Game Day: Power – for good or evil
Players in "Infamous" have complete freedom to explore Empire City and watch events unfold based on the role they play and the actions they have taken.
One minute, Cole MacGrath is on a courier run with a strange package; the next, he's the only survivor of an explosion that's taken out several blocks of Empire City.
The blast leaves Cole with superpowers – and how he uses them determines if he'll be famous or "Infamous," as the game's title suggests.
Two weeks after the incident, the government has quarantined the city, and violent gangs rule the streets. But something's not normal about these gangs.
The black tar they're pumping into the water supply is a dead giveaway, and there are plenty of other hints that there's more to this quarantine – and the disaster – than meets the eye.
Cole can reach practically anything he can see, high and low, and that's no superpower. He's just really good at climbing and balancing on narrow poles and thin cables, and his new abilities enable him to shrug off long falls.
Empire City is a fun place to explore above all else. The town is littered with collectible items and side missions, and Cole's actions have a noticeable effect on the city. New areas open up as Cole moves through the game's intriguing main story line.
Completing side missions in a neighborhood will prevent the gangs from returning there, making it much easier to get around than when they're taking potshots at Cole from the rooftops.
Cole's superpowers allow him to control, absorb and project electricity at will. He can shoot small bursts of lightning, throw a shockwave of energy, cause an explosion upon landing and deliver charged punches and kicks. He can pin stunned enemies to the ground for good or give injured citizens a jolt to heal them.
Cole can always perform his basic actions – shooting, climbing, healing and so on. But for the fancy stuff like his lightning grenades and precision shots, he has to stay juiced up, which he does by drawing power from cars, transformers, generators, air-conditioning units – anything with energy.
Cole may have superpowers, but he doesn't have to be a superhero. He can opt to kill or immobilize civilians instead of healing them, and he can fatally draw the bioelectricity from downed foes and citizens to recharge his batteries.
And then there are the moral choices the game's missions offer him – for example, whether to induce a crowd to riot against police barring exit from the city, or to charge the line himself at the risk of harm.
In general, evil choices will harm others, and good choices will harm Cole.
PICKS AND PANS
Boom Blox Bash Party
4 stars
"Boom Blox Bash Party" offers more of the block- toppling physics mayhem of the original game while shoring up its weaknesses and adding a healthy dose of new stuff.
There's more of everything – more "blox"; more toys to knock them over with, such as a slingshot and a cannon; more cute, blocky characters; and more ways to play.
The game is broken up into several categories of challenges. Players of the first game will recognize some, such as the Jenga-like block-removal game and the standard demolition game. But a host of levels are now set in zero gravity or arm the player with paint balls to play a match-three puzzle game, among other new styles.
Players can now upload levels they design and download new ones freely, and each game type has an option to search for more levels of that kind.
Nintendo Wii; $39.99 • Age rating: Everyone
Ninja Blade
2 1/2 stars
"Ninja Blade" crosses parts of "Ninja Gaiden" and "God of War," aping the former's acrobatic hack-and-slash game-play style and adding the Simon-like timing challenges of the latter.
The result is an action game that's bogged down by its overly frequent timing challenges and a rather nasty difficulty level that can lead to frustration.
The plot is ridiculous stuff, with worms that mutate their hosts into all sorts of monsters, and the ninja squad sent in to eradicate an infestation of them in Tokyo. It's an excuse to fight all sorts of gross beasties, and Ken's arsenal of upgradeable swords and elemental shuriken is entertaining to use.
Microsoft Xbox 360; $59.99 • Age rating: Mature
Fable II: See the Future Pack
3 stars
The second downloadable add-on for "Fable II" includes a handful of new quests and a bunch of new items.
"See the Future" feels a bit lighter than the previous add-on, "Knothole Island," but what it has is interesting. Murgo the trader has some new items for sale. These include some new clothing, face paint, hairstyles and some potions that turn the hero's dog into different breeds and back again.
He also has a few enchanted items. The first quest involves a trip into a cursed snow-globe world leeched of its hues by primary-colored phantoms. The second is a journey into a cursed skull that involves dressing up like various monsters to help break a necromancer's curse. And finally there's a brief vision of the future.
After the new quests are done, players may enter a new version of the colosseum to earn prizes by fighting wave after wave of enemies.
Microsoft Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade download); $10 (800 Microsoft Points) • Age rating: Mature
– Justin Hoeger