When it comes to inFamous, a certain question pops up in everyone’s mind. Just how fun can lightning be as a “Super Power”? And it’s a genuine question really. I mean, how much can one really do with only lightning powers at his disposal in a huge city? These questions also popped into my head when I first heard about this game. All the previews and hands on impressions I read were full of praises and admiration for how smooth and fun the game was. I’m pretty used to observing overhyped games from the press and I was skeptical about inFamous before I got it. In all honesty, the only thing that pushed me into buying it was the included beta keys for Uncharted2. I now realize that it was one of the best purchases I've made this year.
Yeah, inFamous is a great game. Provides a lot of fun and is quite addictive. There’s always something to do in the richly detailed city with incredible attention to building construction, ensuring that platforming is always intriguing no matter what you’re after. Be it a blast shard that you need to collect to make you more powerful, a dead drop to recover that completionists will for the trophies or just scaling for a better vantage point to attack your enemies: What makes inFamous a blast to play is the platforming at its core gameplay. That’s not to say the fighting mechanics and powers aren’t cool. I’m actually amazed by the creative thinking of Sucker Punch, thinking of so many different and intuitive uses of lightning powers. Unlocking them and upgrading your powers is pretty addictive and considering how the game gets harder as you progress, all those powers are quite essential.
Despite of being a “Super” hero, Cole isn’t quite all-powerful. He’s vulnerable. So much so that he’s probably one of the weakest superheroes I’ve come across, just eclipsing Batman I think. Sure, Cole’s the most electrifying man literally but being exposed to water is like being exposed to fire for him. For some reason, conductive liquids kind of short circuit him. Arms get electrocuted and discharge upon contact and cars blow up when he tries to board them. So he’s without weapons and without transport and has to use his powers ingeniously to overcome these shortages. And doesn’t he do just that? The lack of guns was probably never felt as there was some kind of equivalent lightning attack for a gun like normal pistols, snipers, rockets and even grenades! There are some slow mo attacks that elevates the enemies that can then be killed in mid air while you’re gliding on a rope and all this is rather easy to pull off. And extremely satisfying. It's kind of like a mini juggling and combo system and you're appropriately rewarded with XP too. But Cole’s enemies are no dopes and he himself is quite vulnerable to bullets. Since the reapers, the dustmen and the new sons, that make up the “bad” guys of empire city, are armed to teeth with all kinds of weaponry, the fights are almost always even and you really have to use the environment to your advantage to complete an objective. A straight head on attack into fortified areas means certain death for Cole.
Talking about “Bad guys” and “Good Guys”, the game is really keen on addressing moral values associated with the characters. You guys probably know about the Karma system that the game uses that credits or debits based on your good or evil actions and even affects what kind of powers you get to develop. Precise controlled executions or devastated multi-chain attacks – gets decided on how careful you are about civilian lives. And that’s not it. The game doesn’t stop the reward or penalties on small actions but in fact there are numerous “Karma moments” that occur on the course of missions. Most of these only affect how Cole’s character is developed but a few of these affect how the plot unfolds and what fates are brought to which characters under which circumstances. The game’s plot design is nothing short of genious and the explanations given for any action, whether good or evil, that Cole takes is quite satisfactory. The plot progression, alongwith addictive stat building and platforming, is an important factor in hooking a person to the game till he’s done it all and seen it through. The plot really picks up near the end and some of the Karma choices presented are mind blowing. Let’s say that by the time you’re done with inFamous, you have just about made enough choices that Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker has made in their respective recent couple of movies. Cole’s character is pretty intriguing and his low pitched grave tone is the closest to Solid Snake that you’re gonna hear. He’s got a lot of attitude and just enough electrcity to fuel it . Though all these aspects hold their classs during the comic-esque plot narrations, it kinda feels odd when they’re shown talking in realtime. The jaws open and close like dolls made by 7 year old girls and considering how brilliant the voice acting is, it’s a shame it isn’t accompanied by just as much class in the realtime cutscenes. Either they should strictly stick to the animated comics style or do it properly, like GTA. The only gameplay quirk comes in the form of falling down. Yeah, you read that right. The most difficult thing in this game is to actually fall down to a lower level ledge. Thing is, when Cole’s falling, there’s an auto-detection system that directs him to the nearest safest plane. That’s all fine when you’re falling on targeting a single power cable but navigating down a complex grid structure becomes a painful experience.
The visuals were solid. The game has great textures and maps on the buildings and the lightning is pretty well done. Draw distance is good enough and pop in is hardly an issue. Technically, it’s a great game with considerable variety in environment and special effects. Not only just visuals, but the detail that has gone into designing NPC movements and behaviors. If you’re good, they’ll cheer you, gather around you and take your photographs. Hang posters of you and even try to help you in your fights by throwing stones at your opponents. It was amazing to see how the depressed city and its inhabitants were projected. I mean, I was once walking down an alley and a man came in, opened a dumpster and tried to look for food. How often will you see someone fall down on their knees and cry of anguish. How they’ll come running to you pleading that Cole, please help him, you’re the only one who can save him and the satisfaction you gain by reviving that unknown helpless person isn’t quite well reflected by the +1 XP you gain. On the contrary if you’re evil, you’ll be despised and cursed and stones will be thrown at you instead. Point is, it was really great to see such level of detail being put into relatively smaller things and how much impact these can have on the experience.
Bottom line is, if you got a PS3 then inFamous is a must have experience. It’s a stellar title and defines how a high speed platforming heavy open world linear game should be.Yes, it’s open world but has a degree of linearity in its progression. I like how there are inter-misison check points and that you don’t have to replay the WHOLE mission in case you die and I think GTA should look into this as well. Sure it had its share of issues but overall, I had a lot of fun with inFamous.
Graphics: 8.5
Presentation: 9.0
Gameplay: 9.0
Overall: 9.0
(Green)
Yeah, inFamous is a great game. Provides a lot of fun and is quite addictive. There’s always something to do in the richly detailed city with incredible attention to building construction, ensuring that platforming is always intriguing no matter what you’re after. Be it a blast shard that you need to collect to make you more powerful, a dead drop to recover that completionists will for the trophies or just scaling for a better vantage point to attack your enemies: What makes inFamous a blast to play is the platforming at its core gameplay. That’s not to say the fighting mechanics and powers aren’t cool. I’m actually amazed by the creative thinking of Sucker Punch, thinking of so many different and intuitive uses of lightning powers. Unlocking them and upgrading your powers is pretty addictive and considering how the game gets harder as you progress, all those powers are quite essential.
Despite of being a “Super” hero, Cole isn’t quite all-powerful. He’s vulnerable. So much so that he’s probably one of the weakest superheroes I’ve come across, just eclipsing Batman I think. Sure, Cole’s the most electrifying man literally but being exposed to water is like being exposed to fire for him. For some reason, conductive liquids kind of short circuit him. Arms get electrocuted and discharge upon contact and cars blow up when he tries to board them. So he’s without weapons and without transport and has to use his powers ingeniously to overcome these shortages. And doesn’t he do just that? The lack of guns was probably never felt as there was some kind of equivalent lightning attack for a gun like normal pistols, snipers, rockets and even grenades! There are some slow mo attacks that elevates the enemies that can then be killed in mid air while you’re gliding on a rope and all this is rather easy to pull off. And extremely satisfying. It's kind of like a mini juggling and combo system and you're appropriately rewarded with XP too. But Cole’s enemies are no dopes and he himself is quite vulnerable to bullets. Since the reapers, the dustmen and the new sons, that make up the “bad” guys of empire city, are armed to teeth with all kinds of weaponry, the fights are almost always even and you really have to use the environment to your advantage to complete an objective. A straight head on attack into fortified areas means certain death for Cole.
Talking about “Bad guys” and “Good Guys”, the game is really keen on addressing moral values associated with the characters. You guys probably know about the Karma system that the game uses that credits or debits based on your good or evil actions and even affects what kind of powers you get to develop. Precise controlled executions or devastated multi-chain attacks – gets decided on how careful you are about civilian lives. And that’s not it. The game doesn’t stop the reward or penalties on small actions but in fact there are numerous “Karma moments” that occur on the course of missions. Most of these only affect how Cole’s character is developed but a few of these affect how the plot unfolds and what fates are brought to which characters under which circumstances. The game’s plot design is nothing short of genious and the explanations given for any action, whether good or evil, that Cole takes is quite satisfactory. The plot progression, alongwith addictive stat building and platforming, is an important factor in hooking a person to the game till he’s done it all and seen it through. The plot really picks up near the end and some of the Karma choices presented are mind blowing. Let’s say that by the time you’re done with inFamous, you have just about made enough choices that Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker has made in their respective recent couple of movies. Cole’s character is pretty intriguing and his low pitched grave tone is the closest to Solid Snake that you’re gonna hear. He’s got a lot of attitude and just enough electrcity to fuel it . Though all these aspects hold their classs during the comic-esque plot narrations, it kinda feels odd when they’re shown talking in realtime. The jaws open and close like dolls made by 7 year old girls and considering how brilliant the voice acting is, it’s a shame it isn’t accompanied by just as much class in the realtime cutscenes. Either they should strictly stick to the animated comics style or do it properly, like GTA. The only gameplay quirk comes in the form of falling down. Yeah, you read that right. The most difficult thing in this game is to actually fall down to a lower level ledge. Thing is, when Cole’s falling, there’s an auto-detection system that directs him to the nearest safest plane. That’s all fine when you’re falling on targeting a single power cable but navigating down a complex grid structure becomes a painful experience.
The visuals were solid. The game has great textures and maps on the buildings and the lightning is pretty well done. Draw distance is good enough and pop in is hardly an issue. Technically, it’s a great game with considerable variety in environment and special effects. Not only just visuals, but the detail that has gone into designing NPC movements and behaviors. If you’re good, they’ll cheer you, gather around you and take your photographs. Hang posters of you and even try to help you in your fights by throwing stones at your opponents. It was amazing to see how the depressed city and its inhabitants were projected. I mean, I was once walking down an alley and a man came in, opened a dumpster and tried to look for food. How often will you see someone fall down on their knees and cry of anguish. How they’ll come running to you pleading that Cole, please help him, you’re the only one who can save him and the satisfaction you gain by reviving that unknown helpless person isn’t quite well reflected by the +1 XP you gain. On the contrary if you’re evil, you’ll be despised and cursed and stones will be thrown at you instead. Point is, it was really great to see such level of detail being put into relatively smaller things and how much impact these can have on the experience.
Bottom line is, if you got a PS3 then inFamous is a must have experience. It’s a stellar title and defines how a high speed platforming heavy open world linear game should be.Yes, it’s open world but has a degree of linearity in its progression. I like how there are inter-misison check points and that you don’t have to replay the WHOLE mission in case you die and I think GTA should look into this as well. Sure it had its share of issues but overall, I had a lot of fun with inFamous.
Graphics: 8.5
Presentation: 9.0
Gameplay: 9.0
Overall: 9.0
(Green)
