inFamous imPressions: Tales From The Darker Side

I was in the middle of writing up my review of inFamous when I had a thought, well, technically several thoughts. Firstly; I’ve only completed the ‘œevil’ campaign and secondly; I have no real need to get the review done as soon as possible. It would be nice to have a solid, full review available for you guys sooner rather than later. But, I’m playing this game not because I have to or because it’s my job, I’m playing it because I spent my food coffee money on it and I’m enjoying myself (though probably not as much as I would be enjoying £40ish of coffee).

With that in mind, and considering the wealth of other opinions about the game already floating around, I’m not just going to play through the game’s “evil” version of the campaign before posting up my review. I’m going to also play all, or at least a substantial part of, the ‘œgood’ campaign. However, as I want to throw my thoughts into the current opinion-pot that is the blogo-cube, here are my impressions of the game after playing through it once.

The game from a distance looks like dirty Crackdown. As you get closer you begin to notice a few subtle differences; pacing, climbing, weapons. When you finally arrive at the feet of inFamous you can see it may have indeed taken inspiration from Crackdown, and the GTA games to an extent, but actually manages to feel unique.

Sadly, the uniqueness is harder to get at than perhaps it should be. The ‘œthree islands that will be unlocked one at a time’ mechanic, or the ‘œeach island has a different faction and skill level’ mechanic seem ripped right out of the text book of Open World City Games. Combined with the slowly unlocking powers that you upgrade using XP, almost linear main missions and non-linear, repetitive side missions and the game does feel very ‘œgamey’. It feels a lot like the gameplay and game mechanics side of things were designed first, then the dressing of story, plot and explanations were added after.

The way Cole, the bold, gruff, main character, controls is where things start to stray from the norm. He can’t scale mighty buildings in single bounds and instead will find himself scrambling up them. Gone are Crackdown’s epic feeling jumps upward, instead you get a very mortal vibe. But the super jumps aren’t forgotten. You don’t take fall damage and are actively encouraged to smash downwards from great heights. Some of the side missions also require you to sprint across rooftops in a race against the clock. Aided by your (eventually gained) ability top skate along power lines and using static to float, you can get up some fun speeds.

Skating along a power line up to the top of a building, only to be flung into the air upon your arrival, barely controlling yourself as you glide onto the next power line at noticeable altitudes is fun. Sadly, it’s also the exception rather than the rule. The way the city is set up, unlike in, say, Mirror’s Edge, there is no clear identification of where you can go when you are travelling at speed. I found myself alternating between going enjoyably fast, and being stationary looking for the route.

The combat is an area the game has come under fire for, and I can see people’s point. You will find yourself being killed a lot more than you would likely expect. I also found it very rare to barely escape with my life. There are either not enough dudes to scratch me, or just enough to all simultaneously fire on me, leading to an unavoidable and frustrating death. Enemies are also oddly difficult to kill (I was playing on Hard difficulty though).

On the third island, a direct headshot (unless your basic lightning strike has been upgraded enough) wouldn’t kill an enemy. Headshots should always kill in one shot. Still, once upgraded my slow-motion-scoped-in-exploding headshots did do significant damage and get the job done.

The story and the ‘œmoral choices’ in the game is an area I don’t feel quite as confident talking about, partly because I actively chose to be a right dick during my first play. The characters you’re meant to care about you really don’t and the ‘œtwists’ are mostly predictable. The moral system itself is also a bit mediocre. There was possibly only one or two actual choices that took me more than a few seconds to decide. It’s classic videogame binary morals. Sadly, you also have to go to one or other of the extremes of the karma-scale or you can’t unlock the better powers.

My final remark before I start playing again as ‘œgood’ is about the presentation of the game. Sometimes it blows me away; great views, no load times, and occasional great music and unique visuals. Other times it’s like playing a cheap PS2 game; robotic facial and body animations, more clipping than a hairdresser and occasional falling through the floor into death all act to pull you out the action, usually at just the wrong time.

I think I’m enjoying this game in the same way I enjoyed Far Cry 2. Once you work out what the game is going for, and have gotten over all of its (many) faults and shortcomings, deep down there is some repetitive enjoyment to be had.

Expect the full Negative Gamer review when I’ve found out how fun it is to save puppies and be pink… or whatever you do when playing as ‘œgood’.

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