inFamous is an upcoming game developed by Sucker Punch Productions (Creators of the Sly Cooper franchise), the game is a 3rd person sandbox game in which you control a character name Cole McGrath (Bike messenger and resident of "Empire City"). inFamous combines games like City of Heroes and Grand Theft Auto, creating an open ended superhero game world, allowing for the player to choose the path of the hero or antihero. Enough though, I'm sure you're all dying to know how the game plays out, hit the jump for the chills and thrills.

inFamous starts like any good game does, with an explosion. A pan of Empire City shows a huge blue hemisphere engulfing the city, destroying everything. It cuts to Cole talking about the explosion, and how he was caught in it. Unconscious for weeks as the city began to fall, desperate bands of criminals vied for power. Murder, rape and thievery were all common place in Empire City. No cops to stand against the gangs as those who attempted bravery are now dead, and the rest are too afraid to do anything. Not only that but some kind of plague has struck the city, allowing the government to quarantine the whole place, locking in innocent civilians with all the murdering psychos. Cole goes on to explain that he was gifted with new found electrical powers, and he has an inner struggle to decide his path. Everything bar the explosion at the beginning of the game is shown through comic book style screen-shots, it looks great and gives the game a really superhuman feel.

It's game time. At the beginning of the demo it shows you the controls, which are extremely simple to use but there is a deeper level to them than meets the eye. You are given a number of powers to play around with, although most of them aren't available at the start of the retail game (they have to give you something to mess with in the Demo or it'd be no fun). Some of the powers you are given are; Lightning Bolt, Shockwave, Shock Grenade and Thunder Drop, each of these are unique and just as awesome as each other.

The more intense electrical powers use "Batteries" which are displayed in your top right corner, run out of these and you have no juice. Cole can only manipulate energy, not create it. Luckily by pressing R3 all sources of power are highlighted on your mini-map, so you can run to one and suck all its electricity. Although the Lightning Bolt doesn't use this up, and you can use it to recharge yourself by electrifying objects than sucking power out of them. Perpetual energy!

Not only is the fighting awesome, but running around Empire City like a madman is just as enjoyable. The free running is very cool, as you can grind along telephone wires and train tracks at high speeds to get to your destination. Another cool power is the ability to hover by holding the R1 button in the air, it allows for some wicked maneuverability at high speeds as it slows your descent. Through the times I've played through the demo around 65% of them was just running around taking on goons. Its great fun and you don't get bored of the powers as there are endless combinations!

There is quite a lot of content in the actual demo. As far as I am aware the whole of Empire City is available to you, although there isn't much to do! Four missions to be precise, two as evil Cole and two as good. Doing the missions in specific ways doesn't affect your karma meter in the demo so feel free to kill everything you see. The first mission involves you escorting a train full of civilians to safety, the second has you fighting Reapers who are contaminating the water supply. The last two involve protecting a medical crate and tracking down and destroying a Reaper van. All four of the missions are great fun, although Evil Cole's electricity tends to make things explode a lot more.

Although I previously stated that there isn't much to do in Empire City save for the missions, there is one other thing. Throughout the city are little blue lightning bolt shards that increase your batteries. These aren't essential for demo completion, but tracking them down while kicking Reaper ass is damn fun, especially as a lot of them are difficult to find. I had just as much fun shard hunting as I did doing the missions, which says a lot about the game's longevity. I can't see myself getting bored of this demo, even with the limited content.

The demo plays great, the only way to describe playing it to someone who hasn't would be... It plays how it looks; damn awesome. I'd have to say that my overall impression of the demo is that I'm very impressed. Normally for a game hyped this much you'd expect some kind of let down with the gameplay, of course we won't know till the full retail game is released. But as far as the demo goes, it WILL make you want the full game, and isn't that the purpose of a demo? inFamous is the most fun I've had in a sandbox game since GTA Vice City, and it's worth a look. inFamous will be released on May 26th exclusively for the PS3. I've already got my copy pre-ordered.