TGS 08: InFamous eyes-on

Sucker Punch's Ken Schramm guided us through a mission, titled "Blood Trail," while senior producer Grady Hunt talked us through what was going on. The level is fairly early in the game -- about five missions in -- and has protagonist Cole discovering a new power. "Post-Cognition" allows you to read people's memories; in this case, giving you a new objective. A dead woman's mind (do dead people still have minds?) reveals an "echo" of her running through the streets towards a Reaper hideout.
Gallery: inFAMOUS TGS
After reading the memory, Cole was able to follow this echo, which takes the form of an outlined silhouette. On the way, he was ambushed by Reapers and we were shown more of the game's combat, which is familiar by now. Schramm took advantage of Cole's ability to climb the environment, as well as his electric based combat abilities: shock grenades, force push and his normal electric projectiles. The demo showed off the destructible environments as Cole ripped apart and electrified the surrounding area.
During the fight, Cole encountered an Elite Reaper which, sadly, was exactly the same as the one in previous demonstrations. We were hoping to see more examples of enemy powers, but this character was wielding the ground quake and super speed powers that we'd seen before. Apparently, there will be boss characters which will have the powers of all of its underlings. Hopefully this means large set pieces with incredibly powerful enemies. Unfortunately we weren't shown any of that.
Narrative begun to sneak into the game in the form of radio communication with various friends. We're not sure who all of Cole's friends are, but they're fairly chatty. They made the experience seem a lot less lonely and allowed Cole to soliloquize without it sounding hokey (even if he is voiced by "Stephen Hawking" until an appropriate voice actor is found).

Two other new powers were also shown. One allowed Cole to draw power from a downed enemy after combat. Very handy if you suddenly find yourself in a blackout, without anywhere to draw power from. The other superpower shown was a lightning summon, which will be -- *gulp* -- motion controlled, just like the tornado launcher in Ratchet & Clank.
Various other things were teased, such as the fact that "powers you start the game with will be very different to powers you'll end the game with." The superpower system will be layered too, so you'll find powers change as you progress through the game. Post-Cognition won't just be used to find echos later in the game, for example.
Sucker Punch kept teasing about these layered powers and the morality system that will supposedly be a core part of the game. Until we see them, though, it's hard to tell how it'll affect the gameplay. At least with the addition of objectives and the radio communication, things are starting to feel slightly more integrated. Considering it's still seven months from release, there's plenty more to come.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dirty @ Oct 9th 2008 4:05PM
The pic of him landing on that car seems rather force unleashy.
atrimus @ Oct 9th 2008 4:06PM
except this one actually looks fun, and the graphics are about 50 times better.
Metal Geario 360 @ Oct 9th 2008 4:26PM
LOL so true Dirty,
As for the graphics being 50 times better Artimus, i guess thats a matter of opinion.
Force Unleashed wasnt too shabby graphically IMO.
Maverick Saturn @ Oct 9th 2008 4:45PM
Lol, yeah, well, this time we aren't carrying around a bloody lightsaber, it nothing but the force, pure and simple, let the rage begin :D
Dirty @ Oct 9th 2008 4:48PM
I love lightsabers though. Like really love them, you can put them in any game in my opinion, even this one, I'm not gonna argue.
Anticrawl @ Oct 9th 2008 5:16PM
The game certainly looks cool, but the name is awful. Joins the rank of Infinite Undiscovery and Legendary the Box for game titles that make me want to set fire to a bag of kittens. And I love kittens.
Jakka @ Oct 9th 2008 4:12PM
Jolly, it definitely has this super-powered-hero feel of Crackdown and Prototype.
Looking forward to it...
Titanium_Orchid @ Oct 9th 2008 4:13PM
Still on the fence about this game. The concept and mechanics sound cool in theory, I don't know about practice though
Maverick Saturn @ Oct 9th 2008 4:46PM
Have a look at the gameplay trailers ^^ Might help you get a better mindset of whether you like it or not :)
Dirty @ Oct 9th 2008 4:53PM
Me too. Seems like its right up my alley, but I saw a preview a couple months ago and it didnt look like it played very well, bad running mechanic, etc. Of course they have some time to fix it.
Dolemike @ Oct 9th 2008 4:20PM
This game was great the first time I played it. Only it was called Psi-Ops back then.
Jakka @ Oct 9th 2008 4:25PM
Was Psi-Ops any good? I have it on a disc somewhere...
tmacairjordan87 @ Oct 9th 2008 5:45PM
I believe you can get it for free (legally) on one of these pc download sites like Filefront. I tried it a few months ago and it was ok but nothing really noteworthy.
baby sea tuna @ Oct 9th 2008 4:20PM
As much as I want to check this out, I wish they'd finish it already and move on to a hi-def Sly Cooper!
Burnt Meatloaf @ Oct 10th 2008 5:05AM
I agree. Something tells me an HD Sly would sell better, too. On the surface, Infamous looks too generic, no matter how the gameplay turns out, so it might be a hard sell.
Sucker Punch says the PS3 doesn't have the right demographic for a new Sly game. They'd better be right, seeing how Infamous will have been in development for more than 3 years by the time it is released.
Soap GurL @ Oct 9th 2008 4:28PM
@Dolemike
"This game was great the first time I played it. Only it was called Psi-Ops back then."
Agreed! Agreed! Agreed! There's nothing great about this game. All this hype for nothing. More shit to add to the pile.
Soap Gurl sUx @ Oct 9th 2008 4:35PM
I LOLed at your comment. Fangirl alert, or should i say fanboy :)
Maverick Saturn @ Oct 9th 2008 4:47PM
You two serious? I dunno whether to take u seriously or not :S
Titanium_Orchid @ Oct 9th 2008 7:54PM
Chel Chel, is that you?
Soap GurL @ Oct 9th 2008 4:48PM
@Soap Gurl sUx
"I LOLed at your comment. Fangirl alert, or should i say fanboy :)"
I'm a girl, not a boy. And this game is unoriginal, just like your name. *middle finger*
Dirty @ Oct 9th 2008 4:57PM
There is this fun little button on the lower right corner of posts that says "Reply". Please click it.
colinbell @ Oct 9th 2008 6:58PM
Hmm..funny how high expectations are for Sony games in relation to MS games - absolutely nothing new in Halo 3 and Gears 2 as well, so both of them suck I suppose?
But its following a route pretty similar to Gears - copy a barely explored concept (Gears copied Killswitch, this is close to Psi-Ops), add next gen graphics, polish the gameplay and add a big dose of marketing and you are ready to go
Evan @ Oct 9th 2008 5:04PM
As I've said before, I wish Sucker Punch spend the last couple of years making a new Sly Cooper game instead of InFamous.
Jacksons @ Oct 9th 2008 5:45PM
Away with you haters! This game looks great.
tmacairjordan87 @ Oct 9th 2008 5:47PM
I still don't get what part of this game is making everyone get all excited. This game reeks of mediocrity to me in the same way that Force Unleashed, Army of Two, and Kane and Lynch did when I first heard of them...and I hate to piss you all off but my instincts with games tend to be right more often than not.
Mr Khan @ Oct 9th 2008 6:21PM
I will admit you seem to have a pretty good read on what the average core American gamer likes and dislikes, and i'm also a little turned off by what i see (these guys did make Sly Cooper, after all. Quite liked those from what i saw of them)
However, it's never good to judge this sort of thing from an "eyes-on." Previews are always off of the final product, i think, especially ones that have no relation to actually playing the game.
tmacairjordan87 @ Oct 9th 2008 6:35PM
It's only because I've been heavily involved with games for years so I just notice patterns.
If this was a multiplatform title I do feel like it would average in the 70s on metacritic but because it's a somewhat hyped exclusive for Sony I do believe scores will be slightly inflated, maybe enough to push it in the 80s.
Noshino @ Oct 9th 2008 7:07PM
actually, I don't get how you could even be comparing this title to those that you mentioned.
And, well, what do all of the titles that you mentioned have in common? mediocre titles, Sucker Punch, since its foundation, has been pumping highly acclaimed titles...
tmacairjordan87 @ Oct 9th 2008 7:11PM
You're missing what I was trying to say. I wans't comparing those games to each other, only that I got the same feeling after reading up about them...that they were all gonna turn out mediocre in the end and I was right each time. Those were just recent examples and not meant to compare them to each other, I've been making predictions like those for years.
Noshino @ Oct 9th 2008 7:18PM
you are also missing my point, which was that your assumption might have also been affected by the fact that all of the studios behind those titles have only developed mediocre titles
tmacairjordan87 @ Oct 9th 2008 7:34PM
Here we go with assuming a game will be good/bad based on the developer's past projects thing again, something I preached against just yesterday I believe.
I don't care how many good titles Sucker Punch made, this one looks mediocre. I'll wait and see how it turns out obviously, but I'm not excited.
Noshino @ Oct 9th 2008 7:44PM
I was just refering to your comment.
Anyway, reason why this game has me excited? the fact that this game goes beyond Assasin's Creed exploration system and Gears/Uncharted combat mechanics and adds its own touch.
colinbell @ Oct 9th 2008 7:08PM
Notice another pattern about Sony first party studios?
Inomniac, Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch all made cartoony platformers last gen
This gen - all three have moved on to far more ambitious titles. The other two stuidos have delivered big time. And so will Sucker Punch.
Mr Khan @ Oct 9th 2008 8:09PM
If "ambitious" is a new word for a color that's a combination of grey and brown, i agree with you.
Burnt Meatloaf @ Oct 10th 2008 5:07AM
Tools of Destruction was grey and brown?
I must have the saturation on my TV set too high, then.
HandSandwich @ Oct 9th 2008 9:12PM
I'm psyched that Sucker Punch is finally bringing out a new game but I don't know about this one. The art is great and the story in interesting but all of the game play videos make it look like a sub-par 3rd person shooter, not to mention his wacky run cycle. Here's to hoping.
JetPogi @ Oct 10th 2008 12:23AM
grey and brown for uncharted and rachet and clank? I don't think so.