Infamous Updated Hands-On

Infamous made a strong showing at last year's E3 with its combination of electrically charged superpowers and free-roaming sandbox mayhem, and since then it's become a game that many PlayStation 3 owners have been eagerly anticipating. That wait won't last much longer, given that Infamous is slated to ship in just a few short weeks on May 26. Before the game arrives in stores, Sony gave us the chance to spend a bit more time with Infamous at a Seattle press event. What made this hands-on session with Infamous special is that we got to see a variety of mission types, from drawn-out story events complete with epic boss battles to brief and purely optional side quests.

The event was set up with a number of demo stations on hand, each showcasing a single mission from the game. We managed to complete three different missions during the course of the evening. The first was a very climbing-focused mission that required our electricity-imbued protagonist, Cole, to reach the top of a scrap-metal tower with the help of his not-so-superpowered friend Zeke. We began on the ground in what appeared to be an urban junkyard, with Zeke barking orders for us to zap a nearby rotor to get an elevator working. To do that, we had to climb up a good chunk of the tower, a task that required dangling, shimmying, and leaping from various beams and signs sticking out from the side of the tower. On occasions when platforms couldn't be reached by mere jumping, we even used a special glide ability that lets Cole become a sort of static-charged flying squirrel.

The platforming in the game is pretty forgiving; Cole has a knack for snapping onto ledges even if your jumps aren't the most precise. At lower altitudes, it might seem like hand-holding, but as we made it farther and farther up this giant scrap-heap skyscraper, we came to appreciate not falling to our death every 10 seconds. There's still a good challenge involved in the game's climbing sequences, but it's derived more from what you climb on rather than how well you climb. Plus, on this particular mission, these sequences were punctuated by battles against groups of enemy gunmen adorned in ghillie suits made of garbage. However, what really impressed us is how the climbing and combat is so seamless. You'll be tiptoeing along a ledge and notice an enemy up high, and then drop down and use what you were previously climbing on as cover--one hand holding on for dear life, the other zapping your foe.

After about three repeated stages of climbing, activating an elevator to let Zeke up, and trash-commando battles, we made it to the top of the top of the tower to fight the boss. He took on the form of an electrified trash golem that wasn't very quick but was still a force to be reckoned with. We discovered that the best technique for dealing with him was hitting circle to snap behind cover, and then holding L1 and pressing square to fling electric grenades his way. Every so often, we had to find a source of electricity to refill ourselves--done by holding L2 for a few moments--which provided the dual benefit of restoring health and ammo. In the end, we overcame the boss and completed the mission. We enjoyed this mission's combination of gameplay types, and the high-altitude setting also provided a good chance to soak up a nice sunset view of Empire City.

The next mission took us to a collapsing bridge made even more intimidating thanks to the thick, nighttime fog surrounding it. Our goal was to make it from one end of the bridge to the other to fight yet another boss, which was no small task, considering that substantial portions of the bridge had gone missing. Here, the challenge lay not in climbing vertically like the last mission, but in going horizontally across various bridge beams with nothing but deadly water underneath (Cole is basically made of electricity, after all). This mission was far more challenging than the previous one, thanks to the fog's limited visibility, more-frequent enemies, and less-obvious climbing routes. However, it felt much more rewarding with every checkpoint that we reached.

We came to the end of the bridge and took on a boss that looked like a gigantic version of the previous trash golem that we had just thrown down with. This one felt quite a bit more retro, though. He was perched off in the distance with a giant gap in the bridge separating the two of us. We had to hide behind small concrete barricades, dodging his electric gravel attack, and throwing a flurry of electrified grenades his way whenever the chance presented itself. The predictable pattern required to defeat him felt a bit old-school, but it was still a fun encounter.

Lastly, we tried a side mission that required Cole to escort a group of prisoners from a parking lot to a nearby police station. The trick here was to zap the prisoners enough that they'd move along our intended path, but not so much that they get angry and begin fighting back. Of the four prisoners, we managed to escort three of them safe and sound to the station. The fourth, we imagine, ran off into an alley while we were busy zapping the living daylights out of his friends.

We had a good deal of fun playing Infamous at the event. The only downer was the realization that its completed visuals aren't on par with many other first-party Sony games on the PlayStation 3 (though with the recent Killzone 2, that bar has been raised absurdly high). Specifically, there's a substantial level of aliasing that becomes quite striking when the camera zooms in on a character model for cinematic effect, but that's largely offset by smooth animations, an impressive draw distance, and really nice electricity effects from your various attacks. Overall, Infamous still looks like one to keep an eye on. It'll be released on May 26.