Is infamous a great game? Or simply a game with a lot of great ideas? This question weighed heavily on my mind throughout my experience with sucker punch’s critically acclaimed open world game.

I must admit at first it was really difficult for me to get into infamous, but as the game progressed i found myself more and more unable to put the damn thing down. Sucker Punch are masters of "movement" in games. I remember playing sly cooper many years ago and thinking "holy shit this game is ridiculously slick and fun as hell to play" and those sentiments can mostly be echoed for describing infamous. Sadly where sly cooper created a mild Sony mascot in sly, Cole ( the protagonist in infamous) doesn’t seem to have any personality whatsoever. At least they stayed away from the obligatory "black hooded assassins creed rip off" right?.. . Speaking of which, infamous allowed me to scale buildings and cross empire city with such great ferocity that it really does make assassins creed feel slow by comparison.


Cole is a bald man with a badass hero complex who talks in a deep gruff voice and zero personality. I really hope that with infamous 2 sucker punch will decide to put a lot of time and effort into making the lead character of their creation a bit more memorable. So i guess this is another reason why it scares me so much to read of the indecision over at sucker punch in these late stages of development concerning the protagonist for the highly buzzed upcoming infamous sequel.

However despite the complete lack of "humanity" throughout infamous....Cole is also the main reason the game works. Wha? Let me explain.

Putting aside his personality and aesthetic Cole is a complete blast to PLAY. The rpg elements give him a great sense of progression and the control as i mentioned and Cole is your vessel for exploring every nook and cranny of empire city. A double bladed sword of sorts, i found myself cringing at every stupid one liner Cole uttered, yet anticipating using each new power and climbing each new building.

The story is lame and the way alot of the characters and environments react to your abilities and explosions is quite ridiculous. Infamous in two words:fun/sloppy.These elements don’t hinder your fun but they do nag away at your gaming subconscious. The game has a good amount of inspiration, whether it be some of the enemy designs, comic book style cut scenes, and certain mission structures ( like a mission in which you have to protect the cities water supply from hallucination inducing tar) and all the movement surrounding the main character but at the end of the day i cant help but feel infamous is more of a game of great ideas than a great game.

What you think ?
 
mo

Cole not having much "humanity" kinda makes sense though as it opens up the twist ending of the game.  Here is a guy who causes unimaginable suffering, by accident and on purpose.  Not much different than Batman really, who I never really felt had much humanity left.

I almost stopped reading at "The Story is lame", but that's just opinion, I guess.
Anyway, if it has great ideas, and there's nothing wrong with the gameplay, what's holding it back from being a great game? The character of Cole? eh, yeah, he doesn't really have much personality, or any other character in the game for that matter, but it doesn't get in the way of how fun the game is or how good (in my opinion) the story is. inFamous is a great game.

" I almost stopped reading at "The Story is lame", but that's just opinion, I guess.
Anyway, if it has great ideas, and there's nothing wrong with the gameplay, what's holding it back from being a great game? The character of Cole? eh, yeah, he doesn't really have much personality, or any other character in the game for that matter, but it doesn't get in the way of how fun the game is or how good (in my opinion) the story is. inFamous is a great game. "

It's a bit weird to think of it as "less than the sum of its parts", but I can see where you're coming from. I really liked inFAMOUS, but there were parts like Zeke that I really disliked.

I don't want Cole to have personality -- aside from the one I shape with my actions, that is.

InFamous is NOT a great game, it's an AMAZING game !  :)
 
I could say why, but i won't waste my breath... i mean waste my energy ?

my only complaint about Infamous?
 
the fact there's 350.fucking.shards, GOD!
 
100 or so like Assassin's Creed? But 350? F that.

I had fun with the game and thought it was quite good but everyone is different so to each his own.

TL DR; but I can agree with the topic title. Two things that Infamous did great despite not being a great game. 1. It was able to give you almost unlimited movement and terrain traversal while also having set pieces that send you down a linear path and you can't deviate from the path. They managed to strike the balance required for telling a story and giving you freedom. 2. The enemy balance was excellent. Any enemy can kill cole at any point in the game. I've been killed by members of the starting gang after getting all the powers and health upgrades and beating the final boss. The balance makes every encounter strategic, unlike in most games where the starting enemies gat stomped with no effort at the end of the game.