Infamous Review

Game: Infamous

Developer: Sucker Punch

Publisher: Sony

Available on: PS3 only

STORY: Infamous tells the story of Cole McGrath, a messenger who while on his way to deliver a package gets caught in the middle of a massive explosion. When he awakens he come to the realisation that he has mysteriously ended up with super powers, which are all electricity based. Anyway the government quarantines the entire city and basically all hell breaks lose. Each of the three boroughs that make up the city have been “taken over” by different gangs and it is down to Cole to bring them down whilst finding out what has happened to him.

The main parts of the story are told via some brilliant comic book style cut-scenes, they are superb and really add a layer of slickness to the proceedings and suck you into the story. The rest of the story is told through the in-game narrative and it is executed really well as it keeps the game flowing without any major interruptions. Infamous is very much a story driven game and what a story it is, fantastic.

GRAPHICS: Visually Infamous isn’t the most stunning of games especially when you compare it to other “open world” games but it is by no means ugly either. The city has the look (and feel) of a place that has been ravaged, the buildings are half destroyed, the streets are dirty and the civilians look scared. There is not a great amount of graphical detail around the world but everything just comes together so well. That said though, there are some really good effects and explosions, especially in terms of the electricity but hey, for a game based around that mechanic, you would expect that! Some minor negatives would include the occasional pop-in and frame-rate drops but that would be just mindless nitpicking.

SOUND: The use of sound throughout the game is very good, nothing really feels out place. The voice overs for all the characters are not the greatest ever but they fit in with the whole comic book/superhero theme of the game. Cole’s voice is rather deep though, we wonder if the voice actor he took his inspiration from Christian Bale’s Batman! The sound effects are also really well done, gotta love the sound of those huge explosions blaring through your 5.1 speakers! Oh and although some might not notice it, there are occasions when background music is played as you roam around the city, it’s quite subtle but certainly adds to the overall tone of the game.

GAMEPLAY: This is an area where Infamous excels, the game is just pure fun. As some you might know you can choose to be a good boy and follow the path of a hero or be naughty and eventually become infamous. Whatever path you choose, most of the missions will be the same but their outcomes will be slightly different as a result of you decisions. Now most of these decisions don’t carry much weight to them but as you progress nearer to the end of the game, one or two of the choices you have to make will certainly make you think a little.  Also depending on what  path you choose to take (hero or infamous), the civilians will react to your presence accordingly. If you have been doing good they will stop to take pictures of you and praise you, which is always nice! However, if you have been evil then they will throw stones at you and call you names as you go past them. It might not sound like much but it’s the little details like this that really add to the overall quality of the game.

As you would expect from an open world game, there are main story missions and side missions. There are some slight variations in the side missions but both mission types will usually see you taking on one of the three gangs who act as the main enemies throughout the game. One thing that must be said about the missions is that they never get repetitive, they never feel laborious or boring. This is mainly due to the combat being so much fun, so many powers to play with (more on that in a bit). Not many “open world ” game manage to achieve this, so this is one area where Infamous must be praised quite highly.

As mentioned before, you take on three gangs throughout the course of the game, each one challenging in their own different way especially if you play on hard. Early on in the game, if you encounter large groups enemies it usually means death. Luckily enough though, checkpoints are laid out pretty well so death is usually just a minor inconvenience. Later on in the game as you get more abilites and become stronger, battling against the enemies just becomes pure fun, still challenging but fun. You start off with a basic electrical “zapping” power but as you progrees through the story you gain more powers. They will range from an electric blast to an electric grenade, which you can actually “stick” enemies with. There is one rather awesome special power you get in the latter half of the game (won’t reveal it what it is, see for yourselves), which makes great use of the sixaxis motion control, you just feel so powerful when you use it. Each of the powers you gain can also be upgraded using XP you earn by doing all the various missions, some of the upgraded powers are really good and extremely useful later on in the game.

Apart from all the missions and upgrading, there is so much more Infamous brings to the table. There is the exploration and the sheer enjoyment you get from just gliding (or zipping) across the wonderful city. Cole can pretty much climb anything that looks climbable, whether that be the tallest buliding or just an ordinary lampost. It is just so much fun jumping, gliding and zipping around on the rooftops, you can literally lose hours just doing this.  There are really only two other games that convery a similar sort of feeling, Crackdown and Assassin’s Creed. Infamous can now join that elite club of games.

LONGEVITY: It should take you about 15-20 hours to complete the main story mode (hero or infamous) once. If you plan on doing all the side missions then add an extra 2-5 hours on top of that. Even after you complete the game there is so much more to do. You can continue to just explore the city or search for collectables such as the shards and dead drops. Oh and don’t forget you can always go through the story mode again to become of the exact opposite of what you ended your first playthrough as, whether that be hero of infamous.

VERDICT: Infamous may not be the most original game ever but what it does is combine a good comic book story with fantastic open world gameplay. This is not just one of the best PS3 games, it’s one of the best games on any current format period.