GDC 2009: Infamous Hands-On

[Susan Arendt]

GDC 2009: Infamous Hands-On

You can choose to play as either a superhero or supervillain in Infamous, but only one option looks like it?s likely to be much fun.

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[KDR_11k]

Pfft, The Witcher actually had you decide in situations where it wasn't just "Mother Theresa" or "Eat Babies". A bunch of elves arrive in the shadow of the night, they want to take some supply crates behind you. Do you let them take those or not? What makes it difficult is that the elves are terrorists and if you help them you probably get humans killed but if you stand in their way you'll probably have to kill them.

 

[Aries_Split]

Pfft, The Witcher actually had you decide in situations where it wasn't just "Mother Theresa" or "Eat Babies". A bunch of elves arrive in the shadow of the night, they want to take some supply crates behind you. Do you let them take those or not? What makes it difficult is that the elves are terrorists and if you help them you probably get humans killed but if you stand in their way you'll probably have to kill them.

The Witcher, now THAT was Role Playing done right.

Anything by Bioware is usually not any better when it comes to moral gray.

I'd have to say that the one game that really made me care about the characters was Baldur's Gate 1 and 2.

You just don't get Character Development like that any more.

For instance, you get hired in a small town to protect a woman from robbers, yet when the robbers show up, they act like they have no idea what she's talking about, and instead claim she wants them dead.

I really had to think about that one.

And after the choice I made, I was never satisfied.

 

[KDR_11k]

Somewhat. The elves are also a minority that is being oppressed by the humans.

 

[scarbunny]

I hate the way karma is handled in games take the whole food thing as it stand you give them food they are happy you are good or keep the food they die you are bad.

In the real world though its not so simple your actions don’t have instant results. How about you give them the food, they are happy for a while then they eat all the food then people start getting angry thinking other people are hiding food, riots begin lots of people die. Or you give them the food and the bad people with guns come along and take the food away selling it to the poor people for a huge mark up or just keeping it thus you have made the bad men stronger and caused suffering.

Where as you could keep the food, then a little later get some of the good people of the town to hand out food sensibly, because depending on the level of starvation at that point giving them all the food they wont may end up killing them any way.

 

[KDR_11k]

Or you run into a Schlock Mercenary Credomar-habitat style situation where you've got at least five groups who all claim they'll handle the food properly and you have to pick where the food should go (or just install a robot dictator)

 

[scarbunny]

Somewhat. The elves are also a minority that is being oppressed by the humans.

Pray, what else drives a real person to terrorism?

I hate the way karma is handled in games take the whole food thing as it stand you give them food they are happy you are good or keep the food they die you are bad.

In the real world though its not so simple your actions don’t have instant results. How about you give them the food, they are happy for a while then they eat all the food then people start getting angry thinking other people are hiding food, riots begin lots of people die. Or you give them the food and the bad people with guns come along and take the food away selling it to the poor people for a huge mark up or just keeping it thus you have made the bad men stronger and caused suffering.

Where as you could keep the food, then a little later get some of the good people of the town to hand out food sensibly, because depending on the level of starvation at that point giving them all the food they wont may end up killing them any way.

Actually, thats what happens.

Fair enough then, the article seemed to imply a more fable-esqe black and white system.

 

[Susan Arendt]

I'll play the virtuous path, yes I won't be ure destruction, but I couldn't turn my back on people in need.

but the real morale choice comes in the middle of a fight, the pass-byer your running low on electricity, do you kill the poor person for some much needed juice, or keep yourself a hero through and through?

The impression I get is that if you're a hero, then you can't use your powers to harm the way you can if you're evil. So in the case of drawing current from a random passerby you either won't be able to at all, or you'll only be able to pull out a little. I hope to spend some more time with the game while I'm here. I'll give you my further impressions if I do.

 

[Aries_Split]

Somewhat. The elves are also a minority that is being oppressed by the humans.

Pray, what else drives a real person to terrorism?

I hate the way karma is handled in games take the whole food thing as it stand you give them food they are happy you are good or keep the food they die you are bad.

In the real world though its not so simple your actions don’t have instant results. How about you give them the food, they are happy for a while then they eat all the food then people start getting angry thinking other people are hiding food, riots begin lots of people die. Or you give them the food and the bad people with guns come along and take the food away selling it to the poor people for a huge mark up or just keeping it thus you have made the bad men stronger and caused suffering.

Where as you could keep the food, then a little later get some of the good people of the town to hand out food sensibly, because depending on the level of starvation at that point giving them all the food they wont may end up killing them any way.

Actually, thats what happens.

Fair enough then, the article seemed to imply a more fable-esqe black and white system.

*dances*
Now forgive the fact I just destroyed half the town.

Here's some food.

 

[Rodger]

inFamous...one of the few PS3 exclusives that actually catches my interest. I wouldn't buy a system just for that (I'm already getting it for Disgaea 3 and Cross Edge anyway, both also exclusive to the PS3) but its certainly something I'll be picking up. Needs to be an inFamous 2 down the road somewhere, though, that gives more options than just shooting electricity. Not that its a bad super power, but some options would be nice.

 

[DaxStrife]

Now this is something I've been waiting to see for a long time: a game where the evil path is easy. As much as I like games that let you choose your moral direction in some way, it's always been easier and more rewarding to take the good-guy path. That was especially true for Bioshock: the evil path nets more Adam up front, but the good path nets a lot more Adam over time, as well as bonus special ammo, cash and plasmids.
And now this game finally looks to admit that it's easier to torch a building than put it out.

 

[Night_Wolf]

Now this is something I've been waiting to see for a long time: a game where the evil path is easy. As much as I like games that let you choose your moral direction in some way, it's always been easier and more rewarding to take the good-guy path. That was especially true for Bioshock: the evil path nets more Adam up front, but the good path nets a lot more Adam over time, as well as bonus special ammo, cash and plasmids.
And now this game finally looks to admit that it's easier to torch a building than put it out.

This game is one of the few games that actualy makes me want to buy a PS3 just so i can play this game and nothing else. I have been compareing it to Prototype in a couple of different ways but i personaly have my heart set for Prototype when it comes out. This game along with Prototype makes me proud of how far this type of game has come

 

[Jumplion]

See, I'm worried with the whole Karma system in InFamous, hell I made an article [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.85219?page=1] on this sort of system.

A while back I heard that in InFamous, if you're really bad the citizens throw rocks at you and curse at you. But if you're really good, they help out and cheer for you.

In that case, the game is punishing you for playing how you wanted to play. I don't get that, why would you punish me for wanting to play the game my way, good or evil?

I'm worried about the Karma system in InFamous, it just seems really obvious and something that they just wanted to do because it was "cool" at the time. I want the system to work, but so far Sucker Punch are tight-liped about any other choices and all the choices they've told us are so extremely obvious as to which is the "right" answer.

This [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlOXAtPvMDk] is a good video for this purpose.