While not without its silly moments, like the greatest comic books, this game is entertaining escapism at its very best.
Cole himself, the closest to the explosion, now has the power to shoot lightning from his hands, the power to heal or kill with his electric surges, and the ability to jump from tall buildings with no fear of getting hurt. Say goodbye to the stomach churning experience of climbing in games like Assassin's Creed II: in InFamous, one of the purest joys of the game is springing from a tall building and hovering down toward the next, zapping enemies as you go. Quick travel is accomplished by the surprisingly exhilarating experiencing of traversing the city on electrical wires and on the rails for the elevated train. As Cole restores power to the city, he gains new powers that range from the more-or-less believable (the random shooting of electrical of currents) to the absurd (such as the lightning manacles that seem like something out of Freakazoid). All of the abilities are useful for different situations--particularly on Hard mode, which everyone should play--and they're quite intuitive, although some might take issue with the fact that essentially your only weapons are your electrical abilities and your fists. A human battery, Cole can run out of power depending on the complexity of the ability he's using, but this is easily remedied by sucking the power out of nearby electrical sources--and there are many, provided the power has been restored.This also has the pleasant effect of healing Cole, which--for once--is a quick healing method in a game that one can actually buy, considering the circumstances. Above all, Cole remains human. A flurry of bullets can kill him as quickly as it can any other person, and his newfound powers have made water his mortal enemy.
Empire City itself looks like Brooklyn scrubbed with a mechanic's oily rag: it's gritty, dark, and even the pleasant spaces have an air of sordid menace about them. On the other hand, it looks like Detroit on a good day. The city is divided into three districts, and once all the bridges have been restored, the entire city is open to Cole. The boys at Sucker Punch easily could have given these three districts "level" designations--rendering the need to return to any of them unnecessary--but for the most part you find yourself returning to each of these districts at different points in the story line. Despite having such promising names as "The Neon District," "The Warren," and "The Historic District," however, each zone looks more or less the same (with notable exceptions), although each has its own particular feel and you never lose a sense of which district you're in. In particular, I was looking forward to the historic district in the hopes of seeing colonial buildings or some such as you would in Boston, but to no avail. The only thing historic about the Historic District and the game in general were the graphics, which seem to be slightly behind the time (although this in no way got in the way of my enjoyment).
This open world contributes magnificently to your interactions with the people of Empire City, who treat you with distrust and occasionally outright animosity straight out of the gate. Your interactions with these people decide whether you will be seen as good or evil, occasionally slowing down time enough for Cole to ask himself what he should do. What you decide pushes you slightly more toward the good or evil side of the game, which in turn affects your powers, peoples' perception of you, and the story line in general. While occasionally hilariously obvious, some of the choices--much as in real life--are not very clear-cut and occasionally have surprising outcomes.
Out of a desire to make these people understand that I'm not that bad of a guy, I went the Hero route and have yet to play Infamous Cole (which, considering the title, is probably what you're supposed to play). As a hero, the reactions of people are surprisingly varied: they cry, they beg you for help in healing a friend, and they cheer you on or ask for your photograph. Cars brake and sometimes honk when you run in front of them. However, they're not always consistent. Once, as an experiment, I blew away a hapless pedestrian into the distance, zapped him, and then started to leech the life out of him before interrupting myself. I then administered the Magical 60,000 Volts of Healing to him and he popped up saying something to the effect of "Wow, thanks, dude! You're my hero!" The little comments people say behind Cole's back can be amusing, too. A fairly common comment is "Whew, what smells?", presumably referring to the tinge in the air around Cole as a result of his electrical powers. Knowing Cole can't possibly take a bath due to his aversion to water, however, I first thought they were referring to Cole's undoubtedly "lovely" aroma or to certain scents he picked up during his frequent vacations in the sewers. Most annoying of all is how the bystanders will gather and point or just go about their business while a battle is going on, which I originally found to be one of the game's most severe flaws as far as realism go. After witnessing people blithely walking by a heated homeless street fight here in downtown Chicago the other day within inches of the combatants, however, I realized that perhaps real people do act like that after all. Sadly.
The story is largely told through beautifully illustrated sequences reminiscent of graphic novels, although a few sequences involve the characters in their normal graphical forms, beginning with a glimpse into the life of Cole and Zeke, Cole's Elvis-wannabe buddy, living atop a building utterly exposed to the elements with few cares in the world. (Knowing Cole's aversion to water, one would think he'd prefer a nice, air-tight flat.) Additional knowledge of the backstory can be obtained through "dead drops" in the form of satellite dishes found throughout the city, similar to the journal tapes in Bioshock. There's a love story in the game that seems crammed in, and Zeke's interactions with you obviously vary depending on your alignment. Then there's the questionable figure of Kessler, who's shadow spreads throughout the entire game. Many questions remain unanswered by the end of the game, but of course, these will likely be addressed in a sequel. And no matter if you're good or evil, Cole always delivers his lines in the same husky Christian-Bale-As-Batman gravelspeak, leading one to wonder just how successful he was as a delivery boy. If someone speaking like Cole had knocked on my door and said, "Here's your package, sir," I might have been tempted to call the cops.
Would anyone be correct in calling InFamous the Greatest Game Ever? Certainly not. But it's certainly one of the best games of the year and it's simply a flat-out fun game. Activities that I normally would have found tedious (such as collecting all the dead drops) I found endlessly enjoyable, and I appreciated Cole's appearance as an average guy instead of of some costumed monstrosity. (Although someone needs to tell Cole that those sling backpacks went out a couple of years ago.) Playing as a hero, I actually felt some inanely real feeling of accomplishment as the map revealed ever greater and greater areas that were free from crime. While the game is not without its flaws from a technical standpoint, the few glitches seem to add humor more than anything else. Occasionally you'll see a guy running full speed into a brick wall, knocking himself silly in the process and then expecting Cole to help his clumsy self. Cole sometimes turns around to see a car falling about five feet before resting on the pavement as though it's always been there. But for all this, Infamous is an enjoyable ride that really never slows down. When the end comes, you might find yourself like me, desperately wanting to avoid the final confrontation. Like the greatest comic books, this game is entertaining escapism at its very best.