Space….the final frontier. Ever since there has been stories about going into space and exploring the cosmos, there has been various types of media that immerse us into that fantasy: movies, books and especially video games. Video games that take place in space have allowed us to explore different worlds, travel the stars carrying freight and of course space dog fights. There aren’t many space games on the Nintendo Switch, let alone space shooters, so when I heard that Subdivision Infinity was coming to the Switch as Subdivision Infinity DX, I got pretty excited. Is this the space shoot that we’ve been wanting on the Switch? Let’s find out.
Space ace
Decent story/plot- Subdivision Infinity DX has a pretty decent story that most space shooters tend not to have. In Subdivision Infinity DX, the player, call sign Rebel-1, is hired by a space mining corporation known as LightWave Tech. They recently received a distress call from one of their control centers, Mtl2 on Alpha Tyche. They have tried to hail the control center via lightwave communication but with no response. The player’s mission is to establish communication with the control center and find out what’s going on. As soon as the player reaches Alpha Tyche they are attack by drones. Once they have been dispatched, the player reaches control center Mtl2 and is greeted by the AI AV-2. AV-2 explains that it had sent the distress signal because all of LightWave Tech’s other control centers have cease to report in and seem to be malfunctioning. It’s up to Rouge-1 and AV-2 to find out why the other centers have gone rouge.
Various ships and customization options- One of the most fun things about space games is being able to fly various ships and customize them. In Subdivision Infinity DX, you start off with the space fighter that you entered the region in. With the help of AV-2, you set off mining for resources and fighting enemy ships to gain materials and blueprints to upgrade and build more ships. There is a bit of a grind though and in order to get certain ship you will have to visit the same areas multiple times, but getting a new upgraded ship is very satisfying.
Space dog fights- The best part of any game that takes place in space is the space dog fights with enemy pilots. Subdivision Infinity DX has that in spades. The controls are a bit arcadey, as the left stick controls horizontal and vertical axis and the right stick turns the ship in any direction. And since space as no gravity, this flight configuration makes it feel like if I’m flying in space. It does get a while to get used to but once you get the hand of it, you’ll be flying around inverted just to catch an enemy fighter or dodging incoming fire while twisting and rolling, which makes for some frantic and fun combat. While this may not be Star Wars Rouge Squadron, I think its the next best thing.
Mayday, going down
Can get disorienting- Even though the ships in Subdivision Infinity DX have arcadey flight controls, it can get disorienting at times. This can be attributed to the game taking place in space and since there’s no gravity or horizon line for the player’s eyes to focus on, there will be times that the player thinks they are flying right-side up when actually they’ve been flying upside down. This can get especially aggravating when in dog fights with enemy pilots and boss battles.
No open space “exploration”- When I think of space games, I think of exploration new galaxies, star systems etc. In other world I was expecting an “open-world” style of game from Subdivision Infinity DX. While there is some exploration, its confined only to that area with two mission types: the main campaign missions that moves the story along and the “exploration” missions, which should really be called resource gather missions as these are the missions that you gather resources to create the blueprints for space ships and weapons. It’s disappointing that is no actual space exploration in the game, but that really didn’t affect my enjoyment of it.
Space grind- Even is space it seems that players can’t escape grinding/farming. In order to buy ships and weapons players will need to grind for money. If they want to level up and upgrade said ships and weapons, they need to grind for experience and materials. Grinding while not necessarily bad, can be annoying, especially when the cost to craft and level ships and weapons is high. To even stand a chance against aggressive minor enemies, players will have to grind. Speaking of aggressive enemies….
Aggressive AI- The enemies in Subdivision Infinity DX love to swarm and be extra aggressive. And I do understand that these enemies are drones and space pirates, so it makes sense that they would be aggressive. However it can be a bit much when trying to figure out the controls and trying to get your space bearings during the starting missions. You can turn down the difficulty, but I feel that aggression should be scaled to the players’ progress as they work their way through the game.
Subdivision Infinity DX is one of the few arcade style space flight sims on the Nintendo Switch that I’ve seen so far and has a lot of things going for it. It’s decent story had me chuckling at the banter between Rebel-1 and AV-2, it had a ton of customization options for the various space ships/fighters, and most important of all fun space dog fights. Subdivision Infinity DX does get puled down by the grind needed to create blue prints for the various ships. Not to mention that playing for the first time, the controls can be a bit disorientating and of course no being a space Magellan.
Subdivision Infinity DX is a pretty decent space flight sim that fills the void left behind by games like Rouge Squadron and X-Wing/TIE Fighter. The interactions between Rouge-1 and AV-2 in the story are pretty entertaining. The ships in the game are varied and customizable which makes you think about what ship loadout to use in various situations. As for the dog fights, they are frantic and fun thanks to the arcadey controls. However even with fun controls it will take a while for you to get used to them and even then it will be a bit disorienting. There’s no “exploration” of space, and the grind to get materials for blueprints can get annoying. Though not as annoying as the super aggressive AI.
Even so with all its misses and flaws, Subdivision Infinity DX is still a fun space shooting and a great alternative for who miss the days of Star Wars space flight games.
