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Welcome to inFamous Gaming!Overview inFamous is an open world action-adventure game developed by Sucker Punch Productions, creators of the Sly Cooper series. The game was released on May 26, 2009 in North America, and May 29, 2009 in Europe. inFamous has the player assume the role of Cole MacGrath, a bike messenger who gains electrical superpowers after a mysterious explosion.
Story
inFamous follows the story of Cole MacGrath, a bike messenger and resident of the fictional Empire City.
At the start of the game, a package that Cole is assigned to deliver
causes a huge explosion that rips apart six city blocks, leaving behind a
crater and somehow leaving Cole as the only survivor of the immediate
blast. The explosion grants Cole with several electricity-based
powers. As a result of his exhaustion, Cole falls into unconsciousness,
only to wake up two weeks later to find that Empire City has fallen
into complete chaos. Without the police, gangs have taken over areas of
the city and a plague has infected many of the residents causing the
city to be quarantined by the government.
A surviving video
jockey that refers to himself as "the Voice of Survival," who hacks into
public broadcasts and sends out his own pirate messages about survival
information for Empire City civilians, reveals that Cole was the cause
of the explosion, thus setting the population of Empire City (even his
girlfriend, Trish) against him. Cole must come to terms
with his powers, decide whether to help those in need or serve his own
self interests, and face off against larger threats that have manifested
in the city due to the explosion and its aftermath.
According to inFamous producer
Nate Fox, the team wanted to have Cole as "a kind of an everyman," such
that they could then "get into the head space of what it would be like
to be a real human being who has been granted these exceptional
abilities." While Cole is the only playable character, he is joined by two friends;
Zeke, a fellow bike messenger, conspiracy theorist and
survivalist who becomes jealous of Cole's powers, and Trish, Cole's
ex-girlfriend and medical student who resents him due to her sister
being killed in the blast but still helps in treating the injured, a
"Lois Lane with syringes" as stated by Sucker Punch.
Gameplay
Cole's greatest strength and weakness comes from the source of his
electrical powers. Cole's failure to generate his own energy to fuel his
powers forces him to rely on the city's unreliable power grid, making
players constantly manipulate the city's energy in order to use it for
themselves. When Cole is in an area with power, he is able to constantly
recharge his supply through the use of pay phones, lamp posts
and other sources of electricity. Sucker Punch's Nate Fox claimed that
players must be wary of rolling brownouts that will randomly occur
throughout the city, which prevents players from recharging Cole's
powers. In reality, the game contains no such feature. However, certain
regions of the city are separated from the power grid, and Cole must
venture into them to return the electricity to the area. When Cole is in
a powerless region of the city, his vision becomes blurred and he can
only charge his powers from car batteries (which only give a small
boost) or roof-mounted generators.
All of Cole's powers revolve around electrical based attacks. Featured
attacks include the ability to shoot electricity out of his hands, call
upon lightning from the sky, a shock wave that can push enemies and objects, and the ability to create a grenade-like ball of lightning.
Sucker Punch has stated that Cole is unable to use guns or drive cars
because the electricity in his body would ignite the ammunition or gas,
causing them to explode.
Cole also has more esoteric uses of
his ability, such as his "post-cognition" power, which allows Cole to
read the residual electrical energy in the brain of a recently deceased
person, in order to learn the cause of their death. Cole can also ride
along electrified power lines and train tracks, which allows Cole to travel around Empire City more easily.
inFamous forces
players to make moral decisions, as well. Cole can choose whether to
help or hurt the civilians of Empire City, and his actions will not only
affect how citizens react to him, but also affect which of the two
endings the player can see. If Cole is kind to the citizens of Empire
City, they will adore him and help him out whenever possible. But if
players choose to attack civilians, the citizens will resent Cole and
cower in fear. The player's karma status will have a visual effect on
Cole's electricity based powers. For example, players with Good Karma
will have blue lightning bolts, whereas players with "Evil Karma" will
have red lightning bolts. Good Karma powers are more centred around
catching bad guys alive and not harming civilians whereas the Evil Karma
powers are more explosive and dangerous.
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