There’s Far More Depth to Infinitrap Rehamstered Than I Originally Gave It Credit For

Initially, my plan of attack in Infinitrap Rehamstered was to kiss meticulous plotting goodbye and just rush through each map as quickly as possible. Although there are traps aplenty, all of them working in tandem to ensure that, if not the flying spikes while you’re stuck in cobwebs, if not the green skeletons hounding you at breakneck speeds, if not the deceptively slow-moving Indiana Jones-style boulders, then certainly the ever-evaporating clock, which summons ghostly creatures straight out of The Lord of the Rings, will certainly be your demise.

But this single-minded, narrow approach proved to be yet another misstep. Although the dangers I mentioned above are all very much working against you, not taking a little time to look for secret rooms and more treasure can also be your undoing.

During one of my first playthroughs, I ended up making my way to a level’s shiny cup, the McGuffin that the main character is seeking in order to find fame and immortality. Just after I had triggered the trapdoor that would send my character falling to the next level, I noticed that beyond it was a door with a keyhole.

“No biggie”, I originally thought. “So I passed up a few gold coins. At least I made it through that cursed room on my way to the next cursed room.” But that little kernel stuck with me, so when I ended up replaying that section, I forewent picking up that shiny cup and instead chose door number two, which ended up opening the level up to almost threefold its assumed size. And those few gold coins? Well, there were more than enough to make the detour worth the extra enterprise.

And that was it. My fate was sealed. No longer was I in an extreme rush to get to the perceived goal. I was now an official dungeon-crawling treasure hunter. And that’s where I found the real challenge in Infinitrap Rehamstered, that just-one-more-secret-passage or what’s-behind-this-wall allure.

Coupled with the game’s checkpoint system and a penchant for trial and error, I was actually building on my original plan of rush, rush, rush to include precision dashes, which added a whole new level of depth to the exploration loop. This also added an element of gambling to the whole affair. Do I just claim this cup and walk away with X amount of coins and possibly a solid standing on the leaderboards, or do I risk losing it all for what looks like another route to possibly even more riches and a higher standing on said leaderboards?

And in this way, Infinitrap Rehamstered feels more in the vein of games like Hotline Miami. Although wildly different in almost every way, there is one overlapping element worth mentioning here: you’re trying to make your way through a level as fast and seamlessly as possible after dumping an exorbitant amount of time and profanity along the way.

In the beginning, I cursed Infinitrap Rehamstered’s very existence. Now I look forward to learning as many secrets as I can on my way to becoming the ultimate dungeon-crawling leaderboard king.