There’s been a lot of talk about inFAMOUS in the gaming community lately. Not only is the release date for inFAMOUS 2 a few weeks away, but the original game is among the free titles Sony plans on offering PlayStation 3 users as part of their Customer Appreciation Program, following the PSN debacle.
For those who are unfamiliar with the game’s premise, let’s catch you up to speed. inFAMOUS places you in the role of Cole McGrath, a bike courier in the fictional metropolis of Empire City with a penchant for parkour and urban exploration. While on a delivery, the parcel Cole is responsible for explodes, destroying several city blocks and leaving thousands dead and injured. Miraculously, Cole survives and in the days following the disaster discovers he has acquired electricity-based superpowers, which become stronger as the game progresses. The game follows Cole’s adventures as he adapts to his new abilities, uses them to take down Empire City’s most notorious gangs, and unravels a mystery about himself and his new role in the aftermath of the disaster. inFAMOUS 2 picks up where its predecessor left off and has Cole and his friend Zeke fleeing their home for the city of New Marais, based on New Orleans, after a dangerous villain called “The Beast” attacks Empire City.
Those of you who are listeners of our RoboCast might recall that in our Holiday/End of Year edition, I stated inFAMOUS 2 was among the games I most looked forward to in 2011. inFAMOUS stands as not only one of the finest superhero games available, but is among my favorite current generation titles. From the smoothness of Cole’s parkour inspired movement, to the huge amount of powers to develop, to the innovative storyline, there’s not a shortage of positive things to say about the game. However, as with any title, nothing is perfect and there’s always room for improvements in subsequent adventures. Sucker Punch has already stated inFAMOUS 2 will contain plenty of new features, such as more fluid animation, stronger powers, greater interaction with the environment and user generated content. Although all of these will pique the interest of fans of the series, there are a number of things I’d like to see implemented in the game and improved on from its predecessor.
Morally Ambiguous Decision-Making – A key selling point for inFAMOUS was that it allowed gamers to play as good or evil. This was implemented through situations, dubbed karma moments, where the player was forced to make a decision that would influence whether Cole accumulated good or bad karma. The idea was novel and allowed for the player to develop Cole in the way they saw fit. Unfortunately, many of these moments felt tacked on and didn’t affect the outcome of the game. Additionally, the majority of the decisions were extremely clear-cut in a way that appeared unrealistic and forced. This especially holds true if you’re playing as evil, where some of the bad choices you make have little logical explanation, other than your character is kind of a jerk.
There is one decision you’re forced to make that stands out in my mind as one of the most emotionally engaging moments I’ve encountered in a game. If you’ve played inFAMOUS, you know what it is, and if you haven’t, I won’t ruin it for you. However, I will say it made me thankful that I was following the game’s evil path. If I opted to play as a morally upright character, I’d have ruined my good karma because I needed to make an incredibly selfish decision instead of adhering to the heroic standards I was supposed to. I genuinely felt Cole’s panic and confusion when there didn’t seem to be a right answer. Making the “bad” decision and it seeming justifiable in the context was a huge difference to the evil decisions I made simply to gather bad karma and strengthen my powers. inFAMOUS 2 needs more instances like this, events that challenge the player, define Cole as a character, and make morality more complex and with greater room for ambiguity.
More Variation in the Good/Evil Storylines – As the credits rolled after my first play-through of inFAMOUS, I didn’t experience the same bittersweet feelings I usually have when I’ve reached the end of a beloved game. The joy of completion, tinged with the sadness that an enjoyable experience ended wasn’t there because I knew that I could replay following a good path. I had barely finished the game, when I started pondering how different things would pan out when I became helpful, heroic, ‘I’m working for the betterment of all’ Cole, as opposed to the self-centered, soul-leeching, Machiavellian Cole I had been. I was disappointed to discover it didn’t turn out that differently at all. I developed some powers I didn’t have access to when evil, and there were a few different side missions and cut scenes to give light variety. I didn’t look haggard by the final battle, and it was cool not having Empire City denizens throwing punches at me, but there was nothing Earth shatteringly unique.
To an extent, I get it. There’s months of hard work that goes into developing a plot and writing dialogue, and it’s expected that there will be similarities between versions of the story. The subtle differences were enough to catch my attention and were a nice addition, but it wasn’t enough to keep me as entertained as I expected the second time around. I’d like to have seen more of my actions, especially ones during karma moments, have a greater impact on the outcome. Sucker Punch has stated that inFAMOUS 2‘s story will unfold differently depending on whether you opt to be heroic or an antihero, and hopefully differences in the narrative are more than minor subtleties this time around.
No More Blast Shards -Following the incident at Ground Zero, chunks of the exploded Ray Sphere, called Blast Shards, were scattered throughout Empire City. When Cole accumulates the radiated Blast Shards, he’s able to store larger amounts of electricity, necessary for many of his powers. Most of us aren’t strangers to item collection in games, and the task of traversing the city in search of the shards shouldn’t seem like a big deal. Did I mention there’s 350 Blast Shards?
...plus 50, is how many Blast Shards you can collect. That's 50 more shards than Spartans who held off an entire Persian army. That's more than double the amount of original Pokemon. Simply put, that's far too many.
Not only is that a huge number, but you’ll have to go out of your way to find many of them. You’ll catch sight of several as you jump from roof to roof, and scurry up pipes lining the side of buildings, but for the most part, you’ll rely on a pressing the L3 button which shows you where any undiscovered shards are in a small area. Having a means of locating them is a lifesaver, but you’ll still find yourself walking down every street of the city scanning for them. Even employing this method, and spending hours seeking them out, there’s still some I can’t locate. It’s both a time consuming process and a challenge to your sanity. After reading numerous forums, the general consensus is that the best strategy is to print out a map with their locations and cross them off as you find them. No thanks. Thankfully, finding all the Blast Shards is an optional undertaking and isn’t integral to the story. Regardless, it’s an experience that has caused so much frustration that I’d be ecstatic if Cole’s journey to New Marias didn’t involve scouring the city for fragments of an exploded, power-granting device, or anything that resembles it.
Data From an inFAMOUS Save Affects Portions of the Game – In general, I wish the impact of your actions in certain games would carry over into their sequels, but feel this would work especially well in inFAMOUS 2. I still remember how cool I thought it was when characters I recruited in Suikoden carried over into Suikoden II. Can anyone who
Uh... how could you possibly know that? Just when you thought a guy in a gas mask and leather body suit couldn't get any creepier, this happens.
played Metal Gear Solid with a Castlevania: Symphony of the Night save on their memory card forget how mind-blown and creeped out they were the first time they encountered Psycho Mantis? It may sound insignificant and like a shallow feature, but when you come across things like this, you feel rewarded for your previous efforts and it makes past decisions seem more significant and long lasting. Because inFAMOUS prides itself on allowing you to play as the kind of hero you deem fit, it seems like the decisions you make should have a lasting impact on Cole as his story progresses.
Obviously, the bulk of the game can’t center around decisions made during inFAMOUS because it would alienate newcomers to the franchise, but there are subtle ways of giving a nod to fans who played the previous title. You could potentially start the game with Cole already established as good or evil based on how you played inFAMOUS, powers developed to where you leveled them up in the prior game, or it could be as basic as a few lines of dialogue that make reference to major decisions you previously made. I feel confident that if this was going to be carried out on a significant level, we’d have heard mention of it by now, but a guy can always hope Sucker Punch has a few tricks up their sleeve. If not, there’s always inFAMOUS 3.
Conflict With Zeke – If you haven’t played inFAMOUS and don’t want any of the game’s details revealed, stop reading here. **SPOILERS AHEAD!**
In my opinion, Cole’s best friend, Zeke Dunbar, stands as one of the worst sidekicks of all time. At the beginning of inFAMOUS, Zeke comes across as out there, but relatively harmless. He waxes about conspiracy theories and seems slightly jealous of Cole’s newly acquired powers, but there’s nothing to indicate he’s, at the core, a bad person.
He's more or less an overweight version of this guy.
As the game progresses, it becomes evident that Zeke is capable of worse atrocities than getting the munchies and polishing off the leftover pizza you were saving for lunch, an event the game never explicitly mentions but you know has happened. He demonstrates an inability to perform even the simplest tasks, even when the fate of the city could depend on it. One of the biggest responsibilities assigned to Zeke during the game is to guard an incarcerated super villain. Not capture him or extract information from him. Just stand there to make sure he doesn’t escape. Does that sound difficult? Not very. Can Zeke handle it? Nope. He’s so consumed with envy that Cole has been gifted with superpowers that he attempts to activate the Ray Sphere, fully aware it will probably injure or kill innocent by-standers. When it won’t activate, Zeke doesn’t do the right thing and destroy it, putting an end to the madness that’s transpired. Instead he turns to Cole’s enemy with the hope he can get the Ray Sphere to grant him powers. He also shares responsibility for an attrocity that I’ll leave unnamed, because it’s a twist that’s one of inFAMOUS‘s most shocking and emotionally charged moments and I can’t bring myself to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t played the game. For every minor, positive thing you gain from his friendship, there’s a negative, borderline life ruining thing he’s done. Zeke’s actions speak volumes about his moral character, so it’s surprising that not only does he not get his ass kicked at some point during inFAMOUS, but he accompanies Cole to to New Marais, indicating the two remain friends. There are a lot of personality flaws that one can forgive, but betrayal and disregard for the lives of thousands of people aren’t among them. It’s possible that Zeke has changed since the first game, but it’s unrealistic that someone who displayed extreme selfishness and apathy toward others could become the ideal best friend overnight. I’m hoping Zeke does something positively toolish during the game so Cole can dole out the ass-kicking this guy has long deserved. It’s a personal vendetta, but I’ve been wanting the chance to get revenge on him since midway through inFAMOUS, and I’d be thrilled to have the opportunity in the sequel.
Creating a new superhero with a unique perspective and story is difficult work, but is an undertaking Sucker Punch handled well in inFAMOUS. While there are obviously some changes I would like made in Cole’s latest outing, I look forward to seeing how the finished product turns out, whether or not they’re implemented.
inFAMOUS 2 is a PlayStation 3 exclusive and has a scheduled release date of June 7, 2011.
