The video game INFRA trades your typical Russian ultra-nationalists and Nazi zombies for a city on the verge of ruin. The protagonist, an engineer, is tasked with the seemingly mundane tasks that will bring the place back to life.
Many gamers will recall the pleasures of liberating City Seventeen from the rapacious Combine in Half Life 2. A new first-person video game called INFRA gives us something quite unique: a plot revolving entirely around fixing a broken city. Sitting in for Half Life protagonist Gordon Freeman is 'Mark,' "an engineer tasked with saving the infrastructure of a once-profitable, now badly degraded Baltic mining city."
In a break from hallowed gaming tradition, INFRA skips the zombies, custom weaponry, and waves of nameless, faceless bad guys. On the game's nonviolence John Metcalfe writes, "The action begins in, of all places, a boardroom discussion—a narrative decision the game seems to instantly regret, because you get a pop-up option to 'Skip meeting.'"
Bringing a decrepit city back to life sure can be fun, but there's a sobering lesson behind INFRA, especially in the wake of the Flint water crisis. "Oskari Samiola, who's 23 and lives in Finland, earlier told CityLab the inspiration for making this game was watching a 'documentary about the U.S.A.'s at-the-collapsing-point infrastructure' and 'generally after hearing news about spoiled tap water and seeing roads in poor condition.'"
FULL STORY: The 'Half-Life 2' of Infrastructure Video Games Is Out, And It's Weird
Depopulation Patterns Get Weird
A recent ranking of “declining” cities heavily features some of the most expensive cities in the country — including New York City and a half-dozen in the San Francisco Bay Area.
California Exodus: Population Drops Below 39 Million
Never mind the 40 million that demographers predicted the Golden State would reach by 2018. The state's population dipped below 39 million to 38.965 million last July, according to Census data released in March, the lowest since 2015.
Chicago to Turn High-Rise Offices into Housing
Four commercial buildings in the Chicago Loop have been approved for redevelopment into housing in a bid to revitalize the city’s downtown post-pandemic.
New Park Opens in the Santa Clarita Valley
The City of Santa Clarita just celebrated the grand opening of its 38th park, the 10.5-acre Skyline Ranch Park.
U.S. Supreme Court: California's Impact Fees May Violate Takings Clause
A California property owner took El Dorado County to state court after paying a traffic impact fee he felt was exorbitant. He lost in trial court, appellate court, and the California Supreme Court denied review. Then the U.S. Supreme Court acted.
How Urban Form Impacts Housing Affordability
The way we design cities affects housing costs differently than you might think.
City of Costa Mesa
Licking County
Barrett Planning Group LLC
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Universal City TX
ULI Northwest Arkansas
Town of Zionsville
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.