Licensed game developers, take note: This is how a Superhero game is done.
Superhero games are rarely done well, and that's for a multitude of reasons. Developers have to deal with the barriers of the licensed product, such as story, characters and powers. Also, most of the time, hero titles have to follow a very strict schedule in order to be released simultaneously or close to the release of a film. Luckily for Sucker Punch, they ran into no such problems with their latest new IP inFamous. With a completely original protagonist/antagonist, cast of characters, city, and well scripted storyline, the former makers of the Sly Cooper franchise were bound by no licenses, enabling them to create one of the best Superhero centered titles, as well as one of the best exclusives on Playstation 3.
Starting off as nothing more than an errand boy, Cole was on another run to deliver a package. Unexpectedly to him, the package erupts with a massive explosion. The blast radius encompasses a large portion of Empire City, killing thousands. The aftershock threw the city into chaos, knocking out the power and turning it into a gang-run anarchy by the Reapers. Cole wakes at the epicenter of the blast later to discover his new found electricity based powers and unknowingly began on his path to become Empire City's potential savior. Staying true as a super hero title, inFamous's story is told through slick comic book' esk presentation which is narrated by Cole himself in his raspy voice which bares slight resemblance to Solid Snake. They do a fine job emphasizing all of the major points and twists throughout the game. Each character plays an almost equally important role at impacting the storyline in their own way. This isn't one of those, "One man acquires powers and later on finds an entire legion of super powered citizens." No, inFamous has a much deeper story to tell.
At the cornerstone of this title's progression are karma moments. These moral choices give the players the opportunity to choose between good and evil which will later on have an impact on Cole, other NPC's and ultimately the fate of the entire city. But don't expect to spend much time pondering on these decisions. Most of the moral choices provided are pretty black and white and rarely, if ever, give that sense that you're making a heavy decision like other titles such as Fallout 3, Mass Effect, and even Grand Theft Auto IV. The very first choice that needed to be made was to choose whether to allow the other citizens of Empire City to gather the food in the emergency crates, or commit the selfish act of taking all the food for yourself which would last Cole and his friends for weeks. Neither decision changes the plot at all; the whole, "this food could keep us for weeks" is never brought up again, and leaves but a tiny footprint in the story. Even later on in the game Cole is forced to choose to save the life of one, or the lives of many. At face value, this may seem like a plot altering decision, but in the end, it made no difference. The real purpose of these karma moments isn't to necessarily change the outcome of the storyline. NPC's and Empire's inhabitants may adjust their behavior towards Cole, side missions will be unlocked depending on what path you choose as well as the city will take a slight alteration depending on the choices you make, but the overall story largely remains the same. The real purpose of karma moments is to unlock karma specific powers for Cole.
As Cole gains access to new sections of the city, he'll have to restore power by lurking into the substations. Each substation will not only restore life to that portion of the city, allowing Cole to travel faster and giving him new available sources of power, but each will unlock a new ability. Each ability Cole acquires gives him some serious destructive power, add to his maneuver abilities around the city, and more. Almost all of them change the fundamentals of the gameplay allowing multiple avenues on how to approach situations Cole will face such as the ability to glide and even call down a lightning strike from the heavens. My personal favorite mission in the game did a great job in bring many of Cole's powers to good use. About two quarters through the campaign, players will have to guard a prison against an army of Dust Men, one if the infamous gangs (ha, see what I did there?) of Empire City. One of the big monkey wrenches thrown into the mix are Conduits, colossus humanoid monstrosities comprised of scrap metal, trash and other remnants. These beasts will hurl giant balls of scrapped metal in which Cole will have to use Shockwave to repel them in protecting the facility. Power grids will be provided as an unlimited source of power for Cole, so the focus remains almost entirely on the action where players won't have to worry too much about recharging Cole's battery core. After a certain amount of time, the flood gates will open (or in this case, they'll break down the jail's walls to the courtyard), Dust Men will come swarming in, and it's your job to use all the accumulated powers in Cole's battery core fueled arsenal to keep them at bay. It's intense, it's explosive, and is one of the best displays of Cole's abilities. Better yet, some of Cole's specific powers can be upgraded depending on the decisions you make, most of which are exclusive to either good Cole, or evil Cole. For every decision made, the meter at the top left hand corner of the screen will change through three progressive stages ultimately ending in either Hero or Infamous. Each level of morale will unlock new upgrades to Cole's powers which can be purchased with acquired experience points. Each will also alter Cole's appearance, particularly on the evil side, changing him into a ghastly grey color. Each of Cole's advanced moves requires a bit of energy from his battery core. If Cole is running low or completely depleted, as I mentioned before, there are many power sources in which Cole can recharge his energy once power is restored to that section of the city. Anything from generators, to street lights, to power lines, cars, telephones and even civilians are fair game. Players can also increase the capacity of his battery core by collecting Blast Shards. There are 200 of them littered around Empire City; collect the needed amount, and Cole's battery Core will increase by one. With an increased power capacity and an arsenal of unique powers at your disposal, you'll feel like Empire City's god towards the end of the game.
Cole wasn't just a mere delivery boy, he used his spare time urban exploring. In relevance to the game, Cole brings his exploring skills into play, allowing him to scale almost any building and structure in the city. Sucker Punch did a fine job in making sure that the climbing mechanics were as smooth and as intuitive as possible, without the hassle of being concerned with precision and timing. Traversing through the city becomes more entertaining once you gain the ability to glide, and surf on power lines and rail road tracks. You could slide across a wire, glide across a building once you in mid air, and latch on to another in order to scale to the top, all in a single run. All this encourages players to perform a variety of stunts by chaining these abilities together. But dare I say that Cole is too good? The secret to Cole's smooth scaling is that his body acts like a magnet. While airborne, once Cole nears an object, his body will automatically animate to latch on to that structure. Now here starts the frustration, Cole is rarely able to just simply walk off anything; in most cases you will have to jump off the structure in order dismount from it. This may sound like an intricate, minor misstep; but believe me, for those who have had years of gaming experience especially with the platforming genre, this becomes an oddity. Also, if Cole jumps near a building with dynamic architecture such as exposed support beams and power lines, it's difficult to jump exactly where you want to as he'll gravitate and stick to anything that's closest to him.
inFamous plays as an open world game complete with side missions and collectables. One of the concerns many players conjure about open world games is the frame rate, if any loading is required, and model pop-in. I walked into this game with those very concerns and in my first play though as good Cole and was impressed to find no such issues; it was a smooth fluid run-through with no hiccups in the gameplay. However, as evil Cole, the experience was much different. See, good Cole's powers are simple and depend on precision so that players can avoid collateral damage. Evil Cole relays on reckless and powerful destructive abilities. No one's safe in his path. Powers such as the shock grenade comes in the form of a single electric orb if you've practiced good karma, evil acts rewarded you with up to 7 orbs can split from a single grenade. Evil Cole's powers can be so destructive that the entire screen can be filled with flames and explosions. This becomes the issue as there's so much activity that occurs on screen that the game's performance dips. After a major battle I fought, the frame rate dropped to a slide show for up to half a minute, approximately 20 frames or lower. These aren't the only technical difficulties infamous faces. While I was on a Blast Shard run, I noticed that Cole didn't collect them when I ran across it, no matter how many times I returned to it. Rebooting my PS3 solved the problem. These technicalities are never absolute in everyone's experience, but the fact that it occurred during my play-through means that there is in fact, an issue.
There's a lot of value in this inFamous package. Two parallel yet unique campaigns await players. Though there isn't a huge difference in story, the gameplay takes a dramatic shift which screams replayability. Both campaigns could take a collective 20+ hours to complete. Players can get this giddy sensation once they've discovered a new power, it's like getting a new toy as each add layers to the game's mechanics. Empire City never rests, whether it's the cheering or booing of citizens, or the chaotic encounters when Cole meets with the Reapers and other gangs. Though it is strange that there's a dramatic difference in performance depending on which campaign you take, this is the only major flaw holding this title back. Now get out there, and experience what a superhero title is meant to be.