Everyone dreams of having super powers. Flight. Invisibility. Super strength. Immortality. A disgusting, fleshy, prehensile tail like that one dude from My Hero Academia. These stories of superhumans with fantastical abilities have inspired cultures for untold generations; from the ancient Greek myths of heroes like Hercules, all the way to the last century with comic book characters like Superman and Spider-Man. While it's fun to read about superheroes or watch movies about them, nothing comes close to playing a video game, where you can really put yourself in the costumes of these characters, and feel like you're controlling their amazing powers. There have been some solid superhero games over the years, like the Batman: Arkham trilogy, or the recent Spider-Man games from Insomniac. What I think is especially cool is when we occasionally get superhero-themed games about wholly original universes or characters. I remember enjoying Crackdown on the Xbox 360, and the heated high school arguments over whether or not Infamous or Prototype was the cooler game. To this day, I've never played Prototype, so I can't really lend anything of value to that discussion, but I can say that Infamous is an excellent game.
Developed by Sucker Punch Productions, of Sly Cooper fame, Infamous pulls influence from comic books, with two specific DC stories granting the team a great deal of inspiration: DMZ and Batman: No Man's Land. Sucker Punch wanted to lean into a grittier, more serious take on a superhero story, and they largely succeeded. I was surprised at how grim the setting and story felt at times. I won't spoil too much of the plot, but Infamous is set in the aftermath of an urban disaster, namely a massive explosion that destroyed much of the game's central location, Empire City. The game is set during the days and weeks immediately following said explosion, so you're frequently passing dead or wounded civilians strewn across the streets. Countless buildings have been thoroughly annihilated in the blast, and the city is without power. Violent gangs have seized control over the various boroughs of Empire City and have turned the already horrific lives of the citizens into a living hell. As soon as the game begins, you get a sense of the danger that has set in over Empire City.
You step into the shoes of Cole MacGrath, a courier who was unwittingly at fault for the destruction of Empire City. The package he was carrying contained a device known as the Ray Sphere and through its activation, and the resulting explosion, Cole received electrokinetic superpowers. Understandably, the citizens blame Cole at first, and they're terrified of his powers. Between the disaster and his mutant-like abilities, Cole feels alienated from everyone. Thankfully he has his best friend Zeke, and his girlfriend Trish to talk to about all of the tumult and confusion happening in his life. Through the course of the game, as you choose whether or not you want to be a hero or a villain, Cole's standing with the city's populace will either improve or decline even further.
The Karma system was intriguing, though it felt somewhat underwhelming as an overall mechanic. Cole can present himself as a hero or as a villain to the people of Empire City through myriad ways. When in combat, you can go about it in a more precise, surgical way, carefully shooting at just your target(s) and avoiding bystanders, or you can just cut loose, blasting lightning at anything and everything that moves. Once the dust has settled from combat, there are incapacitated enemies lying everywhere, and you can choose to either restrain them, or leech their lifeforce and rejuvenate your own health and power. If a civilian bystander got injured in the skirmish, you can also choose to restrain them (for some bizarre reason), absorb their energy or resuscitate them, which is obviously a positive karmic act, compared to draining them of their life like you're some sort of a vampire.
There are also moral choices that you'll have to make in the midst of various missions throughout the game. These were never difficult moral quandaries or anything; it was always very clear which choice made Cole into a selfless hero, and which one made him seem like a complete jerk. Though I will say, there was one story mission in the climax of the game that had you choose between saving a group of strangers or someone close to Cole that I actually had to pause and reflect on for a moment, as I personally know that I would've chosen differently if I was faced with that same dilemma in real life.
Related: Infamous: Second Son Review
On the topic of Infamous' missions, I should at least touch on the game's numerous side missions. I intended on completing all of these across two playthroughs, so that I could see how different the game was between the two sides of the morality spectrum. In truth, the missions became so repetitive that I sputtered out after completing around 75% of them. A vast majority of what you're doing is small tasks for the community that free up Empire City from gang control. Some missions have you climbing all over a building, zapping recording devices so that the gang can't spy people. Other missions might have you retrieving medical supplies from rooftops or blowing up armored buses that gangs use to terrorize the streets. There are also proper side missions, with some of them being specifically "Good" or "Evil." There are around fifteen of them in total, but they never really added anything of major value to my experience.
Infamous' combat was a definite high point for me. As I've mentioned, Cole has electricity-based superpowers, and this provided a fun and diverse selection of abilities to utilize. His core attack is a basic ranged electrical shock, which typically has to hit an opponent multiple times to take them down. After some time, you can unlock a long ranged variant of that attack, to be able to snipe far off enemies. Cole also has some awesome "area of effect" style attacks, like shock grenades, which can clear out large groups of enemies in one well-placed blast. Staying on theme for electricity-based abilities, Cole also has access to some moves that utilize static electricity. He can make enemies float in the air, giving you additional time to shock them while they're exposed. Cole can also generate a shield of energy to block incoming bullets, which is incredibly helpful, because you are frequently being shot by several different enemies at one time. One of the last moves that he learns is easily my favorite, in which Cole calls down extremely powerful lightning strikes that can annihilate nearly any foe in your path. Also, almost every ability can be upgraded a few times, which increases the move's potency and sometimes adds additional benefits. For instance, the shock grenades can be upgraded to automatically restrain enemies upon detonation, which is hugely helpful in crowd control.
Like with any great superhero game, Infamous is set in an open world, and like you'd expect if you've played the Batman or Spider-Man games, traversal is half the fun of spending time in a world like that. Cole can inexplicably parkour on almost every building in the entire city, which is generally fun, but can be a little clumsy. Since the explosion, Empire City has been totally without power. Cole is often tasked with descending down into the sewers and repairing the power grid. As he does, the city's expansive elevated railway becomes functional again, and through Cole's powers, he's able to use these electrified railways to zip through the city at high speed. He can either grind on the rail line itself, or climb on top of the tram and surf it across Empire City. In a similar way, Cole can grind down the city's powerlines. Cole can also utilize static electricity and glide through the air, which is a really neat and thoughtful way to work his powers into a gliding mechanic.
While I fizzled out on completing all of the repetitive side content, and the Karma system fell a little flat for me, Infamous is an altogether fun and solid package. Sucker Punch crafted a unique, inventive game with an interesting story and thrilling, dynamic combat. It's far from perfect, but there's a lot here to love.
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