Infamous -- Final Opinion.

I have fully completed Infamous for the PlayStation 3. Infamous is the first game I've played (I haven't started Little Big Planet) with trophy support. And as such it caused me to essentially play the game through twice and make sure I completed every last thing there was to do for that coveted platinum trophy. I collected all three-hundred and fifty blast shards, twice. I completed all twenty-one stunts. I collected all thirty-two dead drops, twice. I purchased all the power upgrades for both good and evil. I completed both the good and evil games, one of those being on the hard difficulty level. The allure of achievements, and now trophies, is just that strong. I say that because I believe if there weren't any trophies I wouldn't have likely put in the effort on Infamous. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed Infamous for what it was. A good, but flawed game. And most certainly not Game of the Year that the Sony faithful are touting it to be. I own all three console systems so I don't have a sense of we've finally got one that certain vocal PlayStation 3 only owners are expressing. I don't feel the need to bolster a title's worth because of whatever else may or may not be on the system. Infamous shines in its story and presentation, in spite of its characters. And the graphics are on one hand detailed and impressive. But on the other hand at the same time they're kind of drab. How can a title be so seemingly at odds with itself? Well, the comic book super hero origins tale is told with great looking moving comic book panels and voice over. The art and presentation are all top notch. And the story is well told. It leads to an interesting twist most people will not see coming and it sets up a sequel with interest piqued. But in spite of that, the game's characters aren't all that likable. I didn't really care for any of them. The main character, his best friend, his love interest, and the villain are just sort of there. None of them moved me in any way. I remained completely indifferent to them throughout. Graphically, the game is full of interesting details everywhere you look. The city is full of interesting locations. But they're all very gray and brown and drab. Not the widest use of color in the game for the city itself. It's good looking and at the same time quite boring. The combat is going to be very hit or miss for most people. It's a bit chaotic at best. Mindless at worst. The enemy AI, especially on hard, suffers from being too much the sharpshooter. It's compounded by their ability to shoot you from beyond your radar. They'll nail you in the head from half of a city block away before you're even aware of them. And for half of the game you'll have no recourse as you can't hit them from said distance. There is a bit of the Assassin's Creed complaint with the game as well in that the missions feel too much the same. You're going to be doing the same few things over and over. Rinse and repeat. There are a few standout original missions tied to the story that show how creative things could have really been. On a technical level Infamous feels really solid. As in the game code is strong and bug free. There are noticeable frame rate issues as well as some draw in that still plague the genre. Infamous isn't the one to escape them. I'll be interested to see where they go with the sequel. Infamous feels like a great first effort from a team trying to move on to bigger and better and with further polish could have been a truly great game, instead of being a good game. I'm giving Infamous a 7.5.