Absolutely breathtaking.
posted by Alhazred (PITTSFIELD, MA) Jun 2, 2009
Member since Jun 2008
inFAMOUS suffers from a few polishing problems; NPCs don't always move well, and interaction between characters is often stiff and lacking in emotion or any sense of choreography. Cole is passable here because the player still controls him during dialog, much like the player retains control during dialog in Half Life 2. The exception is Kessler; if time and money constraints kept them from having a cinematic feel for all of the plot, they undoubtedly put all they had into making their villain unnerving in every way possible, from his voice to the way he moves to his facial expressions.
With this out of the way, the game is, by far, exemplary. Empire City is smaller than it's supposed to be (in real size instead of what's said in the fluff, it's about a third the size of Liberty City) but you never feel boxed in or like the game is ripping you off in explorability. Cole's powers are a sight to behold whether good or evil, and he controls fluidly; the much maligned "auto-sticking" when jumping near climbable surfaces is, in the long run, a good thing; it lets you take risks, and it lets you continue your movement without interrupting the flow to make sure you've got some distracting, frustrating angle matched up just right.
The storyline is one of the most clever, well-played plots in videogames, comics or even movies in, easily, the last year. The writers clearly know a cliche when they see one, and when they use them, it's never in the way you expect. The karma system largely effects Cole's growth as a character instead of the plot at large, and your mileage may vary with this. For some, it's pointless, for others, it makes the karma system far less ridiculous than it is in most games. The twist at the end is a blatant hook for a sequel, but not in a bad way, and a second playthrough will have you noticing all manner of little details that have been suggesting the ending the entire time. It's certainly an interesting take on the usual Hero Vs Villain dynamic.
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