"Second Thoughts" Concept:
I suddenly got an idea for a blog. Knowing myself, I am not sure if I will be able to follow through and do something like this regularly. It's worth a try either way. The idea is that I play through games for which I have written a review. This time I will state any newfound thoughts or changed opinions about it. This idea would be more interesting if I do it with games from years ago. Unfortunately, my hobby of reviewing games is something that I took up recently so this isn't possible. Still, I must admit that I decided to make things too easy for myself for this entry. What I did was play through inFamous again in a different karmic alignment. I was having second thoughts about the game for reasons that I've outlined below anyway, but if I ever decide to do this again I'll try to make it a more interesting choice.
Infamous as Evil Cole:
When I first wrote my review for inFamous, I was pretty certain that my decision had been final. For some reason Sucker Punch's superhero sandbox did not impress me as much as it did other players. However, I could appreciate some of its most praised aspects (similarity with comic books, great parkour, etc.). The story still appealed little to me though, and the stagnant atmosphere and repetitive side-missions made the overall game feel repetitive too. Then I played inFamous 2. What struck me first was, of course, the drastic change of environment and a more emotionally challenging storyline. I won't get into any details because I plan to review the second one too. I'll only say that I was enjoying myself a lot more even though, ironically, I found more problems with the second iteration than I did the first. The graphics were prettier, sure, but this still didn't explain it. Both games are essentially the same, with a few tweaks here and there. If this is true, how could I enjoy the second one so much more? To cleanse myself of misgivings, I decided to play the first inFamousagain. Actually, part of the reason I was compelled to write this was because I hadn't played the game fully, not truly. There was still the story that is unlocked through the evil karmic alignment. Sure enough, thanks to a much more positive preconception of the franchise, I enjoyed every single minute of my second playthrough in inFamous' depressing setting.
Before I go on to critique the game, maybe I should tell you something about my first impression; I haven't been altogether honest. My first playthrough was somewhat tarnished by my mood at the time. School was killing me. I had tests, projects, afterschool activities; hell, I shouldn't even have been playing. Playing under this pressure caused me to be irate and easily frustrated, which explains why I found the repetitiveness of some missions incredibly tedious. It's still a flaw, but not one as large as I made it out to be. Due to my own petty wish to write a game review for the sake of it, the final product was kind of half-assed and this is unjust to such a brilliant game as inFamous. I hope that is the first and last time I ever make that mistake.
"That sucks donkey balls."
So, the premise is the same, but I'll recap; don't worry I won't spoil anything. The player takes the role of Cole Macgrath, a simple deliveryboy who lives in a depressingly grey place called Empire City. One day Cole is given a mysterious package. As Cole is going around the city minding his own business the package explodes killing everyone around him for miles, but not him. Instead, he obtains the power to shoot electricity from his fingers. As if the city wasn't ugly enough already, everything goes to hell after the explosion. A plague hits the city; it gets closed off and put in quarantine. The citizens are left do fend for themselves. They have a lot of fending to do because the blast creates more people like Cole. Unfortunately the superpowers all go to thugs, making them an even larger threat to the lives of the remaining people in Empire City. It becomes clear early on that some entity masterminded the whole incident, and Cole feels the need to discover whom. Various enemy factions, conspiracies, colorful villains, and mind-*** plot twists appear regularly throughout the course of the story that make the narrative always enticing.
Previously, I criticized the story for 'bombarding the player with information', meaning that the story is somewhat convoluted and badly told. While it still wouldn't win any academy award, this is actually far from true. The honest truth is that it is only easy to get lost if you aren't paying attention...which I kind of wasn't. I actually have grown fond of the way the story is told. Major events are told through cinematics that basically are moving graphic novels. After a specially hard mission, these are very rewarding. Moreover, Cole and his best friend Zeke have an amusing relationship that develops in interesting way but also provides much appreciated lightheartedness to the grim world that they are trapped in. Their comical antics fit absolutely well with the cartoonish style and exaggerated animations that the artists sought for. My only remaining complaint about the characters is that none of them are easy to get attached to, except for Zeke (but even he becomes loathsome towards the end). Cole is always stoic, Moya is a backstabbing witch, John is paranoid and selfish, and no matter what karmic alignment you choose, Trish won't stop b*tching. The writing isn't particularly excellent either. Flaws aside, the story is still a thrilling roller-coaster ride. Maybe not one as morally challenging as expected, but enjoyable nonetheless.
I chose to play through with an evil karmic alignment, and I think that this was a rather large reason for my having second thoughts on the game. I still think that the karma system makes moral choices too obvious as opposed to ambiguous, but Cole's transformation to a villain is actually interesting to witness. When playing as the heroic Cole, it is hard to notice any character development taking place. It simply feels as if Cole has always been that way and is merely learning to take control of his powers. Evil Cole's tale has actual emotional impact. After the blast, Cole's powers gradually increase in magnitude, as does his lust for them. Regardless of the karmic alignment, the player will have to do a set of missions. What this means is that Cole is always initially doing what he thinks best for the city. Sure, he is being a major *** about it, but his actions do improve the citizens' condition. Citizens grow to hate him despite of his good deeds, and he in turn starts hate them. Rather than gaining their trust, the player learns to rules the citizens through fear. Towards the end the player can bear witness to what a ruthless, vain, and selfish person Cole has subtly become. It leaves a much more powerful and original message to the viewer.
There are a few aspects of the gameplay that I had not previously payed heed to. The true hook of inFamous is its gameplay. I agree with my past self that the game plays mostly like a third person shooter...but only when in combat! What a fool I was to not even mention the other main pillar of the gameplay: the parkour. Chanceably, the player might actually spend more time scaling buildings than actually shooting, but in inFamous' case this is not a bad thing. Okay, the actual act of climbing buildings is not especially fun. In fact, Cole's movements seem rather erratic while he does this. When I first saw him climb a wall, I cringed. Thankfully, the developers seemed to be aware of this and gave Cole abilities (unlocked as the story progresses) to make sure that he never once has to touch the ground. Finding these abilities is immensely gratifying for this reason too. The first few abilities found let Cole do two amazing feats: fly (well, almost) and grind on rails and cables. These two powers combined lets Cole reach the extremes of Empire City in a matter of minutes. This is actually one of the reasons I love superhero games; they have a manner of travelling that gives the player some of the most empowering feelings in gaming. Grinding through railways in inFamous gives pretty much the exact same sensation as when you fly as Batman in the Arkham games or swing around as Spiderman in his respective games: pure euphoric adrenaline. As for the shooting, I still think that the game is a challenging TPS. The enemy AI is fantastically unforgiving, and there are plenty of different abilities at hand to spice up the combat. Thanks to the game's great explosion and lightning effects the gameplay feels like hectic business at all times.
God. I just realized that this turned into pretty much another review forinFamous rather than a comparison of my new opinion to my last. It didn't work as expected, I guess, because I can recall my last playthrough too well. Maybe this is a better activity for my forty year old self to do. Whatever, I started this post and I meant to see it through. So about inFamous... My opinion did change slightly. It is a great game overall. Better than what I thought at first, so it's even more worthy of people's money than what I previously thought.