InFamous (PS3) Review

Posted by Armando Rodriguez on 06.17.2009

Sucker Punch delivers a fantastic, must-have game that can be favorably compared to God of War and Uncharted as leading PS3 franchises.



Game Title: InFamous
Published by Sony Computer Entertainment
Developed by Sucker Punch
Genre: Third-Person Action/Adventure
Number of Players: 1
Rated T for Teen


After playing Sony and Sucker Punch’s new game, InFamous, I have learned a valuable lesson: Don’t rely on trailers to make a game buying decision. Seriously, I downloaded and watched every single trailer and gameplay footage available for this game and I was not impressed. I felt there was nothing mind-blowing shown that would make it a better than average game. However, I had already pre-ordered it and I am glad I did because InFamous is the best PS3 game I have played this year so far.


Gameplay:

In the game you play as Cole, a young man who apparently works as a delivery man for some FedEx-esque company. He is tasked with delivering a package somewhere, but it blows up on his face, causing a massive disaster and somehow giving Cole electric super powers. The city is locked up in quarantine, with the government practically abandoning the citizens as crime rates sky rocket. To make things worse, Cole is blamed for the whole incident and labeled a “terrorist”. It is up to you to determine whether you want to save the city, or destroy what remains.

The narrative is extremely well done and I found all the main characters to be well developed. Three factions are fighting for control of what remains of the city: The Reapers, a collection of bad guys apparently dominated by a mind-controlling agent, The Transients, a collection of former homeless men who have come to power under a psychic conduit named Alden and The First Sons, led by a mysterious man named Kessler, who apparently is responsible for the detonation of The Ray Sphere, the item that caused the disaster and gave Cole superpowers. Cole is enlisted by an FBI agent named Moya, who wants Cole to find her husband John and find the ray sphere. In exchange for his services, Moya guarantees that Cole and his friends will be able to leave the quarantine.



That is basically a summary (without many spoilers) of why things are the way they are in Empire City and why Cole gained super powers. After that you carve your own story based on the choices you make to be good or evil. Contrary to many games that give you this choice, you do feel really evil when you take that path. Yes, sometimes you are forced to do good things, but Cole always has a personal, selfish motive to do them, instead of doing them to simply move the game along. You are frequently given the choice of a good or evil action during the main story missions (and quite a few side missions as well) and by taking one or the other you move your karma to either, the good or evil side. Being good or evil is more than a cosmetic choice: Good and Evil have specific powers and attributes and even those powers that are shared between the two karmas tend to be different depending on your choice. Most goodly powers are focused on defense and protection, while the evil powers are more powerful and destructive. As such, the game tends to be easier as Evil Cole since you don’t need to worry about causing collateral damage and hurting your karma. The city also reacts to your decision: become a hero and watch people clap for you when you do something good, cheer you on and even take pictures of you. Be evil and see the inhabitants curse you on sight and even organize mobs to try to take you down. They will throw stones at you and even knock you off buildings.

As for the powers themselves, they are pretty cool to use and fit the typical “third-person action/shooter” mold. The basic bolt attack works like your prototypical gun, for example. You also have powers that basically work as grenades and rocket launcher (Megawatt Hammer). Cole also gains the ability to hover in the air, grind on train tracks and power lines, project a polarity wall to protect himself and dive bomb from high places to cause massive damage. However, the power that I found the coolest to use (and is also the last power you get) is the Thunder Storm. It looks amazing, causes insane damage and can be controlled by twisting the controller right or left to alter its direction. Although some powers are more useful than others, all of them felt really cool to use and can be combined for more damaging results. Most of the traveling is done across the rooftops and luckily Cole can grab to any ledge or window and pull himself up. The game has a magnetic feel in a sense, it is very difficult to miss any ledge you where aiming for. Some people feel this is way too much babysitting, but I like it because it makes improbable runs across rooftops really fun and makes you feel all the more powerful. Earning XP is important since you use it to level up your powers. You gain XP by beating missions, killing enemies, finding shards (more on those in a bit) and a few other tasks.



Due to the open world nature, you can expect a wide variety of side missions for you to accomplish. Doing them not only nets XP, but also “liberates” parts of the city, making the appearance of enemies in those areas far less frequent. Most side missions are really fun (such as the “Satellite Uplinks” that works like a checkpoint race) but there are a couple of duds in there. The worst offender involves climbing a specific building and destroying surveillance cameras placed there by the bad guys. Why would the gangs that can kill anyone they want resort to cameras is beyond me, but it is quite boring since you need to climb the same building from different sides to knock out a dozen cameras or so. Other missions are variants of escort missions and “kill every bad guy that moves” scenarios, but they remain fun. Quite a few side missions are “Good” specific or “Bad” specific, which at least gives some variety to the proceedings on the eventual second playthrough.

Besides the missions, there is also 3 other side quests that you can partake in. One involves finding all the “Dead Drops” across the 3 districts. These are audio tapes left by John and if you really want to understand the entire plot I encourage you to find them all, as they give tremendous insight into Kessler, The First Sons and The Ray Sphere. The second quest involves finding all the Shards, pieces of supercharged rock left by the Ray Sphere. There are over 300 of them and after certain amounts you get an extension to your power bar. These tasks might seem daunting, but luckily Cole has a special power that works like a pulse radar and allows you to track them on the mini-map. Shards appear as dark blue dots, while the direction of the next dead drop is marked by an intermittent white line that appears over the mini-map. I really loved this concept and I encourage game developers to include this type of help whenever they plan to include “hidden” stuff for you to collect in games. It makes the necessity to buy strategy guides secondary. The third side quests involves performing a series of stunts, usually combining two powers together, such as sticking an enemy with a grenade and then use the shockwave to push him away before it blows. Performing stunts nets extra XP, which is always good and there is a trophy for performing them all at least once.

Enemy variety is an issue, since in spite of having three different factions to fight against (four if you include the cops during Evil Cole missions) they behave mostly the same. Outside of the conduits, the generic enemies fit the same archetypes, from quick to slow and powerful. They carry anything from guns to rocket launchers and the AI is pretty decent at organizing ambushes and looking for cover. However, the game can be difficult not because the enemies are particularly smart, but because they have the number advantage (sometimes overwhelmingly so) and superhuman targeting capabilities. However, it never gets impossible to beat and you always feel like Cole is more than capable of handling the situation with a little strategic thinking. Boss fights are also pretty difficult, but bosses always have a pattern you can memorize and once you do they become quite easy. Contrary to God of War, Heavenly Sword and other SCEA games, there are very few QTE’s (Quick Time Events) and this makes for a seamless experience.



Before I close out the gameplay part of the review, I want to state that on at least 3 occasions the game froze and I had to turn my system off in order to get it working again. Only 3 times in 40 or so hours of play, but it does happen. With how big the game world is and the “go anywhere nature” of having super powers glitches are bound to happen, but thankfully they are very infrequent to the point of being almost non-existent.

Graphics:

The graphics are very well done. It is unfair to compare this game to games like Call of Duty or Kill Zone 2 that have smaller gameworlds and feature a lot of preset content, so we should compare InFamous to other open world titles like Grand Theft Auto IV. In that regard, they hold up well. Cole looks great whether he is good or bad, with Evil Cole having certain similarities to the Sith from Star Wars and Good Cole looking a LOT like Hancock. The particle effects and explosions for your super powers are amazing and animations are great as well. Pop-up is minimal, which helps to immerse you in the action. Also there is no discernible slowdown during chaotic fights, even with dozens of enemies firing at once and a gamma of super powers being unleashed. There are a few issues, but they are rare. For example, I found one dead enemy whose head had apparently gone through a wall once. Also like I stated during my closing comments of the gameplay section, the game crashed on me 3 times, forcing me to power off my system and turn it on again. However, I spent around 40-45 hours playing to beat the game with both, Evil and Good Cole, so it is very rare.



But my biggest complaint is the horrible climbing animations. Ok, let me be fair: they are not bad. But when you compare them to the fantastic and realistic animations Altair had on Assassin’s Creed, they pale in comparison. They look a bit jumpy and unrealistic and hurt what is otherwise a fantastic and immersive graphical presentation.

Sound:

Everything from explosions to the crackling sound of lightning sound great. The voices also fit their characters well, with Cole, John and Kessler being standouts. Zeke tends to get annoying, but I guess that’s the point. The music also makes you feel like you are inside a superhero movie. My only gripe is that the random civilians on the street sound the same and tend to repeat their comments often.

Lasting Appeal:

If you plan on beating the game and complete all the side missions it will take you somewhere between 25-30 hours on one playthrough. If you skip side missions and the collection of shards and stuff, you could do it in 15 hours. Take into consideration that you need to beat the game twice (once as Good Cole and once as Evil Cole) to get the whole scope of the story and the story related trophies and you have a game that will last you a long time. With around 300 shards to collect, 32 or so dead drops, 21 or so stunts and a list of trophies that include such things as “Heal 250 civilians”, “Bio-Leech 100 enemies” and “Finish the game on hard without changing the difficulty” and you are in for a long ride if you want to get that platinum. Sadly there is no multiplayer in the game, but the single player experience is good enough to hold your attention.



Fun Factor:

InFamous is a ton of fun. The powers are fun to use, the storyline is engaging and the game remains challenging from start to finish. The more powers you get, the more inventive ways to dispose of enemies you have at your fingertips. The city itself is really fun to explore and sometimes you will find yourself doing nothing but running across the rooftops to see how long you can go without falling.

:The 411:

InFamous is one of the best games you are going to play on your PS3 this year. The storyline is great, the gameplay is fantastic and the powers are just amazing. Once again SCEA delivers a game that is fun, long-lasting, rewarding, well polished and with all the qualities of a marquee game. We are definitively witnessing the arrival of a new franchise that can be mentioned in the same sentence as God of War and Uncharted as must-play Sony franchises and another good reason to get a PS3.

Graphics	8.8	Outside of the climbing animations, everything else is fantastic. Character models are well done, animations are good for the most part and the city feels alive.
Gameplay	9.5	The powers are extremely fun to use and combine, the action moves at a good pace and the controls are easy to learn.
Sound	9.0	The music makes you feel like you are inside a super hero movie. The sound effects are top-notch and the voicework is great for the most part.
Lasting Appeal	9.5	The game has two differents paths for you to play as and it takes about 20 hours each. Plenty of side missions and trophies will keep you playing for a long time.
Fun Factor	9.5	InFamous is one of the best PS3 games so far this year. The game is fun from start to finish and the open world nature lets you work towards your goals at your own pace.
Overall	9.3   [  Amazing ]

Screenshots
All 9 inFamous Screenshots