When it comes to creating a new IP for a console, things can get messy. Things can be even trickier when you're given the task to make a new series for one specific console. It certainly isn't easy, but I'm happy to report that inFamous on the PS3 shines brightly. It stands out as an unmissable adventure that allows you to take whatever path you want, either good or bad.
The plot of the game is an interesting one. You're a man named Cole, who is an average guy working as a bike messenger. One day he is told to deliver a package to the historic district of Empire city. When he arrives at his destination, the package explodes and leaves the entire city in a crumbling mess. After Cole wakes up from the ordeal, he attempts to get to safety, but as he gets going he discovers that he has the power to use electricity. After you reunite with your girlfriend and your best friend your journey to find out what happened begins. The main selling point of this game is the karma system. Whenever you're playing, you can perform good or bad actions depending on how you want to play. For example, if you want to act like a hero, you would protect others before yourself. Instead of letting people starve, you would give them food. Or maybe you would take damage from something to make sure nobody else got hurt.
As the tagline reads, however, being a hero is optional. You're given many opportunities to perform evil deeds. You can leech off of fallen enemies, fight alongside a gang, leave civilians for dead and so much more. Nothing is stopping you from letting you play how you want to play, which is a massive positive in my opinion. The game world takes place in the aforementioned Empire city, which is split up into three islands. In a similar essence to Grand Theft Auto, only one island is unlocked from the start, so you'll need to progress through the story in order to fully unlock the city. There are quite a few things to do in the game as well. You can complete story missions which are self explanatory. Sometimes people will have jobs on offer. Before you start a job, you'll know if it's a good or evil one judging by the colour of the way point (blue is good and red is evil). Most of the time quests can be completed by either side.
Quests range from collecting supplies that have been stolen by enemies, chasing down a truck and destroying it. defusing bombs, finding hidden packages, getting rid of hidden security cameras on buildings and many more. Expect to see a lot of variety. You can also complete side missions, but they aren't really different from the errands that you get from pedestrians. While traversing the over world, you'll eventually notice glowing pieces of debris scattered around the city. These are called blast shards, and if you collect enough of them they will grant you a new power core. If you get more power cores, you'll be able to store more electricity for later use. Early on in the game, getting more power cores is essential, because you start out with only a few electricity slots. As you attack enemies with your electrical powers, you'll notice that your power cores start to drain. Once you're low on juice, you'll need to recharge by draining electricity from power sources such as junction boxes, cars, etc.
While this mechanic is clever, it can become a royal pain because as you progress, you'll earn better powers. Unfortunately the best powers use the most electricity, so you'll be constantly running away to recharge, and this can ruin the pace of the game. Also, the enemies that you'll be fighting are very strong, especially early on in the game. This can result in many deaths, even if you have some of the better attacks. In each island, there is a different faction, and they get harder as the game goes on, so be prepared to put up a fight against each one. Graphically the game doesn't look too good. The game adopts a comic book style overlay, which sounds decent enough on paper but in reality it looks washed out. To be fair things aren't exactly going to be colourful since the entire city is in peril, but textures look blurry up close and the environments lack polish.
Fortunately the game controls almost perfectly. The controls are similar to any other third person shooter. Moving, shooting, taking cover and performing attacks feel amazing. There's never any delay with any of the inputs, Cole is a nimble character which allows you to move around at a rapid pace, there are more than a few attacks to pull off and it's a shame that other games don't control this well. Sure, the aiming might feel slightly dated if you're used to the super smooth aiming of today's standards, but once you mess around with it for a few minutes you'll get to grips with it soon enough. The game play itself is excellent like I mentioned earlier, but there are many glitches that try their best to ruin the fun. Not only can Cole shoot electricity from his finger tips, but he can apparently phase through solid walls and objects like a ghost on occasion. Don't be surprised if you fall through the floor and into a dark abyss either, because it won't just happen once. I could go on, but there's not much point because no matter how serious the glitch is, it cannot and will not spoil such a quality game.
InFamous is a spectacular adventure. Almost everything you want in a game is present here in some shape or form. While it does come with some niggling issues and frustrating moments such as having to deal with enemies that can turn AK-47s into sniper rifles and having to glitch your way though certain sections, it's still a stellar example of a game. This game was worth picking up back in 2009 and it's still worth picking up today, so if you don't own it yet, go and buy it right now.