Developer Sucker Punch Productions wants you to step back into New Marais after dark with inFamous 2: Festival of Blood. Should you leave this downloadable standalone game to the vampire slayers out there, or should you jump in and help out? Are you ready to put aside your worst nightmares and put a stop to the new threat? Read our review to find out.
inFamous: Festival of Blood is a PlayStation Network downloadable standalone game and it’s not just a sequel to the infamous series. It’s more than just that and it deserves more credit.
We are heading back to New Marais, where some things are best kept buried and undisturbed. It’s Pyre Night and Vampires have taken over the city and have bitten Cole. His soul is now in danger and you only have one night to save him. With the help of your buddy Zeke Dunbar, of course. This is where things get very interesting.
Seeing the success with infamous 2, Sucker Punch Productions decided to go a different path with this installment. Festival of Blood still maintains the same formula as the previous game from controls, graphics, locations and characters and it’s a game that gives you a wild ride from beginning to end. The story is told from Zeke’s imagination (It happens during the story from infamous 2) after he encounters a young beautiful woman at a bar. Zeke, being the guy he is, you probably know what his intentions are. Trying to impress her, he begins telling her how he saved the life of Cole MacGrath, “The Demon of Empire City”, in New Marais on “Pyre Night”, where people get to celebrate non-stop until dawn.
The game does a very well job introducing you into the story and some of the new mechanics for the game, one of them now being able to play it with the PlayStation Move (and navigation controller). Just as the previous two inFamous games, for those who are new to the series it shows you the basic controls right from the start and the same goes if you are using the PS Move. Both of the controllers are smooth and responsive as always. The PS Move is a great addition to the game. It adds a new level of gameplay, challenge, and entertainment. The voice acting is great. You will get hooked on the story right from the start.
Cole gets taken by force to an underground catacombs where he will resurrect non-other than Bloody Mary by using Cole’s blood. Once resurrected, she takes a bite of him, not only bringing her to her full strength but giving Cole a little present as a thank you for bringing her back from the dead. Now Cole is half vampire and if Bloody Mary is not stopped by dawn, he will turn into Bloody Mary’s loyal servant for eternity.
This time around the “Karma” decisions aren’t in the game. The story is given to you with no different path to take. Also in Festival of Blood, the leveling up system experience points from infamous 2 aren’t carried over. Instead, you upgrade your powers and gain new ones by completing mission and doing that in a very interesting way. You start the game with the basic powers; bolts, grenades, and melee combat moves. In order to upgrade the powers you must seize enemies in various ways and a certain amount of times in order to gain a new power or level up an existing power. To explain this a bit further, Finish 10 vampires with the stake and you get a certain power to level up. Break 15 Blood Jars that are scatter around the city and you get a new power. A new power that you gain after being bitten by Bloody Mary is the ability to fly, yes fly, anywhere you desire. This power does have its limit, and since Cole is half vampire you will need to bite on a human to refill that meter in order to use the Shadow Swarm power. Later on in the story you will also gain a new power, this will let you see though object and people. Vampire vision, think of it as X-ray vision, and this will come in very handy to locate hidden paths, objects, and track down vampires.
Despite, being a short game, Infamous: Festival of Blood is a blasting ride that you won’t forget. Being part of the Only On PSN games, this game comes with a $9.99 price tag and with a download size of 3095 MB (3.1 GB). The game is a ton of fun, and the User Generated Content (UGC) also makes its way into Festival of Blood. Through-out the main story you will be able to play some of the UGC that Sucker Punch Productions created as a small taste of what you can do. The UGC is fully accessible once you have beat the game. Another new feature that they have added is the use comic book style storytelling to tell any UGC story in a deeper, richer way.
I highly recommend that you give this downloadable game a try.
8.5
