Injection Pi 23 ‘No Name, No Number’ (PlayStation 4) Review

Whoever developed Injection Pi23: No Name, No Number had its heart in the right place. The desire was to make an old-school survival horror that harkens back to the days of the first three Silent Hill's, the era before Resident Evil became an over the shoulder action game series. There was great efforts put in here to find a way to please anyone and everyone and sadly, it is to no avail. It goes to such lengths like having four different camera modes mapped to the d-pad that evoke the styles of different horror titles of the past, and even an option for tank-controls for the fixed angle perspective. Whoever was putting everything together, found a way to fumble the basics because Injection Pi23 is an extremely fragile, and easily broken.

The tank-control mode does not work as it should. At first things seem fluid, responsive even. Then, when trying to walk backwards (holding down on the analogue stick), it causes the protagonist to glitch and convulse in a disturbing manner, slowly sliding across the terrain. The lack of polish for the controls ends up being the least of the problems encountered, as Injection Pi23 may cause some people to succumb to epileptic fits during its cut-scenes. What is happening during these sequences is indescribable, and is expressed with what can be best described as filters, on filters, ON filters, with lots of flashing and strobing.

The likely reason why anyone would choose to do this style is to hide or cover up poor animation and character models. Then again, the imagery is so difficult to discern that it may very well be live action footage that was shot on a cheap digital-video camera, with tons of post effects on top. The picture quality is so murky and vague that it becomes futile to understand what is happening at all. This extends to what are possibly pivotal scenes, and the multiple endings urge to see everything to the end is gone, because no one will be able to make out what is happening. It should also be mentioned that all audible dialogue is spoken in Spanish, and the subtitles are extremely small, and look like they were implemented via a Microsoft Word plug-in. Reading them won't help comprehend the story either, since they read like the script was fed through a beta version of Google translate a couple of dozen times. There is not a single phrase that isn't rife with grammatical and spelling errors.

Graphics range from first-timer 3D model class, to painfully obvious stock model purchased off of the unity store. This is one ugly looking horror game. In some instances, being really ugly or uncanny can enhance the atmosphere. Injection Pi23 just ends up looking rough, recycled, or unfinished. There are some visuals that do manage to be slightly unsettling, but the extremely rough and amateurish veneer will always shine through during the entirety of the adventure which is thankfully very short.

Why would anyone want to play Injection Pi23? Pure morbid curiosity is all some need to see such raw expression of an indie developer. With so many really bizarre flaws and equal amount of heart, this becomes kind of interesting. This is not something that is "so bad its good," though. This is very plainly a very poorly-made game, but it's one somebody cared about making. It is too bad that the developer was clearly out of its depth, and not prepared to make such a title of this scale. It is almost impressive that it got released at all, and is still playable... mostly. It's like the team actually knew how old horror games from the late '90s, early '00s played like, because everything from cryptic puzzles and limited resources is here. When the controls are not bugging out, it almost becomes competent and fluid.