Text: Yan Jinyan

Today, NetEase finally released the latest practical promotional video of "Infinity" and opened the test recruitment.

In the past year, there has been a lot of public opinion about "Infinity". On the one hand, since it has not been updated for a long time, there have been rumors before that the project may be gone.

On the other hand, new open world products continue to emerge recently, such as "Alien Ring", which seems to be the closest to the track of "Infinity", which is also known as the two-dimensional GTA. Many people feel that the action of "Different Ring" is fast, and the first exposure not only brought out a demonstration of a long real machine, but also opened the first test a few months later. In contrast, "Infinity" always gives people the feeling of painting a big pie.

But in fact, according to today's actual video and the internal information that Grape Jun has learned, I think the outside world's suspicions and worries about "Infinity" can be eased for a while.

In a nutshell, the trailer of "Infinity" this time is not only large and solid, but also contains a lot of familiar elements.

First of all, it tells you very directly what the product has done in the past year.

The first is the expansion of scenarios.

In last year's premiere video, the game mainly shows the modern cityscape, such as busy streets, bright city night scenes, and various transportation facilities. Although these pictures are not bad, in products with similar themes, these scenes should be considered basic.

This time, the actual machine came up with Makoto Shinkai

This year's actual machine shows more specific scenes in the city. For example, livehouses, nightclubs, skate parks, basketball courts, beaches, mahjong halls, gyms, racing tracks, etc.

Second, the scene expansion brings more imaginative gameplay. This time, there are game screens such as racing, fitness, shooting, and darts in the actual machine.

A project insider told Grape Jun that although the actual video is not long, every frame of the picture is not counted, and there may be a meaning behind it. For example, the band's performance at the livehouse may be a musical game.

The same is true for beach volleyball, skateboarding, and mahjong, and behind these scenes, we may all be able to imagine a matching way to play. This design method of filling the world with a lot of gameplay has been similarly reflected in "Against the Water and Cold Mobile Game" before.

Third, the combat and core gameplay are also constantly iterating.

Last year, Infinity showcased a hook element similar to Marvel's Spider-Man, where players can swing around the city at will, which is the most iconic point of the product. In this case, it seems that the player can also quickly approach the enemy with a hook, so it seems that the pace of the game may be more varied.

At the same time, the scene destruction and scene interaction that have been shown before have been more expressed in this video. For example, players can control objects with their minds, grab tires in the scene, and bind enemies. This design concept has a feeling of "Jackie Chan-style kung fu film" - Jackie Chan in the furniture city is invincible.

And in the new combat demo, we can also see some scenes of infiltrating assassinations and fighting in cars.

Stealth disguised as a delivery rider

If the above imaginary content can be realized, I think it should not be difficult for everyone to understand why it is called "Infinity". To a large extent, this should also be the goal of the project itself, and they made it clear in their propaganda that the world "has no rules, and it is not strange to encounter anything every day".

Secondly, the depiction of the world in "Infinity" also reveals that they think clearly at the product level.

Looking at the two-dimensional games in the past few years, when they do market promotion, the characters and gameplay should be the most important part. On the one hand, it is intuitive and easy to understand, which can quickly arouse the interest of players, and on the other hand, it is also about the commercialization of the core of the game - drawing cards and selling characters. Including when "Infinity" was first exposed last year, character close-ups and drama films also accounted for nearly half of the space.

But the promotional video for "Infinity" focuses on the "world". In addition to the various scenes, you can also see the toilet running wildly on the road;

The character drives while live streaming on social platforms;

and an easter egg that pays tribute to "Men in Black......

After watching the whole promotional video, you should have an idea of the world - it may be interesting, it may be life-like, or it may be somewhere between reality and fantasy. But in any case, "Infinity" should be trying to establish its own product tone, so that you are interested in the world first.

This practice is actually quite common in console single-player games. Whether it's GTA or Cyberpunk 2077, they all set the overall atmosphere of the open world first, so as to build and show what kind of experience you can get in the open world. At present, "Infinity" is also taking such a path.

Finally, "Infinity" also revealed NetEase's confidence this time.

At this year's NetEase Q3 financial report meeting, Hu Zhipeng, head of the Lei Huo Business Group, said that they have made a lot of attempts in "Infinity", which are based on NetEase's understanding of the game market in the past 20 years and the observation of players.

You will find that the racing and basketball gameplay content just mentioned are NetEase's longboards, corresponding to products such as "Peak Speed" and "All-Star Street Ball Party".

Taking racing cars as an example, the feel of the vehicle is naturally one thing, on the other hand, the material and light and shadow simulation of the vehicle painting are also technical difficulties, and it is difficult to do a good job without accumulation. Judging from the actual machine of "Infinity", the game vehicle at least has a certain sense of quality, and can reflect the light and shadow effects in the surrounding scene in real time.

We all said before that GTA is difficult to do, a big reason is that it is different from the open world of other themes, it is a modern city, the building density is too large, and there are too many scenes needed, which poses a huge challenge to the gameplay, content, and technology.

And "Infinity" can obviously use NetEase's past accumulation to help them overcome technology and precipitate gameplay content. This should be a capability that most manufacturers do not have, and it is also their advantage. By the way, to cite a small brain hole, such as car music, I think NetEase Cloud Music is a huge resource library.

Of course, I think many people will still have some doubts, after all, some of NetEase's new open world products this year, and the final product direction, have been criticized by many players, thinking that they are different from the initial promotion of the game. But it is worth noting that "Infinity" is a two-dimensional open world, and its commercialization ideas have been quite stable, so as not to affect the subsequent direction design of the product, and now the only thing they have to consider may be how to polish the content.

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