inFamous

By Gareth Von Kallenbach

For a bike messenger named Cole, his day and life are about to be turned upside down thanks to a mysterious package he is assigned to deliver. The package turns out to be a bomb of incredible power which turns Cole’s home of Empire City into utter destruction and chaos.

In the new game InFamous, Sucker Punch Productions and Sony have crafted a slick and utterly compelling action adventure which is easily one of the top titles released for any console.

Cole mysteriously survives the deadly blast, and finds himself infused with electricity based powers. Cole can tap energy from all manner of sources ranging from cars to lamps and power boxes. 

The electrical abilities allows Cole to do all manner of electrical bases attacks as well as cling to surfaces of containers, buildings, poles and more.

Cole’s friend Zeke realizes that his powers may be just what the isolated city needs, and influences Cole to use his powers to help break the blockade of the city which has been placed under quarantine by the authorities.

As Cole attempts to escape the city, he encounters an F.B.I. agent named Moya who tasks Cole to return to the city and complete missions in the ravaged city. As if his life was not complicated enough, Cole must contend with his ex-girlfriend Trish who blames him for the death of her sister and the Reapers, a savage gang that holds the tattered and fractured city in a iron grip of fear and death.

As the game unfolds, Cole gains new powers and abilities, which he will need, as Empire City is a vast and living city with danger lurking everywhere.

As Cole embarks on his missions, he is often faced to make moral choices which will affect not only his powers but how he is perceived by those he encounters. This is due to the games Karma system that allows players to decide how they will act in a situation. 

A player can chose to fight off bad guys and save innocents or share supplies with them, or can scare off the innocents, allow them to be harmed, and save valuable supplies for yourself. This not only affects the powers Cole can deploy but his aura as when it is blue he is seen as a hero, but seen as Infamous when he shines red.

Players earn points for combat and other actions and can use the points to select new skills and enhance current ones.

This is a good thing as much of the game revolves around combat, and Cole’s ability to cling off sides of objects and use them as a shield is almost as valuable as his impressive firepower. On more than one occasion I had to back off from a fight to recharge my powers from an electrical source before resuming the fight. Being able to scale buildings allowed me to reach safety and then drop on the bad guys with a powerful blast drop.

InFamous is an absolute gem that combines fantastic action and characters with a solid story and tons of versatility. The vast and changing city is filled with areas to explore and also filled with many characters for you to interact with.

Graphically the game is stellar as the amazing detail of the city is epic but the game really shines when Cole is free to unleash an electrical fury. The arcs of energy that he can call into play are amazing as dance around the screen in a frantic dance of destruction.

The controls in InFamous are solid and easy to master, and the game is clever about letting you into the action and teaching you as you go along without resorting to boring tutorials.

I do wish the game did not employ a checkpoint save system as it is a pin to have to replay segments when you return to the game or worse, die. I also found some of the missions a bit frustrating due to some navigational issues.

Those issues aside, InFamous, is a solid game that will delight gamers and is easily one of the strongest games of this or any year.

Game: inFamous
System: PS3
Players: 1
Online: No
Developer: Sucker Punch
Distributor: Sony Computer Entertainment

Rating: 80%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)

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