So recently I did a little bit of complaining about Sony on Episode 2 regarding their releasing a slim line PS3, claiming they should be concentrating on producing high-quality exclusive titles instead of another pointless hardware upgrade. Well, I very shortly thereafter ate my words upon learning Infamous had just been released. Nicole and I picked it up at Gamestop a few days later and have so far invested around 10 hours in it and ya know what? It’s fantastic. Read on for the full review.
Infamous quite literally starts off with a bang right from the menu screen when you begin. A fantastic explosion occurs in Empire City leaving the area in ruins with few survivors including you, Cole, a bike messenger who unwittingly delivered the package containing the device. However, while most were decimated in the ensuing explosion, you not only survived, but were curiously endowed with the power to wield electricity in various forms and super-human like abilities and resilience. From here on out you’ll embark on a series of story missions to find out who’s behind this while also taking on various side missions that will either mold you into a benevolent, selfless, hero or a vicious, power-mad tyrant. Between fighting off the chaos-driven Reaper gang to staying paired up with your would-be sidekick, Zeke, you’ll continuously upgrade your abilities to unravel this post-apocalyptic mystery.
While post-apocalyptic settings may be all the rage right now, Infamous does plenty to set itself aside from its peers with a well paced and told story. Between certain missions the story unfolds in a very cool animated comic book style a la Ultimate Spider-Man. It’s not as heavy as say Fallout 3, but I found this to be a welcome change in that it takes itself just seriously enough to keep you interested in the colorful characters, but not so serious that there aren’t any lighthearted moments whatsoever. The dialogue is solid both in substance and delivery with none of the voice actors phoning it in. Cole in particular is well voiced as each piece of dialogue can be construed in either a merciful, heroic manner or passively diabolical, sickened by humanity tone. It really does go a long way in reinforcing whatever moral decisions you choose to make.
As you play the game, you have a karma meter that waivers into good or bad depending on your actions. Using your powers to revive suffering survivors, helping out what remaining police are still active, and capturing foes alive rather than draining their life force nets you good karma. However, if you choose to terrorize innocent civilians or choose options that serve yourself rather than the rest of humanity, you’ll quickly see your appearance and demeanor change as you grow more apathetic toward your comrades. Those moral decisions aren’t always easy to discern either. In one mission you must decide whether to inform a man guarding a door that his wife is dead and hope that coerces him to unlock it, or kill him in an act of mercy and in turn secure your continuing progress. No easy choice to be sure.
These choices also factor into what abilities you’re granted. More sinister and visceral attacks are awarded if you play as evil, for example. Regardless of which path you choose though, you won’t have trouble shocking your way to the end. There are many abilities from electrified grenades and area-of-effect thunder drops to focused lightning bolts which effectively allow you to slow-time and snipe Reapers from a distance. Initially I thought the lack of gun play would make the game boring, but I’m happy to say that the powers all feel very distinct and nearly always have a particularly effective use at one point or another as you come across the various missions.
Speaking of which, there is actually plenty of variety in Infamous. Typically in these sand-box style games it’s not uncommon to see 3 or 4 mission types recycled to death, quickly negating any replay value. Not here though, as I’ve found that nearly every mission be it side or story has been created with care. I found one mission particularly hilarious as you had to escort four Reaper prisoners to the local jail. For the record, I can’t stand escort missions as they’re typically just a setup for an eventual ambush or the AI is mind-numbingly retarded. This one however, was perfect. My captors stayed close with no ambush from their buddies and they comically tried everything to escape from running to pitifully chucking rocks at me. It was thoroughly enjoyable because they couldn’t die and I could slam them around all I wanted with reckless abandon and it actually made this type of mission fun for probably the first time I can remember.
Of course, this would have been less fun if the controls weren’t so precisely on point. Movement is effortless as Cole will automagically jump, climb, slide,
clamber, and crawl all without any special button presses. Just move the stick where you want him and occasionally hit X to jump and he responds accordingly. That’s just smart design. As I noted in my first impressions there are some occasional clipping issues, but for the most part the physics are reasonably realistic you really do get the feeling of being uber-powerful as you watch Cole slide across the night sky on a power line only to thunder drop onto an unsuspecting cluster of Reapers in a dark alley.
The only real complaint I have about Infamous is that the texture work’s a little sloppy, but you’ll scarcely notice with all of the action on-screen. Also, with all of the baddies you’ll be frying up I haven’t found a single instance of slowdown or any other graphical wonkiness. Besides, the particle effects and facial animations look just dandy and if a few low-res textures are needed to keep the action consistent, that’s a sacrifice I’m more than prepared to tolerate. Another nice touch is that all of the enemies and civilians seem to be randomly assigned clothing, skin color, and accessories which seems like an efficient way to keep the masses from appearing repetitive and unnatural.
In the end, it’s hard not to like Infamous what with it’s original story, solid gameplay (even if it is a bit derivative), and apparently decent length for an action game.
9 out of 10.
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