Review: inFamous

Makes Aquaman look like a crybaby bitch.

Ah the superhero game.  In my experience, they have often been hit or miss.  Spiderman 2: great game.  Superman 64: ungodly awful.  Hulk Ultimate Destruction: fantastic.  Aquaman Battle for Atlantis: horrible piece of shit.  So yeah, hit or miss.  inFamous is an original tale from Sucker Punch, the minds that brought you the Sly Cooper series.  Combining aspects of platforming, shooter, and RPG, this game lets you choose how you want your character to evolve while playing through a great story, gaining amazing powers along the way.  They say that with great power comes great responsibility, but they have not met Cole MacGrath, a badass with superpowers.  It is up to Cole to either save his city from devastation, or choose to become….bum bum baaaaa, inFamous!! *cue dramatic music

Story

What a "shockingly" interesting situation we have here

This game starts off with a bang, literally.  You are Cole Macgrath, a simple bike messenger, thinking it is just another boring old day, delivering a package to who gives a crap.  What Cole is unaware of is that this package contains the Ray Sphere which activates upon opening the package which then goes…. BANG!!!  BIG EXPLOSION!!!  Luckily, Cole is somehow able to survive the blast, and after being nursed back to health by his girlfriend, he discovers he now has electricity based superpowers.  If only this worked in real life.  Am I right fellas?  Anyway, Cole is made a Pariah after being identified as the cause of the explosion and tries to make his way out of the quarantined city with his buddy Zeke using his newfound powers.  Plans go awry and he is captured by government agents who convince him to return to the city and recover the Ray Sphere in exchange for his release.  Along the way while traveling about the three distracts of Empire City, Cole gains enemies, loses friends, and discovers the secrets of the explosion and the truth behind the mysterious Ray Sphere.  A compelling story if I say so myself.

While it does not impact the overall story of the game, there are moments when the player must choose to go down either the good or evil karmic paths.  Not only will it change some of the powers you gain along the way, but also the general demeanor you are treated when traveling around the city.  A good path: you will earn praise and help from the citizens.  Evil path: citizens will pee their pants when you’re around and throw feces at you, or something like that.  You are never locked into one karmic path as there will be both good and evil side missions scattered around the city and opportunities to either help or hurt the people around you.  There is no real advantage to choosing one side or the other, just a matter of how evil a person you are at heart.  Cole will acquire experience points for your actions that can be spent upgrading your powers.  Also, Cole will be spending much of his time, if you so choose, to collect the hundreds of blast shards which increase your overall amount of electricity capacity , or find the numerous satellite dead drops to learn more about the back story of the game.

Gameplay

Zap, Crackle, and Pop!

As I said before, this sandbox type game combines alittle bit of everything into the mix.  To start off, you will soon learn that Cole is an urban explorer, which translates into he can climb around on buildings in an Assassin’s Creed type of way.  These abilities are only further assisted by his new powers allowing him to leap off buildings without getting hurt and grind along wires and railway tracks to get around the city much faster.  Your main source of combat comes from your powers of electricity, either with your punches and kicks, or energy bolts and other powers.  Your energy will be depleted when using electric based attacks, but luckily Empire city is flowing with juice.  You are able to drain energy from most electric objects around you or through a special upgrade, the wires and train tracks.  Powers will be gained gradually along the course of the game, always keeping things fresh and never too stale.  The powers range from simple bolts to full on lightning storms that can take down whole hordes of M Fer’s.

With a fully interactive environment, you can always use your surroundings to your advantage.  Get up high and snipe enemies with a nice zap to the face.  Shoot at the generator to cause a nice explosion to take targets down.  When not playing through the story, you will undertake different side missions from different civilians that will ultimately clear that section of gang control or unlock another medical station where Cole will awaken should he fall in battle.  The missions are varied and can range from simply taking out a bunch of enemies, or destroying trackers scattered around a certain building.  There are various stunts for Cole to perform when playing through the game which could be doing something acrobatic or beating an enemy in an impressive way such as a head shot while in the air which leads into a knee drop taking out others in the area.

Presentation

Ah what a view

The setting of the game is spread out across three different districts, each with its own distinctive style and bad guys that populate it.  The game is greatly detailed and actually looks like a fully functioning city.  As per usual, the main characters all have their own distinctive looks, while all the other civilians and bad guys kinda just blend together.  The game occasionally suffers from pop-in rendering and a drop in frame rates when their is an increased amount of action on the screen, but otherwise, this game looks and feels great.

Music and Sounds

There is not much music to the game as it is mostly just full of the sounds of the city.  Explosions will be loud and cars will honk their horns you when you step in front of them.  You know, city sounds.  The game has a nice enough soundtrack when music is playing, but it is nothing too memorable.  The voice acting of this game is pretty hit or miss as well.  I personally think the voice of Zeke is right on the spot, but Cole’s voice is a bit too gravelly for my liking.  There should be more to this section, but there really isn’t much to talk about.

Lasting Appeal and Final Thoughts

Cool guys aren't supposed to look at explosions

When the game is over, you are encouraged to play through again, choosing the opposite karma route to the one you just completed to experience the different powers and story.  Other than that, if you haven’t already, you can go back and find all the blast shards and ‘dead drop’ satellites.  The city is fun to explore and work on completing the list of stunts, but typically by the end of the game there are few remaining enemies to take down.

As the new powers you collect in the game are spread across throughout, the game never really becomes stale.  The story is great and will lead to a shocking twist in the end the perfectly sets up for the sequel coming out next year in 2011.  While you may have seen many of the elements in this game before, all of the familiar elements combined together make for a satisfying experience that will leave you wanting more, and thankfully, more will come very soon.

8.5/10