INFRA plot

INFRA: plot

Work In Progress

INFRA's story is set in the fictional Baltic city of Stalburg, experienced through the eyes of Markku Siltanen, 36 year old structural analyst employed by National Consulting Group, as his structural survey excursion goes wrong when unmaintained tunnels and dams throughout Stalburg begins to collapse. The primary story and linear path through the game covers Mark's adventure through Stalburg's underground infrastructure and attempts to solve the crisis. There are various story arcs explained through the discovery of audio logs, documents, and environmental storytelling to reveal a decades old government conspiracy to reveal how and why Stalburg's infrastructure has become so decrepit. Many events in certain maps as well as the ending will change depending on Mark's actions throughout his journey.

In addition, subtler elements of a darker and seemingly paranormal story is present through enough exploration of the world.

INFRA is split into three episodic acts of ten chapters.

Act 1

Chapter 1: Preparations

This is the first chapter of INFRA. It serves as an introduction to Mark and his co-workers at National Consulting Group, and provides a briefing to recent events in Stalburg. Following a recent political corruption scandal, N.C.G. acquired maintenance deals for Stalburg's key infrastructure. Due to the lack of information regarding the state and previous maintenance of these structures, N.C.G. director, Paul Lauwens, assigns a team of structural engineers to assess the damage in different regions of Stalburg. Mark is assigned to inspect the Hammer Valley Dam and the surrounding Bergmann tunnels. After picking up his equipment from his office, Mark descends to the reception desk of the building to receive the keys of the Hammer Valley area and leaves by the company car in the basement carpark.

Chapter 2: Just Another Day at Work

Mark arrives in Hammer Valley and begins his survey of the area. After calling Paul Lauwens to report the state of the local power plant and the dam, Mark proceeds through Hammer Handle Cave to the Bergmann tunnels.

This chapter contains audio logs and documents that introduce Alex Hartman, former founder and CEO of Hammer Valley Hydro, who recorded his beliefs that Jeff Walter, a wealthy entrepreneur who founded the construction company Walter Corporation, was responsible for the bankruptcy of his Hammer Valley Hydro and other important companies critical to Stalburg's infrastructure such as the Bergmann Group and Stalburg Steel. Hartman became obsessed with Walter and began trying to find him after he mysteriously disappeared.

Chapter 3: Forgotten World

The Bergmann Tunnels are in no better shape than the Hammer Valley Dam, concrete faults, cave-ins, and water leaks plague the area. As Mark inspects and progresses through the tunnels, he incidentally causes a chain reaction that causes the collapse of the tunnel that nearly kills Mark. He reports this to Paul, who is concerned, but urges Mark to continue his inspection to know the full extent of the damage. Mark passes through a unstaffed water plant with many problems in order to get deeper into the Bergmann tunnels, and further inspection of the tunnels reveal more structural faults, and Mark eventually finds his way back to the surface.

Audio logs and documents in the tunnel system provide exposition on how the Bergmann Group fell apart when one of the co-founders, Xeander Berg, went missing, leaving the other, Eric Kleinmann unable to continue managing the company. Alex Hartmann formed a partnership with Kleinmann after convincing him that Jeff Walter was responsible for Berg's disappearance. In the meantime, the acquisition of the Bergmann Group by the Walter Corporation saw the halt of many critical ongoing construction projects, and the existing Bergmann tunnels were severely understaffed, and one of the two remaining employees, Robin was incompetent and couldn't fix anything in the tunnels despite his efforts.

An alternate path through a dark and creepy tunnel will have Mark encounter a strange masked entity.

Chapter 4: Heavy Industry of the Past

Mark reaches the surface only to be unable to contact Paul due to the lack of cell reception. He opts to go through the abandoned Stalburg Steel factory to attempt to repair a cell transceiver tower. Through his attempts to traverse the factory, he reactivates a malfunctioning blast furnace which causes a large fire but is eventually stopped through an emergency stop button. Mark ascends to the top of the factory and repairs the cell tower to report to Paul, who has been trying to reach Mark for hours to tell him the Bergmann tunnel collapse is setting off a massive chain-reaction with old tunnels collapsing all over the city, and that the rising water levels may be more than the Two Gorges Dam was built to handle. Paul asks Mark to go to the nearby Pitheath Water Treatment Plant to assess the situation with the staff.

Old recorded announcement systems in Stalburg Steel reveal that the steel workers unionized after Stalburg Steel was bought out by the Walter Corporation, which lead to hazardous working conditions, and unpaid wages, shortly after, Stalburg Steel went bankrupt which caused massive unemployment in Stalburg and civil unrest. Stalburg went under martial law on December 17th, 1981. After these events, Alex Hartman also met with former CEO of Stalburg Steel, Mikhail Rosenthal who approached him to assist in locating Jeff Walter.

Chapter 5: Fresh Water

Mark enters the Pitheath Water Treatment Plant, only to find the place abandoned. After navigating through the plant, which he may optionally repair - upon arrival, most of the systems are offline, Mark will find his way to the amin offices, which will be empty. He informs Paul of the situation at the plant and of the situation through the control room. Paul instructs him to make his way to a nearby metro station, under the overpass. On the way, he'll pass through the Pitheath Sewage Canal, which he'll have to navigate carefully to avoid the various locked doors and crumbling infrastructure around the area. On the way to the metro station, he'll fall through a floor, and enter the Pitheath sewer. In his attempt to exit the sewer, he'll uncover Alex Hartman's hideout. In his attempt to escape, he'll accidentally demolish the place around him.

Act 2

Chapter 6: Public Transport

Waking up from the destroyed sewer, Mark finds his way into the Pitheath Metro Station, which is closed due to the ongoing protests. Mark also explores the office of the Union of Metal Workers, where he finds info about what happened to Stalburg Steel, and the ongoing protest. Mark gets in contact with his boss, who makes sure a maintenance tram is later left near the train tracks, which Mark rides through more sections of the metro line, before the floor gives way, and the train crashes into another part of the Bergmann tunnels, which lead him to the Stalburg Central Water Plant. After going through that, Mark rides through a bunch of minitrain tunnels and makes his way over to the Central Railway Station, which is also closed. In there, he finds a memorial dedicated to the victims of the metro accident, and finds out the exact location of the metro accident, and also finds a train that is stopped, and sees one derail catastrophically, collapsing the tunnel behind it. Finding his way to a keypad, Mark searches the station for the code, then leave the station.

Chapter 7: Working Overtime

Making his way out of the Central Railway Station, Mark walks through several tunnels, repairing an electric substation, which allows him access to the depths of Walter Tower. While there, Mark sets off a dynamite trap set up by Alex Hartman to catch Jeff Walter. Surviving the trap, Mark makes his way into a hidden elevator leading to Walter's office, and finds a video tape professing Walter's innocence, and several documents about one company bankrupting others. After going back down, Mark restores power to a funicular which leads to the bunker's entrance and after restoring the power, heads in and sees the aftermath of the metro accident. After stopping at the bunker's accommodation wing, and seeing a painting in one room, and a noose in the other, Mark discovers a ventilation system with a spinning fan, which he deactivates by tripping the gas sensors with various mushroom-filed objects, then proceeds into the next ventilation system, where he discovers a diary left behind by Xeander Berg detailing his escape. After going down again and going through more sewers, Mark then fixes some sewage backflow in the district, after which he goes into a room, and drinks coffee from a control panel someone refurbished. This allows Mark to open a door to the next room, in which he narrowly survives a floodwave, after that, he repairs buttons to open a floodgate which takes him through more hallways, which eventually leads into a big room that was left unfinished, and is falling apart, Mark learns that the construction project was stopped due to the company's bank account being frozen. After opening more floodgates, he finds his way into an unfinished cistern. After going up through the cistern he finds his way to a ventilation system, passes through conveyor belts and ends up at a power plant, where the person he read about in many notes finally makes himself known to Mark. He helps Mark with restoring function to the second generator, but it is broken, and the entire power plant explodes.