Gain the power to be inFamous

Empire City needs your help - can you become the hero - or anti-hero - you've always wanted to be, in the urban action adventure of inFamous?

Sucker Punch Productions wants to take you on a journey with its open world adventure, inFamous - a comic book style title which asks the question: what kind of hero will you be? The answer is something you can readily explore around a massive city environment where everything has taken a turn for the worse... and you can either help to change that, or pitch Empire City even further into the darkness.

As courier Cole McGrath, the fate of your surroundings is well and truly in your hands - suitably expressed by an ominous package that explodes when left in his care, tearing apart six city blocks and beginning Empire City's descent into chaos and violence. A plague strikes, gangs take over and what's left of the police withdraw, making the government quarantine a lawless land.

Cole isn't in too good a state either. After miraculously surviving the explosion, he wakes up two weeks later to discover the bedlam around him - as well as being granted strange electricity based powers. Swiftly blamed for the explosion because of his proximity to its epicentre, it's left to you to help Cole find the origin of this catastrophe and make the choice of coming to the aid of those around him or strictly focusing on himself and leaving the citizens to rot.

"I'll make ya famous..."

The theme of morality is the core concept of inFamous. While traversing Empire City and taking part in numerous missions which progress the storyline, you're given a number of choices to make, some small and spontaneous, others specific to the game's plot.

For example, after intercepting a rare food drop on the city, you're given the option of either letting the people get a share or brutally zapping them to claim the goods all for yourself. Further on you may come across people in need of resuscitation - do you leave them to suffer or shock them back to life using Cole's electricity? One mission even asks you if you want to turn a water wheel knowing you'll be sprayed with hallucinogenic gloop or if you'd rather bully a civilian into it.

Each decision made is factored into inFamous' karma system, which tailors people's reactions towards Cole. Selfless acts earn you respect, adulation and even occasional help, while selfish ones will earn you rocks thrown to the head and lots of angry yelling, such as "your powers won't save you, freak!" and the slightly more comedic: "my cat died because of you!"

It's good to be bad

Your ethics also help push Cole's powers down a particular route, with good and evil upgrades to purchase - although your hero (or anti-hero) has a wide variety of electricity and electromagnetic field style abilities that should make you feel suitably super, ranging from repelling foes and shocking enemies into incapacitation or death, to creating sticky ball style grenades or even emitting a sonar to locate the nearest life-giving electricity supply (to recover his power and health) or find useful items.

Tellingly, Cole's appearance changes dramatically as your deeds mount up. Be a good boy and your hero will be a little bit brighter and cleaner to reflect the brighter and cleaner Empire City emerging from your acts - and your electricity takes a friendly blue hue. Decide to be spiteful and nasty and your powers turn a vengeful red, while Cole himself becomes paler and dirty. With a range of ranks such as Thug, Guardian, Outlaw, Champion, Hero and Infamous, you can express your morals to varying degrees - which will tailor Cole to your actions and potentially make him different from other players' versions of the leading man.

Cole's more innate talents link to his ability to climb nearly anywhere as long as there's something to grip on to - lamp posts, ledges, poles, railings, rope... all of these things and more can be tackled by Cole's supreme agility, and even coupled with his powers for combination moves.

He's electric

All of which means you'll be given a large amount of freedom around how you get from place to place, as well as how you beat down those who get in your way. Firing electricity while hanging off a cable or travelling on top of a train? Easy. Doing a death defying leap off a tall building and lading on top of a car while creating shockwaves around you? No problem. Stunning someone with an electric punch combo then leaping away to scale an office block all the way to the skyline? All in a day's work for Cole.

Sucker Punch Productions has also made Empire City dynamic, reacting to your actions as things break, explode and drop while you battle. Place Cole near a live source of electricity and you'll see sparks and conduction around him, as well as when he fires his bolts at something.

It all adds up to a gritty comic book style blockbuster which will have you feel like a true hero - or if you prefer, anti-hero. Expect Empire City to open its borders again soon, so check back with nz.playstation.com for even more information on inFamous.