Nightvision

Infiltration has a very solid nightvision system that in many ways is superior to other games' systems. The basic nightvision goggles are nicely done - they amplify light in a believable manner, flare when you're firing a weapon, and when switching them off you're treated to a brief HDR-like moment where the world is darker due to having just taken a relatively bright light source out from in front of your eyes. It's not bad at all for a mod based off of a game that came out in 1999.

Certain weapons, such as the M-16A4, have nightvision rifle scopes available for them. The AN/PVS-4 scope for the M-16A4 allows for a player to see a magnified view of the target while still retaining the nightvision capability - in most games, this wouldn't mean anything, since any scope combined with nightvision goggles would allow for a player to see through said scope with the benefits of the light amplification. In Infiltration, however, they've correctly modeled things such that you cannot use nightvision goggles with a non-nightvision magnified scope. In reality this is due to the difficulty inherent in trying to look through one optic into another one - in Infiltration, bringing up a scope while wearing NVG's will force you to remove the NVG's. Thus, a true nightvision scope like the AN/PVS-4 is actually useful, as you're not going to get a magnified, nightvision view without something like it.

Tracers look quite nice through the NVG's as well, and while they're not perfect representations of what tracers look like when viewed through NVG's, they come close enough that you get that "Gulf War footage" feel when looking at them zipping around.

To further help you combat the night, flares are also present in the form of 40mm star parachutes launched from the M-203 grenade launcher. These flares act just like their real-world counterparts, burning bright as they descend slowly beneath a mini-parachute.

Infiltration also manages to do something that, up until now, I didn't think any game had ever done. It models the AN/PEQ-2 laser aiming module more or less accurately, at least as far as the laser part of it goes. Meaning, the laser projected by the AN/PEQ-2 is in the infrared spectrum, and thus cannot be seen by anyone who isn't wearing nightvision goggles. This laser designator allows for a person to make accurate aimed shots at close combat ranges while wearing nightvision goggles without having to actually get a sight picture. Infiltration is, as far as I know, the only first-person tactical game that has ever modeled infrared light in such a fashion. It's a shame that they didn't also do the infrared combat lights as well, but the IR laser is great regardless.

The XM-29 "Sabre" Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW)

The OICW modeled in the Community Weapons Pack for Infiltration is without question the most in-depth and accurate modeling of the weapon that has ever been done in a game. Almost every proposed feature of the weapon has been implemented, to include the laser ranging, ballistic drop compensation, different fuzing options for the 20mm grenade launcher, ammo counter, telescopic adjustable-zoom sight, and nightvision device.

Only in Infiltration can you truly come to appreciate how extraordinary of a weapon the OICW was planned to be. The fuzing options - point-detonating, point-detonating (delayed), window, and air-burst - give an infantryman an unprecedented ability to kill his foes regardless of what measures they take to protect themselves. From air-bursting grenades over the tops of trenches, to having the grenades explode only after passing through the outer wall of the house, or having grenades ricochet off of a surface before exploding in mid-air, the OICW is capable of dealing an extraordinary amount of deadly-accurate damage with each of the six 20mm grenades stored in the removeable magazines. Throw in the ballistic compensation and laser rangefinding and you're able to deliver those 20mm grenades and 5.56mm bullets with a first-round accuracy unmatched by any other infantry weapon system.

It is a testament to the realism of the mod's weapon modeling and painstaking attention to detail that the OICW stands out so boldly as the impressive piece of future weapon technology that it is.

In the below picture I've marked up the OICW's HUD to explain what everything on it means. Thanks to the way the special weapon keys are used (ActivateAttachment and WeaponMode, along with the ironsight key), a player is able to switch between the different fuze modes, between the grenade and rifle parts, and zoom in/out with the scope effortlessly.

Watch the following video for an illustrated look at just how impressive the XM 29 "Sabre" OICW really is. The only game off the top of my head that has covered even a single element of this weapon better would be Ghost Recon 2, which allowed for players to fire the weapon over cover above their head via the proposed helmet cam link-up. Aside from that, Infiltration has without question the finest modeling of this weapon ever seen. It quite simply puts other attempts to shame.

Claymore Anti-Personnel Mines

The most notable feature of Infiltration's claymore system is the ability for a player to string up tripwires for the mines. Each claymore has four tripwires to work with and each of these wires has a specific maximum length. You can either use up the full length of a wire stretching it out from the mine to its maximum, or you can more intricately have a wire that has multiple segments to better cover an area. Meaning that the player can attach a wire to the mine, then to a wall, then to another wall and so on or even back to the mine itself or another one, until the full length of the wire is exhausted.

After placing a mine, the player takes approximately 15 seconds to arm it. They can arm it before placing the tripwires - not recommended, for obvious reasons - or afterwards. The mines can also be remote-detonated, and enemy players can shoot them repeatedly to disable them if they happen to spot them in time.

Reloading

Not surprisingly, Infiltration models both tactical and dry reloads.

The surprising thing is the degree to which the animations have been done. Pick up a 1911, for instance, and you'll find a perfect example of the typically exceptional attention to detail displayed throughout the mod. If you empty the magazine and have the slide lock back, upon holstering it you'll see that your character releases the slide before holstering it - just like anyone would do in reality, since you don't holster a slidelocked pistol. It gets better than that, however - draw the pistol once more and the slide will be forward on an empty chamber and empty magazine. Pull the trigger and the hammer will drop on the empty chamber, after which your character's thumb will cock it back again. Reload at this point and your character will drop the empty magazine, insert a new one, and then manually pull the slide to the rear before releasing it to chamber a new round. That Infiltration has dedicated animations for something like this, when almost as a rule all other games miss such details, is once again testament to the incredible attention to detail displayed by the team.

Another example can be found with the RC .50cal sniper rifle. The weapon has two firing modes, manual and automatic bolting. In automatic mode the player fires, and when releasing his fire key, the bolt is automatically worked to chamber the next round. In manual mode, the player manually cycles the bolt to chamber a new round. The neat part is that, unlike Red Orchestra, you can actually work the bolt at any time. Thus, you can potentially eject a live round if you aren't paying attention to what you're doing.

Armor vests

Infiltration also includes two types of armor vests. The best one can defeat multiple submachinegun or pistol-caliber rounds, while rifle rounds will punch clean through them. The FN 5-7 and FN P-90, due to their armor-piercing capabilities, will go clean through them as well. Kevlar helmets are also included.

Weapon Collision with Environment

Infiltration's weapon collision system is a brilliant way to model the effect that the length of a weapon has on how maneuverable and useable it is in any environment. With this system, a pistol, submachinegun, and battle rifle all have a distinct 'feel' to them thanks to the presence they have in the game world. Getting too close to an object will give you visual feedback, as illustrated by the following screens, and if a player is too close to an object they will actually be unable to go into ironsight view due to not having enough room to bring the weapon up. In such an instance a player must step back to give himself room, and one can quickly see how short weapons such as submachineguns would be much easier to wield in a tight, close-quarters environment than the bigger battle rifles like the M-16A4.

The collision system also comes into play when turning towards something that would realistically block the rifle. Unlike most games where your weapon would have no presence and would just magically stay outstretched regardless of how you move through the environment, Infiltration simulates the presence in a way that makes it possible to bang your rifle on a corner if trying to turn too closely into it. Imagine taking a relatively long rifle like an M-16A4, standing with it shouldered, and then trying to walk sideways through a normal doorway. It wouldn't work - you'd be forced to lower it or take it out of your shoulder to fit. In Infiltration, this is very well replicated - so much so that it becomes second-nature in short order and results in realistic close-quarters movement techniques, as well as emphasizing weapon choices when it comes to such environments.

This system also makes it so that a player cannot depress or elevate a rifle beyond what would physically be possible given environmental restrictions. For instance, if an opponent is spotted a few meters outside of a building at ground level, and the player is shooting out of a second-story window, he may not be able to depress his weapon past the window sill to shoot the enemy. If so, he might need to raise his posture, get closer to the window, and almost lean out to take the shot. It's a small thing, but it has significant ramifications on gameplay.

One neat side effect of this system is that a player can actually charge a glass window and break it out with the muzzle of his rifle, without needing to use any special keys to perform a 'bash' maneuver.

Weapon Deployment & Mounted Machineguns

Infiltration's recently-released deployment model builds on the system that was implemented for their excellent .50cal machinegun emplacements. In that, the player's actual physical body dictates how far the weapon can be traversed. If there is some sort of obstacle - sandbags, for instance - the player can traverse the weapon until he physically is pushed into the barrier. The player pivots around the machinegun, as it should be, and the machinegun emplacement (be it a bunker, sandbags, or what have you) naturally acts as the traversing limits.

The deployment model takes this basic idea and applies it to all weapons. A player can rest his weapon on any surface in the game, much like Red Orchestra's system, and press a key to 'deploy' his weapon. The deployment is instantaneous, and if the player's movements exceed the limits of the deployment, it will automatically end. This means that a player cannot get 'locked' into a deployed state, unable to react swiftly to events. If someone pops up near you while you're deployed, you need only rapidly turn towards them to 'break' the deployment and allow you to engage them.

The deployment system also distinguishes between bipod-equipped weapons when in the prone - a player cannot deploy a submachinegun from the prone, for instance, but he can deploy any weapon with a bipod (Minimi machinegun, M-14 DMR, M-82 SASR). The exception to this is if there is something for a non-bipod-equipped weapon to actually rest upon - a sandbag, ammo crate, etc. Also, if you position yourself on a slope in the right way you'll be able to use it for support. This comes into play when firing over the peak of a roof, for instance.

The big selling point of the deployment system is that the player pivots around his deployed weapon - something that almost all other games, including Red Orchestra, fail to model. Instead of it being player-centric turning, it instead is weapon-centric deployment with the player pivoting around said deployed weapon. You can see this clearly illustrated in the following video, which also covers the M2 .50cal machinegun emplacements.

Slowed turn speeds when crouched and prone

This one's pretty simple, and it has a nice impact. When a player is crouched or prone, their turning speed is cut down substantially. It's a simple thing, and it has a definite positive impact on preventing crouched or prone people from whirling around faster than they reasonably should be able to.

Prone

As is typical of Infiltration, the prone system is well thought out and features a number of elements that make it superior to most other games. A player's body is well-simulated in it, meaning that they cannot go prone somewhere that they could not physically do so. If you're walking on a thin ledge, prone is out of the question. Backed into a tight corner? Prone, again, is not possible. Worried about your foot clipping through something when prone and giving you away? Not going to happen - again, Infiltration's prone system accounts for all of this and prevents the gamey stuff from occuring. You also cannot turn yourself in a certain direction while prone if there's a wall blocking you from doing so. On top of that, Infiltration also sports two speeds of prone and crouched movement.

Stamina

As mentioned previously, the amount of weaponry and gear that the player is carrying dictates how fast their movement speed is, and how quickly their stamina is drained when sprinting. The mod goes beyond this, however, with what is ultimately a very solid stamina system. This is best explained by Beppo:

Everything 'extra' you do causes you to lose more stamina.

For instance, instead of interrupting your weapon reload if you need to get behind cover quickly while doing so, you are allowed to continue the reload giving you an extra stamina penalty. However, you cannot start to reload while you are sprinting, but we do allow you to sprint behind cover while you reload. Otherwise players would play sitting ducks while reloading like they do in other games.

In INF you can still do something, allowing you to even reload in tight situations that can save your live then.

Jogging reduces your stamina slightly. If you aim your weapon while jogging then it decreases a lot faster.

If you jump your stamina gets decreased. The actual jump height depends on your stamina, so if you try to play bunny hopping you will find yourself almost cemented to the floor after only a few jumps.

Your bulk (all the inventory you are carrying affects this) that affects your maximum stamina actually shortens and lowers everything you can do, like sprinting, jumping aso. The weapon bob is affected by your stamina, too. The lower your current stamina is, the more your weapon starts to wobble around. You breath heavier as well.

Out of that, one of my favorite parts concerns how you have very few restrictions on what you do, but there are appropriate penalties for doing 'stupid' things like rushing all over the place with your weapon raised the whole time, or trying to jump all over, or reload at a sprint. Since circumstance dictates just how stupid these actions ultimately are, it's nice to be able to do them, as there are frequently situations in games where you must do something that would normally be against your better judgement in the interest of saving your skin. That Infiltration allows for this is a welcome change from the rigid restrictions found in other games.

So, there you have it. Infiltration in a very big, well-illustrated nutshell.

While I have covered a great many of the notable features of the mod, this is by no means a comprehensive review of every single solid feature in it. It does, however, cover the most important ones, the ones I hope to see in future games of the genre. If you would like to read more about Infiltration, feel free to check out the official Infiltration site and the official Infiltration forums.

As far as the future of Infiltration itself goes, I hope that we see Sentry Studios show up somewhere down the line to make a successor in a more modern engine. The team certainly knows what it's doing when it comes to tactical realism, and the thought of having them create a similar mod in a cutting-edge engine like the Unreal Engine 3.0 is quite appealing. If not, perhaps some of the developers in the FPS genre will take a long hard look at what they've created and try to integrate some of the innovative features in it into future titles. Here's hoping, at least.

 

As always, I'm interested in getting feedback. If you enjoyed this article, have comments on it, or want to suggest something for me to potentially cover in the future, feel free to contact me at my GMail address, which is dslyecxi@ (youknowwhat.com).

If you're interested in reading anything else I've written, go ahead and jump to my Articles page. There's some good stuff there, if I do say so myself.

Thanks must go out first to the Infiltration fans who sent me many e-mails after my Tactical Gaming Done Right article was published to let me know about a superb one I had missed.

After that, my thanks go out to Beppo for providing a wealth of excellent feedback on this article during its production, including telling me about a number of features I had missed on my playthroughs. And, of course, he and the Infiltration team - to include the community contributors - deserve a great deal of praise for the superb mod they created.

Thanks also go out to the other people who gave me valuable feedback on the article during its creation.