It’s that special time of year again where all the kids dress up and run around all jacked on candy. Yes, it’s almost Halloween and that means television is absolutely plagued with Halloween specials. Now think of inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood as a Halloween special to your favourite television show. Everything you know and love about it is there, but something’s a little off. The familiar faces you’ve grown fond of are put into paranormal situations that would never occur if not for Halloween. A Treehouse of Horror, if you will. There haven’t been many videogame franchises subjected to the Halloween special format, but thankfully, inFAMOUS was.
Festival of Blood opens up with Zeke sitting at a bar when an attractive lady strolls up to the bar and asks for a drink. Being the gentlemen Zeke is, he offers to buy the round and, through some convincing, gets the lady to join him for a story. Zeke tells a tale of Cole becoming a vampire and having to hunt down Bloody Mary, the leader of the vampires, and kill her to become human again. This is the basis for the game and what you’re pushing toward for the duration of it. It’s not the most complicated story, but what it lacks in depth, it makes up for in its backstory.
Now I’m a big fan of historical vampire stories and there is some really awesome backstory in this game. One of the collectibles you can accumulate is Mary’s Teachings which are basically tales of her past ventures as a cold, hard, vampiric bitch. These stories are spoken by the blood-sucking Mary as if she was reading from her diary, and are told fantastically well. Most of the teachings give Cole more reason to throw a stake through her ice-cold heart, but one or two of them actually had me cheering for her. However they make you feel, they are a fantastic part of this game and should not be shrugged off like most collectibles in open-world games. Oh yeah, this $10 downloadable game has an open world.
When Sucker Punch announced its Halloween-themed downloadable inFAMOUS title, I didn’t think they would give the player an open world to explore. But when I started up the game, I was proven wrong. The entire first area of New Marais is available for players to explore. Not only that, but New Marais is having a Pyre’s Night festival and the city is absolutely bursting with life! It feels, sounds, and looks exactly like an actual festival or block party. In fact, the people of New Marais are drinking and having such a good time that they hardly notice Cole sneaking up and sucking the blood out of his victims. As the party dies down, though, people will start to notice his bloodsucking antics and run for dear life.
Along with vampires, the game has brought in some very humorous moments. References to Twilight and Spider-Man are among the memorable lines that fill this game to the brim with charm. And I don’t know if Zeke is growing on me or if his character is just getting less annoying, but he actually delivers some very funny and entertaining dialogue. Joining the humor, UGC (User Generated Content) missions from inFAMOUS 2 make a return, and Sucker Punch has added a new feature to the mission creator. Players can now create their own comic strips to place in their missions as cutscenes. This change to the user-generated content isn’t huge, but it makes the missions far more entertaining and rewarding to play through. If you need more incentive, upon completing enough UGC missions, you can earn upgraded and new powers.
And what’s inFAMOUS without its powers? Not much. Thankfully, Festival of Blood brings in some cool, new vampire powers fresh out of the coffin for Cole! First off, there is absolutely no karmic meter in this game and none of Cole’s actions are seen as good or bad. Instead, the karmic meter is replaced by a blood meter, which is filled by feeding on helpless civilians and depleted by using Cole’s new powers. Shadow Swarm transforms Cole into an army of bats and gives him the ability to fly more quickly. It became very useful when I needed to get to the top of a building or chase down an enemy. Another useful power is Vampire Sense, which is very similar to Arkham City‘s detective mode, and gives Cole a heightened sense of his surroundings. And replacing Cole’s amp is a giant stake which you use to finish off every vampire in the game. It may only be a press of a button, but damn is it fun to impale those wretched bloodsuckers with it.
Festival of Blood is inFAMOUS 2 with vampires. In a lot of ways, that is true. All of the great gameplay, traversal, and music return, and that’s not a bad thing at all. It has a few extremely minor sound issues, but the action-packed gameplay, great atmosphere, and open world make this one of the best downloadable titles around. And with a price tag of $10, it’s hard not to recommend. If you want more inFAMOUS, then here it is, and if you’re new to the franchise, this is a great starting point. Either way, you won’t be disappointed.
