inFamous- PS3 (From The Northern Echo)

inFamous- PS3

12:37pm Wednesday 5th August 2009

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If you could have any superpower, what would it be? Super-strength, teleportation, X-ray vision? And how would you use your powers? Would you clean up the world and be a beacon of hope, or become a harbinger of doom bent on ruling the world? If you haven’t asked yourself these questions before, you were obviously never six years old. And now inFamous, the newest game from developer Sucker Punch, gives players the chance to go through these and more choices for themselves.

When a massive explosion destroys a chunk of Empire City, lowly bike messenger Cole is the only survivor. As the city is closed off from civilisation and slips into chaos, Cole begins to turn into a human light-socket, shooting electricity from his fingertips like Sylar in Heroes. Now it’s up to Cole, along with best buddy Zeke and ex-girlfriend Trish to save the decaying city and figure out what’s happening to him.

The gameplay, first of all, is excellent. Cole’s powers are very well-balanced, ranging from a quick lightning attack through an electromagnetic shockwave, a pulsing electric shield and, eventually, the ability to call down lightning from the heavens like a God. You gain new powers by activating substations in the sewers, which also brings electricity to more parts of the city. Your powers drain energy, which you can draw from basically anything electrical in the city to recharge or regain health. All these factors combined add a sense of danger to the combat, which makes for very exciting battles.

The environments are also very meticulously detailed. Cole has a background in urban exploration, so you can run and jump between rooftops and climb up walls like the Duracell bunny crossed with Spiderman. The city is made up of three islands, each with its own rail system and connected by sprawling bridges and power lines. It’s enormous fun to jump across a rooftop, slide across a power cable and slam into the ground in front of a mob of enemies.

Finally, there’s the story. Cutscenes are presented as moving comic strips, which reinforces the fictional influences behind the game. It also provides something of a contrast to the story, which is decidedly dark and twisted in places. Throughout the game, Cole is forced to make several moral decisions during certain missions: do I try and disarm this bomb, or do nothing? Do I give the starving citizens these food crates, or kill them and take the food for myself? Rather than being just a gimmick these decisions feel truly intuitive, and actually shape the story. Follow the good path and the citizens love you, asking for autographs and taking your picture. Choose the not-so-good, and they’ll beat you up every chance they get. It also affects the appearance of the environment: if Cole is a hero he looks bright and shining, and the city becomes cleaner and cleaner. If Cole becomes evil, he becomes pale and dirty, his lightning turning red, and the city gets further into disarray. The story provides some spectacular missions, including powering a train to free hostages trapped inside, and climbing a gargantuan mound of twisted metal and junk, stopping every so often to power lifts to help Zeke climb with you. These missions really do make you feel powerful, and that is what inFamous is all about: helping you live out those superhero fantasies you inevitably had as a child.

All in all, this is another winning exclusive for PS3 owners. With great gameplay, an exciting, twisting story with a shocking (pardon the pun) conclusion and amazing powers, inFamous is definitely one of Sony’s summer hits.

Philip Bayles

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