If you haven’t seen, heard of or played InFamous already, you may be living under a rock somewhere off the grid. As part of a slew of recent AAA titles to hit the market after a big lull in releases, InFamous has been highly anticipated. A PS3 exclusive, this third person action/shooter is not only a brand new IP from Sucker Punch Productions, but also attempts to redefine both the sandbox and superhero esthetic with some great results. While there were issues with the visuals and tech at times, this title is one of the most engaging and charismatic sandbox games I have ever laid hands on.

For purposes of full disclosure, I’ll tell you that I really enjoyed the InFamous demo. Eagerly, I ripped open my fresh new copy of the full game and was ready to be astounded. However, at the beginning of the first play through, I truly felt underwhelmed. “Is this it?” I thought. The opening cinematic and some of the in game cut scenes were lacking, and the first few missions were a bit tedious and repetitive. With a rather slow start, I was convinced I had played the best parts in the demo and was even bored at the onset. But oh, how wrong I was! InFamous turned out to be a fantastic game, with a unique feel and a ton of cool twists.

 

STORY

From the beginning, you’re given the basic outline: Our protagonist Cole was a bike messenger in Empire City, doing his daily thing, when a package he was delivering suddenly blew sky-high. Somehow, Cole is still alive and emerges from the blast epicenter imbued with electrical superpowers. Like any dude waking up with lighting shooting through his veins, Cole doesn’t understand what’s happened to him, let alone how to control his newfound electrical gifts. Accidently blasting some onlookers with is new ‘condition’, Cole seems to scare folks with his mere existence, and so finds himself on the run early in the game. At first you’ll be fleeing from, attacking, dodging and shooting at a combination of cops and robbers, so to speak. As Cole begins to master his powers though, you will either target the bad guys specifically, rendering ‘good’ experience points, or else blow everything away in your path, accumulating ‘bad XP’ when killing civilians and other innocents and generally destroying anything you touch. Fear not, Heroes and Heroines…there will plenty of destruction no matter what Karmatic disposition you choose.

 

To avoid spoilers I will keep it brief here: You’ve got powers. You attract attention. People want to either kill you or help you, mostly for personal gain or pleasure. The city has gone haywire after you allegedly set off the initial blast in a perceived terrorist attack, so you’re not only wildly unpopular with the cops and citizens of this town, but also with the various gangs of madmen vying for control of the now toppling metropolis.

Depending on your good or evil ways, you’ll uncover enemies, friends, and plot points. You can take a guess from what you know already about how this effects the story, in terms of your rep on the good or evil side. It seems that the thugs and lowlifes of the city have reaped the perceived benefits of the blast as well, and have some superhuman abilities of their own. Now formed into powerful organized gangs, they will literally stop at nothing to get rid of Cole and his hero (or antihero) status.  The story missions begin rather tediously, but take off shortly thereafter, wrapped in increasing action and intrigue as you progress. At first I was a little worried at how this would all play out; my initial impressions suggested

InFamous might fall prey to that old stereotype of so many open-world games, which can fall short by becoming a continual string of “go there, do this”. While you certainly will have to haul your butt all over this city to save (or destroy) the metropolis, I was pleasantly surprised at the evolving mission structure and how a-typical it actually felt for this genre, which is a great thing.  

GAMEPLAY

The main mechanics of InFamous are quite familiar, but blend together to become more than the sum of their parts: Cover shooting with a reticule. Open world GPS-style sandbox navigation. Story and movement progression via some light environmental puzzle solving. Platformer-focused moments, unlocking areas, weapons and abilities through missions and points earned. A mish-mash of rather standard elements, but which feel fresh and new here in the way that InFamous combines them. A short while into the game, I was getting that funny feeling…you know, the one you got when falling in love with Uncharted for the first time? 

While these two games are completely different, they share that singular trait that some familiar mechanics are applied in brilliant and very fun scenarios, making them bigger than they could ever appear at face value. Shooting, movement, cover and even advanced maneuvers all feel ‘right’ somehow, especially when using them all together.Various themes repeat, such as turning on power grids underground to restore electricity to different areas of the city, or protecting medical clinics from attackers to wrest that area from the grip of crime. However, these themes are woven cleverly around the story, so that it rarely feels like preset plan, but rather a moving storyline that is determining why you need to perform such actions.

All this means that you don’t feel as if you will always know the outcome of a situation, or where the next story point will come from, which keeps things fresh and dynamic. Suffice to say, again, at the onset of the game, you don’t get the full impact. Perhaps you wont identify with or feel what it’s like to be Cole, immediately, but after a couple of hours in, you’ll be fully immersed in a great unfolding tale of comic book proportions. InFamous is propelled mostly by fast, evolving game play and reinforced by very cool graphic novel style story moments.

 

 

One of the standout mechanics is certainly the ability to climb on almost any structure, made possible by a proprietary Sucker Punch game engine that attempts to ‘predict’ where Cole is going to land. There are no complex rules or button combinations necessary to dive right in: tapping X repeatedly will let you flitter from wall to precipice to ledge, with relative ease, as you guide Cole through Empire City. For the most part the system works well and is intuitive. However, at times it can be a bit dodgy. Movement controls are very sensitive and sometimes worked against me. For example, you may barely touch the L stick, and Cole already bobbling along awkwardly, which can catch you off guard and send you to your death. This can prove frustrating as the SP engine attempts to predict what you want to do, sometimes incorrectly. Cole continually latches onto the surface you are so desperately trying to detach from, or else strapping him to some ledge that is so close to the one you already occupy, that you may as well have done nothing. Is the movement system perfect? No, it's not, but it’s still fun as hell to use. Sure, the engine will cause a missed jump here and there, but trust me when I say without a doubt: you will get over it and quickly. Especially when you realize that, as super-Cole, most falls cannot kill you unless it’s into deep water (water + electricity = BAD). Otherwise, you will be continual amazed and feel particularly badass when you pull off some death- defying feats with Cole’s super abilities.

While the TPS-style shooting initially looks familiar (oh noez! Another one of these?!) it will quickly become apparent that this is an actiontitle, and not your typical cover shooter. While the ‘O’ button will cause Cole to crouch behind cover, you’re never actually ‘stuck’ to it. Sometimes this will cause you to stick your head in the line of fire, but the dynamic nature of the game calls for the ability to quickly get the hell out of dodge and so ‘sticky’ would be a bad choice here anyway. You’ve seen the general shooting style in games like Uncharted and GTAIV, but what you haven’t seen are Cole’s abilities mixed into an OTS shooting scheme. Sure, popping up over a ledge and shooting is nothing new. But flanking an enemy by dropping off that ledge to many stories below and climbing up behind on the opposite side with a combination of sneaking and parkour, kicks so much butt that you’ve simply got to experience it to see what I mean. Those who have played Crackdown have the most similar experience to InFamous, but again, this game is most certainly its own beast. Let me tell you, even on the Normal difficulty setting, this is no walk in the park, and you will get owned if you don’t keep Cole either constantly moving or behind cover in heavy fire areas. This takes serious strategy at times, due to the multiple angles above, below and on all sides, from which your enemy will be firing all sorts of weaponry at you. In a word, it’s intense.

 

Tapping the ‘O’ button while both free running and in Aim mode will trigger a dodge-roll or cartwheel in the direction you press the control stick, which helps when dodging bullets. Chaining moves together becomes fluid and super fun to pull off once you get comfy with the controls. This will save Cole’s life repeatedly, while also earning additional experience points based on each single ‘stunt’. These include single maneuvers like knocking an enemy off a building causing a ‘high fall’, as well as more complex chains, such as a ‘Ride the Lightning’, which entails shooting with the Precision upgrade (zoom in/slow mo) while simultaneously grinding on a power line. These grow in complexity to a point where you can earn some serious XP during a mission, for stylish kills and over-the-top stunts. Whenever you see a name for stunt that looks like a fictitious sex move, you’re earning extra XP. Sorry kids, no ‘Texas Chili Phone’ or ‘The Stranger’ moves though.

 

 

Once you string together some back flip/climb/grind/high falls in succession to get to that perfect piece of cover, it’s a total rush…and you’ll need it as the enemy AI sends an uncountable number of perfectly aimed shots Cole. I wouldn’t call the AI ‘genius’, so much as ‘relentless’.  They shoot a TON of ammo at poor little Cole, and boy are they accurate shots! They are ‘average to smart’ when everything is working properly, and all enemy types will work excruciatingly well together, as they send different ranks and classes at you to exploit their strategic positions in the play field. For example, exploding Kamikaze enemies may run at you posing immediate threats, while shield-wielding machine gunners create a steady stream of fire to pin you down with, all the while having lower-level enemies with rifles posted up high as they snipe at you.

 

That type of dynamic and long-range combat causes you to use the entire city as a giant cover system and for for sneaking, sniping and transportation, presenting the battles on a huge scale and creating possibilities for very cool strategy. Occasionally, when I was running up on an enemy while flanking sidelong or behind them, they became dumb as a bag of hammers. That was rare though, and so more often I found enemies that, once aware of my presence, literally followed me clear to the other side of the map. Pretty spooky and a prime motivator to either get where your going or start frying some flesh. Rocket launching ‘heavies’, grenadiers and many other enemy types including larger bosses, populate this city alongside its cowering citizens. Bosses will render some mini-game mechanics that are much cooler than a lot of other games that have simply ripped off God of War or RE4. No rip-offs here, the dynamics truly felt fresh and intuitive, and are used sparingly as are most of the tricks up it's electrified sleeve's.

 

In fact, there is some unique flair in all types of combat and it’s fun and challenging. For myself, the difficulty and general approach rendered a lot of trial and error, but this will surely vary by skill level. Strategy and sneaking come into play not only when flanking in a shootout, but as a rule, when either stealthily or else rapidly following characters on several missions, which were a lot of fun.  At the onset of infamous, you’ll have no choice but to shoot it out or flee from various types of enemies coming at you from all angles. Although there are obvious hot-zones on the map, the enemies move dynamically, and so they are akin to the police in GTAIV. Once they catch on to your position, its like having a five-star wanted level. Frequently, you will feel like you are on the run, from everyone. Depending on your disposition or type of mission you are on, that can also include the cops and even civilian pedestrians. The elevated train system in the city is a wonderful transport mechanic, creating an escape route or quick access around a given neighborhood. Mixed with the structure of power lines and tall buildings, multi-tiered areas of the city begin to emerge as conduits for attacking or retreating.

 

Taking side missions and unlocking areas to make them ‘crime free’  can yield some much-needed chill time. For the most part though, you’ll be working your virtual butt off trying to keep Cole alive, or to keep the enemy dead. To that effect, the move set is stellar. Pulling off tricks to move within accurate firing range, or else to escape, is a total blast. The first time you hop atop a fast moving train or grind some rails, wind blowing through your hair as you speed your way toward Cole's destiny, you will know why you are playing the game. Simply put, it rocks and it rocks hard.

 

PRODUCTION VALUES

InFamous contains beautiful visuals alongside some questionable textures. Cole and his lightning superpowers look great at all times, but frame rate slowdown, popup, tearing, and other graphical inconsistencies can occasionally get in the way. I simply felt the build could have been more solid and robust overall, even for a large open-world game like this. Minor tech problems do extend into the physics engine, so you will experience occasional hiccups such as ‘stuck’ enemies, jittery climbing, or a stuttering camera. These are only contrasted by the other, more pleasing visuals that abound though so when things are moving as fast as they do in InFamous, you wont sit there nitpicking a few broken pieces, you’ll be much too busy having a ton of fun. The camera, although a little ‘sticky’ at times, does move around quite fluently. While it doesn’t always react perfectly, you can view anything from any angle, and the view movement is lightning-fast. (Pun intended). The camera will swing through most objects and even through Cole, whereupon he will become translucent, giving a better view of what he would otherwise obscure from your view, which works nicely.

A general lack of environmental effects will be very apparent if you’ve been spoiled by the likes of GTAIV, Killzone2 and MGS4. The lightning powers do look brilliant though, as the very air ripples around you and the virtual camera rattles with each blast from Cole’s electrified palms. General lighting is okay but the real star there are the shadows; how they play on your psyche and obscure view and perception in darker areas is very cool. Draw distance, blurring, and panoramic lens techniques take what are often very mundane textures and create a nice depth of field. Obviously, a game such as this is heavy on what the cool kids call ‘verticality’, the general scale of height and how it’s used in game play. The camera, lighting and map layout all support those ideas very well. The character, models outside of Cole are quite wobbly and look pasted together, not really a good look there. I did also feel there was a lack of variety in the environments. Some areas have a very distinct feel, but overall you can mistake one area for another at any given time. While some visuals and tech missed the mark, the art direction and high-impact effects are spot-on. I like games that look like ‘themselves’ as opposed to a re-skin of some other popular game, and so InFamous holds its own with a signature look and feel. Great art direction trumps fancy textures any day.

Audio is great too, from effects to the subtle music cues. Explosions project with teeth-rattling powerful, in part due to the great audio. Cues are spot on in the score: you will never fall prey to typical cliché action scores which all seem to sound alike these days. What you get instead is a more dynamic feel, where proximity to enemies and certain areas (or length of time away from them) will trigger moody swells and slowly building, ominous drones, and occasionally burst into rhythm-driven arrangements. The dark, organic score composed by Amin Tobin supports the tension that proper scoring in a good movie chase-scene would impart. Music feels minimal and refreshingly unpredictable, and won’t screw you over with obvious clues to danger around corners before you experience them. There’s nothing worse than a sound cue in some movie or game spoiling the surprises for you, and it’s apparent they took special care with InFamous not to fall into that production trap, which was much appreciated. Likewise, voiceovers are professionally acted, well recorded and implemented perfectly.

 

THE VERDICT

 

With all that being said, I hope we’ve given you a vision of InFamous that fills in the gaps you may not get from other reviews. You either have the game already, are quote ‘waiting for Prototype’, or are otherwise ridiculously stubborn. I can tell you I fell into that final: I really did not need to own another TPS cover-shooter, or another open world sandbox game. Surprisingly, I got what feels very far away from both of those typical genres, and instead is a hardcore action game with some great twists that I didn’t expect and thoroughly enjoyed.

 

InFamous is much more than the sum of its parts, which include a cool story, badass combat scenarios and plenty of trouble to get into. Just be a little forgiving of the slow start, and you’ll be rewarded with a rich and deep experience of epic proportions. People need to understand, this is not some game that claims to do everything. So the answer, once and for all, is NO…you cant steal a Cadillac and drive it to your safe house, or design custom doilies for some virtual couch you bought on the fake internet while virtually dating. There is no safe house. There is no driving. There is no fake dating. This is not an RPG, nor is it a clone of twenty other open world games, which usually attempt to outdo GTA and fail miserably by simply tacking on features. Instead, InFamous took another approach, stuck to the essentials, and filled in the rest with it’s own charismatic personality.

 

If you’re waiting for some other open world game to hit this already saturated genre as of late, you would be missing one of the most fun games I’ve played this year. InFamous is a hit and it’s no surprise why.

Graphics – 80/100 – Art direction is great. Some questionable textures and graphical hiccups are present. Lightning is alive, dynamic and beautiful.

Audio – 90/100 – Music and sound effects are tastefully implemented. Voice acting is performed and recorded superbly.

Gameplay – 89/100 – Fluid and unique parkour and combat combine for a robust and super-fun super-powered action game. Controls are solid and pacing is excellent. While the climbing could use some minor tweaks, it’s still the best third-person climbing mechanic I’ve ever used.

Plot – 85/100 -  A good story for a great story-driven game. Starts out a bit disconnected, but quickly ramps up to an epic tale with many surprises.

Lightning Factor – 90/100 – its fun as hell, go play it already!!

Lasting Appeal – 85/100 – For those that enjoy playing a game at least twice, this one has you covered already, with two sides to every coin in Karma moments and even in combat. In addition, owning the stunts, side missions and unlockables will keep you busy for quite a while.

OVERALL SCORE- 90/100