Infamous Demo Impressions/Review

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InFamous Demo Impressions/Review

I decided to finally put this up due to high demand. Over the last few weeks I have been getting non stop PSN messages all asking me how the Demo is. I wouldn't mind telling them each individually but I dont have a keyboard so it is very tiring.

Getting Started........

Firstly, I must say this is the MOST exspansive demo I have ever played. It feels as if it could be a whole game.....until it ends of course. The game begins with a small intro cutscene where you get to watch half of Empire City go up in a electrostatical cloud. People are running for dear life. It really sets a tone for how the game plays. THis overwhelming feeling that everything is bigger than little old you. As powerful as you are, you still have challenges in this devestated city.

Cole stands on top of a roof, peering over at a train which is being patroled by a few Reapers(gangbangers). He is getting orders from some unseen woman who really isn't that nice. She orders Cole to take the train to safety but less so for the well being of the passengers, more so for a particular passenger of interest. As the player, you must complete this task any way you know how. The roof top gives you a fine opportunity to experiment with your powers. You have access to many abilities that will not be available right off the bat in the real game. These abilities include...

• Lightning Bolt:shoot lightning
• Shockwave:Make a electromagnetic wave of energy that can push cars, villains, and citizens alike. Be careful with this one if you wanna be a good guy.
• Shock Grenade: act like regular grenades......but with electricity. The perk of this is if you are good, a mild blast from this will instantly chain all in it's radius to the ground. If you are bad however, expect HUGE blast fragments from these little devils.
• Thunder Drop: leap off high objects and come crashing down with a force of lighting
• Melee: Electrically charged hand to hand attacks. I personally find these pretty useful
• Electro Drain: You can drain any electronic device within the city.
• Pulse Heal: Heal wounded people with this defibrilator like ability.
• Bio Leech: Suck the F'ing life from a poor bistandard. This includes Reapers as well as citizens
• Arc Restraint: Step on a person and chain them to the ground with electricity to assure they dont get away.

From what we can see in the Start menu of the Demo, there are at least 7 other abilities we do not have access too at the moment.

GamePlay.........

The game feels very intuitive to me. THe contols feel like an extention of the body rather then me actually holding a controller. Jump is "X", "L1" is aim, "R1" is lighting bolt trigger, "[]" is Melee, "O" is dodge/take cover. By clicking in the right stick, you can see all electronic devices on the map,(highlighted in blue), as well as all enemies in the vacinity(highlighted in Red). "L2" is how you drain life from devices. If you jump off high ground, hold "R1" to glide with electrorepulsion from your hands.

When these are all added together within the chaotic confines of Empire City you get pure unadulterated FUN!

Now from the very start of the game you are droped into a mission. You have to save the train. Easier said then done. To do so you have to ride on the front of the train, effectively causing it to move. Reapers are sprinkled throughout the city and will try to kill you no matter what. The Reapers also frequently cut the switch off the train, making it stop completely. You have to charge these switches back up in order to get it running again. This is a really satisfying mission because you get to see how the developers incorperated Coles abilities into the gameplay as well as the city.

For Example: I was completely surrounded by a pack of thugs all gunning me down. I was getting low on health(showed by the saturation of color in the screen) so I lunged at one of the Reapers and Leonidos Kicked him in his back to knock him down. I quickly pounced on him, drained out his life force, and was ready for more. I could almost sense the fear in the other Reaper member's eyes. THey all started backing up because they knew what was coming, PURE PAWNAGE!!!! ZAP! ZAP!! FORCE PUSH CAR OUT OF MY WAY!!! ENEMY RUNNING!!!ZAP HIM IN BACK THEN CHAIN HIM!!!THEY START SHOOTING ME IN MY BACK AGAIN!!! I JUMP GLIDE ACROSS TO THEM, COMING DOWN WITH HELL'S FURY!!! CRASH!!! THEY ALL ARE SUSPENDED IN MID AIR!!! I START POPING THEM WHILE THEY ARE STILL FLYING!!!.......WOW what a rush!!!

There are about 3-4 missions technically within the demo. THe train is the mandatory first one. After that you are given some R&R time to do what you want in the city, although, after about 10 minutes the game demands you get to the next mission. Don't worry, you can explore later. Each mission within the demo actually alters your KARMA status. The real game will not force you to be one or the other depending on the mission, but for demo purposes, it does. In one particular mission you are evil, you have to help Trish(your bitter Ex) fend off some Reaper thugs to save her medical supplies. This is not as easy as it sounds because they start coming in overwhelming droves. Some of the enemies shoot fire blasts or rocket launchers(where drug dealers got rocket launchers?IDK) You can Force Push these back at them. The real toughy is when the Fire wielding ones come running at you. THey make a unsettling shriek as they sprint at you. When they get close enough they EXPLODE! THen there are several trucks that come out of the alleys, each mounted with man turrets on the back. Now the perk of being evil is....you don't have to worry about saving people! They don't like you anyway! Feel free to chuck grenades and full force lightning at ANYTHING that gets close. This mission is also a perfect example on the necessity of cover. You can take refuge in a couple of different spots so you are not so easily picked off(fairly easy to die here).

Immersion..........

When you are roaming the city, you feel like a hero(when you are good of course). The people praise you in a comedically satisfying manner.

"You GO Cole!"

"You Rock Man!"

"How about me and you uh.....hang out sometime?"

Its oh so awesome to have the people worship the ground you walk on. They will literally pull out cell phones and take pictures of you and send it to there friends.Some lady actually yelled at me saying....

"COLE! I WANT YOUR BABY!!!" lmao

At one point in the demo, a random pedestrian woman will run up to you begging for your help. Apparently a thug has stolen her purse. I am not sure if this is a "completable" mission, but she did point me in the direction of where some baddies were. I took them out with extreme prejudice. When I got back to her there was a crowd. All of them singing and chanting my name.

The city folk will even help you apprehend some enemies on occasion. They will hurl rocks at them and actually snitch upon enemy whereabouts.

THe demo doesnt give too much on the Evil really. I saw less interaction with people and myself as Evil Cole. They run from the mear sight of you. Yet I hear in the actual game they will form MOBS against you if you are INFAMOUS.

Sound.........

THe sound effects are awesome. The music starts to pick up tempo once you are in the heat of battle. It is good, no doubt.

Issues......

I really didn't have too many issues with the demo. Once I slipped into some kind of pseudo demo where I didn't actually have to do the train mission, I could just do whatever. There also was some slight slowdown when I was on the train mission and I blew up a huge pile of cars. There were particle effects and bodies everywhere, so slowdown is understandable. It almost felt theatric.

Sometimes though, you will feel frustrated by the climbing mechanic, only because it seems to cling to the wrong thing every once in a while. Yet It didn't bother me enough to hinder my progression of the demo. I actually found Assassin's Creed's climbing much more aggrevating.

There are some low res textures.........but really.........who cares. The rest of the game is beautiful and it is a Sanbox game afterall.

Overall......

Fantastically Awesome Demo. Never have I felt so satisfied with a game demo. The world of game developers should be more like SuckerPunch. This is a demo that truly gives you a taste of what the real game will be, and keeps it enyoyable from start to finish.

Infamous Demo=9.8/10

EDIT: and what really makes this demo stand out? It comes standard with 3 different difficulty settings, to be swapped at any time. You can challeng yourself multiple times over in the demo.

Also, there are like ov er 40 Blast Shards scattered throught the city. These shards actually boost the amount of juice you can hold after collecting a designated few.

This effectively turns this hour and a half demo, into a 5+ hour funfest (hence the reason I am STILL playing it)