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