Thoughts on Infamous 1
I played Infamous 1 for the first time. I love it, but...
The game aged.
Wow, a PS3 game from 2009 aged? No way! But the thing is the game aged more than I thought it would. Especially considering how much praise and love the game still gets. But before I continue with my thoughts I need to give some context of my relationship with the Infamous series.
Some context: Aka, my history with Infamous
Before the beginning of this year I never played any Infamous game, but I did watch the full playthrough of both karmas from all games in the franchise on Youtube. That I know of. 1, 2, Festival of Blood, Second Son, and First Light. (I know First Light doesn’t have karma paths, but still.)
I loved the story and the aesthetics of the games. The world and characters were very fun, and I even began to think of an OC that had sound powers but never became more than an idea and a lost sketch.
It wasn’t until I watched That Guy Aqua’s video on playing Infamous 1 on PC that I decided to do it myself. (He also made one for the second game. Both links open on a new tab.)
So I played Infamous 1 in an emulator with my fps varying from 60 to 30, averaging on 40 in the best cases, with an off-brand Xbox controller, and my CPU achieving 77º C (that’s around 170º F). And I had a fucking blast. For the most part.
I miss (and don’t miss) 2009 games
Infamous 1 being an older game has that feeling. You know, a “gamey” feeling. It warrants an entire essay on itself about video games as an artform, and there is a bit of my own bias, but something I miss from old games is this feeling of it trying to tell a story or express an experience in a very “gamey” form. There are still plenty of games that do that, especially indie and AA games, but I miss when games from bigger studios brought that feeling. I don’t mind the more “cinematic” experience a lot of AAA games want to bring, I think it’s great, but more variety would be nice, you know?
That said, what I don’t miss on old games it’s the unique jank that came with it. Now, 2009 we already made plenty of progress with controlling characters in a 3D environment and how far gameplay in general has come, but still, it is clear that 2009 was 17 years ago.
(Turns into dust and dies from old age)
It could be my off-brand controller, or the emulator struggling to run the game, or just me not being the greatest gamer ever, but something about the gameplay feels dated. The movement and the traversal in the city is great and super fun, so that can’t be it. Maybe it is aiming with the controller instead of a mouse, since I’m not used to it. Or maybe it's just the general age of the game that we outgrew some things.
Either way, despite almost having age to be considered an adult the game plays very nicely and it is very fun. For the most part.
An electrifying experience and some shocking realizations
I like puns. Anyway. This game is a power fantasy through and through. Cole feels very powerful and capable, even at the start of the game with abilities like his Lightning Bolt, his Shockwave, and Thunder Drop. With the advancement of the story Cole only grows in power, and the power fantasy grows with him. Even draining energy and riding on power lines feels powerful, with my controller vibrating so much, more than I've ever seen a game do, that if I left it on my table it would sound like an earthquake.
However, because Cole feels so powerful, the game has to balance that a little bit so you as a player have SOME challenge. And this is where I get some problems with the game. Not with the game giving me a challenge, not at all, but rather on HOW it makes enemies challenging.
