
Browser game · Action
EarthGames is proud to announce Infrared Escape, a game that combines frantic arcade fun with...
4.3Runs in your browser · no download

EarthGames is proud to announce Infrared Escape, a game that combines frantic arcade fun with... learning about the greenhouse effect.? You have to try it to believe it. You play the role of an infrared light beam, trying to make it out to space. Along the way you have to dodge pesky greenhouse gases by tapping left or right. Each collision with a greenhouse gas causes your beam to lose some energy. If you keep grazing the gases, it’s game over. Your journey through the air is divided into levels, each one an actual layer of the atmosphere. Making it through the Earth’s atmosphere and into space is a great accomplishment. It means your ray has done its part to cool down the Earth and offset global warming. The easiest mode is the year 1850, when there weren’t nearly as many greenhouse gases in the air to dodge. The hardest difficulty is set in a much more polluted future. Light-speed reaction times will be needed to conquer this mode, since greenhouse gases are so tightly packed in the air. When you escape to space, you prevent energy from warming the planet. You can spend that energy in the shop, unlocking science facts about the greenhouse effect and solutions to climate change.
Reflexes carry you through the first few stages of an action game. After that, you need to read the room. Where the enemies come from, how long an attack animation takes, when to retreat. The pace rarely lets up, and health is always a little scarcer than you would like. Sessions are tense in a good way, and victory tends to arrive just as your hands start to ache.
The appeal of Infrared Escape is simple: tension, release, repeat. It runs free in a browser with nothing to download, loads in seconds, and gives you a proper fight without any commitment. When it ends, you close the tab and that is that.
Suits players who enjoy combat and pressure. Teenagers and adults make up most of the audience, though older children with good reflexes will keep up. Not aimed at very young players.