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.