INFRA plot
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.
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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.