I still believe that the biggest allure of video gaming is that it empowers the player. It's actually become quite commonplace to play a game that thrusts superpowers into the players hands, allowing them to perform impossible stunts and clear out entire armies of enemies in the safe confines of a digital environment.
Infamous offers more of the same, but with bigger emphasis on moral choice. As the game's title suggests, you're not going into this game expecting to be loved or praised as a superhero. All your actions will have consequences, steering the story into morally ambiguous ground; you'll either be a hero who's misunderstood and slandered, or a righteous supervillain. Moral choice is the key element to this game; you can either run around, blowing everything up without any consideration of consequences, or you can tread carefully and try to save the people you run across.
This game is presented as an open-world sanbox type of environment, much akin to games like the Assassin's Creed series, Grand Theft Auto IV, or [Prototype]. You're given (mostly) free reign over the fictitious Empire City, which is sprawled across three islands that gradually unlock more and more as you progress through the story. The islands each have a wealth of missions, side-missions, and collectables to pour through. You'll be busy for hours exploring the islands and obsessively unlocking all their secrets. That is, unless you find yourself constantly getting ambushed by the rabid gangs that have taken over; it can be nerve-wracking to always get shot at by these gangs, but doing the side-missions and clearing out territory helps make life a little easier. The overall meat of the game, however, has you fighting off these gangs with your magnificent electric superpowers. By the game's end, you'll become a nearly-invincible superman who can float on static power, shoot electric beams from your hands, and even summon lightning storms from the sky. It's pretty darn awesome.
The story is pretty sound, overall, and with the moral choice angle, it offers plenty of thoughtful consideration and implications. By the game's end, it offers a fantastic twist ending that really makes this game more of a mind-bender. Characters are well-developed, especially with the narrative voice and structure. Overall, for a video game, it's a very impressive piece of work that's seamlessly woven into the game's mechanic.
Despite its ambition, the game looks a little rough around the edges. Although the city designs and overall artwork is great, the texturing and rendering is a little cheap, giving everything a simple and cartoony look (something that's much improved in the sequel). Still, the game plays very smoothly, with intuitive controls and fluid movements. Voice-acting is pretty good, even if it is a little cheap at times. Music by Amon Tobin is really funky (and I loved the end credits song).
The game does a fine job of shoving both power and responsibility into the player's hand and telling a quality story around it. This game is highly recommended to all!
4.5/5 (Entertainment: Perfect | Story: Very Good | Game: Good)
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