Playing the role of bike messenger Cole McGrath, you wake up at ground zero of a massive explosion that rocks Empire City, causing society to quickly fall apart and violent gangs to take over. The explosion has blessed Cole with the power to absorb and use a variety of electricity-based attacks and abilities which leads to him being blamed as the cause for the disaster. Throughout the course of the game he must discover the truth of what really happened.
The whole game takes place within Empire City and it consists of three islands, with only one accessible to begin with. A mysterious plague has infected the citizens and the old "this island is under quarantine" cliche is used to lock off the rest of the city. Making your way around the city couldn't be any easier and in fact it's perhaps too easy due to Cole basically magnetising himself to every lamp post, roof top and pole which can become a tad frustrating at times. If you are on a timed mission, valuable seconds can be lost as you fight to grab onto the right piece of scenery. While not nearly as solid as Crackdown, the urban platforming in Infamous is certainly fun despite it's flaws.
Unlocking the ability to grind along railway tracks and power lines is definitely the quickest way to travel around the city and is very reminiscent of Jet Set Radio at times - just watch out you don't accidentally grind head first into a train. Power must be restored to some areas of the city and this is the main method whereby Cole learns new powers. You will regularly find yourself travelling underground into the sewers in order to zap a generator with electricity to power it up again.
Upgrading Cole's electrical arsenal is crucial to your progression through the game. As well as earning a new ability every time you return power to an area of the city, you also earn experience points from killing enemies and completing missions, and use these points to upgrade your skills. To begin with you will only have the basic lightning bolt attack, think of this as your semi-automatic pistol, but you will quickly learn a reasonable amount of new moves within the first few missions. From the force push-likeshockwave attack (handy for temporarily stunning enemies) to the powerful thunder drop.
When upgrading, it isn't just the attack power that is increased. For example, upgrading the lightning bolt to full causes Cole to regain a generous amount of energy for each successful hit. Cole's total energy level can be increased by collecting blast shards scattered around the city and these serve the same purpose as the glowing green agility orbs in Crackdown. While some powers are very useful, others often just seem like simple weapon replacements rather than superpowers. As touched upon earlier, the lightning bolt acts just like a basic pistol in any other game and doesn't really feel like it has as much power as it should. The megawatt hammer could easily just have been rocket launcher and the precision attack is a sniper rifle in all but name. Having said that, many of the other powers do feel unique enough to impress, particularly the devastating lightning storm attack whose path can be steered using the motion controls of the Dual Shock 3.
With all of these powers at your disposal, you would think that you would be no match for the enemies. Think again.It's possibly an attempt by the developers to balance out the game, but the gangs of the city can spot you from what seems like streets away and their pinpoint accuracy means they have no problem sniping you from such a distance. As a result of this, it is recommended to upgrade your damage ability as soon as possible at the start of the game to make things as less annoying as possible. Cole seems to take far too much damage at times and this will lead to things being less frustrating. The overly generous checkpoint placement during missions thankfully prevents things from becoming even more annoying. Enemies introduced later on in the game become even more irritating, particularly the gang members equipped with rocket launchers who take far too much damage before dying, and the small mechanical spiders who move so fast that targeting them becomes a headache thanks to a lack of any auto-aim whatsoever.
As well as the main story missions, there are plenty of side missions throughout the city to keep you occupied. The side missions range from simple events such as defeating a group of enemies, to the more complicated task of locating and destroying surveillance equipment planted on buildings. Upon completion, the surrounding area is permanently cleared of enemies. Among the most enjoyable of these missions are the stealth ones in which you must follow an enemy courier without being detected. As well as the normal side missions, there are also specific ones based on Cole's current level of karma that offer a significant amount of experience points if successfully completed.A simple karma system is employed whereby your actions at certain moments in missions dictate whether you will earn heroic or infamous experience points. While there are some interesting choices, many of them are just silly an amount to nothing more than "should I save this guy? Or let him die for no apparent reason?".
An interesting feature is that the citizens of Empire City react to you in different ways depending on the way you act. commit good deeds and they will often cheer and take photos of you, but bad deeds result in being heckled and them even throwing stones at you. Your karma also affects your powers when you upgrade, with "bad" powers often having a more violent and destructive outcome and a much higher chance of injuring innocent civilians.Undoubtedly a good game, Infamous can be a very frustrating experience at times, mostly thanks to the overly-precise aim of the enemies and Cole feeling far too weak and vulnerable at times.
The main story campaign overstays it's welcome slightly, but when the game is at it's best it's highly enjoyable. From the run down, gritty look of the city that is reminiscent of that seen in Dark Angel, to the urban platforming. The graphic novel-stylecutscenes are also impressive and add to the superhero vibe of the game. While there are too many annoyances for it to be a truly great game, Infamous offers an enjoyable sandbox experience with an interesting twist in the telling of a superhero story.
