The weeks before inFAMOUS was released, I would easily mistake inFAMOUS for Prototype and vice versa when I was just glancing at the trailers. And I always thought that Cole (from inFAMOUS) looked a little too much like the apprentice from Star Wars: the Force Unleashed, especially with the lightning powers.

Having played inFAMOUS, I now am convinced Cole is from a galaxy far far away. He can shoot lightning from his hands much like the Emperor, he can use a force push power much like any decent jedi, and he can deflect incoming grenades and such with these powers.

Cole feels like a mash up of heroes. He can climb any surface and fall from any height unscathed, not entirely unlike Spider-Man. He has the powers of a jedi. He can acquire a power called "Gigawatt Blades" which are basically electric Wolverine claws. And he talks like Max Payne, which is awesome. This mash up works very well, though, and not once while playing do you think "damn, this would be better suited as a Spider-Man game," or something similar. The whole collection of abilities works incredibly well.

Gamers excited for God of War III could find a temporary fill in this game also as the gameplay bares a striking resemblance to that of the previous God of War games in that you gain experience points for killing enemies, finding blast shards (that give you the ability to hold more energy, or mana), and performing stunts or special kills. You can then use these experience points to upgrade Cole's powers. Some of Cole's powers can only be unlocked if you are good or if you are evil, so you will definitely get a different result playing through the game a second time. Replay value? Check!

A big emphasis of this game was to give the player a choice to be a hero or antihero, saving Empire city or destroying Empire city. At times, you will be bluntly confronted by a choice. For example, a police officer comes to you for help because his station is being attacked by the Reapers (the token bad guys), and Cole says to himself, "I can either step in between now and help save the police station, or I can wait until the firefight's over and deal with whoever's left." So, you can either step in and help save the police station and get good karma, or you can wait for the two warring parties to duke it out, and get bad karma. You can also do as you please as you roam around the city - you can kill pedestrians for fun, or you can leave them alone. You can find injured civilians and heal them, or you can be a real dick and restrain them and execute them. All of these actions contribute to your karmic rating.

A lot of people complained saying that these karmic moments and choices are too black and white and that you never get to pick anything in between or know Cole's true motives and such. I have to disagree - the true motives and such are from you, the player. And the choices are black and white because there is no gray area. As with the police station example mentioned earlier, what gray choice could you make? Wait til only half the firefight is over? Opt to bring the police officers refreshments instead of fight? The black and white choices work very well in the situations they present.

The graphics for the game are the only real disappointment. Being a PS3 exclusive, I was hoping to see more eye popping visuals and detail. The city is pretty big and the view distance is rather generous and the environment, for the most part, is rather detailed. However, the character models look a little like this game was supposed to be a launch title. This is painfully obvious every time you start a mission and the camera zooms in on a character asking your for help. If the characters looked like those in Killzone 2, that would grab anyone's attention, but unfortunately, they do not look that good. I did expect more out of a PS3 exclusive. If you were a fan of Max Payne's comic book cut scenes, you would definitely be sucked into inFAMOUS's story.

Voice acting for the important characters is well done. Voice acting for the side missions and such is up to bar, but bland and, if you are in the right mood, will make you giggle. Also, your comic side kick Zeke will say the dumbest things, which is great. The one annoying sound in the game has got to be Cole's shoes. Every time you run, it sounds like he's running on something rubbery and metallic. Its indescribable and also rather annoying if you focus on it. Thankfully you spend most of your time dangling from buildings and hopping from power lines and such so that you don't have to dwell on it.

The game offers three difficulty settings, and the hardest difficulty will definitely give you a challenge as you can easily become overwhelmed by Reapers everywhere. They are like a plague and, sometimes, they will be out of reach of your lightning strikes but still in reach of their AKs and they will snipe you down from a distant rooftop before you even know what happened. If you are not careful, it is easy to be overwhelmed by these guys.

All said and done, inFAMOUS is a must have for any PS3 owner, not only because its exclusive but because it is a ton of fun, has a ton of missions and activities available for completing, and the story is intriguing. I've been hooked on this came since it's release and it is the reason Red Faction Guerrilla and Prototype have yet to be opened.