InFAMOUS Review

If you had superpowers which path would you take, good or evil? Well, the good people at Sucker Punch, the same people that brought you Sly Cooper, are giving you a chance to explore that in its latest release, inFAMOUS. Also in this review I will be making comparison to Prototype which is a multiplatform game that is also an open world superhero game and came out around the same time.

In inFAMOUS you play as Cole a messenger who is infused with electrical based powers after a cataclysmic explosion levels six city blocks. And by the laws of so many video games, summer blockbuster films, and comic books it is up to you to restore law and order to the shattered remain of Empire City. As you try to balance your own self interests versus the betterment of the city, you unravel a conspiracy that now is revolving around you as the world's destroyer or savior.

The game play in inFAMOUS is a cross between Assassin's Creed style exploration/platforming and Gear's of War style third person shooting and while that might seem like a stretch the execution is flawless. For the most part Cole will move across the city scaling building, jumping from roof to roof, and riding electrical wires from mission to mission throughout three different islands each with it's own unique look and feel. When you engage enemies the view will switch to a third person view a la Gear's of War with a healthy selection of electrically based attacks that are fully upgradable and will change depending on your karma level, good karma making your powers generally more precise and evil karma more destructive.

The presentation of the game is probable the best I have seen in a long time both on it's originality and execution. The game is presented to you as a living comic book where you play as the main character, but it's up to you as how you want to play that character. Sucker Punch lets you play Cole as either a Hero or Anti-Hero where all your action will allow you to gain good or bad karma and depending which path you go down will alter your powers, game play, and the way the city interacts with you. With high karma citizen will actually come to your aid when you engage enemies, although with bad karma they would actually start attacking you.

But let's not ignore the 800lb gorilla in the room and that is that other open world superhero game out right now and that is Prototype. There both good games but if you own a Playstation 3 get inFAMOUS. Nothing against Prototype but inFAMOUS not only looks better but is a lot more polished title, even with the over one year delay in the release of Prototype it still looked rough and incomplete. The major flaw of Prototype was that it just tried to do too much and couldn't pull it off. But before any fan bays out there send me any death threats this came down to the wired and inFAMOUS beats out Prototype by the narrowest of margins.

I loved this game, it is a well thought out masterpiece from start to finish where every facet has been flush out and polished allowing it to succeed in everything. My only real complaint about the title is that for an open world game it is a bit lacking in playable options after you finish the most of the games main story and side mission that made me wish that I slowed down during my first play threw, and I hope that we will get some Downloadable mission packs soon. This is a must buy title for any PS3 owner.

inFAMOUS: 9.5/10