inFamous

Ahhh inFAMOUS…one of the PS3 exclusives of ‘09…this is a weird one for me. It created a so-so first impression which built up into a great time…then to a game I couldn’t deal with anymore. Sittin pretty with an 85 on the metacritic, this was a bit of a critical darling, not for me though….I’m a go with a 5/10.

The Good – Original super hero style story that’s not based on a previous comic book for a change. You’re struck by a nuclear blast of sorts then start gaining some serious electrical powers. Everything from shooting lightning bolts from your hands all the way to creating lightning storms killing enemies all around you are there to be built up. It’s an open world city style game, but no driving like a GTA, you jump and climb everywhere. The climbing is one of the best parts of this game, as Cole (your character) will pretty much grab and cling to any ledge, pole or what have you creating one smooth and fun gaming mechanic. The game takes on a mission structure and there’s a good variety for the most part, even the side missions can be fun, usually with a pretty forgiving checkpoint system. Hidden items are made easy to find by clicking a button and they’ll briefly highlight on your mini-map, this is a welcome addition to the open world formula and hopefully games like GTA will adopt this in the future. The cutscenes are motion comic style and happen to be very cool. The feel of unlocking new powers and upgrading them can be pretty fun at first. The graphics and 7.1 surround sound aren’t too shabby either.

The Bad

– Oh man, one of the most major parts of the game….the actual fighting. Sometimes it’s really fun, especially when you’re combining powers….but that’s where it ends. Most of what you’ll use is the standard lightning bolt, talk about needing some aim assist, just when you think you got a bead on someone’s head, *bzzzzzzz* no go. So you’re shooting, missing half your shots since the enemy constantly strafes or hides, especially on rooftops. Then they’re too many times where the baddies will overwhelm you cuz they can swarm in ridiculous numbers. Sometimes you just want to explore the city, but nooo, you gotta get used to the annoying gunshot sounds cuz they’re constantly spawning randomly. Then when you’re in the middle of a mission, trying to get from point A to point B, that random spawning occurs, just makes you want to throw the controller. And the enemies themselves, how bout some frickin variety…first you get some guys in hoods, they all look pretty much the same, you will kill DOZENS(maybe even hundreds) of these guys, it gets old real fast. Then you get the guys with the armor made from garbage and stuff, they’re harder to kill cuz of that, even more annoying, you’ll kill many of them too. And finally, some other guys who are stealthy, with good armor and they move faster than the first guys…..by then I threw up my hands knowing I wasn’t gonna finish the game since the game just became so un-fun by this point, yes, we’re making that a word around here. For those that wanna know, yes, I even put the game on easy mode halfway through and made sure I had most of the powers, all upgraded too…it just wasn’t fun by that point.

The Ugly – Man, I remember when the demo came out, it was criticized for not being the best(alot of demos are like that)…upon reflection, it was perfect for it was a short summary of how the rest of the game is. Pretty much everything I mentioned in the Bad section, shows up in that demo. So basically, if you love the demo, you’ll love the game…the other side of the coin holds true as well.