Sucker Punch's exceptional gameplay and strong story is marred by an unimaginative world and poor design choices
Presentation/Synopsis:
inFamous starts with a literal bang, there's no difficulty select, simply pressing start will throw you into the infamous story. It's a strong opening, displaying the chaos of a cataclysmic explostion in the middle of the city and with any good comic book story, some average joe must be caught in the centre. For this is Sucker Punch's attempt at a superhero origins story, taking familiar tropes of the comic book genre and avoiding the complications of using an established name, Sucker Punch place you in the control of Cole MacGrath, a bike courier who accidentally is given an explosive package which endows him with electrical powers.
inFamous tells a refreshingly honest and intriguing tale, the main story sequences are told through incredibly stylish and well-done comic book cutscenes. These cutscenes are narrated by MacGrath and are much more than simple static panels. There are effects, moving objects and slick transitions between frames which do well to emphasise that this is a comic book story but one built from the ground up to be a videogame. The story itself is simple at first but gradually grows in depth and complexity but the initial premise sound. You have superpowers and an FBI agent will get you out the quarantined Empire City (a rehash of New York) if you find her husband John White who was working undercover for the very people who created the bomb that gave Cole his powers.
The story is realistic enough that you can suspend your disbelief for most the game until the end where things become blatantly comic booky. Though the origins plot itself is one of the better stories I've experienced the subplots involving the characters are flimsy, primarily because none of the main characters are particularly likable people.
Regardless of the decisions you make during the game Cole constantly verges on the dislikable, his relationship with his best friend Zeke is neither well-drawn nor particularly emotional and as it's a major component of the plot at a certain point this is particularly irksome. Cole's relationship with Trish is also nebulous as neither display any real affection towards each other even before they are estranged very early in the game, it's a testament to the quality of the base plot that it can hold your attention for the 20 or so hours it will take you to complete.
Those 20 hours aren't perfectly paced; the story starts well but suffers a lag once you enter the second district known as the Warren. You won't notice the lag so much if you break up your gameplay with side missions but its nevertheless an issue when the story piles on a great deal of information and plot after a noticeable lack of very much narrative at all for a good hour or so.
Voice acting is a mixed bag. Moya the FBI agent, Cole's girlfriend Trish and John White are all voiced convincingly although mostly through telephone conversations and dead drop recordings. Cole's best friend Zeke on the other hand is both immensely irritating in his role as a supposedly lovable rockabilly scoundrel and unfortunately integral to the plot, by the end of the tale you may find it hard to like Zeke as he does nothing to bring you around to appreciating his presence. Cole himself is also hard to like, he speaks in a gruff 20-pack a day voice which rarely varies in cadence and is constantly serious regardless of the situation.
Cole's voice actor does a good job narrating the cutscenes because they're generally important in nature so his growl fits the themes but during gameplay conversations his voice verges on the ridiculous. The major antagonists are the highlights of the voice cast, Sasha especially provides a fantastic villain for the short time she has in the game and the two other villains also present strong opposing figures which drive the narrative forward.
Unfortunately the cutscenes rendered by the in-game engine aren't nearly as impressive as the pre-rendered panels. Characters move like marionettes on strings, Cole's jaw looks like its set on a steel hinge and his eyes stare blankly into space, lip syncing is pretty much non-existent and the characters look noticeably different from their pre-rendered comic panel likenesses. It's PS2 levels of quality and virtually unacceptable in today's world of MGS4 and Uncharted, this kind of jerky animation may work well for Sucker Punch's Sly Cooper series characters but for human characters it's nowhere near up to the standards we expect.
Cole himself is animated well during gameplay, his movements are swift and agile if jerky and he traverses Empire City with the alacrity of a parkour jumper which is evidently the intention. Character movements during gameplay are quite well done, the enemies move from cover to cover fluidly and their animation is smooth.
Graphics:
In terms of visual presentation inFamous isn't up to standard with its Playstation exclusive brethren. Empire City displays an impressive amount of detail for an open world game with good texture work, realistically dirty environments which help to enforce the feeling of a enclosed island slowly eating away at itself and Cole himself is fluid and detailed character model, something that can't really be said of the other characters present here.
However there are a raft of technical issues present, starting with the frequent and continuous levels of pop-in. Once Cole acquires the induction grind and static thruster abilities which let him grind along power lines and train tracks and glide through the air respectively you'll be more aware of everything from appearing cars, buildings, NPC's and world details like dustbins and debris. But even before you acquire these abilities and have to run along the streets you'll notice the same issues throughout the game regardless of the speed you are travelling at. It doesn't help that inFamous has serious framerate issues when you're moving quickly or taking on a significant number of enemies. The framerate problems are compounded by the fact that there is no quick-travel system in inFamous so in order to get about quickly you will have to utilize train tracks and grind power lines to get about effectively.
The game's lighting engine is also poor which is a shame considering it's a game based around the premise that you have electrical powers at your disposal. In fact the first third of the game is spent entirely in darkness which isn't helped by the weak lighting, it's a humdrum darkness unlike the stylised, forbidding gloom of Batman Arkham Asylum or the oppressive darkness of earlier games like Jak 2 and its frankly dull and uninteresting. The best lighting is found when you venture into the sewers but it also reveals that there are virtually no reflections in the dank water and your powers look uncomfortably fake once they are the only illumination. When you finally do get some light outside you'll be so thankful that you may not notice the poor shadows and stark lighting that the day will bring.
Artistically Empire City is disappointing, especially considering the exemplary work Sucker Punch did with its previous Sly Cooper series. The city is split up into three districts but they all blend together in an uninspiring mush of a drab colour palette and blockish architecture. The Neon is as square and as dull a district as I have ever seen in a videogame, the Warren attempts to create a slum district but most of the architecture is still just as square and has only been given an added layer of grime and decay. Only the Historical district offers any kind of interesting scenery but it's not interesting enough to make you go exploring, mainly consists of tall things where you can be sure collectibles will be found. There are some highlights, the Dustmen's tower is nicely comic book-like and it's nice to see Sucker Punch haven't completely lost their artistic sensibilities. It's helpful if you look at inFamous as very open action game rather than an open world one because if there's one world to describe Empire City in its entirety, it's "Grey".
Sound:
When it comes to the audio inFamous is acceptable, there's an unsettling lack of music when you are just moving about and even during missions the developers seem to have made a conscious decision to put ambient noise first. It's strange at first but it grows on you and helps develop a feeling of immersion which also makes the moments when music is included more impactful.
The music itself ranges from simple rhythms to grandiose scores and neither are over used and several are stark simple compositions which match the tone of the narrative.
The sound design is unfortunately not on par with the music. Cole's various powers don't differ much in terms of sounds although the shock grenades have a satisfying hum as they travel through the air and Megawatt Hammer (read: rocket launcher) has a solid impact to it. Enemies sound the same for the most part, the Reapers have an annoying rasp to them, the Dustmen's contribution to the audio can be summed up by the words "clank" and "thud" and the First Sons aren't really that talkative. The enemies also use weapons that sound virtually identical so don't expect much in the way of sound variety as you enter new districts populated by new groups of baddies.
Gameplay:
If one thing is clear, it's that Sucker Punch put most of their time and effort into reworking the momentum based platforming of the Sly games into a smooth and enjoyable action game. Cole's gameplay is split up into frantic over-the-shoulder third person shooting with a stable of electrical weapons that function similarly to classic shooter staples (think grenades, rockets, sniper rifle and pistol but electrical and hand-based) and rapid platforming based around building up speed and inertia.
The platforming is enjoyable on the whole but has a tendency to irritate under certain circumstances. Cole has an odd magnetism to any climbable objects, this does mean you can leap about with impunity as you're bound to latch on to something but when you actually want to drop down this becomes an issue, you may also find Cole grabbing onto nearby objects that you intended to miss and so on. Scaling buildings can result in awkwardness as its unclear what exactly is a handhold in some cases, notches and grooves may look like handholds but are in fact not but on they may be so on another building. It also requires an unwieldy amount of mashing X to scale a building. This wouldn't be so much of a problem I hadn't already experienced Assassin's Creed and its smooth climbing mechanics, but I have so it is.
The combat is where inFamous truly shines, fights are often difficult and require a certain level of cunning as you simultaneously manage your dwindling electricity supplies which are depleted by your more offensive abilities, take out major threats and dodge incoming attacks. Cole's attacks are powerful and very satisfying to use and by the end of the game you will feel like a true powerhouse.
There is an XP based upgrade system here but it doesn't grant you new powers, it only improves the functionality of your existing ones, it's certainly useful and mandatory if you want to survive but it's a shame you can't buy new toys with the wealth of exp you will accumulate over the course of the game. The game presents a decent challenge due to the interesting take on the now ubiquitous rechargeable health system, Cole's health will recharge at a snail's pace if you stay out of the line of fire, to survive you must seek out and drain electricity from whatever sources you can find be it cars, lamp posts or generators. This fully recharges your health and creates a fantastic risk/reward dynamic as you weigh the probability of being shot to pieces against the necessity of the electricity, this becomes even more vital as your own supply will be depleted rapidly as you will need to use your more energy thirsty powers as the game progresses, the progression steadily increases the difficulty without being unfair and you'll be challenged readily but with quick reflexes and grab bag of cunning you should be able to complete the more challenging sections within a few goes. In short the difficulty suffers no truly painful spikes and constantly presents you with new threats and obstacles to overcome.
Enemy AI and design is passable at best, they display a good desire for self-preservation and are suitably aggressive but they display little evidence of pain when hit and prefer to run in circles rather than melee you when you are in close proximity. They also are always attacking from every rooftop in the city regardless of the number of side missions you do which supposedly take territory back from the gangs, you can barely walk 30 seconds without hearing gunshots and the enemies display uncanny accuracy from over 3 blocks away so you'll never have the chance to explore without being under attack from something. The enemies are also very low-rent in their design, the dustmen are named as such due to their fondness for wearing dustbin bags, the reapers are basically hoodies with AK-47's and the First Sons could be ripped straight from another sci-fi game. They also vary only in aesthetics so don't expect to see much variation in grunt enemy behaviour. Happily there are plenty of mini-bosses and unique adversaries that vary the combat, these "conduits" who gained powers from the blast like Cole did provide the most exciting and enjoyable moments in the game.
Story missions are brilliantly orchestrated and display the fantastic pacing, design and imagination that I have come to expect from Sucker Punch. Some do end up the same way, there are more than a couple of missions that just end up with you being fed a constant supply of energy while the game throws a hoard of baddies at you but the situations that result in this and the pure adrenaline rush that the combat provides keeps these moments from becoming too stale. Side Missions on the other hand are extremely similar and follow a set template of kill em all, escort, capture, defend, destroy and assassination missions. One template called Counter Surveillance requires you to use Cole's awkward scaling abilities to find and drain surveillance bugs which is novel the first time and infuriating by the third.
There's about 100 missions in all and as such it's a wealth of content in an already lengthy game, I'd recommend you do a couple of side quests between each story mission else you may be put off the copy and paste affairs that they undoubtedly are.
Collectibles are readily available early on and they mean something unlike the junk we normally are urged to collect in most action games. Blast Shards are littered about the world and once you collect enough of them your ability to store energy increases. Dead Drops are the other, more interesting items as they contain audio recordings ala Bioshock of John White's reports on his attempts to infiltrate the shady developers of the bomb that gave Cole his powers, they help fill in what gaps there are in the story rather than just provide background context like so many of these increasingly popular brand of collectible in games today.
A choice you will have to make early on is whether you want to be a hero or the titular inFamous. There is a karma system here and it surprisingly integral to the game as a whole. The choices you make will affect how both major and superfluous characters react to you and a nice touch is that it will also change the aesthetic of Empire City. Play nice and the streets will look cleaner, citizens will do their best to inconvenience your enemies and there will be more police about. Take the evil route and the streets get grimier, the police will attack you on sight and so will the inhabitants of the city. Story wise the karma system doesn't really change much but it does affect the aesthetic and contents of the comic panel cutscenes which is excellent, there's one point in particular where you choose a street artist's poster based on how you want the people to see you, these posters then appear all around the city. The choices you make range from minor acts like healing the injured or inversely sucking the life out of them to major choices like whether to poison the water supply to save yourself a face full of ooze. These choices crop up constantly and they're as binary as they sound. There's nothing to be gained by picking and choosing, the choices themselves are so diametrically opposed that either choice will be made by a conscious decision to be good or evil and if you play the field you'll never have enough evil/goodness to get hold of the most powerful upgrades to your powers.
There's only a couple of choices which will actually test your moral sense of right and wrong, their just as binary as the rest of them and this is made painfully obvious by Cole's explanation of the possibilities but the last decision especially was still harrowing despite its blatant signposting of which choice represented which side of the karmic spectrum. I admit it's a great way to create replay value as each karmic side has its own set of side missions which are much more interesting than the ordinary side missions and you'll want to try out the other side's powers once you complete the game the first time, the outcomes of the choices themselves are enjoyable to watch play out, especially when playing as Evil Cole as his gruff persona fits that karmic side more comfortably but it's not Mass Effect or even KOTOR so be warned, expect no moral grey areas here.
Conclusion:
As an action game and a refreshing take on the superhero origins story that we have seen so much of recently in both film and games, inFamous is a resounding success. As an open world game? No, there are some great ideas here but Empire City is so dull, grey and lifeless to make this game a serious contender in the Assassin's Creeds and GTA's of this world. With so many technical shortcomings and uninspiring design choices which are coupled with the lack of any truly likable characters inFamous fails to live up to its promise as a story-driven open world action game. But it's definitely worth your time as a story driven action title, just don't expect to immersed in its world or attached to its characters.
The Rundown:
Pros
+ Wonderful take on the superhero origins tale told by brilliantly realized comic book panel cutscenes with mostly exceptional voice acting. Story grows in depth and intrigue as it progresses and it'll keep you engaged for the good 20 hours one playthrough will take.
+ When it's in motion, platforming is great fun
+ Cole's powers are good fun to experiment with, there's a tangible feeling of empowerment here.
+ Combat requires skill, cunning and quick reflexes, it's also consistently enjoyable and evolves as you play. Conduit Enemies especially make the fighting tactical and fast-paced.
+ Real collectibles which add to both the story and the gameplay
+ Reasonably challenging with a measured increase in difficulty that feels just right
+ Great story mission design which stays constantly varied in terms of premise if not of mechanics and orchestration
+ Lots of content, especially with the karma system which ensures you will need to play twice to experience everything. Expect in the region of 30-40 hours of gameplay time.
+ Empire City displays plenty of detail and responds surprisingly to your Karmic agenda
+ Some occasionally harrowing moral choices although they are few and far between.
Cons
- Empire City is dull, unimaginative and ugly. Full of flat-roofed blocks of buildings with only basic aesthetic changes made to distinguish the three separate districts.
- Pacing slows down during the second third of the game
- A raft of technical issues ranging from weak lighting to more debilitating problems like framerate instability during rapid movement and large scale action sequences to continuous and noticeable pop-in of everything from NPC's to whole blocks of architecture.
- Dislikable characters dull the personal edge of the story
- Enemy AI is supremely aggravating. You never get any breathing space from enemy attacks and they display unrealistic levels of accuracy and resilience to pain.
- The awkward parkour required to scale buildings and Cole's odd magnetism to architecture is a frequent irritation.
- Low rent enemy design is both unimaginative and dull for the most part.
- Binary Morality system owes nothing to your own moral values; karma choices require a conscious decision to be good or evil.
- Dreadful in-game cutscene animation. Characters move like marionettes and look nothing like their stylized likenesses seen in the comic book panel cutscenes
inFamous is a game worthy of your time, effort and money. But don't expect a graphically polished or cohesive experience. It's evident that a lot of time and effort went into creating a new and believable fiction surrounding Cole MacGrath and the circumstances that led up to the blast in Empire City, certainly a lot of work also went into the gameplay but little was done to make Empire City either worth saving or leaving to rot.