Why don't people talk about inFAMOUS much anymore? The game definitely had its problems but man this game is cool and one of the defining open-world action games for the PS3.
Zipping around the city as Cole and blasting foes with electricity played excellently and it I liked all of the different abilities you unlock throughout the story. There is of course the decision to play the good or evil path which affects what you can do and encourages two play-throughs.
I really liked the story of inFAMOUS too which takes some massive swings that mostly pay off. I really didn't see the twist coming and while the story feels a little overconvoluted at times it maintained my interest to the credits and blew me away with the twist.
Now the gameplay did have some issues particularly with the traversal which could've been polished up but overall this was a good time. Sidenote- I played this as my free "apology game" after the PSN hack which took down the servers for like a month. Who remembers that?
Zipping around the city as Cole and blasting foes with electricity played excellently and it I liked all of the different abilities you unlock throughout the story. There is of course the decision to play the good or evil path which affects what you can do and encourages two play-throughs.
I really liked the story of inFAMOUS too which takes some massive swings that mostly pay off. I really didn't see the twist coming and while the story feels a little overconvoluted at times it maintained my interest to the credits and blew me away with the twist.
Now the gameplay did have some issues particularly with the traversal which could've been polished up but overall this was a good time. Sidenote- I played this as my free "apology game" after the PSN hack which took down the servers for like a month. Who remembers that?
inFAMOUS is a decent experience overall, but its frequent foreshadowing towards that bomb-drop of an ending is unforgettable. Certainly blew my mind as a kid, quickly becoming one of the most memorable video game endings during my childhood. And that still holds up.
There's a lot to like here, from each new ability instilling a sense of great power to the city's hopeless atmosphere. The script is dark and delivered with a satisfying dryness. Cole never feels like a goody-two-shoes hero, even when the player is at the maximum in the "Hero" meter. There's a lot of morally ambiguous lines of dialogue, and it seems he's constantly struggling with a balance between selfishness and selflessness, even if the player is making the "good" choices.
Many of inFAMOUS' side-missions are not fun, with some of the worst being when the player is doing cool tricks for a photographer, or when you need to steathily follow a guy with a package (in a game where stealth is non-existant), or when you need to scour every corner of a building to find surveillance devices to destroy. These all suck. I stopped trying to complete them after the first island.
The game's main missions are fun, with the setpieces where the player is climbing the tower or exploring the junkyard city being pretty memorable. All of the gangs are also friggin' cool. The Reapers are like weird shadowy people, and the junk fellers straight up just have scrap all over them.
Zeke is pretty obnoxious, although I respect how flawed Sucker Punch attempts to make him. His decisions throughout the game paint him as someone the player is supposed to hate, but his constant self-doubt and self-loathing makes him feel real.
While all of this might make it sound like inFAMOUS is a great game, the base mechanics that surround this experience aren't particularly fun. There's really nothing to do in Empire City. You can do the game's side-missions, but they're small objectives that feel surprisingly inconsequential. inFAMOUS seems like it could've been more effective if it were a linear experience, as the game essentially came down to me just running from one part of the city to another to get to the main missions. However, the benefit of the cities being open means that you can freely parkour and grind on the train rails. That stuff is pretty cool.
My overall verdict here is that I like inFAMOUS' main campaign. Cole's electricity abilities are satisfying and even though the story can be a bit boring, there are some cool twists and turns. But I hate inFAMOUS' side-missions and I think the open-world is subpar. Its XP progression systems are fine, but I never felt any incentive to collect blast shards or jump around the city for fun.
There's a lot to like here, from each new ability instilling a sense of great power to the city's hopeless atmosphere. The script is dark and delivered with a satisfying dryness. Cole never feels like a goody-two-shoes hero, even when the player is at the maximum in the "Hero" meter. There's a lot of morally ambiguous lines of dialogue, and it seems he's constantly struggling with a balance between selfishness and selflessness, even if the player is making the "good" choices.
Many of inFAMOUS' side-missions are not fun, with some of the worst being when the player is doing cool tricks for a photographer, or when you need to steathily follow a guy with a package (in a game where stealth is non-existant), or when you need to scour every corner of a building to find surveillance devices to destroy. These all suck. I stopped trying to complete them after the first island.
The game's main missions are fun, with the setpieces where the player is climbing the tower or exploring the junkyard city being pretty memorable. All of the gangs are also friggin' cool. The Reapers are like weird shadowy people, and the junk fellers straight up just have scrap all over them.
Zeke is pretty obnoxious, although I respect how flawed Sucker Punch attempts to make him. His decisions throughout the game paint him as someone the player is supposed to hate, but his constant self-doubt and self-loathing makes him feel real.
While all of this might make it sound like inFAMOUS is a great game, the base mechanics that surround this experience aren't particularly fun. There's really nothing to do in Empire City. You can do the game's side-missions, but they're small objectives that feel surprisingly inconsequential. inFAMOUS seems like it could've been more effective if it were a linear experience, as the game essentially came down to me just running from one part of the city to another to get to the main missions. However, the benefit of the cities being open means that you can freely parkour and grind on the train rails. That stuff is pretty cool.
My overall verdict here is that I like inFAMOUS' main campaign. Cole's electricity abilities are satisfying and even though the story can be a bit boring, there are some cool twists and turns. But I hate inFAMOUS' side-missions and I think the open-world is subpar. Its XP progression systems are fine, but I never felt any incentive to collect blast shards or jump around the city for fun.
o jogo em si é muito legal, a história e o protagonista são muito legais, os personagens secundários igualmente, tem mecânicas muito interessantes que inclusive eu acho que mais jogos de herói deveriam ter, você pode seguir o caminho do bem ou do mal nesse jogo e isso vai influenciar na forma que a cidade e os habitantes vêem você, além da gameplay que é bem fluida e dinâmica, apesar do ps3 ter diversos problemas de otimização então o jogo dá umas lagadas monstra, e outro problema também infelizmente é que a dificuldade do jogo é muito mal balanceada, por muito tempo no jogo eu até joguei no modo difícil sem saber mas quando eu mudei pro normal ainda ficou difícil pra caralho kkkkkkkkkk mas é legal que os inimigos são também tem muitas variações e os poderes diversos, fazendo com que o jogo não fique repetitivo
personally i find this underrated. The visuals were superb and seemed fitting for the vibe of the game. The choice of being evil and good is consistent with coles character throughout the plot.
That being said however, there were questionable plotlines through the game's story. That either seemed unfitting or badly written.
That being said however, there were questionable plotlines through the game's story. That either seemed unfitting or badly written.
The idea of this game is a lot cooler than actually playing it.
Infamous is one of the ugliest first party PS3 games. This game dropped right in the middle of the brown and grey era. Though it may be unfair of me to criticize the colour choices in a post-apocalyptic city, other post-apocalyptic games managed to use colours other than brown and grey and were much less ugly as a result. The framerate also tanks hard every time you get into combat.
The comic book cutscenes, however, still look great, and I enjoyed the story.
The Sly Cooper inspired movement still holds up and traveling around Empire City is a blast once you have a few traversal powers. Unfortunately the combat, which is most of the game, is hit or miss. Being a guy with electric powers is an idea with enormous potential but it ends up playing like a typical third person shooter, with lightning instead of guns. Enemies are ridiculously accurate from massive range, making rooftop traversal a chore until you do generic side missions that clear them out. Some late game enemies are very annoying to fight, especially with the game's horrible framerate. This game also followed the annoying trend of many other seventh gen games, of making your screen go grey or lose colour upon taking damage, in place of a normal health bar. In a game already mostly grey and lacking colour this usually just made it more difficult to see anything.
I can see how Infamous was really impressive in 2009, but I was late to the party and it wasn't quite what I thought it was going to be. But it still kept me intrigued until the end, and I'm glad I tried Infamous 2 because that game became one of my favorite PS3 games.
Infamous is one of the ugliest first party PS3 games. This game dropped right in the middle of the brown and grey era. Though it may be unfair of me to criticize the colour choices in a post-apocalyptic city, other post-apocalyptic games managed to use colours other than brown and grey and were much less ugly as a result. The framerate also tanks hard every time you get into combat.
The comic book cutscenes, however, still look great, and I enjoyed the story.
The Sly Cooper inspired movement still holds up and traveling around Empire City is a blast once you have a few traversal powers. Unfortunately the combat, which is most of the game, is hit or miss. Being a guy with electric powers is an idea with enormous potential but it ends up playing like a typical third person shooter, with lightning instead of guns. Enemies are ridiculously accurate from massive range, making rooftop traversal a chore until you do generic side missions that clear them out. Some late game enemies are very annoying to fight, especially with the game's horrible framerate. This game also followed the annoying trend of many other seventh gen games, of making your screen go grey or lose colour upon taking damage, in place of a normal health bar. In a game already mostly grey and lacking colour this usually just made it more difficult to see anything.
I can see how Infamous was really impressive in 2009, but I was late to the party and it wasn't quite what I thought it was going to be. But it still kept me intrigued until the end, and I'm glad I tried Infamous 2 because that game became one of my favorite PS3 games.
I've always wanted a PS3, but that was mostly for stuff like MGS4 and having some solid HD remasters. Cut to 2022, and I have a PS3. I always remembered when I was a kid I played Second Son, was aware of the first two games, but couldn't play them due to only having a PS4. I decide "Fuck it" and ordered myself a copy. I definitely was satisfied with my purchase.
The game takes place in Empire City. No, it's not New York City, and no, blue werewolf hedgehogs are not running around fighting robots. It's just a generic city. Cole MacGrath is your name, and accidentally destroying an entire section of the city while delivering a package on your job is your game. You become a human capacitor, though, so that's a plus. As a conduit, you become a being with electric superpowers, and boy, does this game take full advantage of your powers. From powering trains, turning yourself into a fuse for new powers, killing anyone nearby when in water, and even defibrillating people, this game had potential with his powers and hit a 10 with it.
However, not everyone was a sharpshooter at Sucker Punch's archery range. Although it's far from the worst example, this game still kinda reeks of, as Noodle called it, "7th gen piss filter." The colors are pretty muted for the most part, with muddy textures. It looks fine, and in a city under quarantine with psychotic gangs on the street, I don't expect it to look all that colorful, but it's still not exactly painting worthy. The worst part isn't the graphics though. For my second Sonic Unleashed comparison today, this game was capped at 60 FPS and really should not have been. The game's sub-30 usually, so they may as well have put on a 30 fps cap. Music's not very memorable either, though when it does play it's pretty wicked.
Further bringing this game down a peg is the story. It was fine. This game has a Karma mechanic, where being good or evil influences things like powers and some plot points. However, for the most part the plot plays the same on both sides, so they had to write Cole to be both good and evil at the same time. This causes him to act a bit weirdly depending on how you play. Like, Cole saying stuff isn't his problem, despite the fact he helps people that aren't his problem a lot if you're playing the hero route. It gives Cole a bit of a "I'm not paid enough for this shit" attitude though, so despite him being a bit generic, and sounding like modern Shadow the Hedgehog (what is with all these Sonic references today?) I still enjoyed him as a protagonist. Others weren't so likable though. I personally found Zeke a bit insufferable as the game goes on, though near the end of the game I like how they treat him. Trish was a fine character, and had an okay arc. John White, voiced by Phil LaMarr, probably does to best voice acting in the game though, and he was a pretty good character as well. It's not a bad story, but it's not amazing either. The plot twists are pretty good, but it's no emotional rollercoaster by any means.
Now, with how critical I've been, why is the game not just some 5/10? Simple; The game is pretty damn fun. Even with his basic powers, Cole is a fun character to play as. The game plays like a third person shooter/action game, and remember when I said the creativity of how he uses his powers was great? Well, that translated to the combat as well. It's rare that I play a game where every single power is actively useful, always available for use without some weapon wheel or menu of any kind, and fun to use. Whether it be using your basic electric zap, gliding around, sniping people in slo-mo, blowing stuff up with the Megaton Hammer, or smiting enemies with the might of Zeus near the end of the game, everything is useful and fun, without being broken or making any of the other attacks obsolete. I played on Hard, and on this difficulty enemies will rip you to shreds if you're not careful, and while this can be kinda frustrating at times, figuring out good ways to demolish everyone in your path and then proceeding to make each goon vanish like someone left Sonic Heroes on the ground was really satisfying and really awesome. They also mix in platforming elements that work really well, though it's moreso inspired by Assassins Creed, and that game does wall-scaling a bit better. What I will say against the gameplay though is that I wish Cole had faster means of transportation, as no matter what he's just a bit too slow for my liking. Also that one hot air balloon mission near the end of the game can go fuck right off.
Overall, this game is not a masterpiece, but damn it's fun. A "good enough" story and "eh" graphics kinda drag the game down, and the framerate should not have been the way it is, but some pretty stellar combat brings it right back up. If you'd like a western action game with third-person shooter and platforming elements, give this game a shot, you won't regret it.
7.7/10
This is usually the part where I tell you he best way to play the game, but it's only on PS3, so there ya go. If you have a beefy computer I'd recommend emulating it for better performance tho.
The game takes place in Empire City. No, it's not New York City, and no, blue werewolf hedgehogs are not running around fighting robots. It's just a generic city. Cole MacGrath is your name, and accidentally destroying an entire section of the city while delivering a package on your job is your game. You become a human capacitor, though, so that's a plus. As a conduit, you become a being with electric superpowers, and boy, does this game take full advantage of your powers. From powering trains, turning yourself into a fuse for new powers, killing anyone nearby when in water, and even defibrillating people, this game had potential with his powers and hit a 10 with it.
However, not everyone was a sharpshooter at Sucker Punch's archery range. Although it's far from the worst example, this game still kinda reeks of, as Noodle called it, "7th gen piss filter." The colors are pretty muted for the most part, with muddy textures. It looks fine, and in a city under quarantine with psychotic gangs on the street, I don't expect it to look all that colorful, but it's still not exactly painting worthy. The worst part isn't the graphics though. For my second Sonic Unleashed comparison today, this game was capped at 60 FPS and really should not have been. The game's sub-30 usually, so they may as well have put on a 30 fps cap. Music's not very memorable either, though when it does play it's pretty wicked.
Further bringing this game down a peg is the story. It was fine. This game has a Karma mechanic, where being good or evil influences things like powers and some plot points. However, for the most part the plot plays the same on both sides, so they had to write Cole to be both good and evil at the same time. This causes him to act a bit weirdly depending on how you play. Like, Cole saying stuff isn't his problem, despite the fact he helps people that aren't his problem a lot if you're playing the hero route. It gives Cole a bit of a "I'm not paid enough for this shit" attitude though, so despite him being a bit generic, and sounding like modern Shadow the Hedgehog (what is with all these Sonic references today?) I still enjoyed him as a protagonist. Others weren't so likable though. I personally found Zeke a bit insufferable as the game goes on, though near the end of the game I like how they treat him. Trish was a fine character, and had an okay arc. John White, voiced by Phil LaMarr, probably does to best voice acting in the game though, and he was a pretty good character as well. It's not a bad story, but it's not amazing either. The plot twists are pretty good, but it's no emotional rollercoaster by any means.
Now, with how critical I've been, why is the game not just some 5/10? Simple; The game is pretty damn fun. Even with his basic powers, Cole is a fun character to play as. The game plays like a third person shooter/action game, and remember when I said the creativity of how he uses his powers was great? Well, that translated to the combat as well. It's rare that I play a game where every single power is actively useful, always available for use without some weapon wheel or menu of any kind, and fun to use. Whether it be using your basic electric zap, gliding around, sniping people in slo-mo, blowing stuff up with the Megaton Hammer, or smiting enemies with the might of Zeus near the end of the game, everything is useful and fun, without being broken or making any of the other attacks obsolete. I played on Hard, and on this difficulty enemies will rip you to shreds if you're not careful, and while this can be kinda frustrating at times, figuring out good ways to demolish everyone in your path and then proceeding to make each goon vanish like someone left Sonic Heroes on the ground was really satisfying and really awesome. They also mix in platforming elements that work really well, though it's moreso inspired by Assassins Creed, and that game does wall-scaling a bit better. What I will say against the gameplay though is that I wish Cole had faster means of transportation, as no matter what he's just a bit too slow for my liking. Also that one hot air balloon mission near the end of the game can go fuck right off.
Overall, this game is not a masterpiece, but damn it's fun. A "good enough" story and "eh" graphics kinda drag the game down, and the framerate should not have been the way it is, but some pretty stellar combat brings it right back up. If you'd like a western action game with third-person shooter and platforming elements, give this game a shot, you won't regret it.
7.7/10
This is usually the part where I tell you he best way to play the game, but it's only on PS3, so there ya go. If you have a beefy computer I'd recommend emulating it for better performance tho.
The ultimate net-positive result of the Playstation Network outage of 2011 was getting this game for free so that I didn't have to convince my parents to buy a game where people say a swear
During the Playstation Network outage 2011, Infamous was one of the games that was offered as compensation. This game was my first Open World experience in a video game, and it felt great! Going around the world, using your lightning powers felt really cool for some reason. Beyond grateful Sony compensated us with this great game for the 2011 incident! They could've given us something worse but they didn't.
perfectly fine game for 14 year olds
Being a lifelong uber-fan of the Sly Cooper games and regarding Ghost of Tsushima as among the best of the nowadays slightly over-saturated open-world adventure genre, I went into Infamous fully expecting to find the same level of quality here as I have in Sucker Punch’s other titles. However, what I found instead is a game that shows initial promise in certain elements of its gameplay, but ultimately falters in terms of narrative and character writing.
Empire City, the setting of Infamous, is not much to look at, though that's very much by design. From the way the characters talk about it, even before the destructive events that kick off the plot, Empire was kind of a crapsack place to live anyway. Still, it fits the mood of the story as a gritty, intense superhero fantasy.
The superhero in question is Cole MacGrath, a bike messenger who gets caught in a huge explosion that levels an entire district of Empire City and survives, only to find he now possesses the power to harness and project electricity. It's a very intriguing premise; however, for me, it soon ran into the issue that not a single character in this entire game, Cole included, is likable or, at the very least, compelling. Granted, in Cole's case, much of that comes down to his over-the-top gravelly voice, which gets incredibly grating as the game goes on.
One of Infamous's biggest selling points is its 'karma' system. Throughout the game, you're given explicit opportunities to perform actions that grant you good or evil karma, changing the public's perception of you as either a savior or a tyrant, respectively. It's a neat idea in concept, and it's certainly been done before to great effect (KOTOR, for instance), but there's next to no nuance to be found in it.
To be a good Cole, you have to suck up to the police and help them escort prisoners to jail or the station for interrogation, encouraging you to electrocute them multiple times to make them go faster. To be an evil Cole, of course, you merely have to execute innocent civilians with reckless abandon. It's not a dealbreaker, and it's not entirely unexpected from a story like this; however, I still found myself at odds with where they drew their moral lines.
As for what I found enjoyable in Infamous, perhaps the biggest is traversal. It clearly takes notes from the studio's previous efforts in the Sly trilogy as you shimmy up pipes and roll around rooftops. It's much more slow and deliberate, unlike an Assassin's Creed or Insomniac Spider-Man parkour system. Here, it can sometimes take up to 10 seconds or more to scale one building. That may sound like a mark against it, but it allows much more precision in its platforming, which felt really satisfying to play around with from beginning to end.
Combat is a mixed bag overall. The systems and powers themselves are fun; however, most of the encounters in the game are repetitive and dull, with the only experimentation with your abilities coming from some of the boss fights. It's a fun power fantasy at the best of times, but a tedious, finicky experience otherwise.
Overall, I wasn't too impressed with Infamous, despite all the praise I've heard about it over the years. The story has its moments, sure, but the characters that inhabit it aren't interesting or compelling. The side mission structure is tedious and repetitive, and the karma system is lacking in depth. However, traversal, combat design, upgrade progression, and certain narrative turns almost make the whole game worth playing on their own.
5/10
Empire City, the setting of Infamous, is not much to look at, though that's very much by design. From the way the characters talk about it, even before the destructive events that kick off the plot, Empire was kind of a crapsack place to live anyway. Still, it fits the mood of the story as a gritty, intense superhero fantasy.
The superhero in question is Cole MacGrath, a bike messenger who gets caught in a huge explosion that levels an entire district of Empire City and survives, only to find he now possesses the power to harness and project electricity. It's a very intriguing premise; however, for me, it soon ran into the issue that not a single character in this entire game, Cole included, is likable or, at the very least, compelling. Granted, in Cole's case, much of that comes down to his over-the-top gravelly voice, which gets incredibly grating as the game goes on.
One of Infamous's biggest selling points is its 'karma' system. Throughout the game, you're given explicit opportunities to perform actions that grant you good or evil karma, changing the public's perception of you as either a savior or a tyrant, respectively. It's a neat idea in concept, and it's certainly been done before to great effect (KOTOR, for instance), but there's next to no nuance to be found in it.
To be a good Cole, you have to suck up to the police and help them escort prisoners to jail or the station for interrogation, encouraging you to electrocute them multiple times to make them go faster. To be an evil Cole, of course, you merely have to execute innocent civilians with reckless abandon. It's not a dealbreaker, and it's not entirely unexpected from a story like this; however, I still found myself at odds with where they drew their moral lines.
As for what I found enjoyable in Infamous, perhaps the biggest is traversal. It clearly takes notes from the studio's previous efforts in the Sly trilogy as you shimmy up pipes and roll around rooftops. It's much more slow and deliberate, unlike an Assassin's Creed or Insomniac Spider-Man parkour system. Here, it can sometimes take up to 10 seconds or more to scale one building. That may sound like a mark against it, but it allows much more precision in its platforming, which felt really satisfying to play around with from beginning to end.
Combat is a mixed bag overall. The systems and powers themselves are fun; however, most of the encounters in the game are repetitive and dull, with the only experimentation with your abilities coming from some of the boss fights. It's a fun power fantasy at the best of times, but a tedious, finicky experience otherwise.
Overall, I wasn't too impressed with Infamous, despite all the praise I've heard about it over the years. The story has its moments, sure, but the characters that inhabit it aren't interesting or compelling. The side mission structure is tedious and repetitive, and the karma system is lacking in depth. However, traversal, combat design, upgrade progression, and certain narrative turns almost make the whole game worth playing on their own.
5/10
It has a unique concept going for it, but it's a pretty standard PS3-gen open world title, with run of the mill open world missions, a basic plot, a binary take on morality, and shoddy performance. However the gameplay mechanics were pretty fun and the little style it shows in the comic-styled cutscenes was cool too.
inFAMOUS is a game about one's own lack of choice. In spite of all the karmic systems, optional events, the ability to save people or to harm them, nothing Cole McGrath does will wash away the label he is given. Failure, errand boy, terrorist, The Demon of Empire City. He is someone who cannot escape his mundane existence even in the most supernatural of circumstances.
It makes for an interesting character study in spite of very limited opportunities for the characters to sit and talk (though in the realm of video games, inFAMOUS has a lot of lip flapping for a title of its ilk). Cole becomes fully realized, not as a hero or a villain, but as a man unable to truly live. Weighed down by the expectations and demands of his parents, he purposefully seeks out a job he hates just to piss them off. But, that job is just a reflection of what he hates most of all- being the courier. An errand boy.
As a child he could only listen to others, as an adult it was more of the same, and as a superhero or villain, he continues to follow orders. The sole choice in the game that defines whether he listens to someone or not (that being to detonate the Ray Sphere again) is bookended with praise from the antagonist, and that section of the narrative came paired with an illuminating quote.
"Atlas was permitted the opinion that he was at liberty, if he wished, to drop the Earth and creepy away; but this opinion was all that he was permitted." -Franz Kafka
The choice is really no choice at all. Some words of praise and an aesthetic change are all you receive, but the confrontation with Kessler doesn't change. The reveal doesn't change. Cole's "destiny" doesn't change. Because inFAMOUS isn't a game about change, but about being forced into changes irrespective of your own desires.
The ultimate reveal is that Kessler is Cole himself, forcing on him the absolute worst case scenarios, offering him opportunities for harsh growth to one day make the decision himself. Kessler is no different from an overbearing parent in this way, and Cole finds himself looking in a mirror. Those expectations, that berating and that fleeting praise, were all what he saw as the 'proper' thing to do with his abilities. While this Cole sought to run away and to live his comfortable life, the Cole of the now doesn't deserve that. He's made into a monster, alienated by his friends, and eventually left completely alone so he has no choice but to face his 'destiny'.
I find inFAMOUS' commitment to these themes, particularly in its deliberate decision to not have the two narrative paths be very distinct, to be admirable. Some may call it lazy, but the employment of the karma system followed by the flagrant ignoring of most player choices leaves the game feeling more complete. It had a story it wanted to tell, and used the currently popular gameplay trend to accentuate that narrative.
I find these themes and the usage of the karma systems to be expanded on quite nicely in the follow up game, inFAMOUS 2, so I will be saving most of my true review for that title. This is mainly just a groundwork of what I found most interesting in the first game.
It makes for an interesting character study in spite of very limited opportunities for the characters to sit and talk (though in the realm of video games, inFAMOUS has a lot of lip flapping for a title of its ilk). Cole becomes fully realized, not as a hero or a villain, but as a man unable to truly live. Weighed down by the expectations and demands of his parents, he purposefully seeks out a job he hates just to piss them off. But, that job is just a reflection of what he hates most of all- being the courier. An errand boy.
As a child he could only listen to others, as an adult it was more of the same, and as a superhero or villain, he continues to follow orders. The sole choice in the game that defines whether he listens to someone or not (that being to detonate the Ray Sphere again) is bookended with praise from the antagonist, and that section of the narrative came paired with an illuminating quote.
"Atlas was permitted the opinion that he was at liberty, if he wished, to drop the Earth and creepy away; but this opinion was all that he was permitted." -Franz Kafka
The choice is really no choice at all. Some words of praise and an aesthetic change are all you receive, but the confrontation with Kessler doesn't change. The reveal doesn't change. Cole's "destiny" doesn't change. Because inFAMOUS isn't a game about change, but about being forced into changes irrespective of your own desires.
The ultimate reveal is that Kessler is Cole himself, forcing on him the absolute worst case scenarios, offering him opportunities for harsh growth to one day make the decision himself. Kessler is no different from an overbearing parent in this way, and Cole finds himself looking in a mirror. Those expectations, that berating and that fleeting praise, were all what he saw as the 'proper' thing to do with his abilities. While this Cole sought to run away and to live his comfortable life, the Cole of the now doesn't deserve that. He's made into a monster, alienated by his friends, and eventually left completely alone so he has no choice but to face his 'destiny'.
I find inFAMOUS' commitment to these themes, particularly in its deliberate decision to not have the two narrative paths be very distinct, to be admirable. Some may call it lazy, but the employment of the karma system followed by the flagrant ignoring of most player choices leaves the game feeling more complete. It had a story it wanted to tell, and used the currently popular gameplay trend to accentuate that narrative.
I find these themes and the usage of the karma systems to be expanded on quite nicely in the follow up game, inFAMOUS 2, so I will be saving most of my true review for that title. This is mainly just a groundwork of what I found most interesting in the first game.
A fun ride, and easily the best super-hero-themed game I've played. It gets a bit repetitive here and there, but it's enjoyable the whole way through and definitely worth finishing. Oddly, the "good" ending I found to be rather depressing. Bring on Infamous 2!
the amount of exposition in the first few levels of this game is comedic
I havent played this in a long time. But it had a real big effect on me as a child. I love this games setting. This industrial nightmare of a city. Its a great place and a great reason for the protagonist to either want to liberate it or want to destroy and rule over it. The morality system isnt great. But out of the three games, its the one that makes the most sense. And there are some good choices here and there that makes sense for the characters growth. I love the story for this game. It has one of my favorite villains in a game. The gameplay is really solid as well. I wish there was a more modern port of it so that it can run better, but either way its still a great time.
How did this come out in 2009? It looks and feels like a ps3 launch game, complete with a lame sixaxis gimmick, framerate that struggles to hit 20fps most of the time, constant pop-in (seriously, cars and geometry sometimes didn’t load until they were like 30 metres away), and animations that make Morrowind impressive by comparison (for instance: https://youtu.be/O1P3GBG05Vg?t=53), jerking around like malfunctioning animatronics and with facial animations that basically consist of the bottom jaw moving up and down like a sock puppet. It’s hilariously bad and it makes the serious scenes impossible to take seriously. The colour scheme is that monotone, washed out grey and brown that was so popular at the time, and the lighting is so simplistic that the game feels lifeless most of the time. The dialogue is also terribly written, with stilted delivery that sounds like each line was recorded at different times and the actors never actually saw each other face to face. How was this released in the same year as Uncharted 2, adjacent to GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption?
Thankfully, most of the story cutscenes are rendered in a stylish graphic novel inspired style to sidestep this issue, but it’s still incredibly jarring whenever the game cuts back to in-engine cutscenes. The story is convoluted nonsense that has you going around beating up homeless people and engaging in police brutality, while you help the NSA use the Patriot Act to keep people safe (this is the good path). More specifically, there are these escort missions where the game doesn't let you cuff anyone, even though you have a previously established infinite lightning cuff power, so that you have to beat up the prisoners to make them fall in line (https://youtu.be/XNHSUzUB-CU?t=871).
There are somewhat interesting ideas about the government manipulating people and the conflicts being driven by a class divide, but it’s so disconnected from how the game’s binary morality directly rewards you for falling in line with the powers that be that it totally misses the mark. The choices are also mostly really stupid extremes, like “do you want to murder innocent sick people in a hospital or save them and become a literal messiah?”. Every time you make a major karma choice, the game pauses for 5 seconds to tell you the thing you did, and there’s no way to turn off or skip this notification. I know it doesn’t sound a lot, but there’s a lot of these moments and it adds up over time.
The instant you finish a mission, a pop-up appears and the game pauses, often triggering before the mission’s dialogue and cutscenes are even wrapped up. Everytime you clear a district by finishing a side mission, the game cuts to the map screen (the one element of the game with a consistent framerate), slowly zooms in on the area, tells you you’ve cleared it, and then lets you play again. These weirdly intrusive UI elements add nothing to the game. The power upgrade trees are another underdeveloped idea, mostly giving you wider AOEs on your attacks, which is really frustrating on the good run because it makes it harder and harder to not hurt civilians.
The gameplay is the real saving grace here. Aside from all the other problems I mentioned, the shooting and traversal is a lot of fun (even though the collision detection for the parkour is pretty jank at times). I could easily see my score on this going up to a 2.5 or maybe a 3 if it got a proper remaster. There’s a solid amount of variety in both your abilities and the enemy types, as well as the city setting affording tons of verticality and traversal options. Pretty much everything else here is doing the bare minimum to funnel you back into exploration and combat encounters, because that’s the one thing this game does nail quite well. It’s a shame this game is such a technical disaster, because there is a decent core gameplay loop here at the very least, but it’s buried under so many problems that it's hard to appreciate much at all.
Thankfully, most of the story cutscenes are rendered in a stylish graphic novel inspired style to sidestep this issue, but it’s still incredibly jarring whenever the game cuts back to in-engine cutscenes. The story is convoluted nonsense that has you going around beating up homeless people and engaging in police brutality, while you help the NSA use the Patriot Act to keep people safe (this is the good path). More specifically, there are these escort missions where the game doesn't let you cuff anyone, even though you have a previously established infinite lightning cuff power, so that you have to beat up the prisoners to make them fall in line (https://youtu.be/XNHSUzUB-CU?t=871).
There are somewhat interesting ideas about the government manipulating people and the conflicts being driven by a class divide, but it’s so disconnected from how the game’s binary morality directly rewards you for falling in line with the powers that be that it totally misses the mark. The choices are also mostly really stupid extremes, like “do you want to murder innocent sick people in a hospital or save them and become a literal messiah?”. Every time you make a major karma choice, the game pauses for 5 seconds to tell you the thing you did, and there’s no way to turn off or skip this notification. I know it doesn’t sound a lot, but there’s a lot of these moments and it adds up over time.
The instant you finish a mission, a pop-up appears and the game pauses, often triggering before the mission’s dialogue and cutscenes are even wrapped up. Everytime you clear a district by finishing a side mission, the game cuts to the map screen (the one element of the game with a consistent framerate), slowly zooms in on the area, tells you you’ve cleared it, and then lets you play again. These weirdly intrusive UI elements add nothing to the game. The power upgrade trees are another underdeveloped idea, mostly giving you wider AOEs on your attacks, which is really frustrating on the good run because it makes it harder and harder to not hurt civilians.
The gameplay is the real saving grace here. Aside from all the other problems I mentioned, the shooting and traversal is a lot of fun (even though the collision detection for the parkour is pretty jank at times). I could easily see my score on this going up to a 2.5 or maybe a 3 if it got a proper remaster. There’s a solid amount of variety in both your abilities and the enemy types, as well as the city setting affording tons of verticality and traversal options. Pretty much everything else here is doing the bare minimum to funnel you back into exploration and combat encounters, because that’s the one thing this game does nail quite well. It’s a shame this game is such a technical disaster, because there is a decent core gameplay loop here at the very least, but it’s buried under so many problems that it's hard to appreciate much at all.
Great game, some jank but its really fun
Controls kinda suck, and the morality system is so binary that is kinda laughable at times. This game has not aged well at all. But I still had fun (kinda) even if I found it frustrating most of the time. Still, I don't regret my time with it and I'm looking forward to the rest of the franchise.
Think I got this for free after PSN went down. Game has an interesting concept and the good vs bad mechanic is interesting enough but the story was lacklustre and it was boring at points
I fucking LOVE boring ass open world games
Friend of mine told me how they spent a lot of time just sliding on the train tracks because it made the controller vibrate and that is now the only association I have with this game because said memory has been haunting me forever.
i still think its really funny that part of the title is all lowercase because it may or may not even apply to you. real ones just be FAMOUS
As a kid, I got upset that I could only play Prototype and not this on PC. Turns out Prototype was (slightly) better after all. Huh.
atrociously late 2000's and bog-standard AAA open world clashing with its charmingly detailed dilapidation and nearly cathartic movement. finally getting around to infamous makes me feel like im a middle schooler again with the elementary angst of its protagonist and the rudimentary story propped up by exposition. playing it through PSnow, and it's surprisingly better than i expected. i dont know how much lag is from PS3 hardware or streaming, but the input delay is nigh existent, so i dont really care. seeing empire city for the first time raised my hopes with this game. all the abundant trash, abused cars, and populated streets genuinely excited me for what was to come.
the gameplay lead me on. traversing buildings was great, the game promoted exploration and didnt seem like it facilitated vehicles or fast travel (yet at least). the combat was explosive and chaotic, some of my favorite features in action games as it's a thrill. but then the cracks quickly begin to form and form, but im not so sure how deep they burrow into the game. the combat is weirdly both a combo action game AND a cover shooter. the cover mechanics arent very well done and this overall causes more frustration with how these opposing philosophies fight against each other. you have ranged attacks, grenades, and even a precision shot, but your melee attacks hit like trucks, you can lift enemies up into the air for easier comboing, and the game lets you slam hard into the ground to enter fights. but how squishy cole is fights against the aggressive nature of some of the abilities you have. half the time youre behind cover, the other half youre in the fray and frantically using all your attacks while searching for electricity to heal yourself with. it seems not very focused on what it wanted to be. the way enemies spawn HIGH above the ground on far rooftops, shooting you with pretty good accuracy, seems to promote the cover shooting side of the game, but the weak cover system and aggressive abilities go against that. it's weird and, at times, even frustrating.
then comes our good ol friend AAA open-world game design. heaps of side missions, ceaseless amounts of collectibles, a map to wipe enemies off of, it's very similar to ubisoft's overused formula born from far cry 3. this wouldn't be as big of a deal if the movement was any better. scaling buildings and jumping across rooftops is annoying at times but is at best very cathartic. when youre smoothly climbing walls or jumping to drainage pipes or trying to grab onto a far ledge, it feels great until the game awkwardly has a hard time moving cole where youre leading him. or worse: not understanding what youre trying to jump on to.
infamous is very run-of-the-mill with some great set dressing and particle effects. the gameplay reaches close to greatness but lands on its butt in the no man's land of some good ideas but also some bad execution. the story is nothing to write home about but that's not a dealbreaker. like, cmon man, im playing a game about an edgy electric superhero dude from 2009. i just reached the warren and got the glide ability, so i think i'll play more but for how much longer, im not sure. like it's combat, im phasing in between whether i want to drop this or see it out to the end.
23.07.2023: god this game is such a fucking slog thats already severely hampered by poorly aged open world game design and combat built upon two conflicting ideas. dont know why i finished this, but i at least i played bloodborne for a bit to cleanse my mind.
the gameplay lead me on. traversing buildings was great, the game promoted exploration and didnt seem like it facilitated vehicles or fast travel (yet at least). the combat was explosive and chaotic, some of my favorite features in action games as it's a thrill. but then the cracks quickly begin to form and form, but im not so sure how deep they burrow into the game. the combat is weirdly both a combo action game AND a cover shooter. the cover mechanics arent very well done and this overall causes more frustration with how these opposing philosophies fight against each other. you have ranged attacks, grenades, and even a precision shot, but your melee attacks hit like trucks, you can lift enemies up into the air for easier comboing, and the game lets you slam hard into the ground to enter fights. but how squishy cole is fights against the aggressive nature of some of the abilities you have. half the time youre behind cover, the other half youre in the fray and frantically using all your attacks while searching for electricity to heal yourself with. it seems not very focused on what it wanted to be. the way enemies spawn HIGH above the ground on far rooftops, shooting you with pretty good accuracy, seems to promote the cover shooting side of the game, but the weak cover system and aggressive abilities go against that. it's weird and, at times, even frustrating.
then comes our good ol friend AAA open-world game design. heaps of side missions, ceaseless amounts of collectibles, a map to wipe enemies off of, it's very similar to ubisoft's overused formula born from far cry 3. this wouldn't be as big of a deal if the movement was any better. scaling buildings and jumping across rooftops is annoying at times but is at best very cathartic. when youre smoothly climbing walls or jumping to drainage pipes or trying to grab onto a far ledge, it feels great until the game awkwardly has a hard time moving cole where youre leading him. or worse: not understanding what youre trying to jump on to.
infamous is very run-of-the-mill with some great set dressing and particle effects. the gameplay reaches close to greatness but lands on its butt in the no man's land of some good ideas but also some bad execution. the story is nothing to write home about but that's not a dealbreaker. like, cmon man, im playing a game about an edgy electric superhero dude from 2009. i just reached the warren and got the glide ability, so i think i'll play more but for how much longer, im not sure. like it's combat, im phasing in between whether i want to drop this or see it out to the end.
23.07.2023: god this game is such a fucking slog thats already severely hampered by poorly aged open world game design and combat built upon two conflicting ideas. dont know why i finished this, but i at least i played bloodborne for a bit to cleanse my mind.
This game is just as awesome as i remembered it being. Pretty much everything about it just works across the board. The art direction is atmospheric and moody, the traversal has a somewhat steep learning curve but it’s still incredibly fluid and functional, the combat is energetic and engaging, and the story offers just enough twists to keep you wrapped up in it from start to finish. The progression is very rewarding too. The game always gives you cool new mechanics and unique abilities to experiment with and it in turn keeps the overall experience from becoming overly stale or repetitive. If the game does have any singular weaknesses it’s that the actual open world elements are somewhat lacking by modern standards and the world itself doesn’t offer a great deal in the way of in depth, substantial side content, opting to mostly uninspired collectibles and superfluous activities that aren’t entirely interesting. I’m also decidedly not the biggest fan of the morality system. It’s rather half baked and the player choices rarely affect the overarching narrative in any intrinsic or particularly meaningful way. Warts and all though? The core gameplay loop is so immensely satisfying that i can easily look past some of this game’s more glaringly apparent shortcomings. Infamous most certainly holds up as a very fun superhero game and it’s one of the playstation 3’s best exclusives.
InFAMOUS is a decent enough open-world game about a guy with zappy hands. There's a lot of Sly Cooper DNA built into how you get around: gravitating towards rails, perching on poles, gripping and jumping your way up damn near every building you see, etc. Those are the best things it has going for it though, honestly.
Listen, morality systems weren't commonplace back in 2009, so leave it to Sucker Punch to implement one of the most downright comical morality systems I've ever experienced. Its conflicts are completely black-and-white, often making up the most contrived reason for a moral conflict on the spot. They save the funniest situations for events called "karma moments". "Hmmmm. I could turn this valve and get another faceful of that mindfuck juice...or I could get that innocent bystander to turn it for me..." Absolutely unhinged shit like that. Then you make your choice and it's like "You Did A Good! You Earned Good Boy Points!" on the left side of the screen. There's no subtlety whatsoever, and I don't even mind because it's the hardest I've laughed at (not with) a video game in ages. The results of my heroic endeavors actually did surprise me from time to time. As I was gradually deemed more "heroic", NPCs ran up to me to cheer me on, snap pictures with me, and I even saw a crowd of them throwing rocks at an enemy gang. Later, there was a TV store broadcasting anti-Cole propaganda, and there was a whole crowd standing outside watching those displays adamantly. Then the moment the broadcast stopped, they all turned to me and cheered about how much of a badass I was. Yeah, I can't take this seriously at all.
I don't try to hide it, but I am pretty much trash at most TPS/FPS games. That being said, something about how the enemies move and how Cole aims feels...inaccurate. A lot of your moves, like the shockwave, feel more like tech demo fodder than something you could feasibly make use of in combat. You try to blow some cars in the direction of your enemies, and it's completely at the will of the physics engine. Your powers eat up your electricity supply something fierce, but not to worry, you can recharge by sucking the energy out of any nearby electrical installation, of which there are usually countless. Recharging like this also rapidly refills your health, making retreat a frequently viable option. Everything just feels chaotic and janky. It's usually a fun kind of jank, but still jank.
I went back after my Hero ending playthrough to do an brief Evil playthrough. Aside from terrorizing civilians to make my Evil karma points rack up faster, my mind is pretty much decided. I feel as though I fail to grasp what makes this game truly InFAMOUS.
Listen, morality systems weren't commonplace back in 2009, so leave it to Sucker Punch to implement one of the most downright comical morality systems I've ever experienced. Its conflicts are completely black-and-white, often making up the most contrived reason for a moral conflict on the spot. They save the funniest situations for events called "karma moments". "Hmmmm. I could turn this valve and get another faceful of that mindfuck juice...or I could get that innocent bystander to turn it for me..." Absolutely unhinged shit like that. Then you make your choice and it's like "You Did A Good! You Earned Good Boy Points!" on the left side of the screen. There's no subtlety whatsoever, and I don't even mind because it's the hardest I've laughed at (not with) a video game in ages. The results of my heroic endeavors actually did surprise me from time to time. As I was gradually deemed more "heroic", NPCs ran up to me to cheer me on, snap pictures with me, and I even saw a crowd of them throwing rocks at an enemy gang. Later, there was a TV store broadcasting anti-Cole propaganda, and there was a whole crowd standing outside watching those displays adamantly. Then the moment the broadcast stopped, they all turned to me and cheered about how much of a badass I was. Yeah, I can't take this seriously at all.
I don't try to hide it, but I am pretty much trash at most TPS/FPS games. That being said, something about how the enemies move and how Cole aims feels...inaccurate. A lot of your moves, like the shockwave, feel more like tech demo fodder than something you could feasibly make use of in combat. You try to blow some cars in the direction of your enemies, and it's completely at the will of the physics engine. Your powers eat up your electricity supply something fierce, but not to worry, you can recharge by sucking the energy out of any nearby electrical installation, of which there are usually countless. Recharging like this also rapidly refills your health, making retreat a frequently viable option. Everything just feels chaotic and janky. It's usually a fun kind of jank, but still jank.
I went back after my Hero ending playthrough to do an brief Evil playthrough. Aside from terrorizing civilians to make my Evil karma points rack up faster, my mind is pretty much decided. I feel as though I fail to grasp what makes this game truly InFAMOUS.
Held back almost ENTIRELY by crust. I cannot see myself revisiting this game. It's still a really dope game for what it is and choosing between evil and good as funny.
inFamous was pretty mindblowing way back when it was released: a fast-paced open world superhero game with great action. It wasn't free of problems, though... for one, it featured the single worst morality system in history, that might as well have been replaced with a yes-no "are you evil" question at the start of the game. Also, to achieve the scale of the world, the developers did a lot of copying and pasting, which means the map is pretty boring.
Still, inFamous is fun for a casual playthrough.
Still, inFamous is fun for a casual playthrough.
yeah this was a game
I feel like the reviews of this game aren't giving it the credit it deserves.
Sure, the game's karma system is "binary" but that doesn't matter that much to me when everything else works so well to make up for it.
Movement is great, the open world is fun to explore, and the story is actually super engaging
I grew up with this game and I feel like I love it more having revisited it as an adult, I 100% recommend it.
Sure, the game's karma system is "binary" but that doesn't matter that much to me when everything else works so well to make up for it.
Movement is great, the open world is fun to explore, and the story is actually super engaging
I grew up with this game and I feel like I love it more having revisited it as an adult, I 100% recommend it.