Review: Infamous

Release Date: NA: May 26, 2009, EU: May 29, 2009, AUS: June 4, 2009, JP: November 5, 2009
Developed By: Sucker Punch Productions
Genre: Third-person Action-adventure
Platforms: Playstation 3

It's hard to believe that I had shaky first impressions of Infamous. The shallow characters, dodgy animation and mediocre beginnings of the story were almost enough to put me off the game. I'm glad I stuck with it, though, as it turns out it has a lot more to offer than it first appears to.

Infamous literally starts with a bang, as the main protagonist, Cole MacGrath, unwittingly activates a mysterious object known as the ray sphere, creating a blast that devastates the surrounding city. Cole wakes from the explosion with electricity surging through his body, giving him superpowers. The city becomes a war-zone, with gangs of 'reapers' roaming the city causing as much chaos and destruction as possible. With his new powers, Cole is put to the task of retrieving the ray sphere by Moya, a government agent, while restoring order to the city along the way.

Characters are a strong component of a good story, so it's a shame that the characters in Infamous are so bland. Cole has little personality other than being a hardened badass with a gruff voice, and his comrades are no better. His best friend, Zeke, is your typical cocky (read: annoying) sidekick and the sort-of-ex-girlfriend Trish has almost nothing to contribute to the story other than being the mandatory love interest for Cole. The plot was making some effort at trying to draw me in with a few intriguing questions, but the one-dimensional characters and otherwise predictable storytelling held it back from becoming involving.

In fact, it's not until the latter parts of the game that the story picks up pace, and it wasn't until the very end that I was actually surprised by a plot twist. It was definitely becoming a good story, but sadly, it was too late. Similarly, the villains of the game were far more interesting than the good guys, and it would have been nice to see them have more screen time, especially in the early parts of the game.

Visually, it's a good looking game with a rich setting of apocalyptic urban blight. You get a good sense of the magnitude of the devastation as the citizens display feelings of despair and hopelessness, and the cityscape is littered with ruined buildings, broken roads and general rubble. The cut scenes are played out in a striking, moving comic-book style that fits in well with the game's superhero theme. Unfortunately, the presentation is marred somewhat by often inconsistent framerate and awkward animation. The characters move stiffly, especially when speaking. In a game that looks so great, the sub-par character animation sticks out like a sore thumb.

Don't Judge a Book By It's Cliched Gravelly Voice

Despite my qualms in the early stages of Infamous, by the time I finished the game, I was surprised at how much my opinion had heightened. What it may lack in story and presentation, it more than makes up for in gameplay.

The game resembles a third person shooter, only with electrical powers in place of guns. Many of the elements of a shooter are present, such as cover, grenades and sniping. Mixed in are a few extra powers that allow you to blast away in style, such as a shockwave that sends enemies flying and a ground slam that knocks down all enemies within a certain radius. Some of the later abilities are a real treat and it would be wrong of me to spoil the surprise. Powers can be upgraded with experience, gained from defeating enemies and completing both story and side missions.

The combat is the meat of the game and never really lets up from being challenging. As you progress and gain more of your powers, several variations of enemies enter the fray. When you move on to a new segment of the city, you face more powerful, tougher to kill versions of the enemies you've been fighting so far. Enemies will also use turrets and armoured vehicles to try and shred you into tiny pieces. The steady stream of new powers and enemies ensure that the combat never gets repetitive and remains enjoyable right to the very end.

If there's one niggle, it's that you sometimes find yourself in seemingly impossible situations that cause temporary spikes in difficulty. To then later acquire a power that's designed to combat the obstacle in question makes one wonder if the difficulty curve could have been somewhat smoothed by introducing these powers earlier. Sure, it's a lot more satisfying to develop a hatred for certain enemies before being handed the tools to fight back, but at the same time, if you've already learned to deal with them without the new power, it becomes relegated to a mere convenience.

The combat is aided by tight, responsive controls, which also shine while you're moving around the city and scaling buildings. One of the perks Cole gains from the ray sphere blast is the ability to climb buildings as effortlessly as some sort of arachnid-based superhero. Control-wise, it's as simple as tapping X and directing Cole to the next grab-able object on the side of the building. Along with the absence of fall damage, this makes traveling around the city a breeze.

Welcome to the Desolate Sandbox

The game follows a similar structure to that of the Grand Theft Auto series. You can roam around the city at will and progress the story by picking up missions in specific locations. At any time there can be one, two or three story missions on offer, along with a plethora of side missions. The main missions put you in various combat situations that get crazier, and as a result, more challenging, as you progress through the game.

It's during the main missions that the bulk of the "karma" decisions come into play. Infamous has a good/evil system, allowing access to specific powers based on your actions. Story-wise, these moral dilemmas aren't particularly deep or thought provoking. When a decision comes up, the action stops while Cole's inner monologue explicitly, and almost patronisingly, considers which option is good and which is bad, resulting in a moral system that's very black and white. With little effect on the overall story, it seems that the karma system is mostly a function of the gameplay. Since the most advanced upgrades to certain powers can only be obtained by becoming fully good or evil, the intended way to play is to choose your path at the beginning and stick to it. It does give the game some replay value, however, as there were a few choices I would have been interested in seeing the opposite outcome to.

The side missions are connected to small sections of the overall map and completion of each one removes enemy influence, in a similar vein to the gang warfare missions in San Andreas (though capturing territory in Infamous is permanent). While the types of side missions do repeat, there's enough variation to keep them from becoming stale, and the fact that they're short and simple means you can knock out a fair amount of them without straying from the main story path for too long. And with an obvious reward for completing them, seeing a side quest icon pop up on your mini-map is far too tempting to ignore.

Overall

Despite it's flaws and a mostly uninteresting story, Infamous is a game with a lot of potential for enjoyment. Though it starts out slow, stick with it and the precise controls and collection of awesome powers turn this game into 15-20 hours of entertaining, electrically charged mayhem. It's proof that sometimes, solid gameplay is all you need for a game to radiate greatness.

I'm happy to say that I'll gladly be going back for a second play-through in the near future, to explore the evil side of Cole.

Rating: 8/10

If you like the sound of it, Infamous will be on offer for free when the PSN Store returns!