Given that Infamous: Second Sοn is currently the most exciting game available for the PS4, I thought I should play through the other two games in the series as preparation. I will be getting a PS4 for my birthday this year! As a fan of the Sly Cooper games, I already trusted Sucker Punch to deliver a solid gaming experience, and the first Infamous is exactly that: solid, with some really exciting moments added in to keep me going.
Infamous is a game well worth playing. When it starts, you are Cole MacGrath, a lowly bike messenger in Empire City who is sent to deliver a package—a package that turns out to be a bomb that destroys five city blocks. Not only do you survive, but you find that you are imbued with electrical powers that become more powerful by the day. Not only are the powers fun to play with, but the game lets you choose what to do with them: Will you become a superhero, or a supervillain? The choices you make will affect your karma, and by extension your character's abilities and appearance.
The overall story of the game is good no matter what path you choose. Most of the major plot points play out via Cole's phone. Throughout the game you have conversations with Cole's girlfriend, Trish, his best friend, Zeke, and a government agent named Moya whose intentions are not entirely clear. Zeke and Trish have their own concerns and internal conflicts, so Cole's conversations with them make his story extremely compelling. To flesh out Cole's world, there are satellite "dead drops" around town that provide endlessly interesting background information. I also found myself enjoying Cole's comments to himself when discovering exciting new powers—he enjoyed testing out his new abilities just as much as I did.
Sucker Punch clearly put a lot of thought into the powers that you develop in Infamous, and they are a hell of a lot of fun. While at the beginning of the game you can only shoot bolts of electricity from your hands, you can eventually hover in the air, grind along rails and electrical wires, conjure up an electric shield, and throw electric grenades into clusters of enemies. What's not to love?
The game falls short, however, in its repetitive mission structure. While Infamous is billed as a "sandbox" game because you roam freely throughout its urban setting, there aren't any people to really interact with. There are only collectibles to hunt for and main or side missions to complete. There were certain types of side mission that reappeared throughout the game, and I found myself groaning whenever I encountered one. My most intense hatred is reserved for "Satellite Uplinks," during which you rush from point to point under very strict time limits. Infamous has pretty good controls, but Cole has very floaty jumps and will stick to anything when he climbs. Extremely precise platforming was not easy for me.
Game fatigue was also a constant affliction in the late stages of Infamous. Towards the end of my playthrough, I found myself only able to complete 1-2 missions per session because I was losing focus and feeling ready for something new. How many more tar trucks or toxic hot air balloons do I really need to destroy before I am allowed to move on to the next thing?
Cole's karmic choices also left something to be desired, for me at least. Although the hero-or-villain mechanic is generally awesome, I was left disappointed that there was no space to be an antihero. The game actively encourages you to max out your karma, whether in the good direction or the evil one. There is no way to remain comfortably in the middle. Cole is not good person who occasionally does bad things, nor is he a monster with just a bit of love in his heart. Also, I won't give spoilers for the few people who haven't yet played the game, but some of the choices I had to make did not seem as black-and-white (or, in this case, red-and-blue) as the game suggests.
Overall, Infamous is a great game and I do not regret the time I spent playing it. Infamous 2 is in my to-play list and I plan to tackle it soon. Infamous can get a little bit old once you've played a good part of the way through. But the story is great, and Cole's powers are a blast to play with. Definitely give it a shot.
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