Save What's Left... Or Destroy It All
The official tagline for inFAMOUS is way too fitting not to use here. Luckily, we came up with a few words of our own to describe the ultimate fate of Empire City.
Published: May 27, 2009
And then there's all the stuff you can do beyond the normal story missions. 350 Blast Shards, little pieces that extend the length of Cole's energy meter to let him use more powers without a recharge; dead drops, audio recordings from one of the main character that actually help deepen the story; side missions that unlock good- or evil-specific powers if you stick to one side; uplink races that have you racing across the rooftops in cleverly-disguised races and of course all the "random" crime missions to help rid the city of the local gangs in each of the three islands.
Of the bunch, the latter is definitely the least entertaining, mainly because there's a decent amount of repetition among them (often with one gang swapped out for another as you progress), but things like tailing missions where you have to follow someone are sort of reborn as an incredibly slick Batman-style rooftop hop that truly uses the game's verticality in an interesting way. The missions where you have to scoot around a building to blow up cameras set up by the local gang are not only used too much, but they exacerbate the issues of trying to get down a building quickly, which is kind of counter to what the game is about anyway.
Still, all of them have some appreciable effect on the city or your powers -- particularly the Blast Shards (which also show up in the crime missions). When Cole has to venture down into the bowels of the city to recharge things, he'll always gain a power, and these sections are actually some of the purest platforming bits in the game. Blessedly free of all the random sniping that exists even if you supposedly have cleared the city of crime, they focus the game's controls and newfound abilities to exhilarating effect. I hate to say it, but part of me wishes there were a few more of these platforming challenges and a little less combat. Not only would my R1 Button be thankful, but this is after all Sucker Punch's forte, and they really shine in these sections.
Thinly-veiled tutorials or no, the sewer bits always mean gaining new powers and helping to restore power to the city (which in turn lets Cole leech power off anything connected to the grid -- useful considering he can soak up some damage but pretty regularly needs a recharge). Going from the blackout parts of the city where there are hardly any sources of a refill to the sewers where there's an instant payoff in new powers was an incredibly wise move on Sucker Punch's part. Good job, guys, you made what could have been an annoying or repetitive part of the game one of the most entertaining.
I don't want to say I was worried about the move from the cel-shaded, fairly compartmentalized visuals of the Sly games to a more realistic whole city, but it's fair to say I was apprehensive. Luckily, a good 30 hours in the world of Empire City has quelled those feelings quite handily. There's a ton of personality in the world, and though the framerate can chug a little from time to time -- or, perhaps even more distractingly, swing well past the usual 30-ish fps territory around the docks in the game, which only serves to highlight how smooth the animations are -- for the most part it all runs at a pretty solid clip.
