And they say that a hee-roh will save us!

The Charge:
Save what’s left…or destroy it all!

Opening Statement:
The majority of truly great super hero stories begin with a tragedy, be it Superman’s home planet being destroyed, Batman witnessing the murder of his parents as a child, or Spider-Man failing to save his uncle due to his own teenaged arrogance.  This is meant to symbolize the earning of their powers, or the emotional anchor that will keep them from growing corrupt.  To keep them steadfast in the face of the sea of anarchy they will surely face in their quest to make the world a better place.  Sucker Punch, one of Sony’s top three prized development studios seek to test those very waters with InFamous; a sandbox title that grants players an incredible array of super-powers, and the choice to do good or do evil by those very abilities.  But is this long-awaited PS3 exclusive a mighty champion of the people, or does it fizzle out faster that the Joel Schumacher Batman movies?

Your friendly neighborhood ummmm...Lightning Man?

Facts of the Case:
Sucker Punch has a history of delivering more than solid games filled with spectacular platforming set pieces and magnificent production value, but sadly become more cult classic than console classic.  Their sole release outside of Sony was the criminally underappreciated Rocket: Robot on Wheels for the Nintendo 64, and their Sly Cooper trilogy for the PlayStation 2 scored major points with reviewers, but got lost in the shadows of much larger releases like the Jak and Rachet franchises.  Which is perhaps why they’ve chosen to take on much more serious fare with InFamous.  The standard cartoon adventures of a raccoon thief are packed away in exchange for the story of Cole McGrath (That’s McWrath, American pronunciation); a fleet footed courier in the bustling fictional metropolis of Empire City.  Finding himself at the epicenter of an unnaturally large explosion that tears the city apart, forcing government quarantine, Cole wakes up in the hospital having gained amazing electrical superpowers.  Couple that with his natural athletic ability and love for parkour, and Sucker Punch seem to have all the ingredients for one dynamite title.

Nobody said nuthin' 'bout me fightin' Cthulu when I signed up for this!

The Evidence:
To begin; InFamous is a good game, a very good game.  I’d go so far as to call it a great game.  The game play is simply fun.  Cole has nearly unparalleled freedom in exploring Empire City, and as his abilities grow, so does the speed and ease in which he does explore the city.  Players must explore each neighborhood, taking on missions to advance the story, and performing tasks to either aid, or subjugate beleaguered citizens.  At the very heart of all this is InFamous’ karma system.  Every action Cole performs earns him experience points.  This XP comes in three flavours; Good, Evil, and Neutral.  All are used to purchase upgrades for all of Cole’s abilities, but the good and evil XP gauge Cole’s status amongst the denizens of Empire.  So depending on player’s own preferences, whether they’d take the noble path and try to bring peace to a ruined city that is awash in darkness; or follows baser desires and lashes out at the fearful citizens who blame him for the tragedy, gamers can cause a Karmic shift which radically changes the play style and outcome of InFamous.  If it hasn’t already become painfully obvious, I eat this stuff up.

1.21 JIGGO-WATTS!!!

Empire City is split into three central islands, each overrun by a specific gang of miscreants, usually led by a supervillain who like Cole, arose from the explosion with fantastic powers.  Traversing these three islands feels just about perfect, as Cole seems to magnetically attach himself to climbable surfaces as soon as he jumps towards them.  It takes less than five seconds for gamers to get the grip of how easy it is to move around the game.  Freerunning across rooftops soon evolves into sliding over power lines, and as Cole grows more powerful, players will be able to literally glide through the air on bursts of static, and grind power lines and train rails at high speed.  I’ve read numerous complaints about people complaining how difficult it is to navigate down the side of a building when searching for hidden goodies, but honestly, the triangle button causes Cole to drop down to the next level.  I had no complaints about the controls, and had Cole moving around like a super-charged monkey in no time.  There is a motherlode of collectible things to be discovered, so gamers are encouraged to explore, but watch out for those electrical dead zones, and don’t step in any puddles.  Water is instantly lethal to our lightning infused protagonist.

I'm gonna be a rock and roll star, Gonna groove from night to day.

Of course what use is there in being a superhero/vigilante if there aren’t throngs of criminals to punish?  And oh how players can punish them!  With a simple flick of a shoulder button, the camera drops down to Cole’s shoulder in a viewpoint almost like something out of ‘Ghost Recon’ or ‘Gears of War’, here players have access to a perpetually increasing gallery of electrical attacks that seem to accurately mimic the standard load-out of a soldier in a Tom Clancy game.  The assault rifle becomes the standard lighting bolt, sniper rifles become precision aimed blasts, Cole has access to sticky shock grenades, and even a heat seeking “Megawatt Hammer” which acts like a stinger missile.  Every one is simple to use and offer up no shortage of ways to lay waste to Empire City’s gang problems, especially in the clever ways they can be used together to create combination chains.  Whether it is low-level thugs, the mutated Conduits, or one of the game’s three major super villain boss battles, the combat never ceases to be exciting.

ARRGGHH!! QTE!! My one weakness!!

Rebuttal Witness:
Remember when I said in the opening that InFamous is a great game?  Well it is, but it also had the potential and pedigree to be a console defining amazing game.  And for everything the game does well, there are just a small handful of problems that squander just a little of the game’s near infinite potential.  First off, and this is more comedy than a real gripe, though that doesn’t make it any less annoying.  InFamous stars a character that can scale a suspension bridge with his bare hands, yet he stops cold whenever he comes face to face with a chain-link fence.  That’s right, an electrical superman, who can run atop power lines can’t seem to scale an object that I have been throwing my husky ass over since I was 8 years old.  Secondly, Empire City is a huge place, and there is never a shortage of missions popping up to keep Cole busy.  However, many of the missions are exactly the same, and it gets a little depressing when you look at the map, see that you’ve cleaned up 92% of a city sector of crime, and only 4 missions remain before you score that in-game trophy for your dedication to crime stopping and all 4 of those missions revolve around trailing a courier for five minutes.  Somewhat infuriating.  It’s like Assassin’s Creed, InFamous tries so hard to draw players into a world, immerses them in Empire City and fills the game with hidden back story for those who want to dig for a little more meat, and then there are these tedious little missions that wear the nerves down incredibly fast.  Thankfully not all of these gnat-like side missions are necessary, so it is possible to breeze past them.  Secondly, I realize that having a couple of ancillary sidekick characters are par for the course when dealing with superheroes.  Cole’s girlfriend Trish is a neat character; a paramedic who tries desperately to keep hope alive on the ravaged city streets, but there are times when her childlike “emo-fits” at Cole being inadvertadly tied to her sister’s death makes me wish Cole would just flash-fry her and hook up with the black canceresque villainess, Sasha.  Cole’s best friend Zeke on the other hand, is annoyance made tangible.  Every bad rockabilly stereotype known to the human race has been pooled into this one character, and I cannot tell you how many times I wanted to pull an Emperor from Return of the Jedi.  I highly doubt there’d be a jury in Empire City that would convict me.

So be it...Jedi...

Closing Statement:
As usual, Sucker Punch delivers a stellar title that no PlayStation owner should deprive themselves of.  Now especially, as they’ve put aside the cartoony Sly Cooper and delivered that same brand of great gameplay to a wider audience.  Despite a handful of nitpicky (near nonexistant) flaws, I have to trust my instincts here, and  I can see InFamous gaining quite a bit of fame at a lightning fast pace.

The Verdict:

Platform: Sony PlayStation 3
Developer: Sucker Punch
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment of America
Release Date: May 24th, 2009
Rating: T for Teen.