WARNING! Spoilers are revealed in this blog!

Game: InFamous

Genre: Free-Roaming, Beat ‘em up

Medium: PS3

Year Released: 2009

Plot Synopsis: A lowly bike courier named Cole accidentally activates a mysterious item known as the ‘Ray Sphere’ which deftly destroys an entire district of Empire City. Cole awakens with electricity based powers which he quickly uses to find out the reasons behind the explosion and the gangs which have filled the streets following the activation.

I don’t know what compelled me to actually buy InFamous in the first place, but I did and there you go. The idea of a man that can shot electricity from his fingertips has entertained me since the by gone days of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.

Without trying to give too much away, you play Cole MacGrath a bike courier who gets caught up in a massive explosion from one of the packages he is carrying and awakens with the power of electricity. Which you then use to fry, explode and glide around the city, ‘liberating’ the city districts from the gangs that have overrun them, helped by his enthusiastic, albeit slightly incompetent friend Zeke.

The game puts heavy focus upon the choice between Good and Evil. Even though neither has a major effect on the actual storyline, it does affect your power development, the side missions you undertake and minor storyline details. For example if you play through as good, you get the power of ‘Overload Burst’, which is a charged up electrical burst, which chains off metal surfaces. Its shite. Whereas if you are evil, you get the power of ‘Arc Lightning’ which basically makes you into Emperor Palpatine, now which one would you choose? The karma aspect of the game is mostly irrelevant however because no matter how good you play the game as, towards the end you get a choice to become fully evil and make all your saintly actions forgotten by the public.

One thing that I liked about this game as the style of the cut scenes; rather then spend ages working on a cut scene to look as much like a film as possible, they decided that it should be done comic book style (probably to add to the idea of the ‘super hero’ in the game). And this is done very well, it is used sparingly so the novelty doesn’t wear off and it only shows the important parts of the story such as introduction of bosses and the development of the protagonist’s powers.

The graphics and gameplay of InFamous is top notch, with only minor problems plaguing it throughout the story. The camera, though normally fine, occasionally goes into a fit of stupidity and rotates 180 degrees; making you fly off the building you were climbing and plummet down into a group of enemies who are conveniently waiting to skewer you in the rectum with a trash scorpion. Yes there are trash scorpions. The fighting, though simple and effective, is slightly difficult at the beginning of the game when you have few powers and are forced to run at gun wielding goons and attempt to hit them or sit back and try to zap them one at a time with your basic lightning attack. This normally results in you having your ass handed to you several times at the beginning, and you getting frustrated and throwing your overly expensive controller at passing children or the wall. Whatever is easiest. Or closest.

One little note, at one point I was running down the street and just fell through the floor to the water below, resulting in my death. It’s never happened since but still, it was weird. Clipping issues much?

The powers that Cole slowly unlocks are mostly highly entertaining and some almost make sense. But some powers such as the Static Thrusters, Pulse Heal, the Polarity Wall and the Arc Restraint are mostly idiotic and the basic idea of them insults even the most fundamental premises of science. The Static Thrusters gives you the ability to glide. On electricity. Right. The Pulse Heal and Arc Restraint are electrical healing and electrical restraints respectively. And the Polarity Wall appears to be a shield wreathed in lightning formed out of nothing.

On the other hand, powers such as Lightning Storm, Induction Grind and Thunder Drop just look and are insanely awesome. The Lightning Storm allows Cole to summon a massive bolt of lightning that ploughs along the ground destroying everything it touches. The Induction Grind is when Cole grinds along electrical wires, leaving sparks spraying from the soles of his feet and recharging his electrical energy. The Thunder Drop wreathes Cole in lightning as he plummets off a building causing an explosion when he hits the ground.

The storyline is strong and involving, with the history told to you through ‘dead drops’, (audio files read to you by ‘John’ an undercover agent who supports you throughout the story), which you as the player have to locate yourself around the city. Finding these dead drops is completely optional and they are only for flavour, adding depth to the storyline.

All in all, InFamous is a very good game. It does not have much replayability after going through it once as evil and once as good, but you will want to play it at least twice. I guarantee it. If you don’t, you are an under achiever. Under achiever!

89/100