inFamous

[toblix]

So, as is typical for you snobs, this game doesn't already have its own thread, even though it'll come out any day now. I'm not sure I'm going to get this. I love huge, polished epic games, and the controls and open world seems tempting (although I doubt it's as awesome as The Lib), but then there's the mention of sudden difficulty spikes and hard protect-the-dude-or-whatever missions, which I hate.

So, uh, what do you think?

[Cigol]

I'm surprised at the positive response it has gotten as prior to this the promotional material had me expecting something, at best, entirely average? Still I am not convinced, as the videos were really, really boring and the (zap, zap, zap) sound effects were bloody annoying too.

...if only I could be bothered to download the demo and see for myself.

[miffy495]

I preordered it. Not really because of anything specific to this game, but because it's from Sucker Punch. After playing through the Sly Cooper games for the first time earlier this month, I'm willing to drop some cash on pretty much anything these guys do. It helped that I got it 10% off for a Victoria Day sale, so now I'm just waiting on the fabulous people of the Canadian Postal Service to drop it in my mailbox. The reviews I've seen looked pretty rad too, so I'm excited. If there's any kind of substantial multiplayer, I'd be happy to meet you online a few times, 'blix. After seeing you throw down in GTA, I'm interested in what you may be able to do with the power of lightning.

[James]

Pre-ordered; excited.

[miffy495]

Just played the demo. The concept of your character being magnetized and actually being drawn to metal things in the environment took me a bit to wrap my head around, but once I got a feel for it I was flying through the streets of Empire City zapping goons and singing "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment" while thoroughly enjoying myself. Loads of fun, this. Doubly excited for the post office to drop it on my doorstep after a half hour in demo-land.

[toblix]

WTF MULTIPLAYER?

[Nappi]

I've been mixing this and Prototype up for a long time now and neither of them have seemed that interesting to me. I was somewhat surprised to find out this shooting-electricity-from-one's-hand one has gotten mainly positive reviews, but I'll still most likely pass on this game. The idea and setting just fell meh-ish to me.

I should probably try the demo first, though.

[gdf]

Played the demo earlier, let's copy and paste what I've already said about this game!

You can definitely see the Sly influence, which is pretty endearing

Other than that, the fluidity of animation and the level of interactivity with the world is great, but this is the kind of experience that thrives on pacing, so the boxed product could go either way. Combat was awfully dull and irritating and the mission structure was woeful; if they can't offer a decent level to do in the demo that's their problem. The good/evil divide seemed quite redundant based on the demo as well, especially as you still had to carry out the same task. It controls very well, though, and exploration is a joy. The city itself is horrid, really dull looking. I know it's meant to be "gritty", but I can't help feeling a slightly cartoony or at least more colourful vibe would have helped a lot.

Impressions so far mixed, but the fundamentals are excellent. I'll buy it when it's a wee bit cheaper.

[syntheticgerbil]

This is by Sucker Punch? I didn't even know this existed or that they were working on anything. I loved the Sly games and Robot on Wheels for 64 was neat, so I'll be getting this one.

Thanks for the information.

[James]

So, I tried the demo. Movement was a bit fiddly at times (particularly when the guy decided he'd rather grab onto a ledge than a ladder), and aiming wasn't as precise as I'd have liked (I expected it to be imprecise, too . . . actually, I suppose you can be precise, but it's kind of tricky when what you're shooting is a projectile larger than your hand and the reticule is a big circle without a dot in the middle). Other than that, it seems pretty good to me. I think I'm more into wandering the city than fighting, though.

[James]

So, so.

So, it arrived yesterday. I started playing at about seven and continued without break until midnight, barely touching the main story until I realized I needed to do those missions to unlock some of the abilities I was missing from the demo. Granted, I have a habit of putting off eating in favour of other things (except when I'm at work, when I'm bored enough to eat my lunch mid-morning and buy more lunch at lunchtime causing me to noticeably put on weight, something I've never experienced before), but I was really into it and had to tear myself away. I hope it's not too long until I unlock that hover ability, though. You can get around fine without it, but it's a very nice luxury.

So anyway. Game.

[gdf]

Video game?

[miffy495]

Grah! Stupid future shop mailed it Tuesday. Trade off for getting it cheap is getting it late. Looking forward to playing it a bunch next week.

[IUMogg]

I've been having a lot of fun with Infamous. So much of the game is well made that it easily over shadows the minor negatives.

I really like the combat. I enjoyed it in the demo, but once you really get some skill it gets a lot better. In the demo all I did was basically shoot a ton and throw grenades to blow stuff up. Now I'm able to do stuff much more intentionally. Now when I land on a roof top with 4 or so enemies I can force push a few off, hit another with a stick grenade, and then run up and kick the last guy. They train you to use your powers and build them up at a nice pace so it doesn't feel so frantic.

There are a lot of things they got right and great design decisions. I like that the collectibles show up on the radar when you use your scanning ability. The checkpoint system is fantastic. There is a good amount of variety in the side missions and the story missions are great.

Anyone that didn't hate the demo should at least rent it.

[James]

Yeah, I'm willing to forgive some fairly ropey presentation (as has been said numerous times before: surprising in a flagship Sony exclusive) for what they did right with the mechanics.

One thing I quite like is the upgrade system for the powers. Firstly, I like the feeling of progression and the constant goals (being strung along is fun!), but more importantly checking out the nuances of the higher levels makes me think about how I use the powers more than I did in the demo, when a bunch of stuff was unlocked from the get-go. I like assessing which will be more valuable, how they'll work together, and so on. Granted, it's not as deep as something like Fallout 3's perks system (which in turn is probably nothing compared to some crazy hardcore RPGs I've never played), but it's enough to get me thinking about ... stuff. Whatever.

[miffy495]

I'm just impressed that Sucker Punch is getting flagship titles now at all. Great as Sly and Rocket: Robot on Wheels were, neither was a lead title for the PS2 or N64, respectively. I remember seeing a few ads for Sly back when it first came out, which I guess was kind of rare for a Video game at the time, but it didn't have nearly the marketing push that other titles got. Just kind of cool to see.

[James]

I guess Sony is just pushing all the exclusives it has. Except Valkyria Chronicles.

[shawsie64]

This just arrived for me this morning before i went to work, cant wait to play in a few hours ill post impressions.

[miffy495]

Yeah, mine arrived yesterday morning. Aside from this afternoon's GTA match and watching tonight's hockey game (YAY! 4-2 PENGUINS WIN!) it's pretty much all I've been doing. I will admit I'm starting to get a little burned out on the side missions, but hell, they're side missions. Not like they're mandatory. I've been dying a bunch, but strangely that doesn't bother me. After doing well on the first couple of levels, the game decided hard mode was for me, so I've been dealing with a difficulty level I usually just don't bother with. (Why would I want a game to be frustrating?) Still, it's managing to stay challenging but never impossible, so I guess it was right.

Also, finally getting the static thrusters was bliss. God, having to spend a third of the game without them was brutal. Especially after using them a whole tonne during the demo.

[shawsie64]

So i played some of this last night, really fun! kinda regretted going evil after Trish scalded me but what can ya do.. gonna put some more time into it tonight, hooray for Australian long weekend!

[miffy495]

Damn, that shield you get on the second island is rad. Definitely loving the hell out of this game, enough to forgive it its glitches. Twice in missions I've now gone into blue hell and died, and at one point a guy I was following all stealthy-like fell through the world and I "lost the trail," but even with that in mind it manages to be crazy fun. Yay for fun times with electricity!

[shawsie64]

yeah threw me off a little bit when the reapers you fight under the bridge on one of the early missions just fell onto the water.. not sunk or float just like layed on top of it haha but meh its a small thing

[miffy495]

Well shit. I think this game has fully grabbed me now. I'm a few missions into the third and final act now. The boss fight for act 2 was suitably epic. And by that I mean "Holy fucking shit." And after all this time, a couple of things have happened in the last few missions that actually made me care. Really rare for a game, honestly. In GTAIV for example, when

Kate died

I didn't really give a shit. Conversely, even though your friends in inFamous get less screen time than they would in GTA, when shit happens to them, I care.

I'm dying a ton now. Game got hard, and the AI is actually acting like a real person would, which doesn't make it easy. Still possible to game the system at times though. For example, if you're under a rooftop that an enemy is shooting from, they will always shoot at you from the same place, meaning if they back up and you can't see them anymore, you can just leave your reticule where it is and they'll be back in no time. The enemies are getting crazy as well. I thought the Conduits (leader-enemies. Not bosses, but quite powerful and always a fierce fight) that the Dustmen had were crazy, but the ones I've started to encounter since entering the third act are a step or three above. It's gotten a bit frustrating here and there, but by this point I've completed the majority of the game on hard, and I'll be damned if I'm going to back down now. Just to see the contrast, I may step it down for a while on my next playthrough as evil Cole, but until I'm done my good Cole play, hard it is. I've always managed to muddle through eventually, even though I'll spend 15 minutes or so dying and swearing before that. Some missions just feel impossible, like one in particular where

the prison is under attack by wave upon wave of Dustmen and their Conduits

, but on beating it I get such a rush I can't imagine playing it easier.

[miffy495]

And finished. The first playthrough anyway. There are still a few good trophies I need to get, (2 to be exact) and I'm definitely going to be taking a spin through the game as evil Cole as well, so who knows, maybe this will be the first game I get every trophy for. The plot twist at the end was kind of cool, and I'm certainly looking forward to what Sucker Punch is going to do with the sequel, as this story get resolved nicely but also sets up likely several more games in the series. One of those "Congratulations! You've completely kicked ass and the world is safe, but there is another looming and very vague threat that this was part of your preparations to face..." deals. In this context though, it works. The villain also becomes quite interesting as you go, and the whole thing is kinda cliche, but not in a way that hurts it. About as smart as a really good action movie could hope to be.

A friend was supposed to swing by this afternoon. Still no word though, so if she doesn't, I may start my evil playthrough tonight.

EDIT: My friend never showed, so evil Cole is now halfway through the Warren (second of 3 districts). The main story missions are pretty much identical except for a few minor branches where you can accomplish the same thing by being nice or a bastard. What's making the replay worth it is the side missions. For those who don't know, each of the three islands has a bunch of side missions to unlock neighbourhoods. In all, there are 82 of these in the game. Actually though, there are 97, as each island has 10 alignment missions. 5 good and 5 evil. If you clear a good one, the corresponding evil one is locked out. My first playthrough being good, I played only the good ones. They're pretty standard "escort the prisoners through the streets" or "capture this guy" or "escort these dudes" missions. Kinda boring, honestly. The evil ones on the other hand, are much more creative. So far, I've gone on a rampage explicitly to draw out and kill a bunch of police officers, single-handedly executed a massive jailbreak, and recruited a bunch of drugged-up psychos to go hunting homeless guys with me. There's also a really cool thread going through all of the ones I've done in the Warren so far.

I'm pretty much doing all of this for the benefit of Sasha, the first boss.

I'm hoping that this will pay off in interesting ways in the long run, because right at the end of the good story mode hints were made as to the possibilities I had given up. This would be a pretty great possibility.

I'm glad I played in the order I did. Good was a great experience, and now that I'm playing Evil, I get an even better one.

Edited June 5, 2009 by miffy495

[zomboid]

I really enjoyed the demo & it's in my Gamefly que. The city exploration is giving me Crackdown bonerz & I'm really looking forward to that.