inFamous is Sucker Punch's new open-world sandbox game, in which the player takes control of Cole a new Hero, or Anti-hero depending on the player's choices. Coming from the makers of the Sly Cooper franchise, players can expect polished 3rd person platforming and creative characters.
The main character Cole unexpectedly becomes the cause of a devastating explosion that leveled half of his city. After recovering from this explosion, Cole wakes up with super-charged powers and with the the population of the city out for his blood. It's an interesting enough premise that draws the player in.
The over-used concept of "Morale Choice" is pushed hard in inFamous. Very often the player will have to choose wheter to do things the "Evil" or "Good" way. These choices influence your alignment, which in turn affect what upgrades you have access too. On top of that, alignment also affects Cole's appearance and how civilians view him. It's a mechanic that influences the game handily, unfortunately the way the choices that are presented are usually absolutes. There is no gray-area for these choices. You are always left with doing complete evil or doing absolute good. This is even more offsetting when missions in the game tend to lean towards Cole doing good deeds or fighting the "bad guys". There can instances when after stealing care packages of food from the people, you are helping a busload of those people that you stole food from to the hospital. It can create some twisted scenarios.
Cole himself controls just fine... for the most part. he is able to take on 5 or more enemies with ease and grace. Unfortunately it seems that spamming attacks is the preferred choice of attack. With his multiple powers and abilities, Cole has potential for much more. After looking at the stunts list, combos that can be strung for additional XP, one could make the assumption that the player was intended to incorporate these tricks in battle; but due to the difficulty of these stunts, they are never really used. Cole's aim is just to stiff to track moving targets while moving himself. It's a shame because many of Cole's abilities can be pulled off quickly and easily on their own, they just can't be done effectively in tandem. This is where spamming one ability becomes the crutch for the player; and it's a crutch that has more than enough incentive because Cole can recharge his ammunition and health at almost any spot in the city.
inFamous is a more than competent game. It is far from perfect, but it is great as a start of a franchise. If the right additions and redesigns are made, look forward to the inevitable next addition to this franchise.
