Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"All it's cracked up to be"

InFamous is a great game, it provides the gamer with many various choices that can actually be quite gut wrenching to pick at times. It is by no means perfect but it is a game that you will want to play more than once and you should.

First of all this game is a game that, in some respects, gives you the illusion of choice. Really the only choice is good or bad and there are no shades of grey here there is a 'right' choice and a 'wrong' choice essentially and these are pretty clear cut as to which is which. And without trying to give too many spoilers away the story only changes slightly between a good and evil playthrough.

Saying that is not really a bad thing although it does dull the interest in the story on the second playthrough, which invariably you will want to do. Yes the gameplay is that good. Cole, the main protagonist who has been endowed with these electrical powers in some kind of explosion, is a joy to control. Some people may gripe that the guiding you to buildings and things to grab on to is a little unnerving, but I find it great, it eliminates the need to be precise and the visual cues that Cole gives also help you to guide him to the exact spot you want, i.e. raising his arms if he is in a spot that can grab onto a wire, it makes for an extremely elegant game to control, and the animation looks fantastic.

The powers are pretty fun to use although I found myself only really using grenades, shock and thrusters. These served me well enough for a majority of the game. Really there is not much more fun than blasting an enemy into the air, sticking a grenade to him and watching it explode, good times. The upgrade system works well but on easier difficulties you can breeze through with out upgrading if you were so inclined.

Unfortunately the visuals of InFamous are not as spectacular there are quite a few 'jaggies' and sometimes I found the game not drawing as fast as Cole was moving, and there were texture popping issues which are all gripes on the minor side of things but they were still noticeable. That being said the pure nature of open world games means that the games will not look quite as good as FPS counterparts. The environments are suitable and the overall presentation is excellent with the comic style cut scenes fitting the game nicely. I did come into a glitch in which I fell through a certain part of the world and ended up bouncing around which was annoying, but one such instance is hardly a deal breaker.

The missions are varied and are not at all repetitive (except for the sewers which are a bit samey but serve as a tutorial for each new power you get), which can often be a concern for open world games. The bosses are suitably epic although this game is not overly challenging, I completed the game on hard and died a bit, but nowhere near what I was expecting while playing on easy I did possibly once or twice in the whole game.

Splitting the game into areas that need to be cleared was a good way to limit the amount of side missions which never feel old, with so few to actually do. This means unlike Spider-Man 2 which you were endlessly jumping on cars etc. and doing the same thing here you aren't it's great and keeps the game fresher for longer. There still are some random 'missions' if you stumble into the right regions, these are mostly muggings and boil down to you being in the right place at the right time and there is no bonus xp outside the guys you defeat.

Another minor gripe is the complete lack of a statistic screen. Sure most people don't car how many guys they've blasted or how they've dispatched said villains but some do, me being one of them. This also means that there is a lack of counters on how you are progressing towards trophies, which is minor and hardly worth mentioning but sandwiching this game in between Wolverine and Red Faction which both do this, it makes it stick out somewhat.

Infamous is a game that every PS3 owner should play, regardless of your gaming preference. It has a strong story, some truly gut wrenching moral choices and the animation and control of Cole is top notch. Do yourself a favour and add it to your collection