inFamous [PS3]

29 May 2009 at 16:03:45 by Andy Alderson
Systems used to review this title: (PS3)

Just as the open-world crime genre has become a little crowded in the last few years, with the GTA, Saints Row, Godfather and Mafia games battling it out for supremacy, the sandbox superhero game was bound to follow the same pattern. Spiderman II, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and Crackdown all demonstrated that the way you navigate the open-world setting is the key to enjoyment, placing an emphasis on verticality above all else. PS3 owners will be glad to know that inFamous, Sucker Punch Productions’ first foray into the genre, may just sport the most elegant and enjoyable navigation model in a sandbox game to date. However, while the game undoubtedly gives great traversal, its storyline, mission structure and pacing leave a little to be desired.

The player takes on the role of Cole McGrath, a lowly bike messenger who finds  himself at Ground Zero of an enormous explosion after a delivering a mysterious package to downtown Empire City. He awakes to discover that, not only has he miraculously survived the catastrophic event, he has somehow developed some pretty unusual abilities. Now able to channel and manipulate electricity, Cole must decide whether to use his powers to save or exploit the devastated Empire City, which has been quarantined by the federal government. With vicious gangs running the streets, and rolling blackouts plunging parts of the city into darkness, ordinary citizens live in fear for their lives. Cole is the one man who stands between the people and criminals, although it soon becomes obvious that not everyone is in favour of Electro-Boy.

Many believe Cole to have instigated the explosion and blame him fhat ensued. His ta heve idstHgaôformer beau, Trish, is one such doubter, having lost her sister to the event, and the early parts of the story (told through stunning comic-book style cutscenes) focus on this relationship. Cole also has the obligatory annoying best mate, in the form of chunky funster Zeke who provides him with a rooftop safe haven when he’s tired of bashing nasties. Before long, Cole is contacted by an FBI agent called Moya who offers to guide him towards the truth, provided, of course, that he carries out a few tasks for her and so begins the main story arc in the game.

The structure of the game, early on, is handled pretty well. Cole is tasked with restoring power to various areas of the city and must descend into the sewers beneath the streets to reactivate power stations (is it just me, or does placing power stations in sewers seem a bit mental to anyone else?).  Whilst the first time you venture underground may seem like a bit of a distraction, you’ll soon realise that it’s worth it as for each station you repair, Cole will be rewarded with a new power. It’s a logical way to introduce the player to the abilities in the game - and thankfully means there’s no tedious tutorial section – but when you’re still messing about with power stations at ten hours into the story missions, you'll find yourself wishing you’d have got your full range of powers a little earlier in the game.

Of course, in a superhero game, it’s the powers that matter most and you’ll be glad to know that Cole has some nifty electrical tricks at his disposal. From the very beginning of the game he’s able to fire off bolts of electricity from his hand (using a free-aim system) and repel enemies with a shockwave blast. However, these are relatively tame compared to what’s on offer later on in the game. By the time Cole is fully-powered he’ll be able to throw shock grenades, enter a powerful precision aim-mode, fire “Megawatt Hammer” bursts and even call in a lightning storm from above. The strange thing about these combative abilities is, when you reduce them to their core elements, they are simply third person shooter mechanics dressed up as superpowers. Your electricity bolt is essentially just a pistol with no need to reload, your shock grenades are...well, grenades and the precision mode is your sniper rifle. Even if you choose the evil versions of these powers (more on the Karma system later), they are essentially the same powers with a different appearance. For instance, good Cole throws single shock grenades, while evil Cole has cluster bombs.

However, if the combat powers may seem less than super (at least until you earn enough XP to power them up), the ones which aid Cole’s movement are much cooler. At the start of the game Cole has pretty useful free-running abilities which allow him to climb upwards with ease (downwards, surprisingly, is more difficult). It’s a wonderfully fluid system, very-well animated and feels reminiscent of the way Altair moves in Assassin’s Creed. Cole leaps, grabs, hangs and balances in a smooth and convincing fashion and, while the game does a lot of the work for you, you’ll still need to time your button presses if you want to move quickly and look cool. However, once you unlock the grinding and booster abilities later on in the game, you realise just how much of a joy navigating Empire City can be.

All ...

Comment