critizising the game, I got to acknowledge that a lot of work, especially in detailling went into this game. But it seems like the devs put their manhours to the wrong tasks. The levels look pretty but feel very unnatural (unless blocking pretty much every fire escape door and denying access to all non-important doors is some sort of inside joke). The puzzles range from "too easy/obvious" in the form of "get this item and put it here" and simple "read the code on this paper and then switch the right switch" where the code and the switch are always directly next to each other to almost impossible to figure out parts of the game... more often than not you are supposed to pick up or pay attention to things before you see the actual puzzle. Exploration in this game isnt rewarded. I was constantly running low on batteries especially in the mid section of the game since even when exploring you wouldn't find any supplies. Exploring, well the parts that you could explore, lead to nothing and often you just ended up at places you were before. You keep picking up keys (they all look the same) without knowing what they are for. The only cool thing that I discovered were a hand full of easter eggs (smaller stuff) and a bunch of codes that seemed important like the code on the sheet over the corpse, although that one wasnt really "hidden" at all but even that part didnt save the game. There are better Indie games out there that look better and have a more solid story plus better gameplay. If youre interested in this game, you definitely want to check out The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, as it has a somewhat similar setting but is a better game all around for the same price. I do not recommend this game although I don't think it's terrible. But it's just no fun.Show moreShow less

2.1 hours at review83 people found this helpful

RecommendedSteam player

01/18/2026

If you picked this game up and are planning on playing it for the first time, there is a simple change I recommend doing in order to make the game a little less frustrating: 1. Right click the game in your steam library, click 'Properties', then 'Installed files', then 'Browse'. This will take you to the games directory. 2. Open the 'infra' folder in your file explorer, then the 'cfg' folder, then open the 'Skill1.cfg' file using notepad. 3. Once you have the 'Skill1.cfg' file open, copy and paste the following over the current contents of the file: sk_max_aa_batteries 1000 // 10 x 100 (10 full batteries) sk_max_d_batteries 1000 // 10 x 100 (10 full batteries) // taking a picture drains 2% of battery sk_camera_battery_picture_cost 2 // drain 1% every 6 seconds sk_camera_battery_drain_amount 1 sk_camera_battery_drain_frequency 6 // drain 1% every 4 seconds sk_flashlight_battery_drain_amount 1 sk_flashlight_battery_drain_frequency 4 What this will do is make it so that the batteries in your camera/flashlight last much longer. The base game (in my own opinion) does not do a great job giving enough batteries for your camera (as in sometimes you have too many flashlight batteries, but not enough camera batteries). This does not disable achievements and does not break anything in the game. Have fun! :DShow moreShow less

99.9 hours at review93 people found this helpful

Not recommendedSteam player

01/15/2017

Decent Game but Poor Parts Ruin It I'm disappointed by this game. The idea is nice; pure exploration with some social commentary and light puzzles. Unfortunately, a few design decisions are just so poor that it ruins the experience. Some examples: At one point, as soon as you step onto a rickety raft, it launches and it's incredibly difficult to steer. If you hit anything, it breaks apart and you "die" because you touched deep water. There are several places where you have to jump around like a platformer. You even have to place boxes in exactly the right place or your feeble jumping skills won't make the gap. In another area, the instructions (which are generally good) say "do this and that opens", but what they don't mention is it doesn't open immediately after you do "this". Because the ceiling is collapsing (which will kill you), you are looking for immediate feedback. The level design is generally good, but in a few places, very vexing. There are several places where once you go through a particular door, you cannot go back and there's stuff you missed. There are way too many places that require you to crouch (which makes you move very slowly) or are very dark (which requires the flashlight). I understand this is realistic, but after the umpteenth ventilation duct and dark room, it just becomes a massive drag. In short, this game seems to want to be too many things. It's not an action game, so don't make navigating a raft of death hard. It's not a platformer, so don't make me do precision jumps. It's not a repeat play game, so don't prevent me from getting to areas because I went left first instead of right first. It's not a stealth game, so stop forcing me to slowly crouch through unlit areas. Lastly, this game would be perfect for VR which it doesn't support. VR is lacking good games and I think, with some of my other issues addressed, this would be a great experience in VR. It's clear the dev's tried, but I think they missed the mark a bit too much for me to recommend this game.Show moreShow less

28.8 hours at review80 people found this helpful

RecommendedSteam player

02/23/2024

340 HOURS. ★★★★★ After 100% achievements, and the above-referenced 340 hours of play, I am glum 'cause it's over. It is what it looks like - 'ugly' in that it's gritty and grimy and rusty and dusty and occasionally sprouting mushrooms. Even if that's not your kinda thing, if you stick with INFRA long enough, you won't want to leave it. I realize fully that it doesn't sound possible, but it's true. 340 hours!!! It is INCREDIBLY complicated and confusing. Use guides when necessary. Those found on Steam are incredibly helpful. There is plenty of humor to be found - though much is understandably dark in context - if you're willing to look for it. The full game map is mind-meltingly massive. It's fabulous. If you're leaning towards buying it and need an additional 'oomph' to convince yourself, let me be the oomph. I think you won't regret it.Show moreShow less

340.5 hours at review79 people found this helpful

Not recommendedSteam player

06/02/2020

A clunky experience that delivers a new frustration at literally every turn. I suppose I finished it as a sort of bet with myself, or because I'm bad at letting go of things once I start them. There were some good moments, and an air of mystery. It's certainly... atmospheric. The lore seems to be quite deep, but the cost to discover it is simply too high. Even the required puzzles are obtuse or frustrating; the "extra mile" bits seem to require you to poke around at an extra 100 locked doors to figure out if the key you may have picked up (no way to see what you have on you) opens any of them. Except the key is in a box on a shelf at the end of a hallway behind a bush. If that poking around for hours to find a secret thing sounds fun to you, maybe this is your game though. Reading the Wiki is more enjoyable, for me at least. Interesting and inventive stuff. And the mood is definitely... palpable, and consistent. It's a mood of depression, disrepair, and inconvenience, punctuated at moments with a bit of unease. I guess I was hoping for a bit more intrigue, suspense, or at least greater sense of dread to balance out the bleakness. I think if the game had been about 6 hours instead of 20, I might have reviewed it favorably. Basically I repaired far more things than I wanted to and tried far too many locked doors for far less than I expected in terms of story payoff. I hate to review so negatively on a game which obviously had so much work put into level design, atmosphere, and assets. But, that was my true experience. And, heck, I did finish it in the end, so maybe I'm not giving it enough credit. But, yeah, wouldn't recommend unless you're very patient and enjoy the bleakness.Show moreShow less

19.8 hours at review39 people found this helpful

Language	Interface	Subtitles	Audio
Simplified Chinese	—	Yes	—
English	Yes	Yes	Yes
French	—	Yes	—

Language	Interface	Subtitles	Audio
Russian	Yes	Yes	—
German	Yes	Yes	—
Spanish	Yes	Yes	—
Swedish	—	Yes	—
Czech	Yes	Yes	—
Japanese	Yes	Yes	—
Korean	Yes	Yes	—
Ukrainian	—	Yes	—

INFRA

Price History

01About INFRA

Credits

Steam player reviews

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Language support

02Before you buy

Controls and language

Play mode

03Frequently asked questions

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