Review: inFamous

Sucker Punch's PS3 exclusive gets fed into our review machine, and out pops a score.
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Article written by nofi in Hot, PS3 Reviews, on Monday, May 25, 2009 at 20:00.

inFamous, the oddly capitalised PlayStation 3 exclusive, is finally here. Born from the bastard parents of Grand Theft Auto and Crackdown and just beating womb-mate Prototype to the wide open world of the bustling sandbox genre, inFamous has a lot to live up to, especially given that gamers will need to buy a PS3 to see what all the fuss is about. They won’t, though: inFamous isn’t a system seller and, all things considered, isn’t even a guaranteed sale to anyone but the most hardened Sony fanbase.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves: inFamous might throw you right into the deep end when you first press ‘Start’, but we won’t. If you still haven’t played the demo, either because of bandwidth issues or a simple desire to not have your experience spoiled by the slightly misleading missions dotted throughout the recent playable tester, we’ll fill you in: inFamous is an open world third person shooter where guns and vehicles have been replaced by cool superhero-esque electrical powers and some Sonic style rail grinding.

That’s not it, of course, but the beauty of a story-led game like this is that you’re left to find out just what’s going on all by yourself, and whilst the demo was quite happy to begin your brief campaign with some maxed out powers and a train to start, the full game kicks off, after the cracking and powerful introduction, in a much more sedate manner.  You’ll also be introduced, face to face, with Zeke, your hopelessly ignorant, overweight and terribly animated partner.  We tried, but no amount of lightning can harm him or his pizza.

inFamous doesn’t try hard to buck any preconceptions of the sandbox genre.  Yes, your character has, ultimately, a delicious set of power ups and abilities the likes of Nico and CJ could only dream of, but we’ve seen building scaling before in Crackdown and it takes until the second of the three islands for Cole, the main character in inFamous, to start to get his better characteristics.  Until then you’re meant to hone your free running and roof jumping skills, all the while slowly building up your offensive weaponry bit by bit.

As we’ve said in our demo test and full game hands on, inFamous’ trump card is the karma system, which sees Cole faced with staged set-pieces in which he must make a moral decision which is meant to affect the outcome of the game but ultimately simply nudges a little meter clockwise or anticlockwise.  These karma sections do little more than break any forth wall that might have been tenuously built and although moving towards being a hero or being infamous is a nice idea, the only thing it really does is unlock different abilities.

Throughout your time in Empire City the storyline (and the reason for the explosion that wiped everything out) is drip-fed in staccato voice overs and pirate TV interludes, and whilst the comic book animated cut-scenes are wonderful the story isn’t exactly watertight and the various plot twists can be more akin to plot holes.  Characters come and go but they all tend to gel into a single information thread and without the onscreen GPS some players might no doubt be lost as to what to do next and why they were doing it.

For the most part, you’ll be tasked with ridding the city of the various gangs that have taken over each third of the game world; restoring light and energy via the various (and yet oddly similar) underground sewer systems and partaking in a series of disparate and disconnected side quests that, although rooted in the same mechanics of inFamous, don’t ever seem to fit in with the current events of the main narrative.  They aren’t even hidden, in fact given a brighter colour on the GPS than the blue story progression points.

What are hidden, though, are masses of energy shards (to expand your energy block), dead drop radars which carry secret audio messages and literally thousands of energy producing machines (from vehicles to phone boxes) which Cole can use to recharge his electrical supply.  The clever mechanics, such as dark (sans power) areas holding back any such power boosts are a neat idea, but the notion is underused and somewhat miscommunicated, with the signposting never really obvious unless you pause the game and stare at the overall map.

For an open world sandbox, it’s a crying shame that inFamous carries no sense of ownership.  There are no garages to store your vehicles because Cole cannot drive.  You don’t need to stockpile weaponry and ammunition because Cole cannot hold a gun, and because doors don’t open your base is typically devoid of anything usefully yours.  In addition, and because of this, there is no desire to explore unless you’re seeking out the aforementioned collect-em-ups and even so, a distinct lack of variety to the environments, even when power is restored, is disappointing.

What does shine, though, is the gameplay, which is stunning.  Cole’s attraction to horizontal and vertical elements in the world is most pleasing, and Sucker Punch’s decision to make everything as sticky as possible is a smart one.  The player, once suitably powered up, can leap, grind and flip between buildings, scale them with ease and, of course, create devastation with an ultimately expansive electricity based arsenal.  Jedi-style powers, sticky grenades and concrete tearing earthquakes are all available to Cole, depending on his karma choices, and the game’s aiming and movement are utterly sublime.

The music, too, is wonderful.  Amon Tobin’s superb compositions give the game a much needed production quality boost, especially amidst the often poor voice acting, and help create tension and excitement when needed.  The visuals we’ve covered in our hands on, but it’s worth mentioning that this isn’t a great looking game: the frame rate is all over the place, the aliasing can be hideous and the clipping quite laughable (I got stuck, completely, inside a few buildings a couple of times) but it’s the animation that hurts the most: Uncharted this isn’t and the in-game cut-scenes can be simply abysmal.  This might be a Sony exclusive but at times it looks like a PS2 game.

Whether that affects your enjoyment of the game is entirely subjective.  In inFamous’ defense, the game can offer staggeringly beautiful views at times, and open-world environments are generally less impressive than most linear adventures, but in 2009 we are right to expect more from our PS3 titles, especially given that with a little more time a lot of the issues that stand out the most (the animation especially) might have been ironed out.  We suspect the mechanical mission structure would always be the same, though, and that’s the game’s main killer.

Recall your fondest sandbox memories: discovering The Truth, learning to fly, or climbing the central tower in Crackdown.  There’s nothing like this in inFamous.  Sure, there’s some nice boss battles, some great shoot-outs and, when it’s all said and done, a decent overarching story, but the moments, the single sections that must piece together to form a whole, are rarely that enjoyable and you certainly won’t be discussing most of them with friends around the watercooler.  What you will do is play it through twice, once being good and just, and the second (as I am doing now) being a complete bastard.  After that?  Probably not.

inFamous is here, and it’s got a head start on Prototype.  Whilst that in itself shouldn’t be a reason to buy the game we suspect the game will sell regardless because of its close ties to Sony and the PlayStation brand, and if enough of us splash out on the game there’s a chance Sucker Punch will bring back Sly.  If you want something different for your PS3 then inFamous will fill the gap nicely and despite a seemingly negative review, overall we did enjoy the first play through because it’s a good game and the free-running and shooting are second to none.

And hey, you get that Uncharted 2 beta too, right?

Score: 7/10

Comments

Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.

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  1. cc_star | 25/05/2009 20:22
    Team TSA: Writer
    5866 TSA Points | Member since: Forever

    From the play I’ve had of this I’d agree 100%

    Not what we’re used to for a 1st party title.


    • gibbodude | 26/05/2009 00:15
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      141 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009

      This review has cofuzzled me Shall I forget this one review and wait for prototype or Red Faction Guerrilla. I did enjoy the demo a lot


      • cc_star | 26/05/2009 02:08
        Team TSA: Writer
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        Red Faction has multiplayer, which is great fun, and it’s difficult to get bored of multiplayer.

        There are rumours that PROTOTYPE will have multiplayer patched in as DLC, as they didn’t have time to make sure it was of a high enough quality for the release date.

        Plus the trailers look infinitely more fun.


      • BoyDay | 26/05/2009 13:35
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        If you enjoyed the demo a lot, you’ll more than likely enjoy the game a lot. Reviews are only a guide remember as we all have diferent tastes. :)


  2. Kevling | 25/05/2009 20:35
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    Sound a fair review. Gamesradar gave it a 7 and had to brave a fanboy storm in 12+ pages of comments… I’m sure TSA readers are far more mature about this sort of thing.


    • nofi | 25/05/2009 20:39
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      3870 TSA Points | Member since: Forever

      It’s a good game, but the story settles too quickly and only picks up right at the end. I just found the whole thing too muddy, but we’ll see what everyone else thinks when the game is released.


      • Gamoc | 25/05/2009 21:14
        Team TSA: Content Manager
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        I do agree, the story was pretty great on the two ends, but it did get a little pedestrian between the two. There were some pretty good twists in the game, though I saw one or two coming, it was still pretty damn great at times.


    • Colinbarr66 | 25/05/2009 20:39
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      Of course we are ;)


    • oMega-W | 25/05/2009 20:43
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      Maybe in public, but some of us are secretly constructing hate emails to send to Nofi demanding he raises it to a 10. In order to raise the Metacritic average, y’know…

      But yeah. 7 seems fair, from the demo. Might get it eventually, but not too bothered at the moment.


    • Gamoc | 25/05/2009 21:13
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      Yep, we’re much more matu- WAIT, IS THAT A 7!?
      [Calls forth awesome teleporting Conduits and sends them after nofi]


      • Paragonknight | 25/05/2009 22:09
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        lol.


  3. C_S15 | 25/05/2009 20:44
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    Inclined to agree on all parts apart from the jumping. I found the stickyness an annoynace rather than a god send. And with Cole feeling like a paperbag caught in an updraft it never felt like I could fully control where he went.
    Still think/hoping Prototype does better though.


  4. BoyDay | 25/05/2009 20:45
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    I expected to come in here and feel the need to call you a bunch of cocks for giving it a 9 or 10, but I agree with this score. From the demo I really thought it was pretty average, and I actually preferred Crackdown. I’ll probably still buy it, but I’ll just wait until it’s reduced which will probably be the end of July.


    • colmshan1990 | 25/05/2009 21:08
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      No beta for you then…


      • BoyDay | 26/05/2009 01:26
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        Bovvered, I’ve not even finished the first Uncharted yet – not even played it since the trophy patch came!


    • Gamoc | 25/05/2009 21:11
      Team TSA: Content Manager
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      ‘I agree with this score. From the demo I really thought it was pretty average’

      7 = Good.

      5 = Average.


      • BoyDay | 26/05/2009 01:27
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        Gamoc = pedantic

        I basically meant it was nothing that particularly stands out from the pack. Most games get around a 7, so that is also an average too since 7 is the modal group.


  5. teflon | 25/05/2009 21:00
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    1594 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009

    Everything in here is quite constructive to any sequel or follow up that Sucker Punch might come out with, so yeah Id say this is quite fair, though Ive only seen the demo.

    One thing about the game is the karma system. I mean, everyone is trying to do it these days, from Lionhead with Fable (and 2) to Bioshock, but noone has done it properly yet, not even SP. Oh sure, killing Little Sisters feels bad and you get some different dialogue and a bad guy ending, but there was no real motivation to play it as a bad guy. So I wish that SP had decided to come up with two separate stories or branches to the story line (not that I know how it goes anyway), possibly with an extra little epilogue as the bad guy where the government sends a strike team after you and you need to either destroy them or go on the run. That would have been cool.

    But where Sucker Punch gets it right is that if youre good the populace helps you, and if youre bad the populace has a go at you.

    Of course, Ill wait till the full game shows to make up my mind on this.


    • rht992 | 26/05/2009 12:52
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      the wither had an amazing karma system. it completely changed the story. you had to play it through five or six times to do everything and it wasn’t black and white. there was no telling what would happen and no telling that you’d just made a choice that would affect the game. After all “there is no good, no evil- only decisions and consequences”


  6. Gamoc | 25/05/2009 21:05
    Team TSA: Content Manager
    1185 TSA Points | Member since: Forever

    Personally, it’s getting an 8 from me. It’s very good, just not quite the usual Sony first party fare. Still, I’m enjoying it (and I’m pretty sure I’m a mission from finishing my first play through). I blame Sucker Punch, it’s not quite as awesome as it should be and there are a few tech issues.


    • Gamoc | 25/05/2009 21:15
      Team TSA: Content Manager
      1185 TSA Points | Member since: Forever

      Oh, and did anyone but me think Sasha’s voice was really, really…seductive?

      Ok, she was sexy. She’s a bad girl, I can’t help it.


  7. A_R_M_O_N | 25/05/2009 21:07
    * Banned *
    -1058 TSA Points | Member since: Jan 2009

    /edited/


    • Colinbarr66 | 25/05/2009 21:19
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      Mature


      • Gamoc | 25/05/2009 21:29
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        Cheddar.


  8. colmshan1990 | 25/05/2009 21:10
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    How can you say that the Karma system makes no difference if you then say you’re still playing through the second time?


    • nofi | 25/05/2009 21:19
      Wants a custom tag.
      3870 TSA Points | Member since: Forever

      Different Trophies. Different profile mind, but there you go.


      • Gamoc | 25/05/2009 21:28
        Team TSA: Content Manager
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        It changes a few of the comic cutscenes a bit too, doesn’t it? And pedestrian reactions. Not big stuff, though.


      • colmshan1990 | 25/05/2009 22:15
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        fair enough


    • rht992 | 26/05/2009 12:53
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      its meant to change the story and show you the full picture


  9. Mick939 | 25/05/2009 21:13
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    I really cant wait for this, 7’s good enough but i imagine for me someone who loves anything like this it will be a bit more


  10. cc_star | 25/05/2009 21:21
    Team TSA: Writer
    5866 TSA Points | Member since: Forever

    Look at the n4g’ers rating this article down for saying that a 1st party title is good… but not unmissable.


    • nofi | 25/05/2009 21:23
      Wants a custom tag.
      3870 TSA Points | Member since: Forever

      Some people see a 7 as ‘bad’, especially given it’s an exclusive. 5 = average, 6 = good, 7 = great, 8 = excellent, 9 = unmissable, 10 = singstar.


      • Gamoc | 25/05/2009 21:26
        Team TSA: Content Manager
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        9 = Singstar.

        Sorry, Singstar doesn’t get that privilege, dammit. LBP might.


      • Paragonknight | 25/05/2009 22:12
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        I hope a game doesn’t get a 10 on TSA then. ;)


    • C_S15 | 25/05/2009 21:44
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      1367 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009

      You visited N4G?
      Whyyyyy?!


    • Paragonknight | 25/05/2009 22:36
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      3 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008

      I was just going to say that someone was defending you nofi on N4G but it was just cc. lol.


  11. DRCD1 | 25/05/2009 21:22
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    674 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008

    I love any kind of Action games with mixed platform elements (Uncharted, Tomb Raider, Indiana Jones), so I guess I’ll love this game


  12. Gamoc | 25/05/2009 21:37
    Team TSA: Content Manager
    1185 TSA Points | Member since: Forever

    Right, before I complete it, the game doesn’t just end when you finish the storyline does it? I’m searching around and going for as many trophies as I can get with my evil character and am avoiding finishing it until I’ve got as many as I can/until I get bored…

    So, does finishing the storyline end the game, or can you carry one messing about?


    • Gamoc | 25/05/2009 23:27
      Team TSA: Content Manager
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      Thanks.

      Oh my lord, that ending was completely unexpected.


  13. 3shirts | 25/05/2009 21:52
    Member
    1788 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008

    Looks like i’m waiting for Prototype then. If it turns out to be crap I can get this instead and it’ll probably be available on eBay by then.
    Win win


  14. zb100 | 25/05/2009 22:01
    Member
    500 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008

    Oooh, didn’t realise Mr Tobin had scored the soundtrack.
    Wonder if you can get it as a standalone, a la Chaos Theory?


    • colmshan1990 | 25/05/2009 22:17
      Member
      945 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009

      Who is Amon Tobin? Please don’t say composer of inFamous’ soundtrack.


      • Tom Lord | 26/05/2009 00:01
        Team TSA: Writer
        525 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009

        Amon Tobin is a musical genius, he produces some of the best instrumental music you will ever come across, Supermodified and the Chaos Theory soundtrack for example.


    • baconsarnie | 25/05/2009 23:24
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      937 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008

      the soundtrack is available or itunes


  15. morbo1993 | 25/05/2009 22:02
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    69 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008

    After trying the demo it seems very much like a 8 or 9 to me…. but seems like Nofi is trying to explain away his 7 with 7 = great so i guess that’s ok


    • Gamoc | 25/05/2009 22:04
      Team TSA: Content Manager
      1185 TSA Points | Member since: Forever

      …you don’t understand review scores properly, do you?


      • morbo1993 | 25/05/2009 22:51
        Member
        69 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008

        yes i do get how it SHOULD be, but that’s far different than how it is… in the “world” we live in today 8/9 is great, 10 is fantastic, 7 is ok and so on… i’m sure nofi thought it was a great game, but it really seems like he is comparing the game too much to GTA IV (which in my opinion sucks, but that’s not the point) and i can say, after playing the demo, say that this in no way looks like a ps2 game, and the animations are great. Sure, can’t say anything on the pop-ins and framerate yet but i’m sure it’s not THAT horrible


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