inFamous

Available on - Playstation 3
Score between 7 and 10 - 9(Great)
You may like inFamous if you like - Open world super hero games such as Spiderman, The Hulk, Crackdown or Prototype. You also may enjoy it if you enjoy fast paced shooting/action games such as Uncharted.


Game Concept - inFamous tells the story of a man who is suddenly given lighting/energy based super powers after a package he is carrying explodes. The game plays out similar to other open world games such as Prototype and Crackdown, but Cole's limited initial abilities mixed with the fact that your base attack is a lighting bolt fired via targeting with the left bumper then firing with the right trigger makes the game feel similar to third person shooters such as Uncharted or Tomb Raider. inFamous will have you running around the city completing missions with an enjoyable mix of the two game play styles. One moment you might be flying from roof top to roof top and killing enemies by jumping off it with a huge lighting explosion, but the next you may be hiding behind a cement barrier taking pop shots and lobbing lighting grenades. All in all expect a lot of action from this title.


Pros
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Lots of upgrades - Bombs, energy waves, shields, streams of lighting, concentrated slow motion blasts! Cole has a pretty decent arsenal that opens up through out the game, and the nice thing is that each has 3 upgrades you can purchase with experience you get from defeating enemies and completing missions.

Playing as a good or bad guy alters your moves and appearance! - Ok, so inFamous may not have in depth grey area decisions like a lot of new RPGs, but I still enjoyed the depth that the Karma system offered to the game play. Making good decisions means you learn attacks that are more concentrated and can assist you by doing things like restraining enemies caught in your grenade blasts. Meanwhile making evil decisions such as killing restrained villains that are no longer a threat gives you more powerful but wreckless attacks. Cole's appearence in the game and the way the people of the city react to you also changes based on how you play which is a nice touch on Sucker Punches part!

Unique Missions - Many super hero games seem to get stuck with the same two or three types of mission that you repeat over and over and over. Delivery missions, roof top races, kill all the enemies and destroy the base are missions we see in every game similar to inFamous...and of course in inFamous itself. Nice thing is though that while inFamous features these missions it also has a few more unique missions that are enjoyable. Two good examples are the prison escort missions where you must help the cops escort captured villains to prison and surveillance missions where enemies have planted surveillance equipment on civilian buildings and you must hunt them down and destroy them.

The Story is interesting - No, it is not interesting in the way an epic game such as Mass Effect 2 or Planescape Torment's stories are interesting, but inFamous does tell a tell that from start to finish is entertaining. So while the story is not AAA material, it is defintly appreciated after playing other super hero games!

inFamous has long legs! - I was surprised to find at the point I thought the game was wrapping up it was only 1/3rd or so of the way over. Given that you can easily find this game for around $20(or $30 new) now I think the amount your spending for the time you get out of the game is amazing. The biggest reason for this to be listed as a pro though is that these hours are almost all interesting! Far too many games can boast that they take a long time to complete, inFamous can claim it was not 90% filler.

Sly Cooper - The developer of this game made the Sly Cooper series. Thats right, I am listing developing Sly Cooper as a pro for inFamous! I debated making it a con since making inFamous meant we did not get Sly Cooper 4...but I decided in the end that the Sly Cooper series is so amazing it still has to be listed as a pro, Sly Cooper is just that bad ass ;)


Cons
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Scaling buildings takes too damn long! - One of the two major/non nit pick complaints I have with inFamous is that it takes too damn long to scale buildings. Cole scales buildings in the way Nathan Drake would and thats a damn shame! Sorry, but after so many great super hero games have come out that let me jump 60 feet into the air, fly, web sling or just demolish a building in my way its just lame to have to climb from window to window spending 15 seconds to get up the side of a small building! At the very least by the halfway mark they could have given me some kind of ability to jump higher, or your static thrust could have let you fly vs just float downward(more like plummet).

Travel Times can be annoying - The combination of how long it takes to climb buildings and the fact that Cole never learns a way to travel the city faster means you spend far too much time just getting from place to place. The worst is when you have to travel back to parts of the city you have already cleared so you spend 5 minutes or more just running from one location to the next. I honesty do not know why the developers could not have either created a warp system, gave Cole an ability that lets him move faster or done ANYTHING to make getting back and forth faster!

Early in the game I felt kind of weak - Cole is supposed to be a super hero so the last thing the player should ever feel is weak! However early in the game that is most definitely how I felt. As the game progressed and I got more and more powers it worked out to where I felt like a super hero, but early in the game the slow movement, slow climbing of buildings and the fact that your basic attack felt so much like shooting a gun meant I felt less like a super hero and more like Nathan Drake with a lighting gun.

Characters including Cole get stuck on the environment or even other people - Through out the game I saw NPCs get stuck on things in the environment such as trash cans or poles numerous times. At first it was not something id list as a con since it really is not that big of a deal, however as the game went on I myself got stuck on things including dead civilians and enemies. These minor bugs are far from a game ending glitch, and 99% of the game played flawlessly, but there were a few times where getting stuck on a dead enemy was less of an annoyance and more a major problem since I was already low on health with enemies firing at me. As I said this did not occur often enough to lower the games score, but it is still def worth mention!

One of the final segments of the game was impossible to see in - There is a part of the game where you return to ground zero of the accident and everything is covered in dust. This is understandable and they did a good job making it realistic...problem is that it was so realistic I found it hard to see what I was doing at times. Making matters worse is that they made all the enemies in the area grey, and most of the civilians are wearing darker colored clothes as well! This meant that there was a section where spotting people was difficult...and telling if it was an enemy or pedestrian was even harder. This segment of the game only lasted an hour or so, so I say its a minor complaint, but it was still annoying while it lasted!

Closing Comments - When inFamous was announced I was disappointed that we were getting it instead of a new Sly Cooper game. When I started playing inFamous while I was enjoying it I was disappointed I did not feel more like a super hero. When I finished inFamous I was disappointed that the game was over and the sequel was so far away! Sucker Punch has proved time and time again that they make amazing games and inFamous was no exception to that rule. I enjoyed my romp with the game and I do not understand how I could have ever doubted it would be a great game. I found that as time went on I felt like the game just got better and better and I can only hope that when the sequel comes that they continue that trend fixing on the small complaints I had with the game. As a final statement of the games quality I will say that even though I just beat the game, and even though its a fairly long game, I am already debating replaying through as a villain! If your a fan of super hero games or just in the mood for something action packed then stop looking and just drop your $20-$30 on this gem!