inFAMOUS
9.2
10
416
417
You should be proud to own this game...
The open-world genre has seen many fantastic titles, but none have quite the power and playability of Sucker Punch’s Infamous. It has great gameplay, excellent storytelling, and satisfying combat.
If you’re into PS3 exclusives, chances are you’ll know something about Infamous. If not, let me enlighten you: Infamous is a third-person open-world game by Sucker Punch. You play as Cole, a regular messenger who’s been gifted with electrical superpowers.
The storyline in Infamous is one of its main assets. It all begins with Cole, a citizen of Empire City, who is delivered a mysterious package. Once he opens that package, a huge explosion destroys a massive portion of Empire City, setting off a cataclysmic chain of events.
When Cole wakes up, he’s in the middle of a massive crater. How he’s alive, he doesn’t know, but he’s out to find answers. He later learns that Empire City has gone to Hades, and violent gangs have taken advantage of the destruction to seize control of Empire City’s three districts: the Neon District, the Historic District, and The Warren. More importantly (to us, at least), Cole has gained electrical superpowers that escalate his abilities beyond that of a normal human. He can now survive any fall, blast baddies (or citizens) with electricity, and do parkour like it’s nobody’s business.
The storyline takes off from there, introducing us to some very deep characters and giving us a reason to care about them. As you continue playing Infamous, it is impossible not to become emotionally attached to the story at some point. For me, it was when I had to make a very hard decision (I won’t spoil it for you, but those who’ve completed Infamous know what I mean). Another reason to become attached to the game is Cole himself. He doesn’t have many friends to start with, but as the story progresses, he loses almost all of his friends, and becomes increasingly lonely in his hunt for Kessler. This loneliness deepens after the very hard decision you have to make in the Historic District (again, I WON’T spoil anything, but trust me, you want to play this game to find out), and you find yourself empathizing with Cole on a regular basis. His story becomes more and more tragic later in the game, and you’re always there to see Cole’s tortured soul endure hardship after hardship. It is truly a humbling experience, and an inspiring one, due to the fact that Cole stays emotionally and physically strong throughout this ordeal. The story takes many twists and turns, and plot twists happen on a regular basis, but they’re not so abrupt that you feel like the story’s going to change every 5 minutes. The end will be guaranteed to blow your mind, however. ;)
The most important and interesting character in this story is Cole himself. How does he react to the destruction of the city? What does he think he should do? These are all questions that you yourself must answer. You are in charge of Cole, and you must shape his character, reputation, and ultimately, destiny. How you act and what you do matters in this game, and the repercussions of your actions will matter in the long run. Will you be a man of the people and prove yourself as Empire City’s guardian? Or will you live only to destroy, satisfying your own selfish desires? This is entirely up to you.
Now, let’s get down to the actual gameplay. Cole’s movement and aiming controls work smoothly. These controls really come to life during parkour and climbing sequences, and trust me; there will be a lot of them.
See, Cole was a bit of an urban ninja before the blast, and he’s got some pretty mad parkour skills. These are escalated and elevated after his strange rise to the status of superhero. Like I said, Cole can now survive any fall (and I mean ANY fall), climb up the side of buildings with ease, tightrope-walk across electrical wires, and generally traverse the city with ease. Cole’s climbing and parkour controls work very well, and he’s able to grab on to most every surface where’s there’s a handhold. Cole can climb straight up pipes, ladders, telephone poles, and much more. This makes climbing both fun and practical, and trust me, it’ll get even better as you get more into the game.
There’s a lot to talk about in terms of gameplay, but Cole’s powers cannot be missed. Cole’s basic abilities are a simple shocker bolt, a shockwave-type blast of electricity, and the ability to drain electricity from anything powered by it. Cole’s powers remain basic as you get used to the shooting and basic combat controls, but it’s when you unlock more powers that things get really interesting. Cole’s full arsenal includes shock grenades, precision/sniper bolts, lightning storm, electrical rockets, the ability to fly, the Gigiwatt Blades, a polarity shield, and a few karma-specific powers. His touch-based abilities include the ability to heal a citizen, restrain a person, or leech the electricity out of anyone. These powers give you new and increasingly satisfying ways to dispatch your enemies. The enemies get increasingly harder to exterminate, and you’ll need to use every tactic in your arsenal in order to win.
Empire City itself is a city that’s been brought to its knees. You constantly hear the cries from people in the street; how they were only supposed to be here one day, or about how they can’t find their parents. The people of Empire City don’t play a huge role in the story, but they do affect your reputation. How you treat them and the city in general reflects onto your reputation. A meter in the upper left-hand corner models your reputation, ranging from the saintly Guardian and Hero to the despicably evil Outlaw and Infamous.
Who you choose to be affects how the people of Empire City treat you. If you set yourself up as their savior, they’ll treat you like a hero, applauding you after a skirmish with gangsters, taking pictures of you as you fly between missions, and generally treating you as their personal god. If you care not for the lives of Empire City’s citizens, terrorizing them and living for your own selfish desires, they’ll despise you, their contempt growing as your reputation does. They will flee from your presence or throw rocks at you, depending on the situation.
Picking a side of the karma meter has its advantages and disadvantages. For instance, a hero can count on the citizens of Empire City to assist him when they can. They’ll throw rocks at your enemies, kick them while they’re down, and generally assist with the one-man war effort. However, ignoring the people of Empire City to fulfill a quest or get some extra xp will result in a drop in your reputation. Thus, you have a responsibility to Empire City, and it is truly a double-edged sword. If you’re Infamous, however, the people will not help you. They’ll either cower in alleys, run from you, or throw rocks at you. You may not have the public support of the people, but you care only about yourself, not the people of Empire city.
Your karma meter can be affected by both small and large-scale actions. For example, bio leeching citizens and enemies will bring your reputation down slightly, and healing citizens will bring it up slightly. These small actions still affect your karma meter, but not as much as the bigger actions. The story missions and the side missions present you with many different opportunities to choose your karmaic path, usually in a decision to do good or evil. Your choices are usually pretty clear, and the game doesn’t make it hard to decide in most cases.
The graphical department is where Infamous sinks to average. The visuals are by no means ugly; the graphical detail in the characters is top notch, and the environments are well-designed. This is an open-word game, however, and it’s when you look at the details that Infamous falls a bit short in the graphics department. Empire City itself has some visual rough edges that seem almost painted on, although this is hard to notice when you take in the city as a whole. Up-close, though, you sort of wish that the devs had taken more time to remodel the rough edges of a city. Again, however, this is an open-word game, and the massive expanse of the city more than makes up for the graphical rough edges.
One other thing to note about the graphics is the cutscenes. These are presented in a comic-book style, and tremendously add to the elements of the game’s story: the despair of Empire City’s people, Cole’s loneliness, and the nature of the characters themselves. These graphic-novel cutscenes are a great addition to Infamous. One small gripe I have, though, is that the cutscenes are so story-driven and deep that they seem a bit detached from the sometimes comical dialogue. This is a very small gripe, however, keep in mind.
The final verdict? Infamous is one of the best reasons to own a PS3. It’s a fun, expansive, and story-driven affair, and any PS3 owner can be proud to say that they own the best open-world superhero game of all time. Infamous gets a final score of 9.7/10. Thanks for reading my review; I hope it was helpful!
2/10/12
A unique but fun game
when i first started playing the game i was like wow but as i started to play it more i got really addicted this is a really good game i can't stop playing it.
11/29/10
Start to my favorite series of all time
I must say, InFamous series is by far my favorite series of all time. Now the cool thing about this is, You can play as good, or evil, all your desision. I personally think evil is more fun because you can destroy anyone or anything you see and become more evil, if you are good, it is hard because if you were to do that, your karma becomes more evil, but it is phenominal, i highly recommend it, and i'm just excited for InFamous: Second Son for the Playstation 4.
3/17/13
BEST GAME I HAVE
BUY THIS GAME I WOULD RECOMEND THIS GAME TO ANY ONE.BUY THIS GAME I LUV THIS GAME I JUST CANT GET OVER HOW GOOD IT IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!;]:):):):)::):):):).....and i like that its not rated M.im not allowed to play M games so this game is a welcomd treat.
1/20/13
Possibly the best game I've ever played
I beat the actual game pretty soon but it was an amazing game. The story was deep and then a killer plot twist. All my friends played it and loved it.
12/27/12
A good game to play over the weekend.
I just want to say a few little things and tips.I have played this one and the second and I liked both,but this one more,The comic scenes top it all off and if You have the second u get some XP and other stuff from the first.Hope this helped. :)
11/20/12
Nice Game!
When the PSN went down for a month PS3 gave this game for free download. I downloaded but ignored it. Once I started playing I coudn't stop. It's addicting. The missions, everything. Buy it you won't be dissapointed.
11/18/12
One of the Best PS3 Exclusives
This game is easily one of the best Superhero games and best PS exclusives of all time, the graphics are amazing, the detail, and appearance of the lightning, the gritty, dark, and awesome open world city. The combat is awesome, it blends third-person shooter elements in with the action/adventure, with plenty of varied attacks. You can explore anywhere in the massive Empire City at any time, as long as you're not in a mission that kills you for going too far away. And the story is freaking brilliant, complex and genius, you play as Cole MacGrath, who dropped out of college to become a bike courier, he got a mysterious package that was actually a kind of bomb, which activated a special gene in some people, the Conduit Gene. Afterwards Empire City was put into quarantine, and Cole kind of starts cleaning up, taking out evil Conduits and the Reapers. So the story is very good, there's more to it than that, but if I gave away too much more it would give away spoilers. My only two very very minor complaints about the game are that the melee combat is basically useless, you can rarely get close enough to hit anyone, and it would be kind of nice if you could fire lightning bolts without being in aim mode, since R1 does nothing unless holding L1. But this is a truly amazing game, one of the greatest of all time, if you own a PS3, go get this game, or wait for the inFAMOUS Collection in a few days. Honestly, I think this one is better than the sequel, inFAMOUS 2, it's more gritty/dark, and just plays better.
8/24/12
Infamous is awesome
I love Superhero games...they are just so awesome, this one is the best out of them. This isn't going to be all praise I will mention my major issue with the game, but if you're skimming just know you should get this NOW!
My complaint is the karma trees. It is way easier and far more rewarding gameplay wise to play as the bad guy. The side abilities are way more useful and the fact that it is easier to get bad, just doesn't seem fair to those who like the good campaign story more.
Overall the strengths far outway my one complaint. The story is addicting, gameplay is sweet. And by the end you will be a powerful kick butt dude who is extremely powerful and making you feeling like a god.
I can't wait to get Infamous 2 which promises to be greater than this...
8/23/12
Cool game
I got this from the PS3 free selection after their hacking problem. Seemed kin of dark and depressing at first but as the game moved along I enjoyed it more and more! My friend got the second game and loved it. I only with you could go back to different levels. Once you are done, you can only explore or start over.
7/30/12