Welcome to the review of Infamous. This game was originally released in 2009 and here in 2021 I recommend playing it, it’s a seriously fun game even by today’s standards. The story is actually one of the best pieces of the game. This review contains no spoilers so continue on without worry.
Starting with the story, you play as Cole MacGrath, he’s just a regular bike messenger on his way to deliver a package, until it explodes. The destruction wipes out several blocks and kills thousands. Cole wakes up from the centre of the blast but gains powers from the explosion. The explosion causes a plague to spread throughout the Empire City (the city where the game takes place) which forces the government to create a blockade to prevent the citizens from leaving and spreading the disease. In the city, people are dying, starving and gangs are emerging in numerous amounts and wreaking havoc. Cole reaches back to his best friend Zeke and girlfriend Trish. From here Cole is on a mission to find out why the package detonated and why only he gained powers from it.
Cut scenes are done like a graphic novel and they have a nice subtle animation to them. Keep in mind that this game has an open ending and requires you to play Infamous 2, in that game the story is completed. Infamous 2 is also an incredible game. Again, without giving any spoilers I’ll just say that the ending of Infamous 1 was amazing in one sense and disappointing in another way and left me scratching my head but I explain that in another post that contains heavy spoilers.
This game should take you about 15 hours to complete, if you want to complete side quests it can run you close to 30 hours. Those timings are a single run through.
The story is great but the characters are kind of bland. Cole’s personality is dry and boring. He’s just so robotic and dull. It doesn’t help that his voice sounds like a terrible impersonation of the Batman voice. His voice isn’t terrible but it’s rather dry so coupling that with his lack of personality isn’t a good combination. In fact most of the important NPCs are pretty generic. Government officials are cliche spy characters and that’s pretty much it to their limited character. The girlfriend Trish complains most of the game (like my wife lol). Of course Trish’s reasons for being upset are valid but it’s hard to care about her and Cole as a couple. Pretty much the entire game their relationship is sour. Bosses are pretty one dimensional because their appearances are rather limited. They could be interesting villains but I wish they had more screen time for the player to be more invested in defeating them. I don’t want to show any of them since it might ruin some of the fun from their battles. The best character design is Cole’s best friend Zeke. He’s a selfish jerk with sass but it works well. The gamer will think he’s a sleazebag but that means the writers succeeded with his character.
Where Cole shines is his use of powers and agility. Think of him as a mix of Assassin’s Creed Assassins and Spider-man but instead of web he has electricity. There are plenty of objects and walls of buildings for him to climb and the mechanics work well. The only annoying thing to controlling Cole is commanding him to drop from a wall. He’ll just continue grabbing the next object on the way down. Not a big deal but it can get bothersome. His electric powers are also awesome. He starts off with only a handful of abilities but gains more as the game progresses. I don’t want to show all of them because you should play this game and it’s something to look forward to. Apart from gaining power upgrades in main missions there’s also a skills menu in which you can upgrade abilities and unlock more by doing certain tasks, most of them involving the karma system. The karma system makes you choose between good and evil actions. Do more good actions and people will start to take pictures of you and cheer you on. Do evil deeds and people will attack you. The karma path you choose will impact the way Cole looks, the city atmosphere and the colour of your powers.
Combat mechanics work incredibly well and controls are simple but effective. Key powers are mapped to specific button controls that are easy to use. Again, I don’t want to show too many powers as that’ll ruin some of the fun of obtaining them if you want to play this game. The big letdown for combat is melee. There is a melee combat button that you can also upgrade but trying to do melee in this game is a bad idea. It can mean death for Cole, which is disappointing because it could have had a lot of potential.
Empire City is fairly large and has plenty of places for Cole to explore and unlock. There are also plenty of side quests. Depending on the quest type, the more Cole completes the less enemy presence there is in the area. There are also plenty of optional items to collect such as collecting audio recordings and blast shards which allow Cole to store more electricity. Enemies aren’t that smart but they make up for lack of sense by attacking in large groups. There are more enemies than you could count and their gun accuracy is surprisingly amazing which means combat is challenging but fun. There are also random events throughout the city Cole will pass by that aren’t exactly side quests but can help adjust your karma meter.
Considering this is a PS3 game, the graphics are pretty darn good. Side characters can look dated at times but it’s nothing that will ruin the game. Keep in mind that this game also has some bugs but fortunately they were pretty rare. Frame rate can also drop if there’s too much happening on screen but that’s pretty rare as well.
Sound is pretty on point here. Cole’s powers sound loud and can pack a punch and enemy gunfire can be heard from a distance. Even the simple noises from Cole while he runs from his clothes and gear he wears is spot on. I know that last point sounds odd but in most games the noise the protagonist makes is usually really quiet which is odd because this is the main character that the game is following. Infamous understands that and makes sure the noises coming from Cole are the loudest. Voices from characters aren’t bad but again, most of them are rather cliche and Cole’s voice is disappointing because of his underwhelming personality and dialogue. As I mentioned earlier, Zeke’s character is probably written the best and he also sounds the best.
The biggest complaint aside from the strange ending, is nothing against the game itself, I’m just disappointed that the developer studio Sucker Punch and Sony haven’t remastered this game. It deserves to be remastered. Currently the only way to play this game is on a PlayStation 3 or PlayStation Now (PS Now) streaming service. I do have a review of the PS Now service that is available for us on PS4, PS5 and yes even PC.
Score:
9/10
Pros:
-Campaign length
-Skills upgrade
-Cole appearance change with karma
-Choose good or evil actions
-Skills upgrade menu
-Easy and effective controls
-Combat mechanics
-Story
-Graphics
-Sound effects
-Climbing mechanics
-Challenging game
-Different side quests
-Amazing powers
-Empire City is large
Cons:
-Most characters have boring personalities
-Limited boss screen time
-Ending could have been written better
-Cole’s voice sounds dull
-Melee combat
