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| Infamous Cover |
Visuals
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| Cole calling down lightning |
In contrast to the very toon based Sly Cooper series, Sucker Punch took a very realistic approach to Infamous. And what can I say? It looks fantastic. Everything looks simply amazing, having textures to match everything. If you look clearly, you can see all the trash on the floor, every crack on the floor, every spark of electricity and every mark on anybody that passes. The only time I saw something wrong was usually from the NPCs, but it being an open-world game makes you expect not character models will look great. Empire city, the setting for this is one of this game's biggest assets. Everything looks to refined and great. The designers easily pulled off the post-apocalyptic look that Sucker Punch was going for. Infamous also presents many of its story telling in a graphic novel/comic style. As for these, they too look great. It truly gives you the feeling that you are in some kind of superhero comic book.
Music
The music in this game was phenomenal. The music was made to give the feeling of a destroyed world and it pulled it off quite nicely. Whether you are on top of a building hearing triumphant music, or deep down in a sewer hearing scrapes and metallic clanks, you easily felt you were truly there.
Gameplay
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| Cole shooting lightning while climbing |
Infamous, being a game based around being a super hero or villain, gives you the ability to get around the city in an enormous variety of ways. The most common is climbing up buildings. Cole himself feels very floaty when he climbs, making his climbing feel very different from other games such as in Assassin's Creed games. This light weightlessness allows the climbing to get done faster and usually more efficiently. Next is jumping. Normally characters can jump, but Cole's floaty property allows him to jump a bit higher and farther than most games allow their characters. If you think "well jumping is fine but its a little boring" then you will eventually find Cole's ability, static thrusters, which allow Cole to glide from building to building. These, and many more forms of transportation allow you to get around this amazing city to do the main missions and side quests.
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| Cole's electricity changing from red to black from becoming completely evil |
As for the main mission, they will usually give you an objective, and often a karmic choice. This is where the game will just blow your mind. There are plenty of moments where Cole will simply stop to think about two choices he has. The choices are usually based around if he wants to "take a dive", usually leading to him getting hurt, for the sake of others, or letting others take a hit so he will stay safe. Choosing either will change how Cole looks and his powers look. When you chose the "good" choices, Cole's electricity glows blue and he has a clean look to him. But if you chose the "bad" choices, Cole's electricity will glow red, and Cole will appear dirtier and grittier. This also shapes how the story line will go. Although not by much, it is still worth mentioning. For the side quests, Cole will be sent to do some menial task such as find a hidden package, escort prisoners, and defeat all enemies given. With each side quest finished, another part of the districts of Empire City will become crime free and no longer have enemies inhabiting them.
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| Trish seeing Cole wake up from his coma |
Next are the powers. Cole will be given dozens of abilities with which, you are allowed to do with what you please. Some simply shoot a spark of lightning. Others will lob electric grenades. You can even chose to heal injured civilians on the floor for good karma, or suck the life out of them for health. Each can also be made better through a section in the main menu by using your XP you gain from defeating enemies and completing missions. These upgrades can range from allowing your grenades to multiply on contact, to taking less damage, to even defeating and restraining enemies in a single attack. Sucker Punch definitely gave players a full arsenal of weapons and upgrades to keep them busy.
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| All 350 blast shards scatter throughout Empire City |
Finally to end the game play section (which is running way too long) and the collectibles that I must mention. In the three districts of Empire City, there are a whopping 350 blast shards. The great thing about it, is that the creators gave you an initiative to collect as many as you can. The more blast shards you collect, the more electricity you can hold to do more energy wasting attacks. After finding and collecting 5 blast shards, you are given a blast core (unit of electricity you can hold). Next you need 10, then 15, then 20. This makes gathering these collectibles pass much faster, And finally are the stunts. Infamous gives you small objectives on how to take out enemies. These provide even more XP for your power upgrades than just the usual kill but unfortunately these are you usually much harder. An example is the stunt "blast and bolt" which requires you to take out an enemy by launching an enemy in the air and defeating the airborne enemy with a basic bolt. Although there are only 21, these become extremely difficult but just as rewarding. And finally are the dead drops. These are usually just chips found inside satellite dishes, on the roof tops. The only good these do you, are by exposing another part of the story, outside of Cole's perspective.
Story
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| Zeke and Trish taking care of comatose Cole |
The story in Infamous is amazing. As previously stated, the protagonist, Cole MacGrath, was delivering a package. During the delivery in the Historic District of Empire City, the package exploded and took out six block, leaving an unconscious Cole, alive in the middle of it. As he awakes, he starts to discover his electrical powers, and makes it to his best friend, Zeke Dunbar's, house and goes into a coma. In his state of comatose, Zeke and Cole's girlfriend, Trish Dailey, watch over him as the city goes to hell. Thinking it was a terrorist strike, the government locks everybody into the city by blocking all bridges out. With the city destroyed, the prisoners and criminals of the city come out and become the leaders of the city.
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| Cole confronting a Conduit |
When Cole awakes, he tries to escape by either starting a riot at the secured bridges, or by plowing through the security with Zeke. This plan fails and Cole is rescued by an FBI agent known as Moya who promises Cole freedom from the city with his friends, if he can find and rescue her husband, John White, who went missing while looking for the device in Cole's last package. Inside the package was the Ray sphere, a device that kills everyone around it and gives superhuman abilities to the wielder. With no other choices except waiting to be killed by the government, Cole follows Moya's instructions and finds the secrets to the Ray Sphere.
Overview
Infamous is an amazing game with plenty to offer. With all of its missions, side quests, upgrades and collectible, you have plenty to do in Empire City. Unfortunately with such a great games, there are some downsides. As expected, this immense city has plenty of glitches where Cole will either get stuck inbetween two objects of might fall out of the city. They aren't too many but you will encounter them if you explore it in its entirety. Next is that some of the power ups are actually missable. If you are being good, and you decide to do an evil side quest, you will lock out the good exclusive powers out and not be able to get them without starting a different save file. Although this is a huge let down, the powers aren't necessary, so there's nothing game breaking about it. The final problem is about the collectible stunts and XP. If you do all the side quests early, you can make all of Empire City crime free which leads you to a big problem. With no enemies, there is no easy way to earn XP. And with no enemies, it is almost impossible to do the stunts. Although you will occasionally encounter enemies in crime free areas, they rarely appear and don't provide enough XP. Nothing game breaking, but a big problem for those who don't see it coming. Other than that, the game is phenomenal, and if you own a PS3 and don't have this game yet, go get it now!
I rate this game a 9.0 out of 10
Note: Sorry for the wait, still busy from school and work. Will be starting my Infamous 2 review in honor of Infamous Second Son soon. Til then, feel free to enjoy and previous reviews and don't be suprised by any other Retro Reviews coming up. If you want me to review any particular game, please leave a comment or send me a quick email. Til then, see you next time
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