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inFamous
Shockingly good.
June 14, 2009 | 1:10 PM PSTKombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game's About
How would you wield great power if you never asked for it? Would you be the savior of a corrupt world or would you exploit the weak and take all you can? Sucker Punch Studios tries to answer that question in the form of inFamous. You play as Cole McGrath, an ordinary package delivery man who finds himself at the epicenter of a fantastic explosion. As Empire City is thrust into complete chaos facing massive destruction and a growing plague, Cole discovers he was imbued with the ability to channel electricity. You start to piece together what happened, and your power grows as you roam the open world streets. With each new mission, you are faced with moral choices that determine your path of good or evil.
What's Hot
When you first start out, the world-changing explosion just happened. You stagger out of the giant crater as you see chaos unfold in the haze of your pain. Before you collapse in a safe location, you get a sense of the mess you are going to have to deal with. It was also engineered to give you a taste of what it feels like to be powerless. So when you next play Cole, you feel super charged in more ways than one. The crescendo from a weak state to an alarmingly powerful superhero is a fantastic opener to inFamous because it feeds into your belief that nothing can stop your progress.
You begin your quest of putting back together the pieces of your life and collecting more powers as you put Empire City's power grid back online. With each new island that goes online, you'll be granted another power. Each new power is more powerful and interesting than the last as you collect the organic equivalent of grenades, sniper rifles, rocket launchers and nuclear bomb. Depending on what path you choose, you'll use some powers more than others.
If you are good, you'll lean on the powers that are more accurate versus the evil powers that deal splash damage. The reason for that is because there are many citizens milling about the city and you can either work around them or blast through them like toothpicks. You aren't barred from using either power from at any point, but you don't want to gain points in the opposite path you follow. At no point does the choice of powers feel forced. If you want to be good, using more accurate powers feels more natural than bombing the crap out of a street corner. It is impressive that everything feels so natural.
You spend all your time in Empire City, a world you want to stay in and be a part of. Unlike other open world games, Empire City is crumbling and there isn't any hope for a speedy recovery on that grand of a scale. You'll still feel a connection to the city even through it looks slightly better than the inside of a dump truck. Sucker Punch gives a reason to get attached through the relationships Cole had before the explosion and a major plot device from the "voice of survival" that will motivate you to do the right, or wrong, thing.
There are very few limitations on where you can go in the city. You are afforded many opportunities to climb and scale high-rises and a sky scraper that is made out of salvaged junk. Many of the side missions encourage you to explore the landscape through skilled platform jumping and climbing. It wouldn't be a Sucker Punch game, after all, without climbing platform mechanics.
The story is told through a series of artistic cut-scenes. They resemble an interactive graphic novel that acknowledges the comic book roots of the entire story arc. It brings the story of the game to life beautifully. The drastically different approaches to the visuals with the graphic novels progressing the story mesh well with the semi-realistic world of Empire City. The added benefit of having the cut scenes be more illustrative is you don't feel like you are missing out on gameplay moments when you are absorbing the story.
What's Not
When a game like inFamous gives you nearly infinite options for exploration, parts that you can't go to stick out like a sore thumb. Whenever you see a chain link fence, it is impossible to climb. It is strange that one of the most seemingly climbable surfaces in the game might as well be a slick rubber wall. Cole seems to cling to just about everything so it is odd why objects that look climbable are not.
There is a lot of jumping and leaping in inFamous. When you get a mini-tutorial on all the gameplay mechanics, you'll find out that Cole is magnetized to every ledge and platform you can grab. The magnetism kills the risk of making large, perilous jumps and you get lulled into a sense of security when you attempt what could have been exhilarating and risky jumps. It is the only time you feel too powerful for your own good during the entire game.
To reiterate the game's largest flaw, the biggest buzz kill is how sticky you are to all the platforms.
The gameplay in inFamous is generally not a problem. The one small issue is the side quests that get repetitive. When you have to scale buildings to disable security cameras or jump into the sewer system to restart electricity, you'll notice that there is a lack of mission diversity. Adding just a few more types of modes into the rotation would have smoothed out the repetition spin cycle. You'll feel like you need to take a break from the game, at worst, or you can chew on some of the missions that relate directly to the main story.
Final Word
inFamous is the type of game you play twice in a row. First you play good and then you play bad (or vice versa) and get two entirely different experiences. The best part is that Sucker Punch created a game that invites you to explore the world and makes it hard to leave. You'll want to do and see everything possible before you finish the last boss fight. It is easy to tell that each decision was made with great consideration and care. Nothing is without purpose. The largest issue is the poor design choice to make Cole be magnetized to all platforms when he jumps ledge to ledge, which, all things considered, isn't the biggest sin that could have happened. Sucker Punch has developed a brand new franchise that excels on nearly every level. inFamous gives the PS3 library a huge jolt. If you are a PS3 owner, you can't afford to miss out on this awesome exclusive.
What the Game's About
How would you wield great power if you never asked for it? Would you be the savior of a corrupt world or would you exploit the weak and take all you can? Sucker Punch Studios tries to answer that question in the form of inFamous. You play as Cole McGrath, an ordinary package delivery man who finds himself at the epicenter of a fantastic explosion. As Empire City is thrust into complete chaos facing massive destruction and a growing plague, Cole discovers he was imbued with the ability to channel electricity. You start to piece together what happened, and your power grows as you roam the open world streets. With each new mission, you are faced with moral choices that determine your path of good or evil.
What's Hot
When you first start out, the world-changing explosion just happened. You stagger out of the giant crater as you see chaos unfold in the haze of your pain. Before you collapse in a safe location, you get a sense of the mess you are going to have to deal with. It was also engineered to give you a taste of what it feels like to be powerless. So when you next play Cole, you feel super charged in more ways than one. The crescendo from a weak state to an alarmingly powerful superhero is a fantastic opener to inFamous because it feeds into your belief that nothing can stop your progress.
You begin your quest of putting back together the pieces of your life and collecting more powers as you put Empire City's power grid back online. With each new island that goes online, you'll be granted another power. Each new power is more powerful and interesting than the last as you collect the organic equivalent of grenades, sniper rifles, rocket launchers and nuclear bomb. Depending on what path you choose, you'll use some powers more than others.
If you are good, you'll lean on the powers that are more accurate versus the evil powers that deal splash damage. The reason for that is because there are many citizens milling about the city and you can either work around them or blast through them like toothpicks. You aren't barred from using either power from at any point, but you don't want to gain points in the opposite path you follow. At no point does the choice of powers feel forced. If you want to be good, using more accurate powers feels more natural than bombing the crap out of a street corner. It is impressive that everything feels so natural.
You spend all your time in Empire City, a world you want to stay in and be a part of. Unlike other open world games, Empire City is crumbling and there isn't any hope for a speedy recovery on that grand of a scale. You'll still feel a connection to the city even through it looks slightly better than the inside of a dump truck. Sucker Punch gives a reason to get attached through the relationships Cole had before the explosion and a major plot device from the "voice of survival" that will motivate you to do the right, or wrong, thing.
There are very few limitations on where you can go in the city. You are afforded many opportunities to climb and scale high-rises and a sky scraper that is made out of salvaged junk. Many of the side missions encourage you to explore the landscape through skilled platform jumping and climbing. It wouldn't be a Sucker Punch game, after all, without climbing platform mechanics.
The story is told through a series of artistic cut-scenes. They resemble an interactive graphic novel that acknowledges the comic book roots of the entire story arc. It brings the story of the game to life beautifully. The drastically different approaches to the visuals with the graphic novels progressing the story mesh well with the semi-realistic world of Empire City. The added benefit of having the cut scenes be more illustrative is you don't feel like you are missing out on gameplay moments when you are absorbing the story.
What's Not
When a game like inFamous gives you nearly infinite options for exploration, parts that you can't go to stick out like a sore thumb. Whenever you see a chain link fence, it is impossible to climb. It is strange that one of the most seemingly climbable surfaces in the game might as well be a slick rubber wall. Cole seems to cling to just about everything so it is odd why objects that look climbable are not.
There is a lot of jumping and leaping in inFamous. When you get a mini-tutorial on all the gameplay mechanics, you'll find out that Cole is magnetized to every ledge and platform you can grab. The magnetism kills the risk of making large, perilous jumps and you get lulled into a sense of security when you attempt what could have been exhilarating and risky jumps. It is the only time you feel too powerful for your own good during the entire game.
To reiterate the game's largest flaw, the biggest buzz kill is how sticky you are to all the platforms.
The gameplay in inFamous is generally not a problem. The one small issue is the side quests that get repetitive. When you have to scale buildings to disable security cameras or jump into the sewer system to restart electricity, you'll notice that there is a lack of mission diversity. Adding just a few more types of modes into the rotation would have smoothed out the repetition spin cycle. You'll feel like you need to take a break from the game, at worst, or you can chew on some of the missions that relate directly to the main story.
Final Word
inFamous is the type of game you play twice in a row. First you play good and then you play bad (or vice versa) and get two entirely different experiences. The best part is that Sucker Punch created a game that invites you to explore the world and makes it hard to leave. You'll want to do and see everything possible before you finish the last boss fight. It is easy to tell that each decision was made with great consideration and care. Nothing is without purpose. The largest issue is the poor design choice to make Cole be magnetized to all platforms when he jumps ledge to ledge, which, all things considered, isn't the biggest sin that could have happened. Sucker Punch has developed a brand new franchise that excels on nearly every level. inFamous gives the PS3 library a huge jolt. If you are a PS3 owner, you can't afford to miss out on this awesome exclusive.
November 20, 2009
