The Playstation brand is certainly not short on memorable characters, however it looks like you will soon be able to add another to that list thanks to the wonderful inFamous, which brings us the memorable Cole and his rather electrifying abilities.

 

As mentioned the main character in the game is Cole, a rather unfortunate sole who delivered a packet as part of his day job, only for the packet to explode, wipe out most of the city and leave him lying barley alive in the crater it left behind. When Cole awakes he suddenly realises that everything is not right and before long he begins to discover that he has gained special powers, which is just as well because the city is in trouble and needs a new hero.

 

Once Cole manages to escape from the scene of the explosion his first real task is to get used to his powers, this is the first time you will get a feel for the game, as you charge some generators up to allow your companion to watch the TV. Before long you will find yourself in the middle of battle as you try to fight off the Reapers who are the evil force in town and are trying to stop you from reaching the food which has been dropped in to help the people avoid starvation, this is a good opportunity to test out your new found powers in battle and straight away you will get a real buzz as you send shockwaves through the enemy.

 

 

Cole doesn't have access to all of his abilities straight from the beginning of the game, instead the game ties gaining these in with the story, which sees you go underground to restore the cities generators in order to bring power back to the city. Each time you restore a generator you will gain a new power and you will also open up new missions. When you complete a mission you will also gain experience points and these can be used to improve the powers which you have gained. One of the interesting things about this game is that depending on how you use your powers .i.e for good or evil purposes, will depend on what type of powers you will gain and be able to upgrade to. So for example if there is a evil power which you like the look of, this will more than likely not be available if you have been mainly using your powers for good. When you complete a mission the game will tell you if your actions during that mission have made you slightly more evil or good, also during missions you will experience Karma moments which ask you to make a decision and depending on your actions will receive a good or evil reputation.

 

So effectively you really have two games here, you could quite easily play through the game as a good guy, making decisions that help everyone and then you could play through again and only think of yourself, in fact the games trophies are such that if you want them all you will need to do just that.

 

The city itself is split into three areas and is pretty much designed in a way that you can do as you please, therefore you can go straight to the main missions which are marked on your radar by a blue icon, or do the side missions which are marked with a yellow icon. Th.ere are both good and evil missions for you to play through depending on how you play the game, in fact sometimes you will stumble across citizens who ask you for favours at random, so even out with the main and side missions you will find new things to do. It is definitely worth completing the side missions you will come across as not only will they help your reputation, but they will also help you to discover some of the games hidden items, such as the hundreds of Blast Shards which are spread throughout the city for you to collect and also the 32 hidden Dead Drops, which are basically scrambled messages that when found reveal more details of the story.

 

The abilities you will gain when playing the game do vary greatly, at first you are blessed with Shockwave, which basically blasts anything in it’s radius out of your path and also a lightning attack, which is your main source of taking down enemies from a distance. Later on in the game you will earn more impressive abilities, enabling you to throw electrical grenades, glide in the air using electricity and even call electricity from the sky to fry your enemies. It’s not all about combat though as you will also gain the ability to heal, therefore if you wish you can go around the city healing Citizens who are wounded, which will not only give you positive karma but will also give you a nice fuzzy feeling inside.

 

As you use your abilities or gain damage in combat you will find that you need to recharge in order to stay alive, luckily there are plenty of sources of electricity for you to drain power from, which range from lampposts, vehicles, gas generators or even fallen enemies / citizens as you are able to drain the life force from their bodies.

 

The enemies you will face in the game mainly consist of the Reapers, who are your basic thugs and the Dustmen, who are heavily armoured and have brutal firepower, although there are tougher enemies too such as the Reaper Conduit who send blastwaves which tear up the ground and send you flying if you don’t get out of their way. I don’t want to say too much more in fear of spoiling the games surprises, but suffice to say there are certainly plenty of moments which will make use of your newly gain skills and offer you a tough challenge.

 

As well as fighting and completing the missions you can also just wander about and explore, everything in the city has been designed to enable you to get around without ever touching the ground, therefore you can climb atop buildings, use you power to ride along on trains and even slide/run along powerlines in between rooftops. This is one of the most enjoyable parts of the game, just having the freedom to wander practically makes inFamous worth the cash alone.

 

 

Graphically it is hard not to be impressed with inFamous, everything is so wonderfully presented, the animations are sleek, the city looks fantastic and the action runs as smoothly as you would expect. Perhaps the most impressive parts though are the cutscenes, these are presented in a comic book style which is voiced over by Cole, these are very powerful moments in the game and are very effective at getting the story across.

 

Overall it’s hard not to be impressed by inFamous, the way it is presented and the amount of ways you can play just blows you away. This is a Playstation exclusive that any fan should be proud of. If you own a PS3 then you should not miss the wonderful experience that is inFamous.