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.