Review: inFamous

Sucker Punch's PS3 exclusive gets fed into our review machine, and out pops a score.
Published 25/05/2009 at 20:00 by nofi
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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recent playable tester, we’ll fill you in: inFamous is an open world third person shooter where guns and vehicles have been replaced by cool superhero-esque electrical powers and some Sonic style rail grinding.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. I’m sorry I scored this review 3 stars, after reading it more closely I’d give it 1 star. I haven’t played the game, I’ve played the demo and loved it. I’ve also read a bunch of reviews and none of them are as negative as this one. You complain about a lot of things that the other reviews actualy praise, like great graphics, rock solid framerate, great gameplay, awesome powers, lots of fun exploring, etc.

    I loved the demo and I believe sites like IGN, Gamespot, 1UP, Gameinformer, etc. alot more than this site.


    • Why are you here then, this is one persons opinioon, you have the right to your own opinion

      People who complain about reviews annoy me, its one persons opinion


    • Nofi doesn’t have a right to his own opinion?


      • I think where people are coming down on nofi’s score is the fact that TSA has a different rating system than ALL the other sites…are you guys using a metric rating system and it just needs to be converted? ;)


    • Hi Empire. Thanks for your comment, and I’m sure you’ll love the game. For me, though, the graphics aren’t great and the framerate can be messy, but if other sites don’t pick up on that then perhaps those issues weren’t as important to them.

      Stick with who fits your agenda. :p


      • Thank you for even replying to my rant nofi. I’ve read many reviews that praise this game alot for things that you complain about. So, I guess you see things that these other reviewers don’t. I respect your opinions and I guess I’m more dissapointed that inFAMOUS got a “low” score from TSA more than anything. Oh, well. I’ll be getting it anyway, long time since I played a demo of a game that I liked as much.


      • As far as the framerate complaints go, I’ve been playing the game for, oh, 15 hours or so, and I haven’t experienced a single framerate drop, not a single one. I notice these things too, I have to, but I haven’t seen any.

        You’re right about the graphics, though it still looks pretty good in motion, with cars flying everywhere and explosions all over the place.


    • @Colinbarr66
      Well, since TSA’s opinions are diferent than mine and most other sites I’ll not stick around. Well, the reviewer has a right to his opinion, and I have a right to vote on what I think about the review and also say what I think about the review. So buzz off.

      @Paragonknight
      Of course, and I have a right to express my opinion.


      • Aw, it’s like that, huh? We’ll email you when we give the next PS3 exclusive a 10 so you can feel better.


      • Yeah I know you have a right too but it seems one sided if you know what I mean?

        I don’t agree with the review either. ;)


      • @Empire
        I might be wrong but aren’t the star ratings for the articles supposed to be about the quality or writing, accuracy of facts, spelling and grammar and just a general teacher-style grading of the work RATHER than a reflection on the views expressed within it?
        Even if I strongly disagree with a review on here I wouldn’t rate the article down for that, I’d rate it down because of all the errors :)


    • Really as i wouldn’t give the likes of ign and (mega corrupted shite) Gamespot my time of day, in face i’d be more inclined to read the reviews in nuts or the metro.


      • Everyone has a right to their opinion but your comment basically said this was a pile of shite. Wording should be better


    • other reviews are more positive. but everyone agrees that its great fun with a good story, great frame rate, awesome powers but the in game cut scenes are just. . . nasty and there are some minor graphics and gameplay glitches that are very off putting. but over all great gameplay makes up for all the almost unfinished visuals.


  2. A 7…well I’m disappointed in the score you gave it, but scores are like opinions. I loved the demo and can’t wait to buy the full game. I had more fun in the demo than I had playing GTAIV.


  3. inFamous has a score of 87 on metacritic. That’s good isn’t? It’s based on 35 reviews. Also TSA is at the bottom of the list of reviewers. There’s only three 7s for the game. Rest are 8 and above.


    • That’s probably because TSA sees a 7 as a good score(as it should be), while other sites use a 7 as an average (5/6) score. Also, the review itself is more important than the score at the end of it.


  4. Good review. I obviously have no grounds to agree or disagree with it but the review it’s self doesn’t seem to tally with the score. It sounds like it should of been a 5 or maybe a 6 (assuming 5 is “average”)?


    • That was actually pretty much how I felt


    • Just been reading though the comments above and it’s confused me futher. Nofi, you seem to share my sentiment that review scores are all outta wack (that’s right, I said “outta wack”) nowadays but this score seems to support the illogical scoring system used my most other sites? I got the impression from reading that it was an ok game but not great, an certainly no where near as great as Sony want us to think. That rings of “5″ to me.


      • Sorry, another comment. I guess what I’m trying to ask is, in your heart of hearts, do you really think it’s a 7, or if it hadn’t been for the public’s overall perception that 5 = abysmal, you would of given it a lower score.


  5. Just want to weigh in on the 7 being a bad score thing. In my view, 7 is a good score. One that is high enough to warrant the purchase of a game. However, right now people are cutting down on unnecessary expenses and games must be right up there on that list. So paying £40 for a game, especially while there are reviews for a lot of other games that are set to be released in the next couple of month on the way, might not be a feasible option. For me that is the case. I can’t afford £40.

    Anyway, my sister works at Game and she says there’s been no pre-orders for it. Therefore we’re likely to see a big price drop akin to Mirror’s Edge after a couple of weeks…


    • Trouble is with PS3 games, unless they’re coming out on the 360 as well, and therefore getting massive publicity, they don’t tend to do very well.

      This for me is a good review (I give it 7), and it’s made me wait until PROTOTYPE is released.

      I work in GAME too, so I’ll be sure to see some traded in very soon. ;)


  6. PlayStation fanboys are the very worse kind of fanboys… nobody on here has even played the fookin’ game, so pee off!


    • But many of them have played the demo, which is supposed to be a reprisentation of the full game, no?

      I’ve played the demo, and whilst enjoyable, wasn’t something I was overly impressed with. That and nofis’ review was enough to give me second thoughts on a purchase.


      • A demo is in theory a representation. However demos do not represent the final build of a game and will only give you a snippet of the game play. Sure they can give you a good indication of graphics and game-play mechanics, but they rarely give you a comprehensive overview of the game’s story and cannot show you just how those mechanics pan out over the course of a game, which in the case of an open world game such as inFamous is 20+ hours I would imagine. It is of course impossible to make a demo represent how those mechanics etc… are going to play out over a longer experience, making demos essentially pointless. In fact several developers (although exactly who escapes me at the moment) have gone on record as saying that demos only harm the sales and perception of a game, rather than helping.


  7. The aliasing is a bit of a letdown tbh, especially when compared to the bullshots in previews. Still day 1 for me though, combat was just too much fun.


    • Yeah I thought that when I first played DJH’s copy of the demo, FF8-esque aliasing, shouldn’t be an issue in the current generation.


  8. I forget how this works, does this mean Edge will like inFamous or not?


    • Edge will give it a lower score. I’m calling it right now.


  9. Sounds about right to me. I wasn’t too keen on the demo if I’m being brutally honest here, just didn’t have any appeal. A couple of my friends are interested but I think I’ll be giving this one a miss, same goes for Prototype really. Just not a fan of the sandbox genre as a whole.


  10. Fantastic, now when EDGE comes out with their 6/10 the European review mockery will be complete. Does anybody else find it odd that over half of the posted 35 reviews on metacritic are 9’s or higher but the 3 european sites that I believe are all based in the UK give the game a 7 when it clearly is deserved of a higher score then that. Please stop trying to pretend that seven is not a bad score for this game because Bionic Commando and Wolverine are averaging around that score in total and I don’t care what anybody says, those are not “good” games. It’s as if you are sticking by your countrymen so they don’t look like a bunch of asses. Are you suggesting that the 50 % of professional reviewers who graded this game as AAA title just don’t know what they are doing? I think I will choose the other option and just remind myself that sometimes people are wrong. This review is a shining example of that. Playing the demo for 2 hours is all you need to realize that.


    • Wow dude..wow


    • Whilst I don’t like to tell people their wrong, I just can’t help myself here.

      7 is not a bad score. Perhaps a large proportion of the gaming journalism world has adopted 7 as a being an average mark which is a shame.

      And how on earth is Al suggesting that other reviewers don’t know what they are doing? He has simply given ‘his’ review of the game. This is what a review is, someone’s opinion of a game. If you don’t agree with it then fine, you don’t have to, but do not insult the integrity and professionalism of this site.


      • Everybody always justifies review scores as being opinions when so many of the aspects of the reviews that make them negative fall out of the realm of opinion and in to simple fact. For instance in two of the reviews that give this game a 7, the controls were a part of the game that was knocked, but in many, many more reviews that gave the game a 9 or higher the controls were pointed out as being the absolute best part of the game. “Pinpoint” is the word I recall seeing alot. Either the game controls well or it doesn’t, there is no opinion on that aspect.

        Also, Did the gaming industry move to the 7-10 scale before or after Terminator reviews started to be published? That’s the same Terminator that is averaging a 5.4 on metacritic.


    • When you use the full scale (1-10), then 7 is definitely worth a look. If, like many magazines & websites, you dont actually start until 7, then yes, 7 can look bad.


    • @dreadnought1
      Where you say “Playing the review for 2 hours is a shining example of that”

      Have you considered that some gamers might like paying a nearly 40 quid game for more than 2 hours.

      I bet the whole total of my bank account that hardly anyone will be playing it after a fortnight, it will be one of the most traded in games for a long time.


      • Hmmm i’ll take that 40p bet Star :-) ….. Big games are always traded in in great numbers, i couldn’t give cex my copy of resi 5 as they had so god damn many.


  11. OMG! What is all the fuss about? A 7 is more than a good enough score to warrant a purchase. I’ve read the review but personally I’m not slightly put off of the game.

    I thank Al for using the proper way of scoring rather than the skewed perception of scoring that many seemed to have recently adopted.


  12. It’s looking like some PS3 users are so pissed at having to wait for an exclusive to come along, only to find that it’s an average game that they MUST CALL SHENANIGANS!


  13. Obviously your 7 is in the decided minority opinion of this game. The metacritic is 87 and all the big boys such as Gamespot, IGN, Game Informer, Gametrailers, etc have given Infamous 9’s and numerous editor’s choice awards.

    Always annoying to me when a reviewer is so far off from the consensus opinion. Guess The Sixth Axis is smarter than the rest!


    • Exactly. How can there be such a diparity in scores like that? It’s ridiculous.


      • It’s called reviewer opinion. Y’know, like how induviduals have their own opinion?

        The simple fact is that the scoring system is skewed. In a PROPER scoring system, which uses the whole scale from 1 – 10, 5 is the mid point and should be considered an average score. Therefore, a score of 7 is good.

        In recent years the major reviewing websites have shifted the scale, so that now a score of 7 is considered to be bad. If our all hailed exclusive game is anything less than an 8 or 9 then the reviewer is accused of being wrong.

        Have you ever wondered how the ‘big’ sites actually give their scores? It’s generally nothing to do with the game quality. There’s usually pressure on the reviewer from overheads to give the ‘correct’ score, not necessarily the truthful score. They can hardly give a game a 6 or 7 when they have developer interviews and ads plastered all over their website.

        If you don’t agree with the review score then fine, everyone is entitled to their own opinion as has been established. Don’t, however (as dj has said), insult nofi or TSA just because the way that you perceive review scores is wrong.


    • What’s wrong with a review being off consensus? A review is the opinion of the reviewer. If the reviewer finds it only worthy of a 7 then why the hell should they not give it what they feel is the correct score?


      • Nothing wrong with it… it simply shows that the particular reviewers score and evaluation cannot be trusted because it is so way of the from the rest.

        Clearly The Sixth Axis review of Infamous is in the decided MINORITY and therefore deserves to lose some credibility.

        Of the 35 reviews counted for Infamous so far 32 of them are 80 and up with 18 (over half) are 90+. Conclude from that what you will, but I make the simply conclusion that the Sixth Axis evaluation is very atypical and therefore not very valuable to me as a gamer.


    • Not smarter. Just honest and not afraid to say what we think.


    • Also, does this mean that Giant Bomb are off the mark being the only site to accredit inFamous with a 10?


      • This game is averaging nearly a 9… come on, don’t get defensive. Just admit that you guys are off when compared with most everybody else. I guess it’s because you guys are much more sophisticated and accomplished gamers than these other media sites, right? LOL


      • The Giant Bomb score is closer to the consensus opinion than your score… deduce from that what you will.

        I just trust the big boys when it comes to game evaluations and guess what:

        Gamespot = 9.0 editor’s choice
        Game Informer = 9.0 game of the month
        IGN = 9.2 editor’s choice
        Game Trailers = 9.0
        ETC
        ETC

        LMAO at the All Powerful Sixth Axis and their omnipresent and superior evaluations of video games!!!


  14. After playing the demo I was massivly dissapointed, so the review here doesnt suprise me. I thought the playing style was dreadful and the missions were lame at best.

    Ofcourse I could put it more elequently like nofi has but the game doesnt deserve it. We need bigger and better for our exclusives then this.
    I would only play this game if you were nearly enough giving it to me.

    Anyone who disagrees, bite me, I dont give a rats ass, its no wonder they were offering betas in exchange for your cash and an underpar overhyped game.


    • last line was wrong way round but ya get me.


  15. @Roynaldo

    Guess you’re right, you playing the demo as you have is definately more valuable than the fully played through evaluation of many big time video game publishers who gave this game 9’s and editor’s choice awards….

    right….. LMAO


    • So are you saying we’re not allowed to form an opinion, based upon what we are given? And instead we must flock, like sheep to whatever they say?
      EVERYONE is allowed an opinion. Why don’t you try and counter his points with some of your opinions in a constructive way using simple manners? It helps.


    • Some people are sure doing a lot LMAO


      • It would appear they have LMAO’d and then stuck it back on over their mouths.


    • You’re annoying. What’s next? You’re going to tell me what game I should buy?


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