What'd I miss? Basically Bertrand's
been telling everyone that you're the devil. Oh, nice. What was the first Infamous
game you ever played? Chances are your
answer also dictates which game you think is the
best because over just five years and three games,
the Infamous series changed drastically. Like a superhero
honing their power set, each new Infamous
installment morphed into something
new, something that was supposed to be the
ultimate version of itself, but no amount of power
was enough to keep the series from fading away. Sucker Punch Productions was
taking a pretty big chance when the original Infamous
hit the PS3 in 2009. Having created the highly
stylized stealth platformer Sly Cooper for Sony in
2002, the dev team was very comfortable with
the early PlayStation era of cartoon mascots and
level-based collectathons. Infamous, however, was nothing
like their previous hit. Heavily inspired by Batman-- No Man's Land as well as Brian
Wood and Ricardo Burchielli's DMZ, Infamous was set in a
gritty and realistic-looking open world with a comic
book type aesthetic and fairly mature themes. The premise was simple yet
immediately interesting to players. What would happen if a
regular person like bike messenger in
protagonist Cole McGrath suddenly got superpowers? I saw something
I shouldn't have, and now the reapers
are gunning for me. Now you've got to help me. You got to help me. [GUNSHOTS] Ahh, crap. With the karma system, the
answer to that question was up to the players. And while many of the
choices you could make ended up being
pretty lackluster, the system would go on to become
a massive part of Infamous legacy because it
wasn't just implemented into the story beats. It was interwoven throughout
all the game's major elements. The gameplay was really the
shocking standout of Infamous. Sucker Punch managed to
make super powers feel fun and fresh, allowing players
the freedom to really grow in a natural way by performing
karmically good or bad deeds. They could customize
their play experience through the use of
experience points, and depending on a
player's choices, they could perform
different abilities. This affected
everything from combat to the way the
people of Empire City would react to Cole's presence. But while combat and
karmic recognition were great, traversing the
grimy city was just as fun. As you can see by the
way Cole runs and climbs over obstacles like a certain
other Sony protagonist, Sucker Punch was
definitely leaning into a movement
system that would become a staple for
action adventure games. But they put their own spin on
it with the ability to freely parkour and grind on things like
power cables and train rails. All combined, Infamous was an
incredibly fun game to play. Sucker Punch really let
players live out their dream of slowly becoming a super
powered being capable of doing great and terrible deeds. What's wrong with you? People are starving, and
you're stealing the only food they've seen in days? I did it for us to make
sure we're taking care of. I don't get you sometimes. But that wasn't the idea
they initially started with. Surprisingly, even
before it came out, Infamous underwent some
significant changes. After the success of the
first three Sly Cooper games, Sucker Punch actually pitched
several new ideas to Sony. The one they decided to
go with was tentatively titled True Hero. Even in this early
stage, the game was very focused on
morality, decision making, and super heroes largely because
in game director Nate Fox's words-- Wanted to make a superhero game. A lot of that came from
us being comic book nerds. That's pretty much
where the similarities between the first concept
and the finished product stop though. True Hero was
originally conceived as a game more akin to
Animal Crossing where players roamed your city, tracked
down criminals, helped out the citizens, and did some
light zoning work along the way under the guise of your
mild-mannered alter ego as a property developer. Throughout
development and thanks in large part to
comic book writer Bill Harms who was brought
on to the project, the story got a lot
darker and more complex as did the decisions players
were expected to make. Thus the whole game changed
around the karma system to make Infamous as
we know it today. I could zap that guy
and cut him loose, or maybe I just walk away
and leave him there to rot. It's strange to think
that Infamous started out as something so
categorically different, but really we can look
back on its development as foreshadowing for
the fate of the series. Because despite all the
developmental changes, Infamous released as a solid
highly-polished gem in 2009. And after selling over a million
copies in less than a year, it was clear that a sequel
would be coming soon. 2011's Infamous 2 was
definitely different from its predecessor
in that it leaned much harder on the
aspects of the game people liked and fully abandoned the
ones that were received poorly. Practically every
aspect of the first game was revisited and
reworked for the sequel. The visuals of the game
pivoted quite a bit. The comic-like
illustrations increased in both quality and quantity. Our protagonist was no longer
sporting a heavy jacket though his buzz cut remained
after an E3 trailer showing Cole with longer hair
caused a baffling amount of player backlash. Cole also moved and
sounded different than fans of the original might
have remembered-- Call me. We got a little
something in common. Since Sucker Punch
opted to replace voice actor Jason
Cottle with Eric Ladin when they started recording
mocap and VO at the same time. The environments were
rendered beautifully with a pretty big graphical
jump happening industrywide around 2010, and that also aided
in Sucker Punch's new focus on cinematic combat. More superpower
customization was put into Infamous 2 as well
as a brand new melee weapon, giving players the option to
get up close with their foes in a way that just wasn't
as fun in the first game. And Sucker Punch made sure that
each close quarters encounter looked and felt epic. But no Infamous game would
be complete without the karma system. In Infamous 2, more
meaningful player choice was implemented into the
story, but in an attempt to give players higher
stakes, they subsequently cut players off from
playing particular missions. This was frustrating
to some who didn't want any of the action walled off. It was clear from the
change in Cole's hair to the controversially
significant player choices that Sucker Punch was trying
to take their players' criticisms to heart. This propelled Infamous 2 into
the third best-selling game on Sony's roster the
month it came out, which meant that the developers
were once again going to dip into the Infamous
well for a third installment, but their player
pleasing tendencies would lead to the most
controversial change in series history. The end of Infamous
2 sees Cole McGrath take on the powers of
the game's antagonist and become an all
power super villain. But because it's a game
about player choice, there was another ending, one
where Cole sacrifices himself for the good of the world. And though the developers
consider the former to be canon, over 70% of
players chose the good ending of the game, meaning that
for most returning players, Cole McGrath was dead. That's a pretty big
thing to consider when writing a game sequel. And when you add to
it the sudden influx of brand new players who
were getting into gaming for the first time with
the hugely popular PS4, Sucker Punch had a
tough decision to make. Should they continue
Cole's story, or should they begin anew? Oh, I can get you
right between the eyes. No, no, just don't be a dick. 2014's Infamous-- Second Son
would take the latter course of action, bringing a
brand new protagonist to the third installment
in the series. But a new character meant more
than just a change of face. Voice and performed by
the legendary Troy Baker, Delsin Rowe was
full of personality unlike the late Cole
McGrath whose sidekick did most of the joking around. But it's kind of funny because
aren't you a bioterrorist, too? Delsin's anti-authoritarian
backstory made him a much more
well-rounded character with quirks that Cole
simply didn't possess. This gave the entire
game a much lighter tone, and for some, it
felt much less mature than the previous iterations. But conversely, the
plot of the game attempted to be much
more sophisticated than its predecessors. The highly political story about
post-9/11 government security and the mistreatment of Native
Americans in the real world city of Seattle made the karma
system a little trickier than in the first two installments. Given the seeming complexity
of the issues at hand, the choices given
to players often felt clumsy and underdeveloped. On top of this, with Delsin's
much more defined personality, it made some players feel forced
to choose the side of good. There was also a new
power set to consider. Cole's explosive moves
didn't really fit Delsin, so combat had to be rethought. This also meant that the game's
controls and movement system were totally reworked
with Delsin's powers playing a huge part in how
players traverse the map. And since Delsin's powers
were brand new to him, players were once again on the
journey of learning and honing their craft instead
of picking up where they left off with a
pre-established super being. For many, this was
actually a highlight because Delsin's power set
was not only far more in depth than Cole's had ever been, but
every move looked beautiful. The game is gorgeous and still
stands up to scrutiny today. The comic book aesthetic
from the first two games was largely abandoned, leaving
room for Delsin's graffiti art motif, but it worked. The particle and lighting
effects of Delsin's powers were unmatched at the time,
and the rainy Seattle weather was rendered in ways modern
gaming audiences had never seen before. Sucker Punch really
played this up, filling the world
with neon lights, natural sunlight, and the
bright colors associated with Delsin's various powers. On the whole, Second Son
has the lowest reviews of all the games except the
supplemental prequel Infamous-- First Light, but
despite the criticisms of the story, main character,
and misuse of the series karma system, the visuals and fun
factor were enough for most. The game outsold all
of its predecessors and became one of the
best-selling PS4 titles, moving over a million
copies in just nine days. By now, you should
recognize the pattern of Infamous selling
well and getting another installment green
lit, but as of recording, that hasn't happened. While rumors of another game
have been floating around for years, Sucker Punch
has no official plans to return to the series. After all their experimentation,
drastic changing, and player pleasing, they
still dropped Infamous, but the question is why. Infamous is still fun. No matter which
iteration players jumped into for
their first time, there was plenty of enjoyment
to be had with the series' superpowered antics. The most realistic answer is
that the developers have moved on to bigger and
arguably better things, and it's preferable to go
out willingly with respect before you're forced
out by failure. To go from Sly Cooper to
Infamous to Ghost of Tsushima is no small feat,
and Sucker Punch doesn't make a habit
of revisiting a series after they're done with them. But who's to say they
can't break that habit? There's still time for Sucker
Punch to build up their karma and give Infamous the
good ending it deserves. Thanks so much for
watching today's video. Be sure to let us
in the comments whether you'd like to see
another Infamous game. And while you're at
it, like the video and subscribe to
Nerdstalgic Gaming if you want more
content like this.
