Infamous review

Intro and Influential Information

Platform: PlayStation 3
Money Paid for Game: £10
When I got it: 1 year after release

It really is great when I have a reason to dust off my PS3. I picked up infamous in a sale, I enjoyed Prototype a lot and (like everyone) had heard about the comparisons between the two so I thought I’d give it a go.

Now let me state here that if you haven’t played either of the above games then do not listen to any of this vs. Crap that is floating around (you shouldn’t be anyway). These two games are worlds apart from each other, the only aspect in which they could be compared is the sandbox one, because both games have that setup.

Story / Characters

You play as a bike messenger named Cole, the game beings with you (accidently) triggering a huge explosion in the middle of Empire City which puts you in a coma for two weeks.

While you’re unconscious the city becomes overrun with crime, drugs and a mysterious plague. This results in the government placing the entire city under quarantine.

You awake from your coma with un-explained electric super-powers. You can control electricity and use it as a weapon in various forms.

That’s all I’m doing for the story, because it’s really well told with great characters and has a satisfying ending. About the only bad thing about the story is that because of the moral choice system some things seem a little off no matter what your alignment is, but ultimately doesn’t detract from the core experience.

Presentation

Now, most other reviews I’ve read about infamous say the graphics are bad. While I wouldn’t go as far to say they’re perfect, they’re still good. The attention in this game was clearly put into the gameplay and you only notice the lack of visual detail if you’re not blowing stuff up. In which case you’re playing the game wrong.

All kidding aside, the effects and lighting are amazing in infamous. It’s the character models and texturing that doesn’t look as good. However due to the quality of everything else and the sheer effort that was clearly put into the art design (and apparently missed by every other reviewer out there) makes it easy to overlook this.

Gameplay

Here we are, the absolute best part of infamous. Objective stuff first...

As mentioned, you are able to control electricity and use it as a weapon. From a purely mechanical sense your abilities conform to various archetype shooter weapons. You have standard rapid fire, grenades, missiles, sniper rifle and an explosive ground slam move. You can also send shockwaves out that will blast enemies and backwards. You have melee, but you won’t use it.

All the above use what is called energy, you have a limited amount of this and using any of the powers except the standard lightning bolt will deplete your supply. You can upgrade this by collecting shards that are scattered across the city. In addition to the main plot there are several side missions which serve as your way of expanding your territory and cleaning up the city. All of these are really fun, it’s just a shame there wasn’t more of the “keep up with this guy by grinding along telephone wire” missions as they are definitely the most fun.

There’s also an urban traversal system, Cole can climb and grab onto pretty much anything and move along/up it. This system lets you climb on rooftops, ride train tracks and cables and later even hover over great distances.

Now, I simply cannot say in objective terms how amazing all this turns out. All your abilities are assigned to one or two buttons at most. There is no weapon select screen or dial or any of that stuff. Everything is controlled on the fly which makes for some really exciting and fun explosive action.

The moral choices you make through the game will affect what powers you can use. The good side focus on stunning and incapacitating your foes without killing them and causing minimal collateral damage. The evil powers are the complete opposite, it’s all about carefree destruction without any thought for anything or anyone that gets in the way. This ultimately results in two very different but equally fun ways to play the game that will definitely get most people to play through at least twice to see both sides.

What makes infamous such a pleasure to play over and over again is the quality of the controls. I cannot describe how smooth and responsive they are, your inputs are never miss-interpreted or missed for that matter. The camera keeps up with you with ease and never gets in the way of the action. The traversal system is slick and fun and makes collecting the various objects scattered through the city even more fun. They are blast shards which will upgrade your energy meter and there’s also audio logs from an undercover agent that shed a little more light on the story. This is not needed because the story doesn’t make sense or anything like that, they just add that little level of detail.

The quality of the controls in this game is easily up there with games like Ninja Gaiden and the Devil May Cry series. You simply have to play this game to truly appreciate them.

Replay Value
 
There is so much stuff to do in Empire City it will be hard to leave. I’m on my 4th playthrough and will still carry on for at least a few more. What really stood out to me (aside from everything else I just mentioned) was the detail and quality of the world that has been created here. The sandbox is easily the smallest of any recent sandbox game I have played, but the level of detail and care that has been put into it makes others seem boring and carless. It’s great to have a huge sprawling environment, but if all you do is fill it full of meaningless crap then it’s not going to resonate at all. Remember how, back in the days of GTA3 after a while you didn’t need the map because you just got to know your way around. Infamous has that quality, quantity is not the important thing when designing a game like this and Sucker punch clearly know that.

All in all I cannot say enough good things about this game, you really have to play it and if you have a PS3 there is no excuse for not doing so (unless of course you’re one of these casual gaming idiots). The action is incredible, the world feels real and full of life, the story is great and actually matters, seriously what more do you want from this type of game?