AlexAeon

Infamous (PS3) Score: 4/5 super powered smilies

Okay, it has indeed been a while! But I'm back to writing up another quick review of a game I found to be worth the wait, Infamous.

Now, let me start off by trying to explain that this is an open world super hero game, not grand theft auto, not <insert other ultra realistic city crawler>. Many people came at the game from the wrong perspective and were let down because it really is designed for a certain fanbase. That being said, as someone that has been wanting a good super hero game, Infamous fills the void and oh my god it'll leave you going *squeeee!* in delight if your a fan of the comic book hero genre. With that, lets dig into the game!

((STORY))
This game has quite a fast pace to the plot, and as the game starts up for the first time and your presented with a lovely view of the city, which upon pressing the start button proceeds to EXPLODE in front of your face... You are thrown into the world of Infamous, and begin your path to being a comic book super hero, or villain! Infamous plays quite literally like an animated comic book in its story presentation. All major cutscenes are done in animated comic panel format. This is where I emphasize that you really need to either be a comic fan, or have an appreciation for the genre. Because if you don't you'll just view this as being lazy on the developers part, but the comic book scenes are one of the best features of the game, really putting the player into the mood of actually being a super hero and seeing your exploits in panel format.

As for the actual plot, you begin awakening from the blast that wrecked half the city with electrical powers. At first our main protagonist Cole doesn't have that many powers at all, but as the game progresses and the story unfolds he gets more and more abilities. Much of the game revolves around Cole, his best friend Zeke, and his girlfriend Trish as they try to get out of the quarantine put on the city by doing various tasks for the government, and the people within the city. Clashing frequently with the various super powered street gangs and villains along the way. I could go more in depth but really, piecing the story together is half the fun so I wont give any spoilers.

((GAMEPLAY))
Infamous plays much like any third person action shooter. Cole doesn't use guns or jack cars, but he has a vast arsenal of offense, defense, and supportive electrical powers that he can use. I must say that the powers are all very well done, and pretty fun to use both on villains and citizens, and just on the environment in general. Cole has an energy bar which depletes using any ability besides his basic weak "zap" attack. In order to get more juice, you can literally drain the voltage straight out of pretty much anything that's tied to the power grid in the city, as well as draining the bio-electric energy from people if your evilly inclined. This is the primary way of healing yourself in the game too, which oddly enough there is no formal "life meter". As Cole takes damage blood splatters across the screen and your vision blurs. When you lose focus and cant see in color anymore that means your almost dead. Cole's electric powers also come with strengths, and weaknesses. Standing in a shallow puddle of water, or a metal surface electrifies it, zapping or standing in a pool of water will hurt Cole badly as he can indeed electrocute himself, but this also fries anyone standing in water with him. Cole's dependency on electricity also comes at a disadvantage at times in the game when the villains disable the power grid, causing his vision to blur, and his powers to weaken and recharging being an issue. Overall, the powers are pretty darn fun to just toy around with.

Heres where good and evil come in too. Cole's powers are all VERY destructive in nature, and they both have a good and evil version with different features. In order to use your good power upgrades you have to maintain a good reputation, same for evil. In either case Cole can be hurt by his own powers, so you have to think carefully before you electrify something. If you play as a hero, you also need to be very cautious about controlling your powers. While its tempting to just unload explosive lightning bolts to quickly dispense of those thugs ducking between cars and citizens, it will also cause major damage to the city and citizens... Causing you to turn evil and lose access to your hero upgrades rather quickly.

Another feature of the game is Cole's means of travel, aside from just running he can climb just about any surface with a hand hold. Frequently you'll be scaling buildings, posts, towers, even trees to get from point A to B. As you progress you can even hover, and use railroads and power lines as accelerated fast travel. It plays smoothly, and at least I found myself just hopping and zooming around just for funs sake sometimes.

((GRAPHICS))
This is really only the only department that I found some lacking with Infamous. The cutscenes are beautifully artistic, the actual gameplay graphics in the city and the combat are excellent, but the characters during standard full motion scenes are sort of stiff. A minor complaint, but if your a graphics nitpicker you might find some things to mumble about on the side.

((SOUND))
The soundtrack for Infamous is a mix of subtle urban atmosphere, various moody pieces, and some good music that sets the tone in the cutscenes and boss battles. While there isnt so much that you'll be rocking out to it on your ipod they do have a very "epic" feeling and help get you in the mood for some super hero/villain action. The voice acting for Cole was great, even if at times he had a sort of "dark knight" style with his speech, and all the main villains had great voice actors.

((OVERALL))
Infamous is a game for fans of comic books, super hero lore, and people that have been salivating for some super action that doesn't involve yet another bad super hero hollywood movie to game port. If you want an original character, a good plot, and some action packed super powered fun... Give Infamous a shot, its indeed worth it.