PS3 Review – inFamous

infamous-review-image-004

The robustness of the fighting system becomes apparent when you start creating your own combos, such as flying off a skyscraper, shooting enemies your Lightening Bolts while in midair, and finishing them off with a Thunder Drop as you hit the ground. Or even send enemies flying with the Shockwave Blast and letting them land on your Shock Grenades. The awesome traversal system works well with the combat system. Regardless if he’s running on the street, climbing the side of a building, or hanging off the rooftop, Cole can still aim and shoot at anything around him.

The traversal system deserves a huge amount of praise, as this game completely lacks a grab button. Instead, the game engine has some sort of voodoo A.I. that accurately predicts what you intend to do, whether it’s land on a power line as you fall through the air, or grab a particular beam sticking off a building. Climbing is effortless, and there’s a huge amount of trust that builds between you and that A.I. And should the A.I. somehow mess up and miss something you wanted to grab, it’ll look for the next best thing. No harm, no foul. This huge accomplishment by Sucker Punch actually makes other open world games seem absolutely limiting in terms of what you can and can’t do.

infamous-review-image-002

Sucker Punch has taken the concept of the “game level” and taken it in a new direction. Every building in the city has a unique design that require increasingly elaborate actions to properly climb. A lot of care has gone into the placement and size of pipes, ledges, light fixtures, poles, and electrical boxes. What the level designers have essentially done is turned every building on each island into a Micro Level, with each island serving as a Macro Level. It’s a brilliant idea, and is further enhanced by the fact that the city will steadily change as enemies build new structures and destroy old ones.

The bosses in this game are interesting in that they have a constant presence by altering the environment and affecting the evolution of the enemies that you fight against. You’ll notice as the game progresses though that the enemies start to wear armor that becomes more and more resistant to electricity, which forces you to become more creative and efficient in how you take them out. And in fact, the boss who controls the Reapers, Sasha, ends up becoming sympathetic (if your actions are more evil) and lends a helping hand in the Evil Side Missions. Her telepathic booty calls are always welcome, and the Evil Side Missions prove to be a lot of fun.

TRENDING