Vantage Review: inFamous. - from a ordinary Joe's point of view

inFamous… A game praised by many gaming sites, Sony stating how they have high hopes for the game, even an early release signifying that it has already been tuned to Sucker Punch’s liking, but is it really worth its while? We at Vantage aren’t hardcore gamers or in-depth reviewers, but we do like our games and we do know what is good and what sucks. So we hope we’re able to voice what all those regular Joes out there like us are thinking and what they want to know.

And in one word, inFamous is… AWESOMENESSTASTIC!!! I didn’t feet the hype for this game, nor was I interested at all before its broken release date. It had great potential to fail, especially with its other sandbox predecessors such as Grand Theft Auto and Crackdown. But somehow, someway, Sucker Punch was able to combine all the great elements from these games into one and add its own twist. I like to say, it’s like choose your own adventure GTA: IV with powers! The karma system in the game is great, giving you a Bioshock-type feel when having to choose what to do, making available both sides to a decision, putting you on the spot and making you more immersed in the game. But we’ll go a little deeper into that later.

Lets start with a basic rundown on what’s going on in Empire City where this all began. Our main character, lil ol’ Cole, was tasked to deliver a package, no harm done right? Well, not unless your package blows up in your face and along with half of Empire City. After Cole awakens, he finds himself charged with electrical superpowers. With a whole chunk blown out of Empire City, a plague also sweeps its people giving the government no choice but to quarantine the entire city. The people of Empire City, now stripped of their freedom, are left to fend for themselves as the government thinks of a way to save this post-apocalyptic event. As Cole, you face this head-on, with your newly acquired powers to save or control the city, keep peace or rule with fear, and track this thing called the Ray Sphere that gave you your powers.

Now onto Cole whose power is electricity, shooting it from his hands as a bolt of lightning, a force blast, riding the rails, making a shield etc… You start off with only a few powers like the lightning bolt and force blast, but it’s more than enough to fry and destroy everything in sight. As the game progresses by finishing missions, opening up new parts of the city and eventually new islands by restoring power to them, new powers are unlocked and almost all of your powers are upgradeable (through XP), allowing for more destruction. Through the karma system, which basically lets you decide to be good or evil, powers specific to them will be unlocked. To tell you the truth, there are so many aspects to this game that is it hard not to make this a long review, but I will try my best.

Based on how you tackle missions, whether your going to be the all out martyr or sacrifice the people for your greater good, your karma will lean towards being good or evil. This basically plays into a two class system and forces you to choose to be one or the other. You can be neutral but powers specific to those classes won’t be unlocked or upgradeable. For me, this is one downside to the game. As a normal guy, some choices given to you will force you to be evil, yet other times, you want to be good. But when you start being good or bad, you best stick to it. The basic differences between the specific class powers is that a good Cole’s powers/attacks are more focused, attacking and restraining enemies without dealing too much damage to surrounding civilians/hostages, whereas an evil Cole’s powers are more destructive and will take out practically everything in the vicinity. The differences in powers are pretty clear cut which in turn, is good because it gives you a different way and incentive of playing the game more than once. Not to mention playing each side yields a different outcome/story and how your friends, along with people of the city view you. When choosing a side, how the city looks will also differ. For example, if your good, the city will start going back to normal, showing off a brighter color scheme and happier tone, whereas if your evil, the city may still look grim and you will still notice people suffering. 

Onto the graphics department, which will be short... and sweet, because the graphics are gorgeous. Lighting is top notch and Cole looks great! Especially during those Batman moments where you're just sitting up on a rooftop or water tower somewhere, looking down at your city. Everything is fluid and Grand Theft Auto IV's graphics seem like nothing special. The only problem is that when traveling fast on the train tracks or rails, the distance (far distance) will pop out of nowhere, but honestly, it isn't a big deal.

But this all means nothing if Cole controls like a stone. Good thing he doesn’t. He can scale and climb practically anything and everything that looks like a handhold. And he climbs quickly, very cat-like. Right from the get-go, it was so fun and easy to control Cole, probably spending the first hour just climbing and jumping around the city. It’s also handy that the city is Cole’s urban jungle. Its extremely enjoyable much like back in the day of the PS2, web-slinging all around the city of Spiderman 2, and climbing and highest buildings, just to jump off them. Unlike Spiderman though, Cole won’t suffer any damage dropping down to the ground. What’s also great is that Sucker Punch gives us the feeling of owning the city and the different islands, making you feel like THE MAN wherever you are. Handholds are where they need to be and everything just feels in place, making you feel like an expert right off the bat. But some high holds and platforming still feel intense and give you a great sense of how high you are… very heart-pounding. The city feels alive, hearing sounds from civilians in pain or asking why this is happening. Empire city along with its inhabitants play a big role in setting the theme, atmosphere and mood of the game. It wouldn’t be as good without it. Indeed, they go hand in hand. And you won’t really have to worry about draining your powers since almost everything in the city provides you with the electricity you need by draining it from lamp posts, cars, fuse boxes etc… Again, the city does behave differently based on your choice of being good or evil, praising you if your good, and stoning you if your not. 

Story… check. Character… check. Graphics... check. Controls… check. City… check. What about the gameplay and missions? The game is no where near a breeze but at the same time, it’s not tremendously hard or annoying. Enemies can attack you in small groups, single enemies from rooftops can shoot you from afar and random break outs of huge amounts of enemies can flank you. Hordes get difficult to deal with especially when in an open, unpowered area where Cole can’t charge his powers and health. You really can’t deal with them head on here, so maneuvering and finding the best route to your target comes into play. Rooftop enemies can be somewhat of a pain as they shoot you from above and afar and you can’t really do anything except run or climb up to take them out. Missions are very well paced, giving you the choice to take your time with its numerous types of side missions, ranging from killing people, dealing with civilians with various problems, deliveries, check point races and much more, or just jumping into the main plot line. There is enough variety with the side missions making them not feel redundant. Both are rewarding as doing side missions also give you XP and some also give you the opportunity to tilt your karma meter to good or evil, allowing you to reach the Hero rank (good) or the inFamous rank (evil).

Aside from all of these, what makes this such a good game is the attention to detail. Little things like TV broadcasts about you, pedestrians reacting towards you and posters on the wall depicting your personality, make this game all the better and immerse you more into its universe. Empire City is definitely one of the big stars of this game and the little details make the city come alive and show you how your actions affect it.

This is definitely a MUST OWN for PS3 owners out there. I don’t care if you don’t like sandbox games or gameplay, this is a must buy! I will even go on the limb to say that for those waiting for a right time to buy a PS3, this is it, because of this game. After playing the game since its early release, the only things I find annoying are the enemies on top of rooftops and the inability to choose a class between just good and evil. But other than that, I can’t find anything else wrong! Scaling the city from the get go and hours after that, collecting blast shards (to increase your power meter), collecting other bonuses scattered across the city (like recordings that deepen the story), doing all the side missions along with the main ones, and just wreaking havoc for no apparent reason will easily take you a good 20-30 hours. Then there’s the choice of being good or evil, which can clock you another good 20 hours. There’s definitely plenty to come back to. Paying around $460 for a PS3, inFamous and around 60 hours of gameplay sounds like a good deal to me!