Fun to play, great story, diverse missions, awesome action. Unfortunately the characters feel slightly under-developed
InFamous is a very well designed sand-box game. The city is large enough without being overwhelming. The main quest is rarely repetitive and gets bigger and more exciting as the game moves toward its climax. The side-quests are fairly diverse in comparison to similar games and have consistent relevance in relation to the main quest. The collectables scattered through-out the city have a purpose and are not just tacked on to extend the life of the game (As is common in similar games).
The inFamous narrative is well delivered, but generally unoriginal. You acquire mission objectives from other characters who communicate with you via your in-game mobile phone. Most of the dialogue is performed in this way. Significant events in the story arc are delivered by cut-scenes made to look like a graphic novel. The cut-scenes are unique, very effective and for the most part, as good as any fully animated CG scene that you would see in your average game. The most intriguing part of inFamous' plot development is the ability to "pick-a-path". You decide whether to be a Hero, or a Villain - and the choices you make impact the story development and the games conclusion. The pick-a-path makes for a very good reason to replay the game over and experience the other-side of the tale.
The game-play in inFamous is great but not perfect. You can climb up almost anything, swing from cables, ride on trains and jump across roof-tops. Generally the moving and traversing mechanics are solid, but have a frustrating habit of failing at a critical and extremely inconvenient time, though this problem is far from unique to this game, and is actually one of the less flawed implementations. Combat is fun and frantic, accompanied by many huge explosions and crazy visual effects. As you progress through the game you get more powerful and gain new exciting abilities that both feel good to use and helps you kick some bad-guy butt. Unfortunately, even with all the powers at your disposal, combat is not very deep. More often then not combat is just about running around, dodging gun fire and button mashing.
InFamous is carried along by a great story, intense action and high quality design. The games biggest let down is its characters. The characters are very under-developed with almost no back story and one never really reaches a level of involvement in their plight. Love, hate, death and betrayal are all part of the inFamous story, but as the player you never really care. This is extremely disappointing because inFamous is all about it's characters.
InFamous is an excellent start to a new franchise and a great game to play through. It's exciting, intense, has a few twists and turns, plenty of action and a well written story without too much unnecessary padding. If you like sand-box games and like super hero's (come on, who doesn't?) then grab a copy of inFamous and start tearing it up with some seriously shocking and electrifying powers.