inFamous

inFAMOUS had a lot of the makings of a great superhero video game going for me. Previous to Batman: Arkham Asylum, I would have easily said that my favorite superhero game of all time was Spider-Man 2 on the original Xbox. That was the first game for me in which it truly captured the wall-crawler's skills and abilities, dropped you into a big, open world, and translated it into a fun video game. inFAMOUS is very similar to the Spider-Man games in the sense that you're dropped into an open world where you can basically run, climb, and transport everywhere thanks to your handy-dandy super powers. However, although the gameplay is solid and the game itself is technically impressive, there are far too many moments of frustration that kept it from reaching it's pinnacle.

The story is a simple one: The character you play as is Cole, who is a courier of the fictional Empire City (which is split into different islands). You are on route to deliver just another seemingly harmless package when all of a sudden you inadvertently level half the city. Being the only survivor of that explosion, you are, needless to say, less than well-liked. The aftermath of the explosion pretty much turns Cole's world upside down: he's gained the ability to control electricity, loses the faith of his girlfriend, has the island locked down due to a mysterious plague, and the ensuing chaos leads to the rise of multiple eccentric gangs. As Cole gains a better grasp over his powers, he learns more and more about his situation, and without giving too much away, it is easy to say that things get crazy real fast (particularly in the second half).

The story itself is presented with cool comic book-syle cut-scenes that add to the superhero atmosphere, but the fun parts are the moral choices Cole has to deal with throughout the story; often, throughout the campaign, the gameplay pauses and Cole is given the option to do a good action (and thus gaining good karma) or evil choices (which result in netting bad karma). It's a fun mechanic that is connected with the karma system in the game which nets you different powers based on your karma level. Typically, the powers gained from good karma more often result in restraining your enemy, while the powers gained from evil karma are meant to flat-out destroy those that oppose you. Although it is a sound idea on paper, I do wish they offered tougher choices to base Cole's moral compass: the choices are often black and white and, outside of one specific choice in the second half of the game, don't really result in too much inner-turmoil for the player. Instead, you just merely stick with whatever side you want to play on in that playthrough.

The gameplay is pretty straight-forward: you start off with access to only part of Empire City, where you run around and do missions that move the story along such as helping another main character or restoring power to other parts of the city that have been damaged by the explosion. There are plenty of side-missions to do as well, such as defeating a certain number of bad guys, defending a location, collecting packages, destroying surveillance equipment, or the ever-dreaded “follow” missions, where the objective is to follow a gang member until he reaches a specified place without getting caught. You can also run around and collect “blast shards”, pieces of the bomb that exploded that, when added up, contribute to the amount of electricity Cole can store.

The combat of the game is dynamic and fun. Cole has access to several different powers at the beginning such as firing basic electric projectiles or throwing electric grenades, and he gains more powers by restoring more power to the city as the game progresses. When you use Cole's more advanced powers, however, it drains power from his energy reserves. When his reserves deplete completely, you have to find an energy source to tap into. By completing missions and defeating bad guys, you gain experience points that allow you to purchase upgrades to your powers, such as increasing the radius of your explosions or decreasing the amount of time it takes for you absorb electricity from a source.You can also run around the city and you are able to climb up pretty much anything, including buildings, telephone poles, and anything else that looks climbable. Cole's access to electrical powers also allow him to hover through the air and also gives him the ability to “surf” along railroad tracks and power lines that have access to power.

The controls are fairly simple: you have your button for melee attacks, jump, and dodge, while holding down the trigger button gives you access to your super powers. The climbing mechanic works also works well enough having Cole “stick” to objects for easier navigating. For instance, if you jump off an electric line towards a railroad track, Cole seems to naturally gravitate towards the track, making it easier for you to reach your intended target. When it works as intended, you have a seamless and perfect transition, making you feel like a bad-ass superhero. When it doesn't work, however, and you're getting stuck because you're “sticking” to ladders when you're trying to grab something else, however, it makes you feel (and look) like you should be playing the role of incompetent sidekick.

The graphics of the game are really good, providing detailed buildings and architecture and nice textures. The animations are very smooth and fluid, and while not reaching Uncharted-quality status, they are still very impressive. The developers have put a lot of effort into creating a big city for you to explore and do a good job at letting you go pretty much anywhere you wanted.

The game isn't without it's faults, however. Although the fighting is fun, during the later levels I got especially frustrated at the difficulty of the combat. Sure, it would be unreasonable to expect to never die in a video game, but at the same time, I never really felt like I was a “superhero”. Far too often in the later levels I found myself hiding in corners waiting for my health to regenerate and desperately trying to find a power source so I could drop some bombs on some people again. Other times, I would avoid fighting all together, trying to sneak my way behind groups of enemies I should easily have been able to dispatch. There are also specific missions that made me almost pull my hair out at the ridiculousness of the difficulty of the situation. It isn't until the very end of the game where you gain all your powers and really feel like you're a superhero, but at that time you're already on your way to fight the final boss...who kicks your ass so hard it makes you feel like that lame sidekick again.

Also, I do wish there were a better travel mechanic. Although you can climb up buildings and traverse power lines, it didn't seem like the most effective way to get across the map. There would be places where you would have to stop surfing the lines, jump off, run, climb some more, find another line, and hop back on. It would've been nice if there was a quick-travel feature, especially towards the end of the game where they make you back-track the islands quite a bit. Also, if you've been skipping some of the side-missions on other islands, it really is a pain to muster up enough motivation to travel all the way back there to do them.
 

And one last little nitpick: Because everything else is so well done and polished, it just points out how little "soul" this game You can easily climb up the tallest building in the city and look around and just not care.  The cast of characters in this game range from mediocre and forgettable to just plain annoying. The city itself had a great potential to be a great "character", but instead it could only be considered generic at best. Although you do see a lot of pedestrians walking (or running, when all hell breaks loose), there's no life to them. They either run up to you and take your picture if they like you, or they run away/throw things at you if you're evil. Rather than being any kind of factor, the citizens are merely just empty props that really don't do much of anything other than litter to floor with injured bodies that need Cole's healing touch or drive around the same model of ugly-ass cars. Also, it doesn't really feel like your moral choices have that much weight in the in-game world, as it's all described via cut scene only to be never really brought up again. Lastly, I have to say that the ending is just plain weird, and doesn't really offer any sense satisfaction or accomplishment to the overall product.

All in all, the game was a fun, challenging, and sometimes frustrating experience. Sucker Punch has developed a really great start on a franchise and, with a few tweaks and modifications here and there, I have no doubt that this series will only go from good to great.