1.21 gigawatts of awesome!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
inFAMOUS is a shocking experience you don’t want to miss.
A new game exclusivly for the PS3, Infamous was made by the creators of the Sly Cooper series, Sucker Punch. You play Cole, a former bike messenger who is chosen to deliver a package that turns out to be a very special bomb. Cole is caught in the center of the explosion, and when he awakens he has super powers and Empire City is a twisted ruin of what it once was.
Empire City is basically a giant jungle-gym to Cole. You climb just about anything, and rarely will you find yourself running on the streets: that is the slow way and it’s for losers. The city is so fascinating: just when you think you have seen it all, you find another section that is completely different and crazy.
One of the big selling points of this game is that you get to choose your path, good or evil. Many games are trying this with varying success. Infamous pulls it off with moderate success. It is never hard to tell which actions will cause you to become more evil, but that is not a bad thing.
In an interview, the developers said you can go back and forth between the two sides, but I don’t see that at all. It does not make sense to play down the middle because you will just be gimping your gaming experience, as you will be locking out the best upgrades for your abilities. Overall, though, this does not make the game bad; just choose a path, stick with it, and have a blast.
My biggest problem with this game would have to be what many of the moral decision games have: I don’t know why your character has to look like rotten leftovers if you choose to be a murderous ass-hat. Almost every game that claims you can change the world by being good or evil does this to the character. I mean, I choose to kill some people, that is not the same thing as rolling around in dog poo and never bathing.
The storyline seems to change depending on your actions, but mostly just small things. The citizens of Empire City treat you differently depending on which path you choose. It’s no real big problem because if you are good they leave you alone mostly, and if you are the bad guy you can just blow them away with a flick of the R1 button.
The combat in this game is quick, fun, and amazing. Cole seems to be a god, but the enemies still present a fun challenge. You always have many different options on how to take down the enemies. You can attempt to implement some strategy and carefully take out the enemies, or you can go balls to the wall crazy and lob electric grenades and missiles into the fray and start spamming lightning bolts while you pray for the best. Either way, it is intense and fun. Also depending on which moral path you are headed down, you get different upgrades to your powers and that ends up switching up combat nicely.
Combat also really showcases the processing and visual power of the PS3. While spamming missiles and grenades into a horde of enemies you will barely feel lag, and you will almost have to stop because it looks so amazing. Explosions, people flying through the air, electricity shooting off every which way, all of it just makes those moments stunning.
The story in this game is also pretty awesome. Sometimes it can be predictable, but usually it was interesting and fun. It keeps a pretty quick pace so you won’t get bored with it. The cutscenes in this game are done in a comic book style with narration by the main character, Cole. This works out very well and looks very appealing. The end of the game left some things open, but not too much, for a content patch or two like Fallout 3 and GTA4 have been doing.
Overall, this game is a blast. You have a huge city to explore, and running and jumping from building to building always feels awesome. It’s hard to think that the combat will get old anytime soon. The story is shifted enough by your actions to warrant another play through, also your abilities are so different, that alone warrants at least one extra play through. I give this game 4.5 gigawatts out of 5.
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