inFAMOUS Preview

E3 2008 Preview

For years Sucker Punch Studios was known as the development team behind Sly Cooper, the successful video-game franchise that appeared on SCEA’s PlayStation console. Well, get ready for a marked change as the next project the studio is working on is a far cry from the world of the raccoon thief. INFAMOUS is a story about a superhero, but one on the cusp of becoming a hero. Of course, players can take the character the other way and create an anti-hero instead.

The title, developed for the PS3 and slated for release in the Spring of 2009, was shown at E3 in Los Angeles.

Sucker Punch’s Brian Fleming and Nate Fox hosted the media event and stated that the original IP stemmed from a long enjoyment of comic books and the superhero genre. But the story in INFAMOUS tracks a darker tale. The action takes place in a fictional place called Empire City. A bomb hit the six and wiped out six blocks, vaporizing everyone except one man. Contagions ran rampant, and the authorities abandoned the city, leaving it a lawless place that was cordoned off.

As Fox stated, the main character of the story, Cole, was designed with interactive entertainment in mind, not narrative. He has an electrical power and because he background was that of urban explorer, he had the ability to scale buildings in place before the changes taking place inside him. There is a duality here and players can drift from good to evil, and the powers will progress accordingly.

The game starts with a psychological side and then transitions to a morality tale, with the civilian audience the audience for everything Cole does. This is a sandbox world and the citizens will react in a dynamic social setting. Areas of the city will unlock and you level up, and just as Cole has superhero (or supernatural) powers, there are others in the city who have been endowed with other abilities and who line up in opposition to Cole.

Because of his power, Cole needs to feed off the city’s infrastructure, draining power from electric devices such as transformers or street lights. Also, because he has electrical powers, his attacks – like the lightning he throws from his hands – will interact with the environment. If he tosses toward metal, it might be conducted by the metal to several other objects. This also provides some tactical elements to the game.

The game is played in the third person, and the Sucker Punch team has some familiarity with that format and how to make a camera work in the setting. The goal is to make the game believable and fun to play.

Though this was an early build, the graphics looked solid and the electrical effects were pulled off nicely.

INFAMOUS is a morality tale, a parable of the modern world juxtaposed against one person’s choices and their vision of right and wrong. The idea is sound and Sucker Punch appears on track to deliver a thoroughly entertaining experience.

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