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| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: Action Developer: Sucker Punch Publisher: SCEA Reviewed By: Dale Kulas |
The open world/sandbox genre is one of the most prolific genres in videogames today. It continues to grow in popularity, year after year
since “Grand Theft Auto III” shook the gaming landscape back in 2001. With more and more open world games coming out every year,
it only makes it that more difficult to stand out from the rest of the pack. That did not stop Sony from launching a new IP with “inFamous,”
a superhero open world game that is similar to “Crackdown” than “Grand Theft Auto.”
In the world of “inFamous,” a mysterious blast has forever changed the lives of everyone in Empire City. Our hero of the day, Cole, was
the epicenter from where the blast originated from and he came out of the disaster with newfound, electrical powers. “inFamous” uses
comic book-like stills for its primary cut scenes. I have seen many games go that route in the past because of an apparent lack of
development time, but the way the cut scenes are implemented here help complement the superhero dynamic of Cole’s character. I
found myself hooked into Cole’s tale, and really got into the way his story unfolded, especially with the bold risks the storytelling took
that I did not see coming.
Cole starts off with a few relatively simple attacks. The developers at Sucker Punch mixed in some RPG elements by rewarding Cole
with experience points for vanquishing adversaries and completing quests. The XP can be used to upgrade new powers that Cole
learns throughout his journey. The way Cole’s new powers and abilities are spaced out throughout the game only helps keep combat
and core game play fresh to the very end, and does a tremendous job to not initially overwhelm one with a plethora of abilities to
memorize from the get go. My only gripe is that unless you have a power source to recharge Cole’s health and power meter nearby, the
regenerating takes noticeably longer to regenerate than most games.
There are a couple of things that stand out while traversing across Empire City. Right away it is apparent this is not an open world GTA
clone. You are not stealing rides and blazing through rounds of ammo from a military arsenal. There are vehicles, but unlike almost all
other open world games, Cole cannot commandeer them, which is odd because even “Crackdown” allowed you to drive vehicles. After
a few hours into the game however it is obvious why that is so; because it is far more gratifying to climb buildings and grind power lines
and railways across town. Speaking of “Crackdown,” remember ascending up countless buildings in search of hundreds of orbs you
collected to level up your skills? Sucker Punch did the same thing here with 500 “Blast Shards” to collect that rewards Cole with an
expanded power meter to so he can cast powers longer before recharging. Like the orbs, they have a noticeable glow and also appear
on the mini-map so you do not have to spend hundreds of hours in search of each of every last one of them.
Grinding and levitating from rooftop to rooftop in search of Shards and as way of navigation is a thrill and helps get across that
superhero vibe. Cole will automatically cling to the nearest surface like Drake in “Uncharted.” Although that helpful game mechanic
occasionally gets in the way of navigation and led me to cling on to an undesired target from time to time, or even worse, led to me
falling into a pool of water, which is Cole’s Kryptonite in “inFamous.”
A growingly common feature in this generation of games is the ability to make good and evil decisions to define the persona of your
character. For every choice Cole makes, he is awarded with positive or negative karma. The more heroic choices Cole makes, the more
the citizens of Empire City will take a liking to him, and attempt to aid him in combat. On the flipside, if Cole becomes corrupt with
negativity, his overall appearance will change to make him look like a super-villain and you will find the citizens of Empire City constantly
mobbing Cole wherever he goes. It is worth playing through “infamous” on two separate playthroughs as good and evil because both
paths offer a unique set of powers, and there are a number of side quests that are only playable if Cole has only good or evil karma.
Now that we are on the topic of side quests, it is worth mentioning “inFamous” is one of the few open world games that the side quests
are actually worth completing. Aside from earning XP to level up powers, there is a lot of variety between them, and most importantly
almost all of them can be completed within a minute or two. A lot of them are simple tasks such as escorting a gang to prison, wiping
out a wave of enemies or knocking out a set of security cameras. The reason I like them is that they define what a side quest should be,
something fast and simple to do on the side.
It is hard to say that “inFamous” is a graphical powerhouse, because like most open world games there are so many unique buildings
and citizens populating the environment that it is difficult to make everything look so polished. I am not saying “inFamous” is an ugly
game either; it is actually one of the better looking open world games. You can tell from the start that Empire City looks like it went
through hell, with many of the buildings halfway turned to rubble, and citizens collapsed and looking roughed up on the streets. I do not
recall running across any slowdown either, as the in game engine manages to keep up with the action and graphically intensive
powers that Cole unleashes just fine.
On the audio side, I took a liking to the voiceover cast for “inFamous.” It took a little while for me to get use to Cole’s unique, grizzly,
voice but by the end of the game I was into his character all the way. The same goes with Zeke, Cole’s sidekick whose voice is filled
with both admiration of Cole’s powers and desperation of wanting to be just like him. The sound effects are all on the mark, with the
highlight definitely being the destruction that Cole lets loose with his powers. The soundtrack is almost nonexistent. It is more
ambiance than anything, with it subtly fading in and out throughout game play. Half the time it was playing in the background, it was so
washed out that I barely noticed it.
Sony continues to be on a roll with debuting new franchises on the PS3. “inFamous” joins the ranks of “Uncharted,” “Resistance,”
“Little Big Planet,” “Motorstorm” and others as a great foundation that Sony can build off of this generation. I highly recommend
“inFamous” because it is fresh, fun and brings a lot to the genre that not many other games have before
since “Grand Theft Auto III” shook the gaming landscape back in 2001. With more and more open world games coming out every year,
it only makes it that more difficult to stand out from the rest of the pack. That did not stop Sony from launching a new IP with “inFamous,”
a superhero open world game that is similar to “Crackdown” than “Grand Theft Auto.”
In the world of “inFamous,” a mysterious blast has forever changed the lives of everyone in Empire City. Our hero of the day, Cole, was
the epicenter from where the blast originated from and he came out of the disaster with newfound, electrical powers. “inFamous” uses
comic book-like stills for its primary cut scenes. I have seen many games go that route in the past because of an apparent lack of
development time, but the way the cut scenes are implemented here help complement the superhero dynamic of Cole’s character. I
found myself hooked into Cole’s tale, and really got into the way his story unfolded, especially with the bold risks the storytelling took
that I did not see coming.
Cole starts off with a few relatively simple attacks. The developers at Sucker Punch mixed in some RPG elements by rewarding Cole
with experience points for vanquishing adversaries and completing quests. The XP can be used to upgrade new powers that Cole
learns throughout his journey. The way Cole’s new powers and abilities are spaced out throughout the game only helps keep combat
and core game play fresh to the very end, and does a tremendous job to not initially overwhelm one with a plethora of abilities to
memorize from the get go. My only gripe is that unless you have a power source to recharge Cole’s health and power meter nearby, the
regenerating takes noticeably longer to regenerate than most games.
There are a couple of things that stand out while traversing across Empire City. Right away it is apparent this is not an open world GTA
clone. You are not stealing rides and blazing through rounds of ammo from a military arsenal. There are vehicles, but unlike almost all
other open world games, Cole cannot commandeer them, which is odd because even “Crackdown” allowed you to drive vehicles. After
a few hours into the game however it is obvious why that is so; because it is far more gratifying to climb buildings and grind power lines
and railways across town. Speaking of “Crackdown,” remember ascending up countless buildings in search of hundreds of orbs you
collected to level up your skills? Sucker Punch did the same thing here with 500 “Blast Shards” to collect that rewards Cole with an
expanded power meter to so he can cast powers longer before recharging. Like the orbs, they have a noticeable glow and also appear
on the mini-map so you do not have to spend hundreds of hours in search of each of every last one of them.
Grinding and levitating from rooftop to rooftop in search of Shards and as way of navigation is a thrill and helps get across that
superhero vibe. Cole will automatically cling to the nearest surface like Drake in “Uncharted.” Although that helpful game mechanic
occasionally gets in the way of navigation and led me to cling on to an undesired target from time to time, or even worse, led to me
falling into a pool of water, which is Cole’s Kryptonite in “inFamous.”
A growingly common feature in this generation of games is the ability to make good and evil decisions to define the persona of your
character. For every choice Cole makes, he is awarded with positive or negative karma. The more heroic choices Cole makes, the more
the citizens of Empire City will take a liking to him, and attempt to aid him in combat. On the flipside, if Cole becomes corrupt with
negativity, his overall appearance will change to make him look like a super-villain and you will find the citizens of Empire City constantly
mobbing Cole wherever he goes. It is worth playing through “infamous” on two separate playthroughs as good and evil because both
paths offer a unique set of powers, and there are a number of side quests that are only playable if Cole has only good or evil karma.
Now that we are on the topic of side quests, it is worth mentioning “inFamous” is one of the few open world games that the side quests
are actually worth completing. Aside from earning XP to level up powers, there is a lot of variety between them, and most importantly
almost all of them can be completed within a minute or two. A lot of them are simple tasks such as escorting a gang to prison, wiping
out a wave of enemies or knocking out a set of security cameras. The reason I like them is that they define what a side quest should be,
something fast and simple to do on the side.
It is hard to say that “inFamous” is a graphical powerhouse, because like most open world games there are so many unique buildings
and citizens populating the environment that it is difficult to make everything look so polished. I am not saying “inFamous” is an ugly
game either; it is actually one of the better looking open world games. You can tell from the start that Empire City looks like it went
through hell, with many of the buildings halfway turned to rubble, and citizens collapsed and looking roughed up on the streets. I do not
recall running across any slowdown either, as the in game engine manages to keep up with the action and graphically intensive
powers that Cole unleashes just fine.
On the audio side, I took a liking to the voiceover cast for “inFamous.” It took a little while for me to get use to Cole’s unique, grizzly,
voice but by the end of the game I was into his character all the way. The same goes with Zeke, Cole’s sidekick whose voice is filled
with both admiration of Cole’s powers and desperation of wanting to be just like him. The sound effects are all on the mark, with the
highlight definitely being the destruction that Cole lets loose with his powers. The soundtrack is almost nonexistent. It is more
ambiance than anything, with it subtly fading in and out throughout game play. Half the time it was playing in the background, it was so
washed out that I barely noticed it.
Sony continues to be on a roll with debuting new franchises on the PS3. “inFamous” joins the ranks of “Uncharted,” “Resistance,”
“Little Big Planet,” “Motorstorm” and others as a great foundation that Sony can build off of this generation. I highly recommend
“inFamous” because it is fresh, fun and brings a lot to the genre that not many other games have before
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