inFAMOUS is half platformer, half third-person shooter. Platforming through the city consists of running or grinding across wires and gliding through the air. There are many missions where you will have to race through the city in timed sequences; so, you must learn to use the wires and gliding to your best advantage. There are also missions in the sewers where you will have to do some more traditional platforming, jumping from platform to platform or pole to pole – in some cases, you'll have to jump to moving objects or jump to platforms that fall away, forcing you to make your next jump quickly.
Combat makes up the primary action in the game and there's plenty of it. You'll face off against three gangs: the Reapers in the Neon (first island); the Dust Men in the Warren (second island); and, the First Sons in the Historic District (third island). Each gang has similar types of members, as outlined on the Enemies page.
The gangs get tougher as you reach new islands; fortunately, so do you. You'll constantly earn new powers and be able to upgrade those powers as you play. Also, as you play you'll reach Karma Moments. These decisions affect whether you are considered Good (Heroic) or Evil (Infamous). The game changes a little bit depending on your path, but not much. The biggest change is to the types of Powers and upgrades you receive.
Contrary to many of the reviews, the moral choices are not subtle or powerful or anything other than the typical black and white choices common in most games (with one exception). You should be able to easily figure out which is the Good option and which the Evil since the Evil option almost always involves other people getting hurt.
Difficulty[edit]
There are three difficulty levels in inFAMOUS: Easy, Medium and Hard. Easy and Medium difficulties vary mostly in the number and frequency of random enemy spawns. On Hard difficulty, not only do random spawns increase, but the mobs are harder to take down and you earn less XP from each take down and stunt. (You still get the same amount of XP from completing missions.) Here's a comparison of the difficulty levels from the Neon:
| Factor | Easy/Medium | Hard |
|---|---|---|
| Number of Bolts to take down a basic Reaper | 3 | 4 |
| Gunner XP per Reaper | 5 | 3 |
| RPG XP per Reaper | 15 | 10 |
| Conduit XP per Reaper | 25 | 17 |
Missions[edit]
The game features a mix of both story missions – marked on your map with a blue exclamation mark in a blue circle – and side missions – marked on your map with a yellow exclamation mark in a yellow circle. Most directions are given in cardinal points based on the compass of the mini-map. While the mini-map rotates with the camera, there's an arrow on the outer ring that shows north. You can calculate cardinal directions from that compass point.
Story missions are worth 500 XP. Story missions that take you into the sewers to re-establish power will also earn you additional powers. Most story missions have a Karma Moment that gives you a big boost to your positive or negative karma. Story missions begin as soon as you walk into the marker.
There is no new game plus mode. Once you finish the story missions, you can wander around the city killing random bad guys, finishing side missions and hunting down Blast Shards and Dead Drops. If you want to start a new game, you start on a new file with zero experience and all your Powers reset to the beginning of the game level.
Side Missions[edit]
There are a total of 99 side missions in the game. Sixty-nine missions are neutral and can be completed by any player. Thirty missions are split between Good and Evil side missions (15 each) and can only be completed by a player with the same Karma. The Good side missions are marked by having the yellow circle filled with blue; the Evil side missions are filled with red. Side missions are worth 100 XP. Good and Evil side missions are also used to purchase Good or Evil powers.
When you complete side missions, you clear territory. The game will tell you enemies will not return to the cleared territory. The game lies. Random enemy spawns will drastically decrease in cleared territory, but they will still occur. You can clear every territory (there are 84 total) in every district and still encounter random mobs.
Karma[edit]
Missions do not change your Karma. The only Karma changes come from Karma Moments and from certain actions. For example, healing a civilian gives you Good Karma. If you heal some civilians while you are doing a mission, you can end up getting Good Karma for the mission – even if it's an Evil side mission. Likewise, killing civilians gives you Evil Karma, so you can end up with Evil Karma while doing a Good mission because you accidentally killed some civvies while completing the mission. Not to worry though, the big Karma changes come from the Karma Moments, and it's always easy to rack up Good or Evil Karma just by going around healing or killing pedestrians.
You can't achieve Hero or Infamous Karma rank until you have completed one of the three story missions in the Warren: Alden Strikes, Spy Drones or Standard Protocol.
Death and saving[edit]
inFAMOUS uses a no-penalty system for dying, which is good because you will die a lot. If you die while on a mission, you will restart at the last checkpoint. Checkpoints are not noted while you play, but they are plentiful, so you never have to replay a huge amount of the mission again. If you die outside a mission, you will respawn at the closest clinic or other safe spot (e.g. Zeke's pad).
When you load a game, you always start back at the closest clinic or safe spot to the point where you last saved your game. This is also the case if you save your game in the middle of a mission and the mission will have to be started all over again. inFAMOUS auto saves your game after each mission; so, you'll never lose hours of game time from not saving – unless it takes you hours to do a mission, which should never be the case.
If you save your game while on a mission, you will reload with the mission not started. It's like abandoning the mission. Don't start any missions unless you have time to finish them.
Combat[edit]
Melee attacks are next to useless. The gang members you fight are all ranged attackers and they're crack shots. (The exceptions are the kamikaze bombers that blow up when you touch them. Don't want to melee those guys.) You'll rely heavily on your standard Lightning Bolt attack since it has unlimited ammo.
Don't forget Thunder Drop. If gang members are congregating below you, drop on them like a bomb.
Utilize cover. You can aim and fire while crouched behind objects (press 
when near objects you can use as cover, such as low walls, columns, etc.). You can also aim and fire while hanging off walls, cargo boxes, trains, etc.
Keep an eye and ear out for special opponents (Conduits, machine gunners, etc.) Take them out quickly before turning your attention to the regular mobs.
Don't worry much about collateral damage, even if playing Hero. Civilians are very, very good about getting in the way during firefights and there's no way to avoid killing some of them. Even though the Heroic path emphasizes precision and avoiding pedestrian deaths, you won't lose too many Karma points and you can make those up easily by going around healing the injured after the battle.
Hints and tips[edit]
- Movement
Keep to the rooftops. Once you get Grinding and Thrusters powers, the rooftops are much faster. Also, on the street, you're a sitting duck for all the gang snipers that hang out on the roofs. The streets are also where the heaviest concentration of random gangs are, so staying on the rooftops gives you the ability to get the drop on them.
- Recharging
You can create your own energy source by filling a metal object with electricity from your Lightning Bolts (which never run out) and then sucking that energy back out to heal and recharge your meter. Objects that work well for this are buses, HVAC units, already blown-out cars, etc. Basically, if something starts sparking when you shoot it, you can unload your own electrical power on it and then use it to restore your electrical power.
Sucking electricity heals you as well as recharges your Battery Cores. So, even if your energy meter is full, it can be a good idea to suck some electricity if your health is running low.
Clear territories by doing side missions and then going on Blast Shard hunts through the cleared areas. You're going to need those extra Battery Cores as the game progresses.
- XP
There are several missions where you are given unlimited energy and you have to defend something (a bus, a helicopter, a prison, etc.). During these missions, you will face wave after wave of enemies and rack up lots of experience points. If you are killed, you keep all earned XP, but you have to go back and fight a lot of the same enemies again.
Harvesting: blow up a bunch of bad guys, then kill yourself by planting a Grenade at your feet. Start over from the last checkpoint and earn all that XP again. The cheapest way to do this is on the final substation run, Vengeance. During that mission you have to power up three substations above-ground and you have just been given the Lightning Storm power. When you reach the last substation, blast the first two waves of First Sons and part of the third wave and then suicide. Rinse and repeat until you have all the XP you want. On Hard mode, you can earn about 500 XP each time, or get about 800 XP on Medium or Easy mode.