inFamous

After a mysterious device explodes, Cole MacGrath gains electric superpowers and wakes up in the middle of a quarantined Empire City, where he must decide whether to become a hero or a tyrant. Sucker Punch Productions built the game around a moral choice system that visibly changes both the protagonist's appearance and the reactions of the citizens, as well as the abilities available, ranging from merciful to ruthlessly destructive. The open world allowed free movement across rooftops and power lines, giving traversal a unique dynamic unlike other sandbox games of the era. Cole can grind along rails and wires, cling to virtually any surface, and recharge from any power source, turning the city into one giant battery and obstacle course at the same time.

The comic-book-style transitions between scenes and the dark atmosphere of the quarantined city won over critics and players alike, who praised especially the fluid movement system and the variety of combat built around electricity. An interesting detail was that power cut off in individual districts also limited Cole's own abilities, so restoring electricity became both a story milestone and a gameplay one.

inFamous became one of the first strongly successful new IPs exclusive to the PS3, proving the console could compete in the open-world superhero action genre, until then dominated mainly by comic-book license adaptations. The game's success led to sequels and helped make the series one of the pillars of Sucker Punch's portfolio, before the studio later moved on to creating Ghost of Tsushima. The district-conquest system, in which the player gradually freed sectors of Empire City from gangs and restored both electricity and the trust of its residents, tied the open world to the moral system more elegantly than competing titles of the time, and the game proved that Sucker Punch could successfully step away from its earlier family-friendly Sly Cooper brand.