Picture the scene. A man is chasing down his only lead that will provide the location of an evil mass murderer but along the way notices a group of people unfairly harassing and possibly about to kill a blameless civilian for stealing their food. Does the man help the innocent or simply continue on his way?
That is just one of the many choices Cole, the protagionist of inFAMOUS, has to make on a life-affirming journey to save the world.
Empire City: The World of inFAMOUS
The PlayStation 3 exclusive inFAMOUS is a superhero sandbox game that allows the player to decide if the character becomes a saviour to the people or a power hungry maniac bent on destruction. It tells the story of Cole, an ordinary man who gains extraordinary powers following an explosion that he may have caused in his home town of Empire City.
The city has been quarantined, a virus has turned half of the people into bloodthirsty psychopathic gang members who prey on the weak and society has crumbled. Only Cole and his new-found control over electricity can either bring civilisation back to normal or exploit it for his own means.
The fun comes from the fact that Empire City is a vast open world which allows the player to choose what order to complete missions and side quests or just free roam wherever they want by either climbing up buildings or gliding along railway tracks. As a large proportion of the game is focused on platform sections it’s more Jak and Daxter than Grand Theft Auto. But that is far from a negative comparison as the Jak and Daxter series happens to be top of the class in its genre.
Be a Hero or become Infamous
Cole’s ability to manipulate electricity means he can fire bolts of lightning or knock down a group of attackers, however most of these are just extensions of established shoot ‘em up weapons such as handguns or grenades. Some attacks use up his energy but there’s a healthy supply of electricity in the city’s power grid that can be siphoned off. As he restores power to the crumbling city he also learns new modes of attack that can be upgraded using experience points and come in useful in the later stages.
Depending on what actions the player does dictates Cole’s Karma and how his powers develop. The hero Cole is more precise and will find that the citizens of Empire City will help out against the gangs while the infamous Cole has more destructive moves and is pelted with rocks.
inFAMOUS is a Slightly Flawed but Enjoyable Game
The balance between story and gameplay has been very finely tuned.
The player learns enough about the plot through cut-scenes and comic book style interludes without having to wait hours before picking the pad up and resuming. Much of the dialogue is also relayed through phone calls meaning Cole can continue on his way to the next mission without interruptions. There's also touches of humour as the occasional TV news updates cleverly parody the post-9/11 terrorism obsessed media. The narrative contains some interesting twists and the ending leaves open the possibility of a sequel somewhere along the line.
Problems lie in some of the game mechanics. As inFAMOUS uses a system where Cole latches on to the nearest ledge after a jump this becomes more annoying than helpful as he often moves the wrong way or forces a ridiculous camera angle. The voice-over work, often a bone of contention in video games, is on the whole top notch except Cole appears to be voiced by a Christian Bale wannabe in full Batman mode.
Although the game does follow a slightly different character paths based on the player’s choices the overall story remains pretty much the same and seasoned pros of the genre will have this finished in days. Still as current generation games go this is certainly an enjoyable challenge and a tidy exclusive for Sony to acquire especially as the PS3 needs all the help it can get at the moment.
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