Thu, Nov 13, 2008 | 06:27 GMT
inFamous will be “about quality”, not length, says creative director
Sucker Punch’s Nate Fox has told Eurogamer readers in a live interview that third-person PS3 action game inFamous is more concerned with being good than being long. This is probably code for, “It’s short,” but there we are.
“Look at God of War – it is an excellent game, an instant classic, and it’s only like seven hours long,” he said. “GTA IV is 30 hours long, and people wanted more? That just tells you how excellent that game is.
“It seems to me that it’s not about length, but about quality,” Fox continued. “And because I love both of those games, I hope that developers never try to shoot for a long game, but instead for the most fun they can pack onto the disc – at any length. That’s what we’re doing for inFamous.”
Game’s out early next year. More through the link.
5 comments
#1
Blerk
13/11/08, 8:40 am
It took me nearly 15 hours to finish God of War. I don’t think you could finish it in 7.
I thought this was a sandbox game, though? Sandbox and ‘short’ don’t go together, surely?
#2
patlike
13/11/08, 8:47 am
One concurs. I did an eyebrow raise at this.
#3
Shatner
13/11/08, 9:06 am
The Sly Cooper games were fairly brisk but had tons of great gameplay in them. Which would seem to be a more relevant comparison given the developer.
Some of the unlockables in those games were bastard hard but worth it. (like the time-trial level runs that would unlock developer commentary).
God of War is a pretty decent length given that it’s not padded out with back-tracking or collect quests and that there’s a fair amount of set-piece events. God of War and Kratos is probably my favourite franchise from the last generation is as text-book stuff for how to convey sheer visceral action on screen. I imported the sequel and intended to play it slowly and soak it all in but I still stormed through the game like an addict in a smack house.
Speedruns for God of War weigh in at 2:16:23 for the original and 3:07:25 for the sequel. Quite a few exploits in the sequel though.
#4
Esha
13/11/08, 11:33 am
As Shatner pointed out, it really depends on how it’ll play.
If it’s a more linear game then lengths like God of War and Mirror’s Edge make sense.
If it’s a non-linear sandbox game though, it’s standing up against the likes of Grand Theft Auto IV, which managed to prove that longevity and quality can be evident within a sandbox game. I did like GTA IV at the end of the day, too. I just hated having this fat bloke yell at me about tits every few minutes, but I digress.
If it’s a non-linear sandbox game with stats though, it’s probably in deep shit. That would put it in the same arena as Fallout 3, and I haven’t enjoyed an RPG so much since Mask of the Betrayer, tbh. And that is high, high praise from me. So Fallout 3 proves that a game can have brilliant content, and be open and long.
I just hope for their sake that InFamous is more of the first of these examples than anything else, because as ingenious as it is, I really doubt that an 8-12 hour game within those categories would fly. Not even with the most dedicated of fans.
#5
No_PUDding
13/11/08, 3:13 pm
It looks good.
Hinted multiplayer, hinted Cole customisation!
Sounds pretty hot, and that G4 exclsuive gameplay they had made the combat look awesome. Much better than the E3 demos.