Infinity Defiance tells the story of a suicide mission following a narrative that immerses the players in the inevitable course of events. Characters are loyal soldiers, willing to sacrifice anything to save the Human Sphere. They’re not vigilantes working outside the law or corsairs authorized to do whatever they want. They follow orders, and will, therefore, accomplish the mission O-12 has been planning for months.
As a safety measure, the Bureau Aegis had formed three teams for three ships: Orpheus, Silencer, and Defiance. Sadly for humanity, the Combined Army attacked several O-12 facilities, revealing they had infiltrated the organization’s intelligence. The Characters barely managed to escape on the Defiance, but they can’t just jump since the Defiance needs upgrades in order to reduce the probabilities of being destroyed when jumping.
Success or failure?
The result of the missions in Infinity Defiance cannot be measured in terms of success or failure. In terms of gameplay, for us it seemed that if the campaign suddenly ended due to a mission objective not being met. it would be too drastic and frustrating for the player. Infinity Defiance is part of the conflict against the EI, in which losing a battle doesn’t necessarily mean losing the war.
The campaign is divided into two parts, separated by the jump through the wormhole of Acheron, which will inevitably happen at the end of the ninth mission. During the first nine missions, the Character’s top objective will be to gather the required components to completely upgrade the Minotaur engines.
In the Defiance’s control panel, there’s a track with five positions that added together result in the Jump Roll. At the end of mission 9, each Character will face their Defense (unmodified) with the Jump Roll and for each Sucess 2 obtained (uncancelled by any Block 1) they will suffer a Consequence.
Every time the Characters end a mission having obtained one of these components, they’ll place a token on this track, thus reducing the result of the Jump Roll. As you can imagine, the Jump Roll can suppose the death of the strongest (Qiang, for example), so in order to ensure minimal success in the campaign’s final objective, it’s recommended you get at least three of the five components.
Once they jump, Character will no longer get second chances. There’ll no longer be opportunities to upgrade the Defiance, get new equipment or gaining more experience. The last three missions are actually the same one but divided into three acts. There can be no regrets, for no chance for rectification will be given.
In short
The idea we want to convey is that, though Infinity Defiance’s campaign structure is lineal, players will have to make meaningful decisions nonetheless. As with video games, replaying the campaign with a different team of Characters sporting a different combination of Specialties and equipment will translate into a new game experience.
How will the Characters evolve through the campaign?
Specialties
As the campaign unfolds, Characters will progress, acquiring Specialties. Each Character has access to three Specialty groups, with 4 specialties arranged in levels (I through IV) for a total of 12, plus a thirteenth unique Specialty for each Character. At the end of a mission, during the game’s Campaign phase, Characters will gain access to a new free Specialty. The maximum level of a Specialty will be determined by the number of missions played. It’s also possible that some prerequisites (the most common would be having accessed the previous Specialty level) need to be met to get to that point.
Since there’s no Campaign phase after mission 8 (they jump after the ninth), this is the maximum amount of Specialties that may be obtained. So the way the players customize their Characters will be paramount. Let’s take Qiang, for instance. He’s got access to the HI Combat (tank), Heavy Weapon Specialist (offensive), and Leadership (team buff) groups. Which group to develop (or not to) will depend on the playstyle of the player, but their comrades needs have to be taken into account. Their choices will be impactful on the campaign, since there may be missions that require having enough firepower, others may need a good tank to gain valuable time, while some may need coordinated teamwork to succeed.
Intel Packs
Each mission (until the eighth, let’s not forget it) will award each Character with Intel Packs according to their achievements, but not necessarily in an equitable way. With these Intel Packs, the Characters may acquire new equipment (weapons, armor, devices, etc.) and also invest them to upgrade the Defiance. Usually, the first instinct is to save these Intel Packs to get our Character’s ultimate weapon as soon as possible. Nevertheless, there are upgrades for the Defiance that is of key importance, as mentioned below.
Treating Consequences
In the Infinity Universe, elite soldiers have access to devices such as the AutoMediKit that allow them to recover without assistance from deadly wound Unconsciousness. Regardless, every time a Character uses their AutoMedKit, they’ll suffer a Consequence. Some enemies’ weapons can also inflict Consequences on the Characters. In addition to a negative in-game effect, Consequences remain as a -1 modifier to the Wounds Attribute T , so piling them up will only weaken us.
The only way to treat Consequences is to make a Medicine Roll for each one during the Campaign phase, on the Defiance. But the Defiance doesn’t allow for Medicine Rolls by default, we need to make certain Upgrades for the ship first. When to spend on the Defiance and when to do it on personal equipment is one of the decisions to be made during the campaign.
Another possibility to treat Consequences is having a Doctor among the crew…
Allies
On some missions, Characters will have the opportunity to Interact with neutral characters that become Allies and, as such, become part of the Defiance’s crew.
During the Campaign phase, Allies can be assigned to certain areas of the Defiance. Each Ally has their own Ally card that indicates which Effect is activated when that Ally is assigned to a specific area. Rahman, for instance, if assigned as Doctor in Sickbay, allows for a Medicine Roll to treat Consequences.
There’s only one chance to Interact with Rahman, but acquiring him is not mandatory to succeed in the campaign. One of the several choices and decisions to be made during a mission will be whether to devote time and resources to enlist new crew members or not. In case you don’t, the campaign will follow its course, and players will face the consequences.
Are you ready to enlist in the Defiance? The Kickstarter campaign ends on November 19th!
