GDC09: inFamous hands-on
Like Naughty Dog before it, Sucker Punch is attempting to transform its success as a cartoonish platformer developer into a mature, (dare we say) realism-based game designer. The leap from Sly Cooper into the open-world inFamous is a giant one, but Sucker Punch's inaugural PS3 effort is shaping up to be one of those games that justifies your shiny, black console.
One of the levels on hand at GDC was "Food Drop," as Sucker Punch calls it. Our mission began on Cole McGrath's rooftop shanty retreat where his fat buddy Zeke was lounging on a couch, reading a graphic novel. Cole, hard-working bike messenger and the game's protagonist, is already aware of his electrifying power, but hasn't quite realized the full extent of this "great responsibility." Cue: Zeke wanting to watch television; predicament: the batteries aren't charged. You can guess what happens next ... training! Hold L1 to charge up your inner-electricity, and press L2 to fire it. TV ON!
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After several more moments of fiddling with our powers, a mysterious figure appeared on the television and bitched about ... something. It was extremely loud in the Sony lounge (despite our shouts to "Keep it down!"), so we couldn't make out the particulars of the address, but let's assume it had to do with the city's food situation because Zeke quickly instructed us to jump off the roof with him (like any good messenger, Cole is impervious to falls). From here, you can tag along behind Zeke to the mission's destination, or break off to explore the city -- and be subjected to Zeke's constant nagging.
Like any typical open-world, urban sandbox, pedestrians and cars (the type that smoke, flame, and finally explode) litter the streets -- silently screaming to be brutalized. And you can certainly attack them if you want, but it'll affect your "karma" (in the bad direction). On the HUD, there's a red and blue karma meter (blue's good; and red's evil). The meter will sway toward one direction depending on the game choices you make, and in turn, you'll unlock different powers for either side. In our interview with producer Brian Fleming, he explained that "good" powers tend to be focused, helpful abilities (restraints, shields, precision, etc.), while "bad" powers will grant you large, splash damage attacks.
Believe it or not, this is the HUD, not an electrical surge.
In a nod to that friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, Cole can scamper up buildings; and he can also grab onto the tiniest of ledges and haul himself up and onto rooftops. While not quite Crackdown-level, Cole has a fairly mind-blowing jumping ability, too.
Back on track, Zeke was searching for a gun that was hidden for him by an ally, and he led us to a loading dock where several cars were parked. Zeke suggested that the gun was hidden under one of the cars, but he had no idea which one. No problem! We delivered a "Shockwave" strike (hold L1 and push X) and blew each car out of the way, one by one. Of course! The gun was under the last car. Physically drained, we had to restore Cole's juice by locating electrical sources (L3), and then moving Cole close to one to recharge (L2).
Finally trained for battle, we headed downtown with Zeke to an enormous tower where a pallet of food was dangling high above a group of starving people. That mysterious figure appeared again, this time on the JumboTron overlooking the tower, and began another -- inaudible -- spiel. Whatever he said, our job was to clamber up the tower, leap across some gaps, shimmy up a few poles, and finally, arriving at the food pallet, blast the rusty hook supporting the goods, and drop them to the crowd below.
Things are never that easy, though, and on cue we were attacked by several hulking figures with both ranged and melee attacks. Our foes were easy enough to dispatch, but did provide an opportunity to experiment with Cole's various attacks, including an electrically-charged pile driver that we'd unlocked during the fight. As good karma practitioners, we tried to be mindful of the pedestrians clambering about, but we accidentally fried a few bystanders. Oops.
After the battle, we were faced with our first big karmic decision: leave the food to the hungry masses or zap 'em into a panic and keep the food for ourselves. We chose the good-guy thing to do, but unfortunately, we weren't treated to our just reward -- the in-game animations and consequences weren't in place yet as our demo ended. Sucker Punch assured us that in the final build, however, certain sequences will definitely play out when you encounter these choice moments. Like the legends of Albion, choosing to be good or evil also affects one's appearance. We're pretty sure this is Evil Cole, but then, even the very best of us have our bad days:
So, what's our verdict? InFamous is Force Unleashed, minus the tired Star Wars wrapper; plus the freedom to explore. The controls are tight, the textures are dense and detailed, and the animations are smooth and engaging. To sum it up in a back-of-the-box quote: "This game features the best dandling messenger bag straps we've ever seen!" You'll feel compelled to climb up and over anything -- just to see if you can scale it. And of course, it's nigh impossible to resist the temptation to zap everything.
inFamous is on track to becoming an exceptional game. But the combat could use some attention in the process. It was too simplistic in the level we played; though, admittedly, it's an early stage in the game. We caught glimpses of some later levels where Cole was up against huge, junk-metal masses (hmm, metal conducts electricity, right?) and sporting greater powers like chargeable fireballs and spherical projectiles. Needless to say, we're looking forward to further developing our new found appreciation for electrocuting things -- it's really fun, it turns out. Dunno if you knew that.
