ButtonMasher: inFamous Demo Impressions - It Rocks (UPDATED withDemo Gameplay)

The title more or less sums thing up doesn’t it? Well I’ll elaborate anyway because that’s people are here for.



The demo arrived early this morning and while I was disappointed that it wasn’t the full game (hint hint Sony) I was glad to finally get my hands on a game that I first saw at E3 last year and have been wondering about ever since. Wether or not this “Demo” that Sony sent us is the demo that will be available soon remains to be seen but I would expect the full demo to be a little longer.

My first though (after inverting the vertical axis control) was that it still looks like it did at E3, sort of like a gritty Crackdown mixed with the Force Unleashed. The sweeping camera introduction is a nice introduction to the level of detail that you can expect from the game world as well as the depth of the vista that you can enjoy while climbing around the city. The HUD consists of an energy level and karma meter which are connected in the top left hand of the screen.

The controls immediately seem to synch with what I expected, the demo is only about 5 minutes long if you play through it directly but within less that half of this time I felt like I’d been playing it all my life. L1 allows you to aim, R1 is fire, the face buttons have various attacks assigned to them as well as the all important jump button, X.



Before I talk about the gameplay I would like to make it abundantly clear that I am a fanboy, but not of a console or company, rather I am a Crackdown fanboy, I look past its faults and love it unconditionally. inFamous reminds me of Crackdown both in genre, visual style, control scheme, and most importantly fun factor. Immediately in the demo you are taught how to blow things up, but also unlocked is the ability to grab, climb and jump. With no training I was able to scale a building and go from point to point in relative style. The climbing animations are pretty slick and while the distance of jumping isn’t as extreme as Crackdown, the increased intimacy of the ascent and the added detail to achieve this is a very welcome difference. Much like Assassins Creed it is easy to grasp yet not repetitive due to the environment being varied and far more involved. Running on ropes and small walk ways is mostly automated so that it doesn’t become some ridiculous balancing act, wall runs and climbing is a combination of the jump button and the directional commands.

The demo is based 2 weeks after the imposition of the quarantine which the full game should explain with its preface, you are on a roof top with you friend and a quick training section allows you to learn to aim and shoot. You quickly learn via the TV that the situation in the city is both perilous for its inhabitants (lack of food) and politically complex. You set off with Zeke to get a gun, before heading to a food drop. You learn in these two sections about your attacking abilities, the need to recharge and that climbing will be a big part of the game.



Upon finding the food you will encounter some base level thugs called “Reapers” which are pretty easy to dispatch and you are then face with a moral dilemma, do you keep the food which you have liberated or do you share it with the plebs. The decisions you make affect your Karma meter which will dictate the way you power up and how people will react to you. I tried both methods and while the full consequences of the actions aren’t apparent immediately the colour difference between good and evil is clear, red equals evil while good is blue, insert gang related pun here.

The climbing works very well and while all of the animations are not completely fluid the bulk of the actions taking place look slick enough to convince you that there is effort being exerted by Cole. I really hope that there are a lot of tall buildings so that I can navigate my way up their intricate structures. This just might be the thing to get me over my longings for more Crackdown. Can’t wait.