• Posted January 23rd, 2009 at 12:31 EDT by
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A couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to sit down with Brian Fleming to discuss Sony's upcoming exclusive, inFamous. As many of you know, inFamous is an open world title reminiscent of a graphic novel and superhero story. It follows the life of a courier named Cole following the aftermath of a devastating explosion in his home city.

With the entire metropolis having fallen prey to chaos, Cole remains the city's last and only hope. Nonetheless, alot of questions remain unanswered, many of which we won't likely have answered for a while. Why does he have these abilities? How did he get them? Was he chosen? Eager to find out more following our updated impressions on the game, we caught up with Fleming at CES earlier this month to get the low down on this intriguing project.

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PSU: Nate Fox mentioned back at E3 that inFamous was putting the gameplay first while leaving the story on the back burner - can you elaborate on what he meant by this?

Brian Fleming: First of all, let me clarify what Nate meant. Our process for building games, we’ve really drawn from the Sly series. One of the things that surprise people is that our games have a well integrated and cohesive storyline. Something that surprises those people is that we start writing the storyline very, very late. But, we believe the gameplay is a tougher nut to crack than the storyline. So the first thing we work on is to get the gameplay right, and then when we start to see where that’s taking us in order to write a story that follows the arc. In the end, the gameplay is the hardest part to implement, so it was our main focus from the start.

PSU: How much impact do your actual choices have throughout the simulated world?

Fleming: It effects the story and a lot of other things. I’ll speak to most of those closer to launch. However, at a micro-level it effects the individual regions of the city. If you start to trash, say, the neon part of the city, the people will hate you and form mobs to come after you. Wanted posters will pop up and every time you venture into that area, you’ll be a target for abuse. However, on the flip side, you can also be a savior to another side of the city, such as the slums. Speaking directly about the narrative, it’s influenced by the choices you make to an extent. Also, your powers are influenced based on your decisions as well.

PSU: Considering this is a simulated world, will regions of the city that have your trust, aid you in battle and if so, what impact does this have on the game?

Fleming: Absolutely so. I think as a super hero, and you have to imagine that you are, you have a lot more power than a normal pedestrian, however they will punch people for you, throw rocks and bottles, but they’ll never be your key to victory. It has an important impact on an emotional and spiritual side, but their impact is smaller than you may expect.

PSU: inFamous feels like a hybrid of Spider-Man and The Force Unleashed. Did either of these games have any influence on the project?

Fleming: I think all of the archetype superhero stories are in the DNA of the game. So clearly, Spider-Man, Batman and Superman are the iconic heroes. Those stories clearly influence the sense that the game has itself. To me, the two foundational gameplay things is how he moves through the environment which is influenced by the desire to climb all over the city which comes from Sly. We decided on this before Assassin’s Creed or Crackdown was announced or came out.

PSU: Is every building within the city scalable?

Fleming: Every building is scalable. Every pipe, every gutter, every window frame, every fire escape, and everything you can think of within the game can be climbed.

PSU: Outside of Sly Cooper, were any other titles influential in terms of “respect?” For example, Ben Mattes of Ubisoft pays homage to Shadows of the ... (continued on next page)
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