Infamous (2009)

"Let's make a game about a dude that gets cool electricity powers"
"Yeah, sounds great. By adding magic into our sandbox game, there is no limit to the type of gameplay we could introduce"
"Indeed, so let's start by making it a cover-based shooter".
"..."

I realise that this is an old game, but Prototype came up only one month later and its protagonist could run up buildings, glide and kill people with tentacles coming out of his fists. In this game, the blandest protagonist in history can *checks notes* shoot people and throw grenades.

The moral aspect has to have been dumb at the time too, right? Cole is like "I could spend a smidgen of my infinite recharging energy to heal this person or... I could stomp on his head and eat his corpse for no benefit whatsoever; what a tough decision".

Pros:

• I loved how they introduced gradually new powers and new buttons in the control scheme. At the start, you're not overwhelmed with complicated controls. After you spend some time with the game, every move feels natural and it's very easy to learn your new powers and implement them to your gameplay. Towards the end of the game, I had total control of my character and really felt like a superhero (or villain depending on your karma).

• Perfect check point system. Honestly, I would have quit the game for good if the game made me play missions from the beginning every time I die, since there are some annoying enemies & missions. But thankfully the check point system is really fair and makes your job a hell lot easier.

• Not sure about the variety of the "open world" and honestly I don't really care since I'm not a fan of the trend of "making every game and every genre open world". But I think the atmosphere was good. The city felt like real with enemies and citizens doing stuff all around.

• Riding rails and wires is so much fun and satisfying! Certainly better than stealing a car and driving it.

• Lightning storm is satisfying as hell! Overall, I liked the variety in the powers. And it's almost necessary to use all of them from time to time, so they made a good job with the balance. Well, maybe the gigawatt blades was the weakest among them and I almost never used it.

Cons:

• This may sound weird but I didn't like the main attack of our character. It felt weak and not so satisfying. Maybe it would be better if we could hold the button and continue to shoot.

• Too many enemies with firearms! I would prefer if some of them had melee attacks, or something different than a firearm. It's annoying when bullets fly from all over place and sometimes I felt helpless because of that.

• Those f****** enemies with turrets are soooo annying! Too bad that you obtain the electrical shield so late in the game. It was one power that I would really prefer having right from the start.

• I said that the control scheme is very good but sometimes the controls felt clunky. Simple tasks like climbing a ladder, or dropping down from somewhere felt frustrating.

• Instant death on water is a poor design choice I think.

And one question: What were those floors that glow when you walk on them for? I tried to smash them, suck them... Nothing happened.