Video Game Review: Sony’s ‘Infamous’ Gives a Jolt to Gaming World

CHICAGO – Sony’s highly anticipated “Infamous” is a thrill ride of a game, a wonderful examination of heroism and villainy with perfectly designed gameplay, gorgeous graphics, and immense replayability. The bar had been set pretty high by months of anticipation for this title and expectation often leads to disappointment. Not with “Infamous”.

Video Game Rating: 5.0/5.0

“Infamous” opens with a massive explosion. Blocks of Empire City are reduced to rubble and the city is plunged into chaos. Your character, Cole, should be dead. But like a lot of superhero origin stories, you’re not quite dead but not quite normal either. You suddenly have the power to control electricity, shooting it from your hands in bolts or shockwaves. And you can survive any fall and climb buildings like a modern Prince of Persia.

Infamous
Photo credit: Sony

You’ll need more than a few of those electric bolts as you progress through “Infamous,” trying to either return Empire City to peaceful glory or command its evil for yourself. At dozens of turns through the game, you’ll be forced to make a decision to follow the path of good or evil karma. Each decision takes you closer to being the “Hero” of Empire City or its infamous villain.

Infamous Photo credit: Sony

For example, in a mission at the very beginning of the game, you must pass a wall of riot police. Shoot them with a bolt from within the crowd and a full-scale riot starts but some innocent people will get hurt. Move to the front and take them on yourself and be a champion for the people or use innocent bystanders as distraction and be a villain? It’s an incredibly clever story structure that makes for an immensely replayable game. Most people who finish it once as a hero are likely to play through again as a villain.

And it’s not just the major story decisions that impact your hero or villain role. Times are tough in Empire City and you’ll regularly run into people who need to be healed. Take the time to heal them, ignore them, or even go as far as to drain their energy? All of the decisions effect the overall gameplay. It’s brilliantly intertwined into the story of the game.

As the player moves through the open-world game, completing a mix of story missions and side missions in the world of Empire City, they gain increasingly interesting special powers, making an experience that rarely feels repetitive. And the side missions don’t feel like an afterthought. The more side missions you complete, the easier it will be to complete the story ones that make up the bulk of the game.

Infamous
Photo credit: Sony

The variety of the missions in “Infamous” is remarkable. The basic structure of several side missions repeat. For example, you’ll have to re-charge some satellite uplinks throughout town more than once and clear a few buildings of enemy surveillance. But even playing what is essentially the same side mission more than once never feels repetitive. Games like this walk the fine line between honing your skills in increasingly difficult challenges and doing the same thing over and over again. The design of the challenges in “Infamous” is more of the former.

Infamous Photo credit: Sony

And then there are the beautiful graphics. The design of Empire City allows for hours of open-world exploration - climbing buildings, riding rails, and search for hidden objects and locations.

There are a few missions that stumble and a few awkward plot developments in the second half, but “Infamous” is ultimately the most satsifying gaming experience so far this year. The finely honed controls, the gorgeous graphics, the interesting story, and the varied player experience - this is what players want from a single-player experience.

Will you be a hero or a villain? Pick up “Infamous” and make the decision for yourself. The game is good enough that you’ll probably have to play it twice. “Infamous” surpassed high expectations. Now all we need is a little DLC.

Before you go pick up a copy for yourself, check out the preview for “Infamous”:

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com