NOW PLAYING: INFAMOUS
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
