A fantastic game that is held back from perfection by some glitches and sometimes repetitive enemy encounters.
Empire City is the urban sprawl in which the story of inFamous takes place. It is divided into three districts (the Neon District, The Warren and the Historic District), each of which has its own unique mood and character. For instance, while the Neon District is filled with bright lights, people and some degree of happiness, The Warren is the slums, filled with despair and rundown structures. These factors greatly enhance the effect of the well-written plot on the player, and provide interesting context for many of the side missions that Cole (the protagonist) must carry out. Also, when these missions are completed certain areas of each district are "claimed" or freed from enemies. This gives the player more freedom to explore the incredibly detailed world that is Empire City.
The artistic direction of the game is also worth noting. Each "cutscene" is drawn in the style of a graphic novel, and that same style is also reflected in other aspects of the game. For instance, when Cole runs low on health, blood splotches begin to appear on the edges of the screen, drawn as they would be in a comic or graphic novel. The personalities of many of the characters, particularly Cole and his best friend Zeke, also exude a comic book ambiance.
As the player progresses through Cole's story, they are able to see his changes in attitude towards the other people trapped in the city with him, and how those people end up reacting to him. The story never becomes repetitive, and continuously provides enough detail and instruction that the player never truly feels lost. This has the added effect of making the player want to continue through the main missions in order to see the direction that the story is taking, adding to an already addictive gameplay system.
Of all of the other features in inFamous, the most well-developed, important and immersive is the gameplay. The player is able to customize Cole à la RPG by upgrading his powers through something of a skill tree. As the game progresses, more of Cole's powers are unlocked, allowing the player more variety and thus a style of play which greater reflects their interests. None of the powers are particularly difficult to use, and are mapped intuitively to the PS3 controller such that the player is easily able to access them. The movement aspect is also fluid, as Cole is an expert in parkour, otherwise known as free-running. Although it may sometimes be difficult to manoeuvre, it is normally easy and satisfying to scale skyscrapers and leap across rooftops.
The only things holding inFamous back from perfection are minor, rare glitches that go relatively unnoticed over the course of the game. Otherwise, Sucker Punch has developed a masterpiece of platforming and combat that puts many other action-adventure games of this generation to shame.