Infamous – review

We’re a bit late to the table with this one. inFamous has been out for quite a few weeks now but I only got the review code last week. But they say that the best things come to those who wait, and I’ve been such a very patient boy.

Put simply, inFamous is a cracker of a PS3 exclusive and one that was well worth the wait to review. Running around a large city (broken up into three islands) unleashing lightning bolts and other more powerful upgraded special powers at enemies is fun. But running around on rooftops and scaling huge buildings, parkour style, is immense fun.

It’s still immense fun right up until the end credits roll. This is partly down to the interesting story (delivered via graphic novel segments, which are gorgeous to look at) but mostly it’s down to the parkour and the OTT super-powers that Cole possesses.

After a blast that wipes out a lot of the city, Cole (that’s you) defies death and is bestowed with an ability that rules out ever getting a static shock again. Now that’s an ability I would love to have. Along with his ability to shock people, Cole can also throw electric grenades, fly (or rather glide) and all other sorts of things that require the use of electricity. Cole’s power is not infinite though, and he will often have to replenish his electrical charge from nearby traffic lights, pylons, lights or any other item that carries a charge. But the abilities, although fun, do take a backseat to Cole’s best ability: parkour.

Is that a parkour you’re wearing?

Climbing up a tall building to get the drop (literally) on your enemy is amazing fun, which is soon superseded by climbing a tall building, jumping to a shorter building, grinding along an electric powerline and then zooming in for an electric bolt to the head of your enemy. That is then surpassed by looking at the enormous prison on the second island and thinking that if only it was possible to scale it, what immense fun that would be…only to then realise that you can actually climb all the way to the top and gaze down at the ants below you. Hearing the wind rushing through my headphones as I stood atop this massive building after a long, sometimes difficult but always exhilarating climb, was one of those gaming moments that I will remember for a long time to come.

In some ways it’s a little like GTA meets Crackdown. Granted it never quite manages to reach the heights of either of those two games, but it comes extremely close. Take on one of the story missions, or take on one of the many side missions – maybe even become more evil or saintly in the process. While all of those are fun, my time was spent mainly scouring the rooftops for the Dead Drops (satellites containing some back-story information that add quite a lot of depth to the story and as a result are far more interesting than collectibles in most games) or for the Blast Shards that are often scattered about in interesting, and extremely high, places.

There are some downsides. For instance the three islands are extremely similar in terms of scenery, and it can often be difficult to know which island you are on from scenery alone. One also has to wonder why, if the streets are teaming with enemies and corpses, why so many people are happy to walk about for no apparent reason. The missions (especially the side-missions) also become a little stale the further you progress and could have done with more variety.

In addition the controls can be a bit irksome at times. Try to get Cole to jump from one pipe to another pipe a few feet away and he’ll do so without any problems. Try to get him to do the same thing for something only a few inches away though, and he’ll often refuse, choosing to stick to the pipe he is already on. While this sometimes has its advantages (you have to be incredibly clumsy to get Cole to fall off of a ledge, as he almost always guides himself to the closest available grippable object) it can also feel as though some of the control is taken away from you, the player, and that sometimes it wasn’t your skill that got you up that building.

inFamous – it’s electric!

Even with those, admittedly minor, faults, when I wasn’t playing inFamous I was thinking about what twists the story would take, or what that ‘locked’ ability could be, or even when I was likely to get another half an hour spare to have another go. And that’s the sign of a really good game. Perhaps not a really great, genre defining, game, but a really entertaining game nonetheless.

inFamous is a thrill of a ride from start to finish. It can be frustrating at times, it can also get a little repetitive (in the middle of the campaign where it starts to tail off a bit before ramping up again for the last few final levels), and the excessively skilful enemies do start to grate a little (how do crack heads become so proficient with firearms from hundreds of meters anyway) but the narrative and interesting powers keep you engrossed throughout and it’s likely to be one of those rare games where you’ll actively seek out all of the collectibles and even consider starting it again straight away to experience it from a different perspective.

Is inFamous the best game on the PS3 – no. Is inFamous excessively good fun and well worth the purchase – yes it is. Am I starting to sound like Simon Cowell – why, yes I am.

Our rating

8/10