Double Review by LisVender: Infamous and Uncharted 2
They didn’t save the Playstation 3, but they may have saved 3D platformers. These two PS3 exclusives are the descendants of Tomb Raider, Super Mario 64, Contra, and Jak & Daxter. They’ve gathered some of the best elements of today’s games and compressed them into a couple of action-packed packages. They may not have the sunny skies and colorful creatures that you’d see in a 8- or 16-bit platformer, but I can put up with that.
I can also accept that these two games are aimed chiefly at adolescents. Aside from their violence, there’s little to these games that could be called “mature.” They don’t have the dank, secret-filled storyline of Silent Hill 2. They don’t have the devilish wit and detailed world of Grand Theft Auto IV. They don’t have the ballsy, mind-bending design of Killer7. What they have is fast-paced action, slick, responsive controls, gorgeous graphics, and high adventure. They are the descendants of the side-scroller.
Nathan Drake and Cole MacGrath a just a couple of regular dudes who wind up in whole heaps of trouble. Regular, that is, except for the incredible gymnastic skills. These guys are dexterous parkour masters, capable of climbing a thirty-foot street sign, jumping off from it, twisting in midair, and grabbing the edge of a nearby building with one hand. Then, while hanging with that one hand, they can shoot bad guys with the other. Drake can even reload a pistol with one hand! You can’t believe what the backs of the boxes tell you. These dudes are superheroes.
Cole is especially super, as the explosion that rocks his world and turns it into a gangsta’s paradise has left him with the power to control electricity. Before long, he becomes a tool of the government, performing search and destroy missions and generally wiping out evil wherever it roams. Occasionally he’ll jump into a sewer to find a power station that will grant him new abilities. Some of these powers function similarly to weapons in more traditional shooters, but they all have unique twists and applications which make them fun to use. You can also enhance these powers by spending experience points in the pause menu.
Drake doesn’t have electrical super powers, but he’s a hell of gunfighter. His globe-trotting search for the life-giving resin of Shangri-la will see him mow down armies of men with pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, and rocket launchers. Every once in a while, he’ll have to stop and figure out a simple puzzle, or otherwise cross a series of precarious platforms.
These scenes can be a bit frustrating because the shooting action is so good. The lion’s share of Uncharted 2 and Infamous is spent blowing away bad guys. The games play pretty much alike, with their unique systems for climbing, regenerating health, and taking cover. The only major difference between the two is that Cole cannot blind-fire, which can be frustrating when there are several enemies ahead of you. Drake can blind-fire with the best of them, though, and he can do it quite accurately.
As these two wingfooted heroes are such skilled climbers, the firefights feel more loose and free than in other third-person shooters like Gears of War, which keep your characters anchored to the ground. If you don’t want to simply hide behind cover, you can climb all over the environment and rain hell down on your enemies from whatever angle you wish. There are a couple of scenes in Uncharted 2 that force you to do this.
One of the best sequences in Uncharted 2 involves stowing away on a train. Drake must make his way across several cars in order to save a captured friend, and each car offers a unique shooting or platforming challenge. You’ll have hide from helicopter fire, sneak up on enemy patrols, dodge oncoming signs and lights that can shove you off of the cars, and engage in fisticuffs with an angry mercenary captain. Sometimes you are only provided with one way to take out enemies, but in other situations, you are free to take out your enemies how you like, either in a sneaky manner or with guns blazing. I usually ignore the stealthy route when games offer me such a choice, but the stealth kills in Uncharted 2 are easy to pull off, and they’re quite satisfying. Softening up an enemy patrol with careful sneak attacks will also save you some headaches once the shooting starts.
Infamous doesn’t provide stealth attacks, but Cole’s battle options are nevertheless varied, as he gets to use all of his powers at all times. He doesn’t have to wait for the game to throw him a Dragon Sniper before he can snipe anyone. Cole can throw explosive shock grenades, shove enemies into the air with a shockwave, and use a long-range precision attack for headshots. Mixing these moves together creatively can be tons of fun. They use energy from Cole’s battery cores, but you can refill them by holding L2 while standing near electrical objects, meaning cars, streetlights, transformers, and rooftop vents. It’s reminiscent of the water pump in Super Mario Sunshine.
The major difference between the two games is that Uncharted 2 is linear while Infamous is open-world. Drake may be a veteran explorer, but his games don’t really let him do a lot of exploring. It’s a constant push, push, push toward the next action scene. It’s hard to complain, though, when the set pieces are so detailed and exciting. Infamous may have a big environment to play in, but many of its side missions are clones of each other, and there isn’t much variety in the settings. It’s a weird trade-off. When you’re stuck in a shootout with the baddies, though, you won’t much think about these things.
Though I can only recommend these games to anyone who relishes action and adventure, neither one is quite perfect. Infamous has a pretty weak story, and it’s poorly presented. Major plot events are shown using sliding, ink-splattered images with no dialogue but the constant narration from Cole. In the the age following Half-Life 2 and Call of Duty 4, this isn’t good enough. The characters are pretty bland and unlikeable as well. The actor who plays Cole seems to have attended the Christian Bale/David Hayter School of Acting, and he sounds like a ten-pack-a-day man. His voice is low, and not especially grating to the ear, but he’s clearly forcing his delivery, and that’s annoying in its own way.
Uncharted 2’s story is also nonsense, with its magic resins and monkey monsters, but it’s still a lot more enjoyable than that of Infamous. Each character is voiced with surprising believability, right down to the smallest grunts, and they’re even legitimately funny at times. Drake is a little too glib for a guy who slaughters men by the dozens, though, and I find Chloe’s constant resistance to Drake’s plans to be irritating. Drake pulls off some superhuman feats in this game, some of them right before Chloe’s eyes, and yet she still questions him at every step. The only explanation I can come up with for this is that Naughty Dog’s writers felt the story needed the extra dramatic conflict.
There are also some fundamental flaws with both games. Infamous’s transgression is the greater one, though. The game is set in a gray and dingy city. A city inhabited by insane people. The citizens meander around in the open, and cars roll casually down the roads. Uh, did these people forget about the bloodthirsty gangs prowling the streets? Are their errands so critical that they’re willing to brave a storm of bullets? When one of these pedestrian morons gets shot by a gang member, he falls to the ground writhing, but no one around takes notice. The bystanders just continue walking. They don’t even run. You can use Cole’s Pulse Heal move to somehow shock the slug out of the wounded man, after which he’ll get up, maybe say thanks, and then continue his morning constitutional. It’s baffling.
Now, if Sucker Punch can’t craft an even slightly convincing real-world city, they should have gone with a different setting. Just put Cole in a place with lots of things to climb and enemies to shoot, and get rid of everything else. I can imagine Infamous’s action working very well in a mountain range, or a forest, or even a Metroid-like alien planet. Cole’s already a superhero; why not make him a space traveler? Call him Captain Cole, Capacitor of the Cosmos!
Uncharted 2 has the exotic stages, but their linear, story-entwined nature creates a different problem. The game’s got too many scenes that give you control over Drake when it’s not necessary. They put the brakes on the game and wreck its pace. There’s one segment set in a peaceful mountain village where you don’t do anything but follow a dude from one building to another. Drake can’t run in this area, so you get to gently creep through town, just looking at things. What is the point of this? Why can’t we skip this? It was mildly interesting the first time I played it, but now that I’m on my second go-round, this chapter frays my patience. There are similar scenes at other points in the game, where Drake is just looking for things and conversing with his buddies, and we’re piloting him around, hunting for the trigger that will let us progress. There is no reason for this. Not every game can get away with what Half-Life 2 pulled off. If a level has no risk of death, let us skip it, or turn it into a cutscene.
BUT! None of these problems are serious enough to ruin the big, blasting action of these two games. They are thrilling, they are satisfying, and they are a blast to play, even for a few minutes. I want more games that play like this. I want to run, jump, climb, shoot, and beat up bad guys. That’s what the greatest video games often come down to, and few games do it better than these.
Controller1.com rating: 3/3
Our original Uncharted 2 review
Our Original inFamous Review
Reviewed on PS3. Developed by Sucker Punch. Published by Sony.
Infamous, in a nutshell, is an amalgamation of Sucker Punch’s earlier Sly Cooper series, infused with a healthy dose of Crackdown and a little Force Unleashed. You play as Cole McGrath, a courier who’s at the heart of a massive energy release in Empire City. Surviving the deadly blast, Cole finds himself infused with super powers the same way warm water is infused with tea leaves. Hmm. Time for a cuppa.
skip ahead 10 minutes
So begins Infamous, with its great comic book style cutscenes and an open world city with game play ripped from Crackdown. You play, gather XP every time you beat a mission, defeat an enemy or perform an act of cruelty or kindness. As you get more XP, you can level up your powers, becoming more and more badass. You can also play good or evil, with the game giving you lots of opportunities to decide on your path. The story, though very well done, drags on a bit longer than you’d like. This is perhaps unavoidable on longish games like this, but what the hey- it’s a fun game. You have a Karma meter which has Infamous on one end and Hero at the other. Kill a pedestrian or drain the life force of a vanquished for, you get evil karma points. Heal a citizen and merely lock up a defeated foe, you get positive karma. There are both good and bad story missions- beating the good mission will lock the bad mission, encouraging multiple playthroughs if you’re into that thing. I always tend to play these games as a good guys since I’m such a cunt in real life.
The game structure is fairly familiar. You start off in one section of the map with the rest blocked, in this case a third of the city and you progress by completing the story missions that appear on your map. There are also side missions which ask you to do things like, remove all surveillance devices off the side of a building, defend an area or clear and area of enemies, pose for photos, etc. These are mostly good missions that enhance your Karma but there are a few evil missions in there as well. More on that later. Each side missions you complete will mark the map in a way so that enemies don’t respawn in that area so there is a very real reward for side missions since in some areas you can’t walk down the street without some asshole shooting at you. All of the collectibles are woven into story so there are no blue orbs floating arbitrarily at the top of a building. There are blast shards you collect to up your electrical storage (fragments of the device that explodes at the start of the game).
Its an open world but not really a sand box. You don’t drive cars so vehicular stunts are out but you can climb almost anywhere within the map if that’s your thang. And I mean almost anywhere and straight out of the box. Your climbing powers are pretty much the same from the start, you just get the gliding ability later. Want to climb up that building now? You don’t have to wait until your level is maxed out in Infamous. You can climb up most buildings just by tapping X a lot. A lot. For a game that’s not about climbing, Sucker Punch didn’t make the climbing a limiting factor in the game play. Some areas require special attention to climbing (like in Uncharted) but these are very much in the minority. You can go where you like in most cases.
Your powers are what the game is about. You start off just shooting electricity as your ranged attack and a simple melee attack for CQC. Since the powers are based on power, you will need to restore underground substations in each area to progress. These conveniently hold the key to you gaining new powers so you will need to do these a lot in order to beat the game. Its funny how some of the powers you have in the demo are those you would have fairly late in the game. You do get one power that slightly overpowering but you do get that so late in the game that its not like the gravity gun in HL2 where you just have a win button. It also doesn’t help against the final boss.
On criticism is that the game does have some annoying boss fights with specific methods required to defeat them, which is where Crackdown shines- the rules are the same. You just shoot them more in the 360 game- you use the same rules as the rest of the game. AI in the game is another mixed bag with NPC’s with pathfinding, both good and bad. But then you’re in world where the equivalent of a small nuke has gone off and everyone is just going about their business as if nothing as happened. There can be major battles going on and the citizens of Empire city are not running and hiding, panicking as they soil their pants in terror- they are just milling around, walking into your zone of fire.
Graphically the game is a mixed bag. With its fantastic comic book-style cutscenes, the game has a boold style. But then you get in-game cutscenes with horrendous models with off lighting. The animation is definitely very ordinary. Its adequate, but you can’t call it good. Sound is quite well done with very good voice acting from the cast. Cole McGrath has a 50 a day habit by the sound of him. Must make being a bike courier hard.
So Infamous. The best PS3 game since MGS4. Its better than Resistance 2, Motorstorm 2, Little Big Planet and Killzone 2. Its the type of game you would buy a PS3 for.
Controller1.com rating 3/3
After returning from a holiday and trying three different local stores, I finally found a copy of inFamous. This morning I have been having a great time playing it and feeling kinda sad for Prototype. Its also killed any chance I had of ever replaying Crackdown. Infamous is better in some ways. Its making Protoype look like an also ran and Uncharted 2 look limited by comparison. Sly Cooper 4 Infamous also has its problems, such as really ordinary animation but overall its probably the best PS3 game so far this year, easily eclipsing Killzone 2 for fun.
Its a free roaming game set in an open world where you play as a guy who has suddenly developed all of these cool powers, mostly to do with Electricity. You don’t shoot guns, you discharge electricty and you consume electricity in order to fire off more electricity. The guy’s got some serious rubber shoes on his feet and its a lucky thing his head is shavd otherwise he’d be a dead ringer for one of the Jackson 5 circa 1974. Infamous has everything Crackdown has apart from a Halo 3 beta invite.
So if you like Crackdown like controller1.com’s very own Cameron, you will like infamous. So what does Infamous do better and what does it not do as well?
Better than Crackdown:
Movement and climbing is so easy and therefore fun. You don’t feel like you’re fighting the controls (as you do in the god-awful-to-control Prince of Persia). It manages to make Assassin’s Creed movement seem clunky (which was one of its better features) and now I feel Uncharted 2 will feel more restrictive during its platforming sections after the total freedom afforded in Infamous. Of course, restricting movements to paths is a gameplay decision. Infamous doesn’t make platforming difficult since its not a platformer- you just need to get places and the game doesn’t make it too hard to do that.
Story: The actual storyline is more involving that Crackdown’s simple “cleaning up the streets” mantra. It also has fantastic comic book style cinematics (even if they are just a modern version of those flat cardboard rod-puppets children have)
Not as good Crackdown:
The in-game animation is really, really ordinary. Even bad in places. Combat is a bit less fun (at least initially). This Sly Cooper in a new skin. Really. Not a bad thing but oh boy is it obvious the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
You have the time-trials and equivalent of the agility orb hunting as well, though they are more neatly integrated into the story, rather than just being collectibles. So play this while we wait for Crackdown 2. I would hope the guys at Ruffian games have a good look at this
This is really the best PS3 only game since MGS4 (yes better than KZ2, Resistance 2, Little Big Planet, Singstar AB- huh?). If you have a PS3 and don’t have this game yet, what are you waiting for and if you don’t have a PS3, it means you haven’t played this, MGS4 or Uncharted. I hear there’s a price cut brewing around the launch of Madden 2010
After a few relatively game-lite weeks- I’m playing a bit more regularly. I’m off on a vacation in a fortnight’s time (the site will still have updates) but in the meantime I’ve had some fun with a few titles.
The Club, subject of a recent focus test, is a silly score-attack shooter. Take PGR and Tony Hawk and make it about shooting and you have The Club. If you’re not a score attack junkie, you might find there’s not much for you since multiplayer doesn’t have a thriving community and the single player is a few hours at best. Its a repetitive title to be sure, but once you start playing, you’re there for longer than you’d expect. It’s not ugly, but there are much prettier games on the market. Its also being referenced left right and centre “oh, its like The Club.” Hey, great, you used a commercial flop as the basis for your big title. Its like how those in the know reference Kill/Switch as the game that Gears got much of the stop and pop actions from. I recommend renting this for giggles, or buying it outstandingly cheap (which should not be hard)
Of course, the big game in this post is the PS3 exclusive title inFamous, from Sucker Punch, makers of Sly Cooper games. Some say InFamous is just Sly 3 with a new skin. I can’t say that for sure since, although I own Sly 3, I haven’t played it for more than 30 minutes. InFamous has a far grittier aesthetic but you can see a lot of Sly Cooper in this game. Apart from Sly Cooper himself.
It also channels the ghost of Crackdown. A few days after this post goes live, we may have some news of Crackdown 2. My sources assure me its in the works. My sources also assure me that you can’t catch Swine Flu from a toilet seat unless an afflicted piglet used it previously. If you liked Crackdown, you should also have a ball with this game. I like Crackdown, and from I’ve played of the demo, this is a fun substitute. Our next Focus Test podcast features this game so give it a listen (links at the right of the page).
There’s climbing up buildings, jumping, popping a zap in the asses of the baddies. Its got it all. And ANGST! Games need more whiny bitches as the protagonist. Of course, I can’t play the full game for three more weeks since it doesn’t get released here before I go away for my break. The zinger is, this game comes out at the exact same time as a another similar game, Prototype.
Prototype is a multiplatform gamer from Radical, the makers of Hulk games and before that, some Simpsons games a few years back. They know their open-world blow shit up routine. Prototype is a gorier version of the Hulk game from all accounts. Its the release of Infamous and Prototype that has clogged the net with Prototype verse Infamous blogs. “Which is better? Which should I play first?” I don’t really have any interest in Prototype just at the moment so we shall see what it is like once its released.
I had decided earlier in the year that I would like to replay the single player campaigns of the Call of Duty games. Apparently the original game is being released as a downloadable title soon and if it does, I could have all 5 games on my 360. Which would be nice. I’ve been replaying the most recent, World at War, in single player mode. My first run through was on PC and this time, its on 360. I think WaW get’s trashed a bit too much for not being made by Infinity Ward, but I found it a highly enjoyable game in its own right. CoD4 is still better but the differences are enough to make it feel like a different game, and close enough to keep the CoD4 whore in me smiling.
Roll up, Roll up to the one and only genuine DLCarnival. Yes I have gone mad and decided to fill in my current game playing drought by downloading more and more DLC for my favourite games and skipping the games I don’t want to play. A few weeks ago, it was the Call of Duty World at War map pack. Before that, it was Fallout 3′s Operation Anchorage. This week, its Halo 3 maps and Guitar Hero World Tour songs, two games I haven’t touched this year, but have been meaning to go back.
Why? Prince of Persia sits on the entertainment unit, its surface barely scratched (metaphorically). I just don’t fell like it right now. I know its good and I’ll probably have a go soon but I really just want to shoot my fellow man in the face (or more likley, be shot in the face by a whiny punk). So despite enjoying the maps for CoD WaW, I realise that I can’t compete with the levelled up dufus who in habit these games ever since CoD4 removed any casual fun from the series.
So Halo 3 got the downloads. There are new Gears of War 2 maps and Killzone 2 maps available now or coming soon, but those games just aren’t as much fun online as Halo 3 (with the headset switched off). There’s a rip off of The Guild with 30′something Halo 3 players that’s not really that good, but considering The Guild also isn’t really that good we’ll just suppose its accurate. I wouldn’t know as I don’t play games in clans, guilds or any other loose confederation of nerds where teamwork means teabagging. I just play to have fun. So i’ll play these maps for an hour or two and then move on.
Then on GHWT I will just buy a song, play it once and move on. I would like to play the James Bond Theme and the Queen songs (some of which i already have on Singstar). That’s it. I might even try to play a bit more of World Tour mode, but I’m not counting on anything.
Why play the DLC when there are so many new experiences coming out such as Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter IV and more? Because none of it speaks to me as a gamer. Nothing says, “play me.” Street Fighter might as well say “bite me,’ for all the appeal it has. In prepping for a podcast a few months pack, the three of us looked through the coming soon section of EB’s US website. We really couldn’t find much after Killzone 2 that appealed to any of us. Expect lots of demoes Focus Tested in the next few months. The one shining light on the new release beacon in the near term is Infamous. We’re all pretty jazzed for that. But maybe its because there’s no Crackdown 2 announced. The web believes its coming but my spare pants are still on Defcon 3.
