Games review: Mark McMorris Infinite Air
There's a race down the slopes this winter.
Ubisoft's Steep is just around the corner, and ahead of its release comes Mark McMorris Infinite Air.
Over the last few decades, I've played a fair number of games based on descending a mountain and none has been as enjoyable as the fantastic SSX series. Just like Skate did for the skating franchise, Infinite Air aims to take a more realistic approach.
Starting off, you're introduced to a short tutorial. Your left and right sticks combine with your triggers to perform just about everything.
Your left analogue stick is used for turning and spinning. This was initially awkward, but a patch shortly after release seems to have given a little more leeway. This means you're less likely to spin your board losing speed when all you want to do is avoid the 30ft tree straight in front of you.
The right stick is used to perform a jump, either an ollie or a nollie depending on whether you want to jump lifting the rear or front of the board. This doesn't make a massive difference but does help variety when you're racking up scores. The left and right triggers are for pre-loading spins and flips, and need to be timed beside the right stick for jumps and tricks.
The majority of Infinite Air is accessed through the in-game menu, either taking to the chopper to venture across the slope, accessing pre-defined routes and challenges which will reward you with new gear and equipment.
There is also plenty of room for custom content, which conversely proves to be one of the greatest and unfortunately weakest parts of the game.
The core content is made up of various challenges: racing, performing tricks and hitting required performances which unlock new gear. There are plenty of options for customizing your rider, as well as a handful of pre-defined characters, but there's nothing wacky. Your selection of trousers/pants consist of about a dozen plain colours, with one or two patterns which must be unlocked. Things like gloves, goggles and face scarves have even fewer options, with the latter only having one 'decent' variation which is a clone of the 'Ghost' mask from Modern Warfare 2 - this is also the only one that requires an unlock.
Thankfully, Infinite Air isn't all about what is already in place, there's much more emphasis on what's available and what could be there with a little effort.
This brings us nicely to the custom content. Any game that focuses on custom content is relying on building a core following to keep content fresh, so Infinite Air has done the right thing to at least provide some level of core content. But step into the world editor and you get your very own clone of the mountain to edit as you wish, whether it's adding objects from trees to half-pipes, or adding a completely new slope, there are options galore.
Making a course is as easy as selecting a start and finish and placing a waypoint on areas such as a jump. There are various options from a race to trick events, and while the editor isn't as simple and straightforward as it could have been, your patience will be rewarded if you invest the time.
Back on the mountain, you'll notice location markers, all coloured according to the style of event. These are a wide selection of custom content and do a great job of introducing you to far more than that basic core content. Head to an area of the mountain that looks fun, start boarding down and you'll see locations in the distance for you to head towards. Alternatively, you can be lazy and simply hover the helicopter above the marker. If you enter the event racing against other users' best times - with the unlock restricted to the core content - it's purely for the fun of discovering an awesome run, but you'll no doubt find plenty of awful courses on your travels. There is a clear case of trial and error, as with some courses I experienced nothing more than a straight ride. If an uphill section presents itself, you're unlikely to get anywhere at all, but when you do get stuck there's always the option to restart the run or head back to the chopper.
Getting stuck is one thing that sadly happens a little too often. Although graphically there's a clear difference between the silky smooth snow and the bobbly rock faces with a loose covering of snow, when descending through a cluster of trees at great speed you can't always avoid the rough areas at a moment's notice. This is where Infinite Air becomes a constant problem, as the rag-doll physics take over and your character flops down the slope until the speed has dropped enough that your frantic tapping of the reset button actually registers. This usually takes you back to safe ground, but time and time again I found myself dropped straight back on the rocks.
Graphically, it's not a bad performance. The mountain looks above average and there's a decent enough feeling of speed. Closer to ground you'll find limited textures, and one side of the mountain looks far too similar to the next, but it's not a bad performance.
There is a varied soundtrack that seems to fit the game well, but there's nothing that really stands out.
Infinite Air shows that content is key. Its custom content alongside a decent enough core offering means there are literally hundreds of hours of gameplay. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean quite so much when you are traversing the mountain and it feels more of a challenge than a fun outing.
With enough practice there's far more of a game. When you can take to the slopes with confidence, hitting every jump to perfection and maintaining a steady run, you'll find the challenge of competition drops right off, and you'll actually enjoy performing the tricks, but then this moves away from the core offering and becomes fully reliant on finding a good selection of custom content, which is only as strong as the users creating and rating it.
Bottom Line
Mark McMorris Infinite Air is currently top choice for Snowboarding on Xbox One. However, with Steep just around the corner it's very unlikely to hold that crown for very long.
