Munkeh111

User Score
8.9

Presentation - 8.0
Gameplay - 9.5
Value - 8.5

Though the game litterally begins with a blast, it takes a while for inFamous to get going. When you start, it feels odd with slightly loose controls and Cole being slightly fidgety. The setting isn't that inspiring either, Empire City is grey, theydefinition of grey, and unlike Grand Theft Auto IV, where the city was the star of the show, Empire City is not what this game is about, it is about electricity. Now as I said, the game does not start that excitingly. You only have small electric burst and you are forced to fill out mundane tasks like charging electricity boxes.

However, after the slow start, things start to click into place. You get more powers, and more upgrades and you do start to feel powerful. The story also does a good job of driving you forward, and the way that a new power is just around the corner nearly all the time making this a really really addictive game. After a slow start, the pacing is excellent, and while you are given plenty of mostly varied side missions, and the main story is excellent in providing varied missions and provides plenty of entertainment. There is quite a clear structure, you move around, doing various missions, and then you get to go to a new area, where you have to go into the sewer to get your new power and recconect the electricity, and then get to try it out. You then do a few more missions, before moving to a new area.. and you can guess the rest. The sewer levels do get repetitive as they all look the same, which is quite annoying, but Sucker Punch does realise this, so by the time you are really tired of them, they serve up a very short one after your final power, to allow you to what you will want to do, which is to finish the game.

The powers are great. There have been criticisms of them just being replacements of guns, which is unfair. While there is the normal shot, the sniper etc.. your powers can be upgraded, which make them more unique. How you can customise them depends on your karma, more on that later, but the rocket launcher equivalent can either be upgraded to be controlled after impact or so you fire six rockets and other upgrades similar to that apply to the other powers and it is a good system.

The other main system with the game is the traversal system. Any open world game will live or die on how you can get around, and inFamous mostly succeedes here. Now obviously Cole was an urban explorer before the blast, and so he can scale buildings very quickly and easily. It is a little floaty, there almost seems to be an invisible lock-on system so you do not have to line up your jumps at all. Basically you can point Cole roughly where you want to go and press X and if you are roughly right, he will land there. At first it feels awkard, but combine this with the ability to grind along the plentiful rooftop wires and traintracks, and you can move around very quickly. What's even better to be very quick you have to be good, so when you string together a series of wire grinds it feels really satisfying.

As I said early, Empire City is no looker when it comes to architecture, and each of the three islands have very little identity. However, as you traverse the island, there are plenty of things to see and do. As you walk around you will see the suffering on the streets as people rout around in garbage bins desperate for scraps, and you will occassionally see the gangs marshalling prisoners around. The gans which inhabit the area make it seem more alive. They will shoot at you as you move around and by doing the side missions you can clear the area of gangs, and then you will see less suffering on the streets. These side missions are generally varied, but there are some that do repeat, which can be frustrating, but on the whole they are fun.

Now throughout the game, you are given karma choices, which are completely black and white. One example is; do you want to steal all the food and horde it for yourself. These go through the story, and many of them do feel like tough choices, but there are no rewards for being neutral. If you want the trophies, you have to be fully good or evil, and if you want to fully upgrade your powers, you will have to only support one side. The way people react to you also depends on whether you are good or evil, so if you are a hero, people will come to your aid and throw rocks at your enemies, and if you are inFamous, you get the rocks thrown at you.

As I said before, the story is paced very well, and while it is not the greatest story ever, there is certainly enough going on to keep you interested, and it has a great ending.

inFamous' weakest area is definitely its graphics. While character models are on the whole good, the electrical effects and explosions are fantastic, there are many areas where it is let down. There is near consistent pop-up, and while it is not that bad, it can be a little off putting. The animations are also quite poor, and when people run it doesn't look quite right. The AI is also quite weak, but servicable. The comic book cut-scenes are fantastic though. They are rare, but fantastically done, and I wish there were more.

The game has great replay value, as your powers do vary to a large degree depending on whether you are good or evil, and it is certainly worth a second playthrough. The city is also filled with 350 blast shards, and while it is quite a pain to find all of them, they do serve the purpose of increasing your electrical capacity, even if they only give you a measly bronze trophy for finding them all. There are also stunts to unlock to keep you occupied, and these can involve things such as getting a headshot against an enemy who is in the air, achieving all of these will give you a sliver trophy. On the whole the trophy list is quite easy, most of the trophies apart from the stunts, blast shards and dead drops (more collectibles to enhance the story) will come naturally as you play through on good and evil.

inFamous is a great game, even if it has its flaws. The gameplay is fantastic, and the pacing after the begining is great. There is plenty of content to keep you playing, and it is shame about the graphical issues. As with any open world game, there are some glitches, but I didn't have that many problems with them. In some ways, it could have done with a bit of extra polish, but ultimately, it is a very fun game to play, despite the minor issues.