Look Back: How Naughty Dog Changed Superheroes In Gaming With Infamous

Intro

Superheroes have been a part of gaming for as long as developers have had the tech and skills to put them into the industry. From Spiderman being featured in various titles to different Marvel characters being thrust into fighting games Like Children of the Atom or Marvel Superheros and several DC superheroes receiving their stellar standalones, these costumed heroes have cemented their place in gaming for as long as they were able. Yet Naughty Dog, which is more well-known these days for The Last of Us, Uncharted, and Ghost of Tsushima, broke the mold with their take on a superhero game that would reshape the tropes that come with the genre for years to come: Infamous.

The Setting

To understand what made Infamous so unique, we need to know where it occurs, namely, in the fictional city of Empire City, which gets devastated by a blast that rocks the New York-based location to its foundations, killing thousands and making life a struggle for those that survived. In the center of the explosion is Cole Macgrath, a man who now finds himself with electrical-based powers and a significant headache in dealing with a city seeking to tear him and itself apart when it is barely holding together. With a plague forcing the government to prevent anyone from leaving and gangs carving up entire districts, it's up to Cole to save what's left of his home or to destroy what's left of it in his quest for power.

Morality

As alluded to above, this isn't your average superhero game. It's a game where you effectively get to decide if Cole Macgrath follows the path of a hero or villain, depending on your choices. Whether it's saving lives or sacrificing others to make life more convenient for you, this is a title where your preferences truly matter while affecting how others close and afar see you. However, this level of morality is far from surface-level like in other games. It won't just affect the story or the ending or how other people treat you, but it also affects your powers. A concept that is tightly woven into the gaming mechanics of this tile.

Karmic Influence

As you prove yourself to be a savior or butcher of the many, you'll unlock more electricity based-powers depending on your moral alignment, with apparent differences depending on the path you choose. Even your appearance changes with Cole becoming paler with dark markings covering his body, with red lightning pulsating from his fingertips should you follow the path of infamy. The more cruel and selfish acts he commits, the more destructive and powerful his attacks become, like the shock grenade being able to break apart and cause more destruction to an area, or with arc lightning, which enables him to chain a multitude of targets. What truly separates these attacks from their 'good' counterparts is that they're much more lethal and can cause a living target to explode, in arc lightning's case.

Death and how you handle enemies and civilians are the critical gameplay differences in both playthroughs. Should you err on the side of good, healing civilians and restraining enemies to the ground instead of murder will earn you more positive karmic points. Killing anyone on-site and if you're genuinely greedy, absorbing their lifeforce to refuel your electrical energy isn't going to make you seem like much of a paragon of virtue. What makes these moral choices feel so impactful compared to other games is how they're tied into both the story and the game mechanics and how you can have multiple playthroughs to enjoy the experience fully. Playing the hero or the villain creates more than just a cosmetic change to Cole, unlike in other games. It changes the way he can fight and interact with his surroundings.

Gameplay

However, a good concept and a great story cannot carry a game alone. If the previously mentioned elements don't blend to create a fun game, it was all for naught. Thankfully Naughty Dog knew precisely what they were doing when making an open-world game that combined in naturally with Coles's abilities. His ability to move throughout Empire City with smooth parkour movement with many methods to fry enemies up close or from a distance makes going through the story of this title beyond addicting and engaging.

Plus, players have a wealth of options in dealing with their foes! If you want to test your accuracy, try frying the skull of a gangster with a lightning bolt. Want a kill you can feel satisfied with? Use an electromagnetic shockwave to shove them off ledges or anywhere you, please. Want to brag about getting multiple kills at once? The Shock grenade is your friend. What's better is you can even use the environment to your advantage by conducting water to fry anyone standing in or on it, or even blowing up vehicles to give enemies the privilege of going out in a blaze of glory. These attack methods are only scratching the surface of what you're capable of as you progress through the game, giving you countless options to approach certain hostile situations.

The Immersion

Ultimately, all of these elements created a fantastic game that spanned multiple sequels and inspired other games to follow its style. What truly set it apart from other superhero-themed games was the originality worked into the title. Whether good or bad, Cole is a relatable character thrust into a highly stressful life where he has to find a way through being a living, breathing battery while juggling his personal life in a dying city. A city where many people blame him for his circumstances and are just trying to live another day. The comic-book-style cutscenes supported by a grimy, dirty, and desperate atmosphere in Empire city, where this once thriving metropolis is literally scarred by a blast that shook it to its core, make for a fantastic world to live the life of a hero or an infamous villain as you please. It truly was an incredible innovation of gaming and how a superhero is perceived within a particular medium. Plus if rumors about Naughty Dog making yet another sequel for this series are true, it'll only further cement its success and popularity.