[Locke]

Finally, inFamous.

Was planning to play this as a prequel - which obviously it is, but I literally played them out of order - so I was sad to see that Cole has a subtle but none the less noticeably different design and a considerably worse voice actor. Feels like I'm playing a totally different character, and I loved Cole so much in the second game. He became like one of my favourite protagonists. Sigh.

Even characters like Zeke, who has the same actor, somehow doesn't hit the right cords when playing off this new/old actor for Cole. I mean you listen to the way Zeke and Cole banter in Festival of Blood and then listen to the limp wristed exchanges between Zeke and Cole in this game, sucks man. I mean there is still some good lines in there, 'Your middle name is...Jebediah?!' but it just isn't clicking the same.

Storywise, it's been much stronger than inFamous 2 so far. inFamous 2 felt very much like a chapter in Cole's series, whereas this so far is feeling much more like a complete story, as origin stories usually do. This really was just an epic introduction.

Sadly, the game lets down the writing a bit, it isn't really "dated", it just almost feels unfinished at points. Like at one point when running through Empire City, during a disguised guided tour, I realised how much this didn't feel like some kind of pen full of psychopaths like the introduction claimed. Especially when - I'm gonna mention it again - you play something like Festival of Blood which really does feel like you're running around an actual city wide party.

Then there was the fact Zeke kept awkwardly running into things, and getting stuck, while still talking and huffing and puffing as if he was running. Like it just seems so odd to centre a mission on chasing a character around who is programmed in such a way that he can get stuck on things.

Had two karmic decisions so far, currently my rank is Guardian. So I'm going towards the light much earlier on than I did in the second game, so I wonder if I'll suddenly heel turn half way through. We'll see how it plays out.

Gameplaywise, obviously it isn't as refined as the second game, but in a continuity sense I guess that sorta makes sense as this is a Cole who is still discovering himself, whereas Cole 2 was basically an already established badass. The focus on platforming is a surprise, as it wasn't a part of the second game at all, but this game makes platforming a lot less frustrating than other games. I did so well it promoted me to 'Hard', wish me luck...