Infinite Crisis

Overview

Infinite Crisis was a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game developed by Turbine for the PC and released on Steam, based on the DC Comics licence. Inspired by games like Dota 2 and League of Legends, Infinite Crisis pit teams of five players against one another, tasking them with fighting off the enemy team and taking control of the map. Players took command of DC Comics characters from across the multiverse, including new variants that came from strange alternate universes.

Infinite Crisis began closed beta testing on May 8, 2013, then went into open beta on March 14, 2014. The game was officially released over a full year later, on March 26, 2015. On June 2nd, 2015 it was announced that the game would be shutting down. It's official final day of operations was August 14th, 2015.

Gameplay and Maps

The core gameplay of Infinite Crisis consisted of two teams made up of five players each. These teams traversed a map, fighting the enemy team's minions, neutral creatures, and the enemy team itself. Both teams worked to destroy the other team's turrets and make their way to the enemy's Power Core. Once the enemy team's Power Core was destroyed, the match ended.

As the two teams battled, they earned experience points and gold. Experience points leveled up the player characters, making them stronger and offering them points to invest in additional abilities or passive powers. Gold was used to purchase and upgrade equipment and consumables, items that could make characters stronger in a variety of ways or restore their health.

There were multiple maps in Infinite Crisis, each of them with their own variations on this core rule-set.

Crime Alley

The site where Batman's parents were murdered, the Crime Alley map in Infinite Crisis was a cross-dimensional mashup of both the Prime Universe and the Gaslight Universe locations of the same name.

Crime Alley was a singleplayer map, in which players practiced the game's core mechanics against an AI opponent. There was one primary lane, with one turret per team. The map also featured a small 'jungle lane', intended to teach players about optional match mechanics and capture points.

This map was also converted into a 1v1 and 2v2 map for players to practice against one another, though it never officially left testing before shutdown.

Gotham Divided

Set in Gotham City, Gotham Divided was split evenly between the Prime Universe and the Gaslight Universe, in a similar manner to Crime Alley, but much larger.

A multiplayer map, Gotham Divided had three lanes and a large neutral area, referred to in the game as 'the jungle'. While the three lanes of this map played in a standard manner, the creatures in the jungle could provide special power-ups and abilities when killed, which allowed players to inflict a number of effects or attacks on the opposing team at will.

Gotham Heights

Based in the Gotham City of the Prime Universe, Gotham Heights was an upper-middle-class neighborhood, originally home to Tim Drake, the third Robin.

Eschewing the standard gameplay of other maps, Gotham Heights had a circular layout with five control points surrounding a large neutral jungle area. The more control points a team owned, the faster the energy was drained from the opposing team's Power Core. Once this power was fully drained, the match ended. There were a number of Speed Pads inside the jungle area, which increased a player's move-speed for a short time when they were walked over. There were also several 'health pack' areas, where players could heal away from their base.

In the center of the jungle, there was an Orbital Cannon that became available for capture at set intervals. Upon capture, the cannon acted as a sixth control point for a brief time, but also caused a large meteor to crash inside the opposing team's side of the jungle.

Coast City

Based in the Prime Universe, Coast City was the home of Green Lantern Hal Jordan, and had been heavily altered by being pulled through the bleed into the multiverse.

Coast City was a multiplayer map with two lanes and a very large neutral 'jungle' area. While the lanes played in a manner standard to other maps in the game, the jungle itself housed several control points that buffed the controlling team's minions, as well as a 'Doomsday Device' in the center. On a timer, the Doomsday Device spawned a large monster for players to fight. Once this monster was defeated, a player could pick up the 'trigger' it dropped, and use the Doomsday Device to either attack the opposing team directly or attack their turrets, damaging them heavily and disabling them for a brief moment.

Coast City was the only map playable through official matchmaking in both ranked and unranked modes for most of the game's lifespan, though the other maps were occasionally allowed in these modes for special events.

Character Play-styles

Each character in the game came with three circular icons, displaying their preferred damage type, basic attack style, and role within the team.

Damage Type

• Attack Damage: This character was more useful using their normal attack to deal damage.
• Power Damage: This character preferred dealing damage using their skills.
• Hybrid Power/Basic: This character had skills that were used to enhance their normal attacks.

Basic Attack Style

• Melee
• Ranged

Team Role

• Assassins: Agile characters who were best at hiding in the jungle, ambushing lone Champions and dealing a ton of damage quickly to finish them off. These characters were often very fast with low defense.
• Controllers: Characters with low HP and speed, but very high Will. Skilled at using their respective powers to support themselves and their teammates while debuffing enemies.
• Marksmen: Long-range attackers who deal normal damage to their target from afar, using their skills mostly to enhance or complement their standard attacks.
• Blasters: Similar to Marksmen, except that they prefered using their powers to deal damage from afar instead of normal attacks.
• Bruisers: Fierce melee fighters capable of disrupting the enemy's front-lines, strong enough to dish out multiple hits before going down.
• Enforcers: Very slow characters who were capable of soaking up damage, often using skills that could slow down the enemy and bring themselves into the fight or yank long-range foes into their own range where they can be more easily smashed.

Characters and Universes

Infinite Crisis featured a large roster of heroes from a variety of worlds in the DC Comics multiverse.

Prime Earth

Prime Earth, also known as Earth-0, was the baseline DC Comics universe and contained the characters whom are likely most familiar to comic book readers or casual fans. These were the 'normal' versions of the characters, and this universe is where the majority of the game's current roster hails from. It was mostly based off of the 'New 52' versions of the DC heroes, but some were more rooted in their 'classic' appearance.

Characters from Prime Earth

• Aquaman
• Atrocitus
• Batman
• Blue Beetle
• Catwoman
• Cyborg
• Deathstroke
• Doomsday
• Flash
• Green Arrow
• Green Lantern
• Harley Quinn
• Hawkgirl
• The Joker
• Katana
• Krypto, the Super-Dog
• Lex Luthor
• Poison Ivy
• Robin
• Shazam
• Sinestro
• Solomon Grundy
• Stargirl
• Starro
• Star Sapphire
• Supergirl
• Superman
• Swamp Thing
• Wonder Woman
• Zatanna

Arcane Earth

Also known as Earth-13, Arcane Earth was a world where a group known as the Shadow League, in an attempt to take over the world, extinguished the sun. Reignited by magical means, the new mystical sun had warped the Earth with its magic energies, altering heroes and villains drastically.

Characters from Arcane Earth

• Arcane Green Lantern
• Arcane Supergirl

Atomic Earth

Alternately known as Earth-17, Atomic Earth was ravaged by nuclear war in the 1970s and 1980s, when the USA mistook Kal-El's crashing escape pod for a Soviet missile strike. The two countries retaliated with mutual nuclear war, eliminating over 90% of the planet's human population. While there were survivors, many had been changed in strange ways by the radioactive fallout of the war, and even decades later factions still fought to control the planet's remaining resources.

Characters from Atomic Earth

• Atomic Green Lantern
• Atomic Joker
• Atomic Poison Ivy
• Atomic Wonder Woman

Gaslight Earth

Gaslight Earth, also known as Earth-19, was a world rooted in steam-based technology. This steampunk setting originally appeared in the DC Comics Elseworlds series, Gotham By Gaslight.

Characters from Gaslight Earth

• Gaslight Batman
• Gaslight Catwoman
• Gaslight Joker

Mecha Earth

Also known as Earth-44, Mecha Earth was a world of highly advanced technologies, where the idea of super heroes didn't exist until a group of scientists known as the Justice Consortium decided to build mechanical ones. These mechanical heroes and villains operate similarly to Prime Earth's heroes, though they're robots so they struggle with robot stuff like contemplating love and whatever.

Characters from Mecha Earth

• Mecha Superman
• Mecha Wonder Woman

Nightmare Earth

A twisted world also known as Earth-43, Nightmare Earth was a realm of horrors and monsters, where heroes and villains were twisted into strange and frightening creatures against their will. This universe originally appeared in the DC Comics Elseworlds titles Batman & Dracula: Red Rain, Batman: Bloodstorm, and Batman: Crimson Mist.

Characters from Nightmare Earth

• Nightmare Batman
• Nightmare Robin
• Nightmare Superman

Economy

The game offered items for two types of currency: Crisis Coins and Merit Coins. Crisis Coins were purchased using money (or occasionally available via promotions), while Merit Coins were collected by playing the game and completing matches.

Champions

Any characters that the player has not unlocked could be bought with varying amounts of either Crisis or Merit Coins. Every week, Turbine placed three champions on sale for half off the usual price in Crisis Coins. Costumes for each champion were available exclusively for Crisis Coins, though some were given out via promotional offers. Costumes were purely cosmetic changes.

Stolen Powers

Normally unlocked by reaching level 5 with a hero, these powers could also be purchased for Merit Coins. Stolen powers were bonus abilities players could use to customize their hero by granting them super speed, super strength, healing abilities, and many other types of powers.

Amplifiers

Mods to in-game items and augments to the champion on the field could be purchased to suit the player's style with Merit Coins. Additional amplifier loadout slots could be purchased with either coin type.

Shutdown Announcement

On June 2nd, 2015 it was announced that Infinite Crisis was shutting down mere months after it's initial launch. No reasons were given by the development team for this shutdown. The original message, posted by 'Anonymous' instead of a developer's account, is as follows:

After much deliberation, we regret to announce the official shutdown of Infinite Crisis. We will end development efforts today and will close the service on August 14, 2015.

Between now and August 14th, the game will remain available to play completely free. If you have any questions, contact Customer Service for assistance athttp://support.infinitecrisis.com.

This was an extremely difficult decision to make. On behalf of the entire Infinite Crisis team we want to thank all of you for your feedback, support and for joining together to create one of the best communities in gaming.

On August 14th, 2015, the game went offline.