I have super mixed feelings on Infamous. I think the concept and story here are really great. The level design is also really built around smooth traversal which is great. But there's also some serious issues with controls and the enemy AI.
From a gameplay standpoint, the game is decent. The initial gameplay loop of unlocking new powers and fighting off enemies was exciting at first. But as the game goes on and you start digging into the side content, it really starts to show its age. The side missions tended to be pretty repetitive, and obviously they're just side content, but I wish that there could have been a little more to them. I did really like the satellite uplink missions though, as they showed you how to get around the city fast.
I also wasn't huge on the morality system here. I get that for the sake of clarity, they wanted to walk through what would lead to a good karma choice and a bad karma choice for every decision, but it kind of broke the immersion for me when the game would freeze and Cole would weigh out his options. If they just allowed me to make my decision and then put a little good/bad karma reminder on the screen, it would have made things feel more cohesive in my eyes. Kind of like how Fallout communicates it's karma to the player.
One issue that I had with the game was the climbing. The climbing does this auto-snap onto ledges, which is nice in concept, but a lot of times it totally breaks up the flow. There were multiple times where I would struggle to get a battery core or I couldn't get to where I wanted because Cole was snapping on to some random ledge. The climbing also tended to just be spamming X and moving around the direction stick. Given the limitations I sort of get it, but the levels are designed with a good amount of verticality so its a shame that the platforming and climbing don't feel great. If there was some type of electric launch or electric wall-run, I think these problems would've been less noticeable. If they wanted climbing to be an "autopilot" mechanism, they should have shortened the amount of time it takes to reach the top of buildings. But if they wanted it to be more technical or player involved, I wish they would have done that too. In their past games, they had added sparkles so that the player could tap a button and make the choice to land on or climb an object. Although I don't know how well the sparkles could work, I think that the climbing could benefit if it allowed for more player input. I think making the climbing more involved would make it more player-driven and fun, or making it shorter would make it less mundane.
The horizontal traversal is really nice though, I like the rail slide and the momentum you can carry into your static glides. You could get some cool sideways launches, and it really made the traversal feel nice once I had finished the game.
The other major issue I had with this game was the enemy AI. I did a playthrough on both Hard and Medium, and the issue was the same in both. While you play the game, it constantly feels like the enemies have laser accuracy. This wouldn't be an issue if they only had this accuracy up close, as it should feel overwhelming to land in a hoard, but the enemies in this game have insane accuracy from multiple buildings away. Pretty much anywhere you go, you're constantly being shot at which breaks up a lot of the fun of traversal in the game.
This game shares a lot of DNA with Sly 2, but one of the biggest parallels I see is in the jungle-gym nature of the level design. In Sly 2 this design really works because as a thief, you constantly want to sneak around on the rooftops and scope out where you're going. For Infamous, this design should work, as the rooftops are where you can travel around the fastest. But it doesn't work because the rooftops leave you exposed from all angles. Instead the safest place to walk through are the alleys as there's really only two directions you can be shot from. The way I see it, Infamous has the design of a stealth game without any options for stealth. You have a really great city design where you can take multiple paths to avoid the enemy, but the climbing is fairly slow and the enemies constantly know where you are. If you're on the rooftops, you will be shot at until you take out all the enemies in the area.
I don't like being negative about this game because it's really clear that a lot of work and love and passion went into this. Sucker Punch made a really solid first entry to fun and gritty super hero series, and I think that's awesome. I really love the graphic novel cutscenes they do between the chapters, and the little phone calls between the different characters. They also made a pretty neat combat system, with loads of cool stunts and fun ways to mess around with the environment. There's a lot that's really great here, I just feel like it's held back by the time it was made and some of the design choices. I'll probably be playing through Infamous 2 sometime this month, so I'm hoping that game improves some of the issues I ran into here!
From a gameplay standpoint, the game is decent. The initial gameplay loop of unlocking new powers and fighting off enemies was exciting at first. But as the game goes on and you start digging into the side content, it really starts to show its age. The side missions tended to be pretty repetitive, and obviously they're just side content, but I wish that there could have been a little more to them. I did really like the satellite uplink missions though, as they showed you how to get around the city fast.
I also wasn't huge on the morality system here. I get that for the sake of clarity, they wanted to walk through what would lead to a good karma choice and a bad karma choice for every decision, but it kind of broke the immersion for me when the game would freeze and Cole would weigh out his options. If they just allowed me to make my decision and then put a little good/bad karma reminder on the screen, it would have made things feel more cohesive in my eyes. Kind of like how Fallout communicates it's karma to the player.
One issue that I had with the game was the climbing. The climbing does this auto-snap onto ledges, which is nice in concept, but a lot of times it totally breaks up the flow. There were multiple times where I would struggle to get a battery core or I couldn't get to where I wanted because Cole was snapping on to some random ledge. The climbing also tended to just be spamming X and moving around the direction stick. Given the limitations I sort of get it, but the levels are designed with a good amount of verticality so its a shame that the platforming and climbing don't feel great. If there was some type of electric launch or electric wall-run, I think these problems would've been less noticeable. If they wanted climbing to be an "autopilot" mechanism, they should have shortened the amount of time it takes to reach the top of buildings. But if they wanted it to be more technical or player involved, I wish they would have done that too. In their past games, they had added sparkles so that the player could tap a button and make the choice to land on or climb an object. Although I don't know how well the sparkles could work, I think that the climbing could benefit if it allowed for more player input. I think making the climbing more involved would make it more player-driven and fun, or making it shorter would make it less mundane.
The horizontal traversal is really nice though, I like the rail slide and the momentum you can carry into your static glides. You could get some cool sideways launches, and it really made the traversal feel nice once I had finished the game.
The other major issue I had with this game was the enemy AI. I did a playthrough on both Hard and Medium, and the issue was the same in both. While you play the game, it constantly feels like the enemies have laser accuracy. This wouldn't be an issue if they only had this accuracy up close, as it should feel overwhelming to land in a hoard, but the enemies in this game have insane accuracy from multiple buildings away. Pretty much anywhere you go, you're constantly being shot at which breaks up a lot of the fun of traversal in the game.
This game shares a lot of DNA with Sly 2, but one of the biggest parallels I see is in the jungle-gym nature of the level design. In Sly 2 this design really works because as a thief, you constantly want to sneak around on the rooftops and scope out where you're going. For Infamous, this design should work, as the rooftops are where you can travel around the fastest. But it doesn't work because the rooftops leave you exposed from all angles. Instead the safest place to walk through are the alleys as there's really only two directions you can be shot from. The way I see it, Infamous has the design of a stealth game without any options for stealth. You have a really great city design where you can take multiple paths to avoid the enemy, but the climbing is fairly slow and the enemies constantly know where you are. If you're on the rooftops, you will be shot at until you take out all the enemies in the area.
I don't like being negative about this game because it's really clear that a lot of work and love and passion went into this. Sucker Punch made a really solid first entry to fun and gritty super hero series, and I think that's awesome. I really love the graphic novel cutscenes they do between the chapters, and the little phone calls between the different characters. They also made a pretty neat combat system, with loads of cool stunts and fun ways to mess around with the environment. There's a lot that's really great here, I just feel like it's held back by the time it was made and some of the design choices. I'll probably be playing through Infamous 2 sometime this month, so I'm hoping that game improves some of the issues I ran into here!