slEEPLESS
Welcome to the mean streets of Seattle, home of grunge, the Super Bowl champion Seahawks, and our very own “Gardinal” Gary Brooks and “Pope” Jason Sacks. Sucker Punch studios did something amazing for the setting of this game. Not only did they use a real city, but they used one that as far as I can recall has never been seen in a video game — and boy, oh boy, did they make it look purty too.
Seattle looks amazing from street level, all the way to the wondrous giant Mount Rainier in the backdrop. No detail was left out as far as textures go. From shingles on roofs all the way to cracks in the roadway you have a visual delicacy that looks tastier than grandmas’ fried chicken. The team even imported actual landmarks from the city including the Space Needle, local businesses that include authentic street art, and just about everything else but the lengthy panel lines at this weekend’s Emerald City Comic Con.
It’s a fresh look at an open world city game that isn’t just a concrete jungle like New York or L.A. Seattle is a beautiful green city in real life, and it looks just as stunning in the game.
THE inFAMOUS…
As in past games, you have two choices as far as your actions go: You can either follow the path of the Hero and be loved by the Seattleites, or you can be inFAMOUS, willing to sacrifice anyone and anything to accomplish your goal. There is no middle area as the development of your powers depends on how good or bad you are, and each path has its own advantages and disadvantages.
With the story veering off in two separate paths, this gives the game replay value of at least two full playthroughs (trust me, after seeing where the story goes one way you WILL want to see the other). Personally, I play the game as inFAMOUS first for two reasons: Being bad makes your offensive powers incredible since you don’t have to worry about collateral damage and, second, the name of the game is inFAMOUS.
If you’re a really bad goody two-shoes and just can’t find yourself slaughtering hundreds of fake digital innocents, the Hero path hooks you up with amazing defensive skills and non-lethal takedowns of enemies. This path is more difficult though because you have to watch out for civilians. Hurting them will hurt your Karma Level and make it harder to advance your powers to the next level. Whatever you choose first, you will play the game a second time just to see what the other side of the force has to offer, Jedi.
(Cont. on next page!)