infamous
Matthew Cash
Remember when you were a kid and you either read all of the Spider-man comics and watched the TV shows and dressed up as him for Halloween when you were 5 or 6 (I did, anyway)? You watched him not only because he looks badass in those tight-ass clothes, but because you liked to marvel (hehe) at the power he had. He was a good guy with almost unlimited power, yet he could've, at any time, used his string of white turds coming out of his hands (I know it's webbing, so don't email me telling me that, dammit) to kill innocent people and making the city fear him. He was one badass dude that could do seemingly anything. But Sucker Punch took that concept and made you, the gamer, feel just like you did that Halloween when you were 6, just on the PS3 and with electrical powers.
**Cole (formerly Dylan) MacGrath was just a simple bike messenger. When his boss gives him the unluckiest PoS package in the world to deliver, a bomb, you find yourself in a decimated city and in horrible condition. As you escape the scene, you powers are charged up, making you a mobile toaster in water until you pass out. When you finally get the controller back through the awesome cutscene (which I'll talk about later), you get just a small taste of what you can do. At first, you start out with a puny zap, but by the end of the game, you're calling in thunderstorms to deal with your problems.
And that's where the game excels. It gives you the power to raise hell, but only after you've mastered you powers. Also, there's a karma system in here that'll allow you to pick what perks you really want with your powers. Do you want a "headshock" to zap everyone in the immediate area of the now-dead enemy, or do you want some health back with the same move? Do you want your shock grenades to capture your enemies or do you want a cluster of them to destroy the 6 enemies on one side and the turret-truck on your right at the same time? The choices that give you the good or bad karma are extremely black and white (let the bomb or off on the police station or defuse it?), the rewards you get are awesome. Only one choice in the entire game, and I'm sure gamers know which one it is at the last part of the game, made me threaten my God-like karma.
The game is just so fun, though. Throughout the 3 districts (Neon, Warren, and Historic), you have 3 gangs (Reapers, Dustmen, and First Sons, respectively) that are pretty much the same grunts, but can take more damage. You have each gang's Conduit's, however, have different abilities. The Reaper's Conduit can do a mini earthquake thing at Cole. The Dustmen have a rocket-launcher and the ability to shoot out spider-like mechanical creatures. The First Sons can enlarge in size, making each hit hurt like a bitch. So, yes, there actually is some enemy variety in the game, which should last you about 15 hours if you complete all side quests and story quests. Not to mention that there are dead drops around the city, giving you insight as to what happened in the two weeks you were passed out after the blast. There's also several hundred blast shards, pieces of metal that went flying after the bomb you were carrying blew the hell up. So you got a ton of stuff to look for and do. Then you can redo it on Evil or Good, depending on which karma you choose your first time through.
But the problems come in for presentation, of course. Let's see, the frame rate drops a lot of the time, though not anywhere close to the point of hurting the gameplay, there's some screen-tearing at some more hectic moments, the animation sucks, to be frank, the character models don't have much detail, the world gets depressing after staring at gray for 15 hours or more, there's pixelated shadows, and anti-aliasing needs some serious work what with the jaggies everywhere. The voice acting is great, however, and Jason Cottle does a fantastic job as Cole. A damn shame that he's gonna be replaced in favor of some dude named Eric Ladin.
But the best part about the game is simply the amount of power it give you, making you feel like you're Spider-Man all over again. This is a fun game, but the open-world's grayness is depressing and the numerous visual issues had better be fixed come inFamous 2. Still, if you have a PS3 and haven't tried this game, know that you need to try it. NOW. Go, shoo! Go play it! Enjoy it as the gameplay is sure to please for hours to come.
Score: 8.5
** I would've covered more to the story, but you know me. I don't like spoilers! Also, the ending is one of the biggest mind-fucks I've ever seen in any form of media. But it makes SENSE!
Remember when you were a kid and you either read all of the Spider-man comics and watched the TV shows and dressed up as him for Halloween when you were 5 or 6 (I did, anyway)? You watched him not only because he looks badass in those tight-ass clothes, but because you liked to marvel (hehe) at the power he had. He was a good guy with almost unlimited power, yet he could've, at any time, used his string of white turds coming out of his hands (I know it's webbing, so don't email me telling me that, dammit) to kill innocent people and making the city fear him. He was one badass dude that could do seemingly anything. But Sucker Punch took that concept and made you, the gamer, feel just like you did that Halloween when you were 6, just on the PS3 and with electrical powers.
**Cole (formerly Dylan) MacGrath was just a simple bike messenger. When his boss gives him the unluckiest PoS package in the world to deliver, a bomb, you find yourself in a decimated city and in horrible condition. As you escape the scene, you powers are charged up, making you a mobile toaster in water until you pass out. When you finally get the controller back through the awesome cutscene (which I'll talk about later), you get just a small taste of what you can do. At first, you start out with a puny zap, but by the end of the game, you're calling in thunderstorms to deal with your problems.
And that's where the game excels. It gives you the power to raise hell, but only after you've mastered you powers. Also, there's a karma system in here that'll allow you to pick what perks you really want with your powers. Do you want a "headshock" to zap everyone in the immediate area of the now-dead enemy, or do you want some health back with the same move? Do you want your shock grenades to capture your enemies or do you want a cluster of them to destroy the 6 enemies on one side and the turret-truck on your right at the same time? The choices that give you the good or bad karma are extremely black and white (let the bomb or off on the police station or defuse it?), the rewards you get are awesome. Only one choice in the entire game, and I'm sure gamers know which one it is at the last part of the game, made me threaten my God-like karma.
The game is just so fun, though. Throughout the 3 districts (Neon, Warren, and Historic), you have 3 gangs (Reapers, Dustmen, and First Sons, respectively) that are pretty much the same grunts, but can take more damage. You have each gang's Conduit's, however, have different abilities. The Reaper's Conduit can do a mini earthquake thing at Cole. The Dustmen have a rocket-launcher and the ability to shoot out spider-like mechanical creatures. The First Sons can enlarge in size, making each hit hurt like a bitch. So, yes, there actually is some enemy variety in the game, which should last you about 15 hours if you complete all side quests and story quests. Not to mention that there are dead drops around the city, giving you insight as to what happened in the two weeks you were passed out after the blast. There's also several hundred blast shards, pieces of metal that went flying after the bomb you were carrying blew the hell up. So you got a ton of stuff to look for and do. Then you can redo it on Evil or Good, depending on which karma you choose your first time through.
But the problems come in for presentation, of course. Let's see, the frame rate drops a lot of the time, though not anywhere close to the point of hurting the gameplay, there's some screen-tearing at some more hectic moments, the animation sucks, to be frank, the character models don't have much detail, the world gets depressing after staring at gray for 15 hours or more, there's pixelated shadows, and anti-aliasing needs some serious work what with the jaggies everywhere. The voice acting is great, however, and Jason Cottle does a fantastic job as Cole. A damn shame that he's gonna be replaced in favor of some dude named Eric Ladin.
But the best part about the game is simply the amount of power it give you, making you feel like you're Spider-Man all over again. This is a fun game, but the open-world's grayness is depressing and the numerous visual issues had better be fixed come inFamous 2. Still, if you have a PS3 and haven't tried this game, know that you need to try it. NOW. Go, shoo! Go play it! Enjoy it as the gameplay is sure to please for hours to come.
Score: 8.5
** I would've covered more to the story, but you know me. I don't like spoilers! Also, the ending is one of the biggest mind-fucks I've ever seen in any form of media. But it makes SENSE!