InFamous: Quite an experience

Well, its been sometime now. Been busy with a number of things so I haven't been able to jump back to my blog as of recently. But I did say I would have an InFamous review for those you that are continuing to read my blog, and so here we are again. I soon hope to follow up with a Prototype review, but for some strange reason I've grown quite addicted to Tiger Woods Golf 10 for my 360. Perhaps I blast aboard with a review of that as well. So here we are......InFamous.

Now for some reason, whenever I hear the word infamous, I always think back to the classic comedy “Three Amigos” with Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, and Martin Short, but let's just get that comparison out of the way because this is no little amigos game. To sum up the game for you in its feel, its like Crackdown meets Assassin's Creed, high impact action with a great story and at the same time, you choose to follow a moral code that affects what you can do and how you are as a person. You play Cole, an unsuspecting bike messenger carrying a bomb that levels nearly 20% of the city sent it into utter turmoil, but behold, you live. How convenient? But how, why? And what seems to be a cheesy plot to just kind of send you on this what the hell is wrong with me character life, the story is much more in-depth than just a few explosions and a guy that doesn't realize what's going on. Armed with the power of lightning, you run off into the city to regain something of your life that you seemed to have made miserable so many. And would a game like this be if you didn't have a pissed off ex-girlfriend to boot? Well look no further. But once again, it kind of starts out on this cookie cutter anti-hero story, but its so much more.

Visually, the game is stunning with lots of attention to detail. If there's one game to play on an HDTV this year, its this one. The colors are rich with little next to no clipping or draw in at all when leaping over tall buildings or jumping down from them. There are a few moments when going into a small scene starting a mission where you may bump the character you are speaking to, and it throws them to the ground with their legs flailing about meanwhile their head and eyes continue to stay focused on you as if to say, “Oh don't mind my crazy legs. They do that from time to time.” But that doesn't happen often. Other times, I would notice car driving right through each other as I would blow up a bus or truck, but not a lot at all to think it would be call rampant. This is all cosmetic, and should not shy you away from playing this game just because of a few minor graphical glitches. And though I could probably be very picky and state a bunch of other little things here and there, they are in no way significant to even mention in my opinion.

Now the game isn't without its repetition mind you. It's not all one great ride, though the story itself can carry the game, but the side missions do get repetitive. Blow up these guys. Save my clinic from those hooligans. Run through these lights as fast as you can. Much like Assassin's Creed, the side missions are very similar to one another, but they are fun to do. Even though these missions seem to recreate themselves with slight variations, it does help offset your mind while blasting away at a mass of gang members in a bunch of different ways. Thinking about this now, when you break the game down, there isn't that much to it. But with the side missions being as repetitive as they are, there aren't that many of them to drill you between phases of the story, and the story is what drives you. Kind of like my days of counter-strike of saying to myself, “just one more map”, you really do want to see what happens next, and comfortably the adrenaline that gets you going dies down in just the right moments it seems to give you that break to get away from the game. But another item that probably needs attention is the collecting. Open world games, or the more recent term being use, sandbox titles, cannot be without some element of collecting some sort of item, trinket, packet, box, or in shards as we see here in InFamous. But once again, the game handles the situation well by giving you a nice way to find them along the way. Same goes with these little satellite dishes you can run into from time to time that you can find to reveal a little more about the story of the game. Numbering over 320 shards, I found myself collecting just over 300 shards and found all dishes with little next to no problem with my along the way gameplay style. So once again, it can seem annoying telling yourself, man collecting more crap? Once you get rolling though, its not so bad.

Now there are a few more characteristics of the game I can get into, but they aren't as lively others that its not of a great focus. The focus of the game is the story all the way. Just like the presentation of the game, its like having a great comic book read and played out in front of you with the choose your own adventure feel thrown in. The graphics once again are spectacular, the sound and slowdown aspects of the game work really great, and the action comes and goes in just the right spurts. These days, games all seem to get their strength from some sort of multiplayer mode, so the single player based games get lost in the mix, and often end up in your bargain bin at your local game store because, well, they get beaten and traded back to the game stores fairly quickly. Where as people are still playing their Halo or their Gears of Wars, even though as disappointing the story of those games can seem to some. So we often pick and choose our solo games very carefully. But allow me to same that InFamous is definitely a must play title and should definitely be in the library of any PS3 owner.