inFAMOUS First Impressions

As I watched the inFAMOUS demo download into my PS3's HDD I couldn't help but wonder if it would live up to all of the hype surrounding it. Although I had heard positive reviews from major corporations such as SCEA and IGN, some of my Playstation 3-owning friends had told me they were not impressed by the demo at all. I couln't help but wonder would inFAMOUS offer stellar gameplay and controls or would it be another Lair (yeah remember that game?).

The opening cinematics are told half through the eyes of the main character and half in a comic-book style, switching quickly between panels to keep the action going. Instead of starting the game with the usual:

Step 1: Learn how to press X
Step 2: Learn how to aim at bad people
Step 3: It's okay if you die its just a game. Try repeating step one a few times. =[
Soon we'll get to the advanced techniques (the square button: why is it square and what does it do?)

the demo thrusts players directly one of the games beginning missions.

The main character....wow I've played the demo twice and I still don't know his name...is the sole survivor of some freak electrical accident and recovers with various electric powers. As you start off, you are told to rescue a train carrying numerous civilians. Since the train runs on electricity....yeah duh you can figure it out. There are some annoying pop ups about the controls that reoccur but they are subtle and do not distract the player from the main action on screen. You are inundated with a variety of moves to subdue your foes including electric shockwave, electric grenade, as well as the power to rain lightning down from the heavens to destroy everything in its path. If your pants also got a little wet by hearing that then I would like to inform you that you are not alone. Insofar when you actually perform this move worse things are likely to occur.

As the free roaming and jumping is awesome (you can literally slide along power lines), some of the game was quite repetitious. I kept having to recharge various portions of the track the train was sitting on in order to pass through a checkpoint. Normally I would rant some more on this but the game introduced a new enemy during the third checkpoint that could warp through time and space so I'll contain my annoying reviewer voice for now.

The player is able to choose between hero or villain through a Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic type good guy/bad guy bar. The electric attacks change from blue for hero to red for villian. Let me just tell you summoning red lightning bolts down in the middle of a busy street while you laugh manically is a great way to resolve some hatred of cars, people, and lampposts.

Although the variety of enemies boils down to dude-with-pistol-and-super-human-accuracy-like-omg-how-did-he-hit-me-from-that-far-away and the time warp guy, I was overall impressed by the graphics, controls, and gameplay. There were a few glitches here and there (for example sticking my head through a building while I'm hanging off wasn't good for my health bar) however, the sheer sandbox style gameplay makes this a game I would like to include in my collection.

Honestly, I was impressed enough to eventually pick up the game but not until the price drops. The major problem I have with the $60 price tag is that you can't play with a friend. I don't know how online multiplayer would work but tag-teaming throughout the entire game with a buddy would be awesome. It'd be even better if you could be a hero and your friend could be a villian and you like are arch-rivals and at the end of the game you face each other....hang on let me go copyright this idea....

If you don't have any friends or don't care about any sort of multiplayer, this is definitely a great game to buy. I highly recommend this game based off of the demo but advise waiting a bit until it drops its price tag. I mean this one will surely become a greatest hit and sell for half the price. If you're looking for a great single player game then buy this one now before they run out of stock. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go play the demo again.