Reviews PS3 Reviews inFamous

inFamous

		4.4
		0.0 (0)

Written by alienstout June 05, 2009 Favorites

Game Reviews

Publisher	Sony
Studio	Sucker Punch
Genre	Action/Adventure
ESRB	Teen (13+)
Co-op	No
Multiplayer	No
Game Type Reviewed	Single Player

Empire City was a run of the mill metropolis, until one day a massive explosion rips through six square blocks of its bustling downtown real-estate, seemingly leveling everything and everyone in its path. Yet after the dust had cleared, at the center of the blast crater is a lone man, Cole. He is in a coma, but has survived the event and neither he nor the world will ever be the same.

An everyday guy doing his best to make ends meet, Cole had been a bike messenger. Just before the blast he had been sent to ground zero to deliver a package. In the aftermath of the catastrophe, he awakes to find that somehow he has gained strange electrical powers. Empire City is in shambles though. Riots have erupted, breeding chaos and emboldening powerful criminal gangs hungry for power and profit. In the panic that follows the city is quarantined from the mainland, and television broadcasts packed with damning security camera footage link Cole to the scene of the explosion. Cole is now a wanted man, but his extraordinary electricity-based powers and perhaps a semblance of responsibility for the well-being of Empire City are growing. Who is really responsible for the blast though? As an evolving mystery unfolds, Cole must learn how to wield his newfound powers as he searches for the real culprits behind the blast in an attempt to rescue Empire City from complete anarchy.

Editor review

inFamous is electrifying

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Game Reviews

Leet-sauce	Electrical powers are awesome, multiple path decisions well done Bioleeching is sickly awesome Skating on tracks or wires very cool Main story is great with twists and turns Side missions can be fun Pacing feels right
4-noobs	Faction bad-guys not realistic Zeke is too annoying Jumping down/backwards blows Side missions can be repetitive
Review	inFamous is at it's heart a super-hero game. Not unlike the comics, the main character (Cole) has an origin story that is also central to the main plot of the game. Cole is forced to discover his powers (electrical in nature) on his own after receiving them in the accident that also threw the city into chaos and subsequent quarantine by the U.S. government. Nothing can come in or go out and this sets the stage for the game where Cole is trying to find answers to what is going on and who is behind the whole thing. Along the way there are battles with local factions bent on controlling the city and with some heavy-weight bad-guys using these factions and other elements to stop Cole. If that's not complicated enough, Cole has to make some tough decisions in the game that are boiled down into Good or Evil. Once made, this affects his overall karma level, his energy level and the availability to certain power upgrades. Doing missions and taking down enemies, non-combatants or just about anything else earns points that the player can use to augment Cole's current abilities. Cole also has the ability to heal and that generates XP and earns good karma. The element of karma is central to how the game plays out in the end because there are two different outcomes. You can be a Hero or be inFamous - inFamous is more fun. Cole has the ability to control electricity that he stores in his body like a battery. Also like a battery, Cole can run out of juice. Fortunately he can bioleech energy out of downed enemies for even regular citizens (bad karma alert) to recharge. Even easier, Cole can suck juice out of anything that is powered up (e.g., phones, power boxes, cars). Powers range from the standard lighting out of the hands to flying or even summoning lightning out of the air. One of the coolest things Cole can do is skate on power lines or the train tracks. Both of these are essential to getting around quickly and some of the side quests. Good power is blue, evil power is red as decided by the players karma level. The game itself it very reminiscent of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. In both we have the tortured protagonist with powers and a chip on their shoulder. Also like SWTTFU, inFamous also features game elements that are very similar such as the force push and hand lightning. Then there is the matter of the junk monster that is so close to being identical they are essentially interchangeable in my opinion. On the positive side, both were good games and inFamous uses the similar items well. Sure that game has some issues like the unusual factions that just don't seem to be real. Again, this is similar to Star Wars because you'd be hard-pressed to think the Reapers were anything other than giant Jawas and the Trash Men were nothing more than Tusken Raiders. They seemed out of place and it would have been made more realistic if they were in fact dropped off from another planet. Just how much time has passed that these freaks have come out in such force? There's a story element that tries to explain the Reapers but again, a space ship would have been a better explanation. Also annoying, the lack of an easy way to drop down is a real problem in the game. You will find yourself constantly on the look out for pieces of shards that will increase your battery and you will need to drop down/climb down to get a lot of them. There is no easy way to do this at times without jumping and moving the stick to grab back on backwards. There is a button control to drop but it's not done well at all. Overall it's a minor jab but still relevant considering the game's overall polish. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Cole's sidekick Zeke who seems to be an annoying mix between Cousin Roman from GTA4 and Roy Orbison - he's a bit too campy. In the end, this open world, choose-you-own-adventure game provides some great gaming moments with exciting play, good graphics and sound and an engaging story that is sure to surprise you at the end. One note on the end of the story, this is perhaps the games greatest asset and would make even a game of lesser quality better merely by including it - it was that well done. The game does end with some ambiguity about what happens next but that's a good thing, you'll want to play the sequel.

Overall rating:		4.5
Gameplay:		4.0
Graphics/Sound:		4.0
Story:		5.0
Addiction:		5.0

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Reviewed by alienstout
June 05, 2009
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Comments (1) add comment

bytemap said:

	... Well said, I liked how you included all aspects of a game within this review (graphics, gameplay, story, challenge, replay value) Nicely done.
	report abuse vote down vote up

June 05, 2009
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