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> Results: Infernal
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The ESRB Says
Blood: GamerDad bloodied up the very realistic environments with loads of fallen enemies. Language: Even in the monastery there were plenty of colorful word choices! Violence: It wouldn't be so bad is so many people didn't keep throwing themselves in from of our guns. Genericide refers to the loss of a brand-name trademark through excessive common use in the marketplace. In my mind it also refers to the death of good ideas in the fetid wastelands of generic gameplay. Infernal suffers genericide at the hands of a boring and repetitive shooter that drowns out the interesting ideas presented early on. You play as Ryan Lennox, a fallen angel soldier who is recruited by the forces of evil and given some nice powers as he goes along through the game - you can see hidden auras, temporarily teleport to a different location, use your power to make your weapons even more lethal, and so on. It is also one of the best looking games this year with some solid sound work and a decent physics engine. It has all the makings of a very interesting shooter. Except that it isn't. Very quickly this turns into the same corridor shooter you've been playing for fifteen years along with code and key card searches! The story and dialog tend to be stilted and take themselves way too seriously - there is entirely too much talking going on about the implications of the tipping in power balance between the forces of good and evil which are represented by highly unlikely individuals doing 'God's work' with machine guns and Shuriken. The powers themselves are also highly disappointing in their implementation. A typical area proceeds like this - you run through some corridors and maybe an open area, then come to a locked door / forcefield / whatever that needs opening and have to use a power. Then repeat. Some of your powers make no sense being limited - you game an incredible force power but it can only destroy certain things: you can break some crates with your breath and others are impervious to any attempt at damage. That is how the entire game works - sometimes you can plow ahead using your dark powers, other times your weapons, but you are almost never given a true choice. Fortunately there are some cool weapons and battles to pass the time - those are what keep this generic shooter from becoming a bad generic shooter. As it is, there is plenty of fun in between all of the blandness, but little of it has to do with the story.  
There are certain identifying characteristics for most M-rated shooters - dead bodies, use of swear-words, and blood. This game has all of those in abundance and is a nice, easy Adult GamerDad Seal. Aside from the obvious blood, guts and devastation there are also the themes of sexy spies (but neither sex nor nudity) that some might find bothersome, but particularly the entire concept of heaven and hell having their own hit squads armed with automatic weapons and high tech killing devices. It puts an interesting twist on general religious beliefs that might trouble some people enough to want them to keep themselves away from this game. Certainly it is not for kids due to the content highlighted by the ESRB, but the rest of the stuff is up to the individual to decide based on their own moral compass.
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