inFamous

inFamous. A game long recommended to me, and only recently acquired (well, borrowed really). Just yesterday I finished it for the second time through and was viciously denied my platinum trophy. Rage followed. And then the acceptance that I'll probably play it on Hard again just to get the last silver trophy, and then the platinum, obviously.

So then, inFamous is a sandbox superhero RPG game following the adventures of delivery boy Phillip J. Fry....I mean Cole MacGrath. The long and the short of it, Cole gets given superpowers by the object he was delivering; The Ray Sphere. These powers include, but are not limited to; lightning the sweet baby James out of everything in sight in a variety of ways.

The game is split into three island, GTA style, with each one being unlocked after finishing enough missions and a boss fight on the previous island. Each island is controlled by a different gang, all seizing the opportunity to take control after Empire City was quarantined following the Ray Sphere detonation. The Reapers control The Neon. They're a bunch of hoodies and drug dealers lead by the maniacal and ever ridiculously sensual-talking Sasha:

Not everything needs to sound like you're climaxing, dear.

The beginning of the game is mostly spent helping Cole figure out what the hell is going on, whilst either fighting to protect the local residents from The Reapers, or just taking what you can and ignoring the plight of the people. Yes, as the clever title "inFamous" suggests the "in" bit is optional, meaning ANOTHER BI-MODAL MORAL CHOICE GAME. Once Cole manages to figure out what the deuce is going on, and that some mysterious organisation called The First Sons are responsible for the blast, the story picks up somewhat, leading you across to the slums of The Warren, controlled by a vicious gang of......well, they're called The Trash Men. They're basically tramps and the homeless but with machine guns and odd spider-crabs made of rubbish, lead by this man, Aldus Snow:

Alden Tate; mental geriatric. Literally.

The Warrens, by far the largest and most enjoyable island in the game, progresses the story a fair bit and reveals all sorts of juicy bits that I'm not spoiling for you. Suffice to say, there is enough plot progression to catapult you to The Historic District, and onto the third gang. The First Sons themselves. Now these lovely gentlemen, all dressed up like Prince Harry at that birthday party, are utter bastards. Not only are their infantry supported by flying, invisible, grenade-launcher toting drones but also invisible, shotgun-wielding uber-troops. Oh, and watch out for all the mines.

At least it's free EXP for each one...

So it's clear that there's progression in both plot and difficulty from island to island. There is also progression in Cole's abilities. With the power being out in most of the areas of Empire City at the beginning of the game, and Cole will pass out without a regular hit of juice (licking batteries can only get you so far apparently), often missions involve you trawling the sewers for substations to power on and power up.
[Segue: who interlinks the sewage (water based) system with the city's electrical grid? Segue within segue: Cole explains his knowledge of the sewers by stating he "got into urban sports a few years back." When was the last time anyone went free running in sewage?!]
With each substation brought back online Cole gains a new power. They range from a whopping big thunder storm controlled pointlessly with the SIXAXIS, to lightening grenades and a violently useful energy absorbing shield. The powers are well balanced, with no single one being all dominating (although Megawatt Hammer is the boy) and each one is well suited to a different situation; your arsenal is full by the end and you certainly need all of them.

Problem, 50cal?

The moral choice effects your powers, as you can only upgrade them down one of the two karmic branches. Generally, Good goes for temporary incapacitation and energy and health regeneration as you do damage, whereas Evil goes for MOAR ASPLOSIONS PLEAZE. Evil is more fun, Good is arguable slightly easier to play as. But that's always the way, I find.

There is not a lot wrong with the game visually, its not too bland in colour, which is nice to see, and the comic-style cut-scene graphics are very pleasing. However, if I may refer you to the 2004 Spiderman 2 game for XBOX, PC and PS2, you can see the same city design, just not as polished. In fact, I could go on for a while drawing similarities between the two games, as inFamous is mostly just a revamp of that genre of superhero sandbox game that I loved. Combat visuals are standard, over the shoulder firing looks and feels accurate and the lightning effects leave nothing to be desired. I especially enjoyed them on my Evil play through, as after activating a certain object in the late stages of the game, it went from red with flecks of white to black with flecks of red. Uber Evil. We're talking The Emperor levels of dastardliness.

Longevity, well there are only really two play throughs to be had here, and I did find myself rushing the second one. If you start off Evil on normal, and then play again as Good on hard, you can get all the trophies (not accounting for screwy screwyness...) with ease. The most time consuming are the 350 collectibles (Blast Shards, they increase your energy reserves) dotted around the city, but they're not too hard to find. I hunted them down in my first play through and managed to get them all, but on my second play through I found myself with 310/350 without even trying. I mean, they glow, and you have a built in radar to show them on the mini map. Simples *makes meerkat noise.*

When it comes down to it, this is indeed a great game. I very much enjoyed the 25 or so hours that I spent playing it through twice and I would recommend it to fans of sandbox games, especially ones that include superpowers. I'm now on the look-out for inFamous 2 on the cheap, so the first one must have done something right!


Side note on moral choice games:
If they're going to feature morality, at least let there be more than God or The Devil. Some sort of middle ground would be nice, maybe Bob. Instead of having to be fully Evil or Good to unlock the best upgrades etc. Also, the choices involved are mostly so ridiculously, nearly comically divided into Evil and Good that it's often difficult to decide what, given that situation being reality, "would I do?" and I for one think that should be the point of moral choices in games.