inFamous did a fantastic job starting out what will hopefully grow into a fantastic series.
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Hey all! Brad here. So with the recent events of the Playstation Network being down, I suspect many of you are happily enjoying your free titles, no? It wasn't a tough decision for me, I knew Infamous would be one of the games I downloaded. It's interesting, before being offered the game for free I had very little interest in it, it certainly wasn't on my list of games to buy as the subject material simply did not catch my attention. However, it was one of the more appealing titles up for grabs and other gamers said it was a good choice....and for free, why not, right?
With the second game in stores already, I knew this would be a great game to go ahead and give a shot, perhaps even share my (late) opinions on the game. After several lengthy download sessions, I finally got to have some time with Infamous. I waited until I had a window of opportunity to get a good chunk of time into the game, because I don't know about you guys, but getting interrupted at the beginning of a game can really hurt it's first impression.
So when I first started out the game? I was hooked. The first thing I noticed was the movement. At first it seems rather clunky, almost as if Cole would respond to my actions a short time after I told him to. However, it took me less than five minutes to understand the movement characteristics and soon I was moving about in a very smooth manner. The next most obvious thing was the graphics. I know I know, graphics aren't everything, but how can one deny their impact on a first impression? The game looks GREAT, to be blunt. It has surprisingly detailed textures, environments that have some fantastic attention to detail as well and some pretty cool lighting to boot! Couple that with the fluidly animated (and varied) movements of Cole and you've got the core basics of a game that is just begging to be explored further.
With the controls and presentation being a big hit, I was eager to continue on.....so I did, playing for almost two hours in one sitting. The end result? Lets just say I hated the moment I had to give in to other activities. Surely that is the sign of a good game right? Well, yes and no. Obviously a first impression is just that, a first impression(Would playing through the game in one sitting nullify that? Ha ha). So therefore it cannot last the entire game, can it? Unfortunately, that isn't the case with Infamous here, though there is a very valiant effort in place.
One of the things that reinforced my initial reactions to the game was the variety of the story missions. Near the start of the game for example, you track someone down, go underground to reroute power and of course fight enemies while the game explains the controls little by little. The game has very mixed pacing, sometimes it can be full of different tasks and twists in the story, other times it can have you doing something you swore you did before....and didn't find it any more fun the first time.
The game does something that I admire, however, and that is having an almost mandatory pace setter. After most large plot points, you get to go underground and reroute power. This allows a large current to coarse through Cole, thus granting him new powers. While the missions between these power gaining events may often lack the spice you are first introduced with, you can rest in the fact that you'll be getting an addition to the gameplay if you can just tough it out! Now I understand that not all missions will captivate my attention equally, but there are several that I have run into that require you to destroy the same targets who are scattered around the city.
These are the best example of the slow missions, as it seems my time is just being wasted to artificially extend the play time. I found I lacked the patience to fully enjoy those missions, despite them tying into the story very well. Perhaps that is just a flaw in myself, hmm? Despite these missions, the game has a large amount of other missions that are not so bland and have managed to leave me optimistic even during the slow times. The twists in the story also help out through the dull points, as I found myself actually caring about what happened next.
While Cole is probably in a situation far beyond one any of the players will ever encounter, he is surprisingly easy to relate to. The game does a great job letting the characters evolve, so much so that at the end of the game I felt genuinely saddened about what was going on with Mr. Cole. The pacing of this is also done in a great manner. Since there is really no concrete way to ensure character development in such a form of media for me to base my observations off of, I will say that Sucker Punch didn't overdo anything, and it works in their favor greatly. The characters are simply introduced and through conversations and missions you get to know them. There are also cutscenes that dive into them a little more, but overall nothing seems forced or tacked on and it all flows together nicely. I really appreciated this, though I admit I was surprised it worked so well.
Infamous tries to do a sort of moral choice system as well, for the most part it works well, you can be either good or evil (Or in between, but you don't get many benefits that way) and depending on your choice, you can upgrade your powers accordingly. The upgrades and good/evil system are well implemented, but some of the moral choice sections in the game are rather lacking. It was pretty clear most of the choices are put there only to help the player make progress toward the side they choose, as a lot of them are rather unimportant choices. I felt this was a missed opportunity, they had the system implemented and working well, but they didn't make it interesting!
Infamous has a lot of little details and touches that really allow the game to shine, which I don't often notice in a lot of games. For example, late in the game you are granted the power to summon lightning storms. The power is very fun to use and quite the sight to behold(Thanks to the spectacular visual effects). Right away the game sets a mission before you that pretty much requires you to use that power....over and over again, all the while supplying you with all the electricity you need! (Using Cole's powers depletes his energy, which he does not have an unlimited supply of. You need to leech power from basically anything electrical to replenish this supply.)
Sidenote: For those of you interested about SixAxis functionality, the lightning storm ability can be controlled via turning the controller. It works moderately well, but the storm reacts somewhat slowly, which threw off my control most of the time as the slow reaction time would in turn make me try to go in that direction even more.
The game is rather lengthy too, which is a nice surprise... for those of you looking for things to do, Infamous has side missions in addition to the story missions. These side missions help you take over territories, and enemies will not spawn in those areas once completed. Being an open world game, would anyone be surprised that there are collectibles? There are blast shards you can collect, which increase the amount of power Cole can have stored inside his body, as well as 'Dead Drops' as the game calls them, which are recordings that give further depth into the events going on in the game. Neither of the collectibles are enticing enough to get me to look for them, although I must admit collecting the shards can come in very useful.
Another thing that adds replay value to the game is the good and evil system I mentioned. Some of the side missions require you to be evil, while others require you to be on everyone's good side. This will allow (or force, depending on how you look at it) you to take advantage of both sides of the moral spectrum in order to complete everything the game has to offer.
Overall, I had a great time with Infamous. Constantly gaining new powers is a blast (often times literally), the story is very engaging and the gameplay is top-notch. Couple that with a decent length campaign and the ability to do things afterward (like go for some Trophies I missed!) is a welcome feature. Sucker Punch did a great job with Infamous and I anticipate the day I get my hands on Infamous 2.
For those of you concerned with numbers, I would give Infamous an 8.7/10. A great game, while certainly not flawless, did it's job of entertaining very well.