Eyes-On: inFamous (PS3)

Developer Sucker Punch, famous for the Sly Cooper series on the PlayStation 2, is tackling a new genre with their third-person action game for the PlayStation 3, inFamous. The sandbox-style game revolves around protagonist Cole, a grungy-looking bike messenger who survives a mysterious explosion that rips apart Empire City. He even gets a souvenir out of it - the ability to harness and control electricity.

Since the explosion, Empire City has been barricaded due to concerns of biohazard materials, so Cole and the rest of the survivors are left trapped with no police and no central power, while criminals take over the city. As Cole says in the opening sequence, "the city is committing suicide."

The superhero story follows Cole through the discovery of his powers. Though his main goal is to find an explanation of what happened to him, he'll encounter other survivors in the city that will help shape his experience. Some of them are dangerous and will attack. Others are just trying to find a way to live. Cole's interactions with these survivors (defibrillating a civilian on the street with his electric power, taking out bad guys) changes his 'karma' during the game.

Although Sucker Punch didn't reveal too much about the impact of karma on the gameplay, our impression was that there was a single story arc -- no BioShock-style good or bad endings -- following Cole's own selfish motive to learn about his powers, but that the experience will be shaped by your decisions (strangers may react towards you differently depending on how much you've helped others in the past).

Our demo began with Cole riding on the top of a train to a gang-controlled section of the city, where he is immediately targeted by rifle-wielding snipers. Cole shoots some bolts of electricity their way and scares them a bit. The streets are littered with cars, broken glass and crumbling buildings, but the power grid is still working, which is pretty great for us since Cole can't actually create electricity, just control it.

We made our way through the streets, encountering a few groups of baddies along the way. The developers demonstrated using environmental objects for cover, including a telephone pole (Cole's on the skinny side), which we were also able to draw energy from. We passed a group of scavengers desperately searching the dumpsters for food, and helped resuscitate a woman lying in the street.

We also drew energy from a telephone booth before all the lights suddenly shut off. It turns out *DUN DUN DUNNNN* that other people also developed superpowers following the mysterious explosion. This one, a man in a hooded trench coat, could create faults in the ground and send bolts of electricity through them to attack us. An awesome lightning-storm counter-attack on our part (facilitated by using the Sixaxis motion control to aim the bolts) finally brought him down.

Sucker Punch also stressed the importance of keeping the game as realistic as possible, given that our main character can shoot lightning out of his fingertips. This is why we don't just see Cole running around stopping jewelry thieves -- he's shaken by his new abilities and wants to know more about them to help himself, not necessarily help a city already in shambles.

Initial trailers and screens from this game didn't really excite us, but after some time watching a demo and talking with the developers about the direction they're taking this game, we're actually looking forward to becoming inFamous.