insomniac17

User Score
9.1

Presentation - 8.7
Gameplay - 9.4
Value - 9.2

*Note: Feel free to leave a comment. If you give my review a thumbs down, I would really appreciate some constructive criticism as to what I've done wrong and how I can improve.

When you first start up InFamous, you'll notice that the "menu" is simply a view of Empire City, with a small icon telling you to press start. Once you do this, you're thrown right into the action, witnessing a massive explosion that devastates a huge area in the Historic District. Cole, somehow surviving the blast, manages to make his way over to the Neon before passing out. When he awakes, he finds that he has some crazy cool electric superpowers.

Meanwhile, the US government has acted fast, and placed Empire City in a quarantine to "contain a plague" with millitary troops guarding any possible way in or out of the city. With no contact outside the city, law and order quickly fall to pieces and gangs take over the three districts within a matter of days.

Presentation:

I’ve heard a few complaints about how Empire City doesn’t feel “alive.” From my experiences, I would have to disagree. People are everywhere and interact with Cole. Depending on whether you’re good or evil, people will cheer you on or throw rocks at you. Not only that, but you will see people run up to you asking for you to help revive someone, or to stop a mugger. Also, if you take the time to look, some people will fall to their knees, feeling helpless about their life, and talk a bit about how everything has changed since the explosion (these range from “I’ve lost everything!” to “I was only supposed to be here for vacation!”) which really adds to the game.

Another part of InFamous that really stands out is the karma system. To me, this seems like a hit or miss thing; some people love it and some don’t. I found that it is a great idea, but Sucker Punch could have done with a few more “Oh my God” moments. When they do use the system to its fullest however, the results are truly incredible. One such moment happens right when you get to the third island and it is such an amazing moment; I was just stunned at how torn I was. You’ll have to play the game yourself to find out what that is, but it’s definitely worth it.

This leads into the third point I’d like to cover. The story in InFamous is really well done, and kept me interested through the whole game; ending with such a fabulous twist that I can’t help but want more. However, the story isn’t just told through the comic book-like cutscenes (which, by the way are very well done and fit with the superhero theme very well), but also through dead drops. Dead drops are a sort of audio file that you will find throughout Empire City. Each one gives a bit of information about what’s going around behind the scenes, and get better as they go along. The second to last one in particular sums up a lot of what is going on in the world, and definitely sets the stage for an InFamous 2.

Verdict: 9.0

Graphics:

For an open world game, the graphics in Infamous are very good. People lying in the streets amidst piles of rubble, totaled cars lining the streets, and crumbling buildings really help set the tone of the game. The only real problem I have is that you will notice a lot of cars, people, and textures popping out of nowhere. While it doesn’t hurt the game too much, it does detract a bit from the overall experience. However, considering the size of the game, I’m willing to forgive this.

Cole’s powers also look great; especially a few of the later ones. I have noticed that the framerate can drop a bit when I’m in an intense firefight (usually while causing mass destruction), but this hasn't ever affected gameplay badly at all, and it never lasts long.

The worst part of the game, by far, is the animations. When you're controlling Cole, they look believable and realistic enough, but the in-game cutscenes is where they really suffer. One in particular (from the demo after you save the crate of medical supplies) is very jerky and just looks awful. I think that they could have used a lot more work, especially considering how great the rest of the game is.

Verdict: 8.7

Sound:

I’ll start off by complimenting the soundtrack in InFamous; it’s very good and is never overdone. I would argue that it’s actually underused a bit; I’d like to hear some more of it during gameplay but it does add a lot to the game when it’s actually there.

The voice acting in the game is solid, though I don’t care much for Cole’s voice. I thought it was stupid in The Dark Knight, and my opinion hasn’t changed. For the most part, citizens sound like they should but I’ve noticed a few have voices that are really annoying (think beggar ladies in Acer from Assassin’s Creed). Nothing too huge, but it is a pet peeve of mine and I thought I’d bring it up.

Verdict: 8.5

Gameplay:

The gameplay, alongside the story, are what keep me coming back for more. Everything from just zapping people like bugs to summoning a massive lightning storm to annihilate everything in my path is just flat out fun. And that’s what games should be, right?

You’d think the combat would be the star of the show, but I can’t tell you how much fun it is to just ride around on power lines and use the static thrusters. For some reason, they're incredibly addictive and fun and it's good that they work so well since you'll spend a lot of time using these techniques to get around Empire City.

Boss fights in InFamous aren't common (there are only three), but they're actually fun. They use QTEs, but these actually add to the fights and I found myself enjoying them. InFamous is probably one of the few games that does QTEs right.

I have to mention another thing that bothered me in the game. For some reason, enemies are very accurate. Even from long distances, they can hit you hard and often. I found this to be rather irritating at times, since distance seems to do nothing to make their accuracy worse. It is a minor issue though, and I didn't find myself dying because of that more than a couple of times.

Verdict: 9.4

Replay Value:

I’m going to go ahead and just flat out say that I’ve played through this entire game three times now. Yes, I love it that much. Depending on the difficulty setting and whether or not you play through the game as good and evil, you can easily get over 30 hours out of the game. I’ve probably spent around 50 so far, which includes finding dead drops and blast shards (I have the platinum trophy now!).

Verdict: 9.2

Overall Score:  9.1

InFamous is hands down the best open-world game I have ever played, and it has earned a place among my top 10 most-loved games of all time. While the graphics aren't Killzone 2 good, and the voices could use a bit of work, a solid soundtrack, fun gameplay, and an incredible story make InFamous one of the best choices for any PS3 owner.

*Note: I used the IGN overview to separate my sections, but I combined Presentation, Graphics, and Sound into the "Presentation" section to calculate the final score.

**Edited on June 23, 2009: I rewrote some sections to make them better, fixed a few spelling errors, and hopefully improved the overall quality of this review.

**Edited on August 2, 2009: I added pictures to my review so that it doesn't look quite as barren. I also added two asterics before the entries in the "Edit" section just because I felt like it. :-)