Metareview: inFamous (PS3)
by Justin McElroy 
{ May 27th 2009 at 7:00PM } 
- 1UP (A-): "It's how InFamous blends all of this -- the platforming, the combat, the powers, the missions, and the Karma -- that makes it an eminently playable and enjoyable experience for me. It's why I've been staying up so late for the past few days."
- D+PAD (4.5/5): "Yet remarkably, inFamous - as a whole - feels entirely unique. It's perhaps largely due to Sucker Punch's ability in creating an outstanding animation system that subtly adapts to the environment, but also because of the game's suitably atmospheric setting."
- GamePro (90/100): "Great game, minor faults, a lot of fun to be had, terrible story but the gameplay holds up despite it. Maybe this "sleeping on it" thing has some merit, after all."
- NZGamer (9.5/10): "Any other games vying for the crown of Game of the Year 2009 pay attention - there's a new kid in town and he means business."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
ice~ @ May 27th 2009 7:03PM
Who the hell is D-Pad?
Sly (The Cake in fact, is NOT a lie) [PSN SniperChameleon] @ May 27th 2009 7:30PM
i've never heard of them, but their review was good.
Olicon @ May 27th 2009 8:16PM
D-Pad is a monthly online gaming magazine. It's really great--you should give it a try.
TheSaiyan @ May 27th 2009 7:04PM
Great game! I'm looking to get it hopefully. The demo was insanely fun. Im usually good in these kinds of games but the evil in this game was just waaay too fun.
Ghen @ May 28th 2009 4:28AM
Same here, but without a PS3 I'll have to wait for a port (might never happen *tear*)
Ashitaka @ May 28th 2009 12:04PM
It will *never* happen. You might as well forget it, or start saving for a PS3.
Drew -- PS360: uphillbothways @ May 27th 2009 7:05PM
I played this from 7pm to 1am last night. This is what open-world superhero games should feel like.
Residentevil72501 (PSN: rankore) @ May 27th 2009 9:05PM
LOL! Hell yeah man! I have to be at work by 6am everyday and I played it till 2am then played it several hours after work! Its super amazing seriously!
CLShortFuse @ May 28th 2009 9:20AM
2 days straight night of going to bed at 3:30AM
Just hit Hero ranking last night.
chrisnick @ May 27th 2009 7:05PM
i hate how one douche-site (Eurogamer) can mess up averages of better than average games. I've been playing infamous and trust me ppl....it is no 7.
Jason Statham (Aka Vegeta) @ May 27th 2009 7:09PM
Does it really matter what average a game has? So what? If you enjoy the game, you enjoy the game. Doesn't really matter what anyone says.
handlas @ May 27th 2009 7:35PM
ya...another site got added that gave it a 6 out of 10. Teletext or something. I don't get why. Their review was terrible and I spent 5 or so minutes trying to navigate their website to see how they review other games. Couldn't do it. Their website is an utter piece of crap. I don't get why they were added on metacritic.
atrimus @ May 27th 2009 7:37PM
@Vegeta
ordinarily i would agree with you, but in some cases (such as with new IP) it kinda does matter, because reviews can affect sales. mediocre reviews can lead to mediocre sales, meaning less incentive for publishers to make sequels to games that actually deserve them.
Moptimus Slime (PhilosoRaptor is the new Keyboard Cat) @ May 27th 2009 7:40PM
really? Because Im sure some people here would LOVE to point out numerous Wii/DS games that have mediocre reviews yet sell a lot
atrimus @ May 27th 2009 7:47PM
@Moptimus Slime
even though i have a Wii (its my fiancee's really), i don't follow its games much, so you could be right.
but still, just out of curiosity: outside of Wii Fit and established IPs, what lackluster-reviewed Wii games have sold well?
Manly Mcbeefington (Mr. ESC) @ May 27th 2009 7:58PM
I hate Eurogamer because is pretentious and their opinion is ignorant. They shouldn't review games, period.
When they give a medium to a good score to a mayor game like inFamous or Gears of war it isn't a big deal but when they give a low score to good games that are already selling poorly they can suck a cock and die.
Seriously and is not like they have good points or anything the guy reviewing the games is a mayor ahole,I swear they gave a bad score to a game because it wasn’t like its predecessors. Excuuuse me princess but when you are criticizing a game not because is bad but because is different that is not a valid critic.
D_Average @ May 27th 2009 8:10PM
I was just about to buy the game until I saw the Eurogamer score pop up on an RSS feed. Sadly, I then returned the game to the shelf. Maybe next time.
Lurker28 @ May 27th 2009 8:30PM
Don't be so naive. It matters quite a bit how many people enjoy the game. The majority of the hardcore and some of the casual gaming market make software purchases based off of reviews and other gamer experiences.
In this end this means for those not too business savvy. More money for the publisher as well as the developer. In turn, this allows Sucker Punch to hire more employees (they have a healthy 40+ employees now) and continue to make triple A titles. Games that do not do as well tend to loose support not only from the gaming community, but financial support for their respected publisher.
So all in all, it matters how it is received. Few games that receive a 60-70 averaged score are very successful or have enough financial backing to go on and make more games.
Jason Statham (Aka Vegeta) @ May 27th 2009 8:38PM
" because reviews can affect sales"
Since when? Really only a small minority of people actually use reviews (as in read the actual review instead of just seeing the score) when deciding whether they should purchase a game.
"Don't be so naive. It matters quite a bit how many people enjoy the game. The majority of the hardcore and some of the casual gaming market make software purchases based off of reviews and other gamer experiences."
Take your own advice. Do you honestly believe that a majority of the gamer market are people like us who talk on places like Joystiq, and go on metacritic to find reviews? Of course not.
Noah @ May 27th 2009 8:48PM
I almost never look at the scores for games, only the actual prose of the review (or the video in GT's case). Eurogamer are sort of hit-and-miss; depends on who's reviewing it.
atrimus @ May 27th 2009 9:05PM
"Since when? Really only a small minority of people actually use reviews (as in read the actual review instead of just seeing the score) when deciding whether they should purchase a game."
well, Jeff Gerstmann didn't get fired from Gamespot for nothing.
Sebastien @ May 27th 2009 9:51PM
For me it matters what critics say about a game! On my list for this months purchases was Infamous and Virtua Tennis 2009. The bad reviews I read about infamous on metacritic made me doubt the purchase and as for VT2009 have made me decide not to buy it. So reviews make a part of peoples decision to buy the games. It's because Infamous generally has good reviews that I will buy it. But I hope that the reviews that say that Infamous is very repetitive are out of proportion because that was my only concern about Infamous.
Maverick Saturn @ May 27th 2009 11:00PM
I've played many games and have yet to find one that isn't repetitive after a while, its all based upon how long it takes to become repetitive, whether or not that repitition interests you enough to keep you playing and what is done to cover up the fact that the gameplay is repetitive, GTA4 for example changes the objective of each mission, but doesn't change the fact you have to drive here drive there or shoot this and shoot that.
I don't pay much attention to reviews any more unless the overall score (by all critics) is rock bottom (which generally means the game is unplayable by anyone with a brain). If I were to take into account most of what critics say, Monster Hunter, Populous and several other games wouldn't be in my list of favourite games of all time.
Lav @ May 28th 2009 2:46AM
It is arguable to whether or not there is some majority listening to the reviews to decided if they want to buy a game that has been rated low or high.... But I do remember a while back listening to some Dev. or Gamer Analyst...About how the overall scores on Metacritic can affect if the company who made the game will continue making sequels or different IPs. So it is something to be aware of. At least we have smart and intelligent reviewers like Adam and Morgan they made appropriate calls on Resident evil 5 and Devil may Cry.
Gonzo @ May 28th 2009 11:54AM
Adam and Morgan also gave No More Heroes a 5 out of 5. A lot of reviewers gave that half-finished piece of crap good scores. That's when I started renting. However, I'm more inclined to blow off a game that's consistently scored badly than renting one that was consistently scored well.
I don't buy a game any more until I try it out. Wile I do still watch reviews for entertainment value (like Zero Punctuation), you can't exactly trust the opinion of the fanboy slobs that usually put them together.
That said, G4 is pretty entertaining. It's like a tv network that shows what CNN would become if Idiocracy became true. Look out for Chris Hardwick hosting Ow My Nuts, coming next month.
tmacairjordan87 @ May 27th 2009 7:05PM
It's a pretty fun game and I'd probably give it what the average currently is on Metacritic. Everyone says it's like a 25-30 hour game if you try to do everything, but it seems to be flying by for me. Already 55% done (that's total score, not story progress).
Chente916 @ May 27th 2009 7:06PM
lol... i was up all last night playing it. loved every minute of it. it reminds me alot of the mmorpg "city of heroes". anyway, it's "good" or "evil" fun. depending on how you play it. :-)
DigitalTwisted @ May 27th 2009 7:08PM
9.5/100 from NZGamer, they must really hate inFamous.
Averna @ May 27th 2009 9:04PM
HA!
I missed that
smkingun @ May 27th 2009 9:16PM
Maybe they will fix the typo now that you have pointed it out - 9.5/10.0... good catch
B3astofthe3ast @ May 27th 2009 7:08PM
Another great exclusive!
nofriendo @ May 27th 2009 7:12PM
I want to try this game.
but Im so sick of the "post-apocalyptic" look in games today.
Sly (The Cake in fact, is NOT a lie) [PSN SniperChameleon] @ May 27th 2009 7:16PM
this one is a lot more original than nuclear war destroying everything. that's a plus in my book.
Manly Mcbeefington (Mr. ESC) @ May 27th 2009 8:01PM
Did you enjoy Crackdown frenetic gameplay? Do you like dark comics? If yes you will enjoy this.
Mr Khan @ May 27th 2009 7:12PM
Aside from the irritation of the "GOTY 09!" silliness, this seems to sit about right.
Now i wonder how Prototype will stack up. I must say that inFamous seems to have the edge in terms of style and originality, for now.
tmacairjordan87 @ May 27th 2009 7:28PM
Yeah it is kind of eye rolling calling infamous goty. It's a great game, but it's not that great.
Besides, GOTY 2009 is already reserved for Uncharted 2 ;)
heyo007 @ May 27th 2009 7:37PM
...or Bioshock 2.
Seriously, we all know that "House-Cleaning Mama" is going to be the big E3 surprise hit and, obviously, the true GOTY for '09. :)
Moptimus Slime (PhilosoRaptor is the new Keyboard Cat) @ May 27th 2009 7:42PM
People please, just open a dictionary for crying out loud!
GOTY 2009 is spelled P-U-N-C-H O-U-T-!-!
Kenny Powers Fastball (PSN johnnynumber5) @ May 27th 2009 8:03PM
I was watching some videos of the new Punchout and it's exactly what I thought it would be. It's the kind of game thats pretty fun but once you get the patterns down you can't be touched. So, I would imagine replay would be limited to local multiplayer after you play 100 or so matches against the computer. It was the same thing with MT Punchout except back then I was younger and it was harder to memorize the patterns and what have you. Not to take anything away from I'm just making observations from watching videos.
Kenny Powers Fastball (PSN johnnynumber5) @ May 27th 2009 8:07PM
To be fair to the reviewer they didn't say this game was GOTY. They said other contenders need to take note because there is a new kid in town.
I don't know which I like better so far between Infamous, Killzone 2 and UFC Undisputed. I guess RE:5 deserves an honorable mention but I didn't like it much at all (haven't touched it all month).
I think my favorite game so far this year has been UFC Undisputed. But, since it's a sports game it won't get that type of recognition.
Sly (The Cake in fact, is NOT a lie) [PSN SniperChameleon] @ May 27th 2009 7:13PM
i love sucker punch. here's hoping for sly 4 coming soon.
Sly (The Cake in fact, is NOT a lie) [PSN SniperChameleon] @ May 27th 2009 9:26PM
oh, and since gamestop gave me two download cards for the preorder superpower, i'll give the other code to someone else. whoever emails me first at slycooper_rocker@yahoo.com will get it from me.
Sly (The Cake in fact, is NOT a lie) [PSN SniperChameleon] @ May 27th 2009 10:18PM
already got an email... so it's over...
Ashitaka @ May 28th 2009 12:15PM
That was nice of you ;D
Captain Planet @ May 27th 2009 7:14PM
Finally, another game besides Resistance 2 and Killzone 2 for my PS3 =)
atrimus @ May 27th 2009 7:32PM
Valkyria Chronicles, MGS4, LittleBigPlanet, Uncharted, Quest for...aww skip it. it's your preference: who am i to judge?
Hyams @ May 27th 2009 7:57PM
I second Valkyria Chronicles. Just finished it today.
Buy it, buy it.
helghast102 (Valkyria Chronicles and the anime OWN!) @ May 27th 2009 8:01PM
to back up Hyams
*ahem*
Buy it, Buy it, Buy it, Buy it, Buy it, Buy it.
InfiniteNine @ May 27th 2009 10:34PM
to back up these other people buy it three times.
Drew -- PS360: uphillbothways @ May 28th 2009 11:36AM
I know I'm probably not going to get a reply on this because it's an old thread, but what are some excellent PS3 exclusives? I just got the PS3 a month or two ago, and I need some good games. I've played through Tools of Destruction, MGS4, LBP, Uncharted, Resistence, Killzone 2... and I think that's it.
I'll be sure to look into Valkyria. Is that Quest for Booty that you didn't finish writing? It got a 76 on metacritic... Not so sure about that... Maybe I could rent it.
What else is out there worth looking at that's already out?