Infamous

May 12, 2009 - Spider-Man 2 the videogame will always hold a special place in my heart. After decades of games taking superheroes, assigning their abilities halfhearted meters, and sticking them in beat'em ups, Spider-Man 2 put you behind the web-head's mask and let you loose on an open-world. The game had citizens packing side missions, enemies roaming the city, and more. Of course, it also had a bunch of problems, but it at least gave the world a glimpse of what a superhero game could be. Surely, someone would pick up the idea, polish it, and run with it… right? Five years later, Sucker Punch has dusted of that blueprint and improved the hell out of it. Infamous is one of the best offerings on the PlayStation 3 to date.

When you pick up the controller, you'll be dropped into the shoes of Cole. He used to be your everyday bike messenger, but that all ended when he was delivering a package and the thing went off in his hands. The ensuing blast leveled a gigantic portion of the city and left Cole in a coma. When he wakes up, everything is screwed -- there's a plague that's making people sick, the government's quarantined Empire City, gangs have seized control of the three islands that make up the metropolis, and -- most importantly to our tale -- Cole finds that he's been blessed/cursed with electricity-based superpowers. Now that you're in control of a guy who can shoot lightning bolts from his hands, fall from the highest buildings without taking any damage, and throw cars into the air with his trusty shockwave, what are you going to do? See, Infamous is an open-world game. Once you've gone through the basic tutorial -- typical third-person controls with L1 bringing up your reticle for aiming your R1 lightning bolt and face button specials -- Empire City is yours to do what you want with. You can go out on story missions, take on the random bad guys camped out on rooftops, tackle some side missions, or just run and jump from rooftop to rooftop. Now, as you get going, you'll need to get Empire City up and running again. At the most basic level, this means Cole needs to head into the city's sewers and manually reestablish the connections between transformers (see: he grabs the working electrical box, grabs the one that isn't working, and lets the juice flow through him to get the city back online). When you do this, you'll gain a new superpower so that by the end of the game you'll have access to 16 abilities such as calling down a massive lightning storm that obliterates enemies as well as an electrical shield you can use to block incoming attacks. Now, the powers are going to get a lot of press leading up to the launch of Infamous, but one of the most endearing things about this game is Empire City itself. You'll only get to see the pre-blast skyline for a second when you start the title, but the post-blast world is one of wonder and heartache. Now, before things went to hell, Cole was a bit of an urban explorer. This means he's got mad skills in terms of his climbing ability. Everything in this city is designed to be scalable. You'll run at a wall, jump and cling to a windowsill, pull yourself up and leap to a pipe, climb to the roof, and run across a power line connecting the rooftop to another structure. Now, this could've easily turned into a frustration-fest if Sucker Punch demanded precision jumps the likes of Lara Croft, but instead it gave Cole the gift of agility and made it so the man knows to grab on to whatever he can. Within seconds of playing, I was pulling off impressive leaps and truly enjoying myself.

As you turn on the power to various sections of the city, the power lines go live and allow you to skate on them while kicking up a wave of juice. Combine that with Cole's later-level ability to glide via Static Chargers, and you've got the ingredients for one of the most original city-traversal mechanics I've ever seen. Seriously, in the beginning of the game I was a bit worried about how long it would take to navigate the islands without the ability to fly or run at super-speed, but once Cole got to the point of sliding around on the train tracks and chaining together power line moves, I was in love. Beyond the way you actually play in Empire City, the burg blew me away because of how alive it is. Sure, there are bystanders waving their arms to signify side missions, but how many times was I searching for a blast shard only to have someone run up to me and beg me to come heal a friend? Perhaps I'm just a softy, but the man crying in the street lamenting the loss of his wife and the girl repeating over and over again that she was only supposed to be here one day got to me. If you get caught up in how fun it is to zap bad guys and glide around town, it's these moments coupled with the out of control fires and destroyed vehicles that remind you that you're living in a city that has just gone through its darkest hour and doesn't know how to get back on its feet.

As you turn on the power to various sections of the city, the power lines go live and allow you to skate on them while kicking up a wave of juice. Combine that with Cole's later-level ability to glide via Static Chargers, and you've got the ingredients for one of the most original city-traversal mechanics I've ever seen. Seriously, in the beginning of the game I was a bit worried about how long it would take to navigate the islands without the ability to fly or run at super-speed, but once Cole got to the point of sliding around on the train tracks and chaining together power line moves, I was in love. Beyond the way you actually play in Empire City, the burg blew me away because of how alive it is. Sure, there are bystanders waving their arms to signify side missions, but how many times was I searching for a blast shard only to have someone run up to me and beg me to come heal a friend? Perhaps I'm just a softy, but the man crying in the street lamenting the loss of his wife and the girl repeating over and over again that she was only supposed to be here one day got to me. If you get caught up in how fun it is to zap bad guys and glide around town, it's these moments coupled with the out of control fires and destroyed vehicles that remind you that you're living in a city that has just gone through its darkest hour and doesn't know how to get back on its feet.

These Karma Moments are for more than just show. There will be 15 side missions that are only open to good guys and 15 that are only open to bad guys in addition to the game's 70 neutral tasks, there will be moves you can only unlock if you've achieved a certain Karma rank, and these choices are leading you towards one of the game's two endings and giving you a different experience on each playthough. See, Cole has two main people in his life; there's his best friend Zeke and his girlfriend Trish. When the blast happens, everything changes. Trish's sister is killed in the explosion and then she suddenly has to deal with her boyfriend being the cause of it all, and Zeke has to deal with his best friend now having a higher calling. These threads might not standout in most games, but with the way the story and characters are presented in Infamous, you'll find yourself connecting with the themes. Listening to Zeke lament a failed attempt at a relationship and Trish tell Cole that she loves him drives home the bond these people share -- and that only makes the events ahead and Karma choices you have to make that much more meaningful and emotional. Even though I was playing as a good guy my first time through and I knew what choices I had to make, there came a point of no return for one of the characters and even I faltered -- someone who knew he'd be coming back through -- and thought about making the "bad" choice because I couldn't let go. These characters and events are beautifully driven home via cutscenes that play out as moving graphic novels. The images are still but effects happen in and around them. This artwork looks great (although I wish more visual changes were present when you're evil Cole), but they also set up one of the game's few stumbles -- in-game cutscenes. When the in-game model of Cole or Zeke is used for some dialogue, it pales in comparison to the graphic novel stuff. Seeing Zeke robotically wave his arms or Cole stand at attention with his mouth flapping away kind of hurt the experience. Also, even when you're going the goody two shoes route, Cole's voice is always in the gravely range of Solid Snake. It seems like that should've been a bit lighter for a guy who's willing to pose for the occasional passerby's photo.

In similar (albeit rare) ho-hum spots are some visual issues. The only time the game loads is when you start it, which is awesome, but this does lead to some pop-in here and there. It's never anything major, but don't be shocked to see cars sprout up and building textures drop in as you rocket into areas of the city. Also, be aware that the framerate is going to dip now and again (for me, it was while I was riding the rails) and that you might fall through the world every now and again (in 30 hours, it's happened to me once).

In December, I played Infamous for the first time and told you that it was awesome. Five months later, I'm standing by that statement and backing it up with about 30 hours of playtime. Cole's powers are cool, the graphic novel cutscenes are stunning, the story is intriguing, and the city is alive. I could go on and on about this game -- about my hunt for the final few Blast Shards, about the sick joy in blasting a pedestrian and then sucking his bio-energy, about the subtle Sly Cooper references -- but to truly appreciate what Sucker Punch has created, you'll have to sit down and play this game