inFamous Review

18th Nov, 2022

InFamous is one of the PS3 exclusives that can make you really consider buying the console. It manages to use some storyline elements most of us would consider cliched, yet twists them in a unique way, delivering a perfect mix of action and an interesting story.

On top of all that, it also has a great replay value due to the way its world has been designed – and overall, inFamous instantly makes it obvious that it's not “just another” game.

Gameplay

In inFamous, you take the role of Cole MacGrath, a regular citizen who suddenly finds himself in possession of great superpowers – which is what we were referring to above as cliched. The particular type of powers Cole attains are related to electricity and controlling it, and the character receives various skills and abilities that can play around with the electrical supplies around him and bend the forces of nature to his needs. Electricity becomes an important resource, and you can accumulate it for later use whenever you find it in larger supplies.

The game is very open-ended, and the player can freely choose their actions – you can either go around helping people, or making their lives worse. You can reach the end of the game in either way, the difference is the Karma that you'll have attained by then. Positive actions add to your Karma, while negative ones decrease it, and Karma plays a major role in some of the plot elements – for example, some of the characters will be hostile to you if your Karma is on the positive or negative end too much.

Graphics and System Requirements

InFamous looks pretty well, though it could've made more use of the PS3′s powerful hardware. Even though the game does have lots of beautiful scenes and eye-catching effects accompanying the action, it still feels a little too bland in some aspects and could use some improvement. The electricity has been designed very well though, seeing as how it plays such an important role in the storyline and gameplay, and the sparkles flying around are really catchy.

It runs smoothly enough, but in some of the more crowded areas we did notice the occasional slowdown – and considering the game has been designed as a PS3 exclusive, this is really hard to overlook – after all, you're working with a specific limited set of hardware, how hard could it be to properly adapt your game to it? Thankfully those slowdowns don't happen on such a frequent occasion and aren't enough to ruin the overall experience.

Other

Initially, players were informed that a special kind of power will only be given to those who had preordered it – a common advertising trick to gather some preorders and build hype. If you've missed out on that deal though, don't worry – the extra power was later made available to everyone and is actually a completely free download.

Conclusion

InFamous manages to very nicely blend elements of action and RPG, leaning towards a deep and intricate plot with heavy character development. It's a game you can't allow yourself to miss out on, regardless if you're a fan of action games or not!