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Infamous starts off with a bang from the moment you press the start button. Cole, a bike messenger, is assigned to deliver a package that ends up causing a massive explosion that destroys six city blocks. When the dust clears, Cole is the lone survivor. To top that off, he discovers he has the power to manipulate electricity in almost anyway he pleases. These powers are great and all that but like Uncle Ben said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” That’s where you decide if Cole will become legendary hero or an evil bad ass. These moral choices are a major part of the game and your decision furthers your rep amongst Empire City. As the story develops, you’ll fully become immersed in this universe and the comic book styling cut scenes give the narrative some style.

My favourite element of this game is Empire City. Strolling through this massive urban sprawl is seamless and exploring it never gets boring. You’ll get immersed into the hustle and bustle of Empire City in no time. Getting around this NYC lookalike is crazy fun with barely any boundaries. You can climb and leap from building to building with ease and every jump is possible because of Cole’s sticky jumping mechanics. As the game progress you gain the ability to grind train tracks and glide throughout the city, these abilities adds even more vibrancy to navigating Empire City.

Exploring Empire City pays off as well, there are 350 blast shards scattered throughout the city from the detonation and collecting them allows you to store more electricity to keep on zapping the baddies. Traveling the rooftops you’ll also find drop points where you can get a more in depth back story of what happened before the explosion.

The combat element in Infamous is satisfying as well, there is never a dull moment. By the end of the game you’ll get the feeling of a superhero or villain (pending on which path you go) because of the variety of powers. You start things off with a pretty simple zap but as you unlock more powers throughout the game you’ll end up blowing everyone away with powerful shockwaves. I found the combat at times to feel a bit repetitive but the boss battles eventually shook that feeling off. The enemies in the game have a somewhat decent AI but it did get annoying seeing the same foes in one area of Empire City all the time. A bit more variety in enemies spread out through the map would have helped kept the battles feeling fresher.

Overall Infamous is a great game that keeps on delivering the more you play it. The quick, fast-paced combat and boss battles will keep you challenged. The ability to unlock powers will give you sense of achievement. When all is said and done it’s the vastness, accessibility, and fun of traveling through Empire City that will keep you coming back. If you own a PS3 you need Infamous in your life.

Tags: game reviews, games, infamous, reviews, video games

Posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 11:03 am by Manny and is filed under Gamers, Just For Fun.

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