INFRA

INFRA is a game ive taken to calling infrastructural horror. It takes place in the fictional city of Stalburg, the capital of the fictional Scandinavian country of Stolland. Located along the border of the Baltic Sea, Stalburg is a town caught in turmoil. Between political unrest, infrstructural faillings throughout the city, and impending nuclear meltdown, its hard to say its doing well.

of course, that (at least initially) matters very little to you the player. our story is experienced through Markku "Mark" Siltanen, a structural analyst and engineer for National Consulting Group. the game cold opens with Mark in a meeting for him to survey the Hammer Valley Dam near the Bergmann Water Tunnels, but once his survey reveals serious neglect- and a mysterious (and easy to miss) corpse is found, a more sinister tale seems to await him. INFRA from this point onward is a lot of things. its a game about how the rise of fascism impacts communities, and how the infrastructure is often the first to go. its about substance abuse and how it harms vulnerable communities, and how said fascist governments will take advantage of that. its about the shady under-the-table dealings of businessmen running companies into the ground for those same substances, believing them to be useful for various things. its about the very real cults that exist around all of this, the people in the city that fall victim to the circumstances, and its also very much about Markku Siltanen's no good very bad terrible day.

its borderline impossible to express just how much i love this game. every story element i mentioned just now is almost entirely optional. some parts are integrated into the main gameplay, but exploring the narrow and decaying halls of every area, and reading everything you can is extremely encouraged in this game. its one of if not my favorite game ever, and the experience of going through it blind is insane. now let me level with you, if youre not big on atmospheric horror and long extensive puzzle sections that arent obvious, or a game that makes heavy use of Source Engine, or Mark's stilted (but charming) vocal performance, then maybe this wont be for you. this game isnt very flashy for the majority of its runtime, and only has a few instances of tasks that require you to act quickly (although they are quite stressful). that, and you kind of have to be invested in the ongoing arg. did i mention there was an arg about all of the above story beats? yeah, insane shit.

i am not the best person to be telling you about the arg of this game. thankfully, a certain youtuber has made two lovely videos detailing the entire thing up to mid 2025. of course it remains unsolved, as INFRA is still expecting dlc at some point in the future after its sequel Obenseur is complete.

if you're wondering about Obensuer, i cant say much just yet! as of writing ive played very little, as its quite a difficult and tedious Management Sim- the stark contrast to INFRAs genre. however, many of its core aspects remain in Obenseur- which is an extension of a place within INFRA. set just a few years after Marks adventures under the city of Stalburg. thankfully, there are difficuly sliders that allow for many of the survival mechanics to be turned off- so you dont spend every 5 minutes having to make your character piss like its the sims. this is the route i plan to go eventually, as i want to experience everthing obenseur has to offer outside its direct connections to INFRA.

of course this doesnt mean thats all there is for INFRA, if youre really dedicated, theres an entire wiki dedicated to everything you could want to know. plus, the devs have discord servers, one for all of their projects- and one for just Obenseur. there, the game master of the ARG occassionally confirms things or adds to the game while we all wait for INFRA to finally continue. from here on out, i think im just going to show screenshots from this game, because good lord is it gorgeous.

actually before i go, last thing. THE MUSIC?? SOOOO GOOD i really love this games soundtrack. like. a lot. im so thankful the steam purchase came with the soundtrack because so many of the tracks are either incredible ambience, or genuinely good tracks for the moments they play. its not the most extensive, but it is good. highly recommend.