Finish inFamous completely in 25 hours

By Robert Purchese Published 13 May, 2009

It's much shorter if blinkered, says dev.

Sucker Punch boss Chris Zimmerman reckons openworld action game inFamous will take a maximum of 25 hours to complete, and less if people stick to the straight and narrow.

"Well it depends on how you decide to play it; if you play just straight through as fast as you can, maybe 15 hours," Zimmerman told the US PlayStation blog.

"But in addition to the 35 story missions in the game we have 100 side-missions, [and] we have a whole bunch of collectibles you can pick up. If you do that stuff, somewhere in the 20s - 25 hours, maybe."

Zimmerman added that the side-missions are more than distractions and have an effect on the world. Protect someone setting up a medical tent, for instance, and you can respawn there later.

There's no option to replay with unlocked extras, but Zimmerman going through again as the opposite alignment - good or evil - will feel like "basically a new game". Changing the difficulty to hard also "really changes" the experience, apparently.

inFamous, a cross between Crackdown and Star Wars, will be released exclusively for PS3 on 29th May.

Our recent hands-on impressions of inFamous can tell you much more.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (54) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Pedrolot #1 3 years ago

    Damn, thats short!

  • mcbi4kh2 #2 3 years ago

    Damn, thats long!

    Anything over 10 hours will do for me.

  • makeamazing #3 3 years ago

    25 hours is long, especially when you probably have to play through it three times to get all the trophies.

    Also I dont play games for hours and hours, like some people do.
    Edited by makeamazing at 13/05/09 @ 13:08

  • Rubarack #4 3 years ago

    Take the minimum and subtract 40% (developers always exaggerate the length of their games by about 2/3) and you get a fairly average 9 hours. Hopefully that measn it will be less filler-tastic than most games of this style.

  • Darren #5 3 years ago

    Sounds fine to me so long as there's plenty of variety in the missions and side-quests to keep you playing it for 25 hours.

  • menage #6 3 years ago

    15-25 hours isn't short. Just right for these kinds of games I think.

    @Rubarack

    That depends how you play it. I always have to add hours instead of subtracting them.
    Edited by menage at 13/05/09 @ 13:10

  • Doctor_What #7 3 years ago

    So, who's up for betting on the speed run record after one year? I think three and a half hours.

  • Triggerhappytel #8 3 years ago

    I'm glad they're not overstating the maximum length: 25 hours in total sounds quite adequate.

    "Well it depends on how you decide to play it; if you play just straight through as fast as you can, maybe 15 hours,"

    Although I bet if you rush through it, it could be completed a lot quicker than this. Unless some of the missions are huge and take, like, 30 minutes or more to complete.

  • DrDamn #9 3 years ago

    One of the initial reviews has said 25 hours for two play throughs, one all good and one all evil. With collections stuff and getting all the trophies giving a total of 30 hours. I tend to mess about a lot more in these sort of games too. I was 18 hours in to SR2 before starting the first proper mission. :)
    Edited by DrDamn at 13/05/09 @ 13:23

  • mcbi4kh2 #10 3 years ago

    9 on IGN for anyone who is interested.

    http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/981/98188...

  • Triggerhappytel #11 3 years ago

    Having played the demo, I can see this getting 8 on EG, or maybe 7 if the reviewer is a bit fussy. Enjoyable, but not going to change the world.

  • OnlyMe #12 3 years ago

    Am I the only one who almost always use more hours than the average guy? I'm either very slow, or people like to rush through games. I can easily see the 25 hours end up being 30 hours or so for me.

  • darkmorgado #13 3 years ago

    IGN give nearly *everything* a 9.
    Just read the review, and I like how they mention quite a few bad points before acting as if they don't exist.

    "Erratic frame rate."
    "Cole merges with scenery."
    "Rigid Structure."
    "Sloppy Animation."
    "missions are mere variants of the same objective"
    "cliche"
    "climbing buildings is simply a matter of mashing X"
    Combat becoes "repetitive."
    Story is "nothing original."

    Doesn't sound like genuine 9 material to me. I'm not dissing the game, it does look good, but it takes something very special to truly deserve a 9. Sounds more like a 7 to me.

  • DrDamn #14 3 years ago

    I think it's a fair point that we need to wait for some decent reliable sites to review it but those quotes are fantastically out of context there darkmorgado. For example from ...

    "It says something for Cole's on-foot prowess that leaping from one side of the map to another never feels laborious, but the real joy comes in scaling the city's heights. Crackdown had its Agency Tower for players to conquer and Infamous offers its own equivalent in its Transient Tower, a thin lattice of junk that stretches towards the heavens. Cole attaches himself to objects with ease – perhaps with too much ease, as reaching the top of most buildings is simply a case of mashing the X button – but there's still a thrill to be had in spotting strutting scaffolds and ledges when scaling the game's greater heights. "

    You pulled out "climbing buildings is simply a matter of mashing X" .

    From ...

    "As Empire City stretches out to the hazy horizon from these vantage points it's evident that Infamous is a visually striking game. While the frame-rate can prove erratic and the occasional glitch merges Cole with the scenery, it's never enough to detract from a game with a robust visual style that's strongly delivered. "

    You pulled out "Erratic frame rate." & "Cole merges with scenery.".

    Well done!

  • Widge #15 3 years ago

    "Just read the review looking for any bad points I could copy and paste"

  • Gazza_UK #16 3 years ago

    "Sloppy Animation" ... in the video he said that was one of the best things about it... :/

  • mcbi4kh2 #17 3 years ago

    darkmorgado

  • DrDamn #18 3 years ago

    It was another out of context special. Sloppy animation referred specifically to the non-player characters. From the vids I'd agree - the general populous is poorly animated, but it's not a huge distinguisher from other similar sand box games.

  • EvilBob_leeds #19 3 years ago

    <a href=http://www.southparkstudios.com/crap/downloads/preview/6817/>darkmorgado</a>

  • Furfoot #20 3 years ago

    This might be the first xbox 360 to make me buy a mankini.

  • peteb #21 3 years ago

    It was "Sloppy Animation" for some of the non player characters like pedestrians, not for the main character

  • Widge #22 3 years ago

    "not a cutting edge next-generation visual feast"
    "human faces perhaps, which look flat and unnatural"
    "an underachiever in graphical terms "
    "doesn't feel entirely finished"
    "levels fading to a more lacklustre shine as you approach the end of the game"
    "frustrating map design"
    "unfair checkpointing"
    "game clocks in at around eight hours"
    what is this horror of gaming?

  • GreyBeard #23 3 years ago

    @Widge

    Well played sir.

    :D

  • Goodfella #24 3 years ago

    LOL.

    Apart from anything else darkmorgado completely failed to mention the long list of good points.

  • monkeylite #25 3 years ago

    Haha

    darkmorgado. Owned

  • robg #26 3 years ago

    Without wishing to upset the bashing bandwagon, but isn't NPC animation (i.e. the animation of EVERYONE in the game who isn't you) quite an important part of things, and worthy of note without context?

  • Widge #27 3 years ago

    God knows, going to be the very first thing I check out now!

  • DrDamn #28 3 years ago

    @robg
    I think the comment is more specifically the crowd stuff - general people milling abut the city. You can see from the vids it's not all that great. I don't think it applies so much to enemies and named NPCs you have more direct interaction with - at least from what I've seen.

  • Pastici #29 3 years ago

    So this is the PS3s Fable length wise?

  • don81 #30 3 years ago

    Is there a demo on PSN? at the moment as want to try it.

  • muscleblade #31 3 years ago

    I hope Prototype isnt too long either. I hate overly long games. This sounds perfect.

    Dont trust IGN with exclusive reviews - they made a deal with the publisher regarding the score. The text on the other hand is more reliable. Look at the (also exclusive) Prince of Persia review to see what i mean.

  • Aggesan #32 3 years ago

    Haven't any of you guys played the demo? There's absolutely nothing wrong with the animation. I played through the demo several times, and it's just awesome! Before I played it this game wasn't even on my radar, but now I think it will be one of the best games in my collection. Funny how things can change :-) Btw, Cole's animation is VERY good. I've noticed the framedrops a few times when there a lot going on on the screen, but you really have to push it to make it happen, and it's definately not a deal breaker.

    Sorry if the enlish is bad, I don't really speak the language.

  • Vanmunt #33 3 years ago

    Sorry if the enlish is bad, I don't really speak the language.

    Your English is fine, its the positivity towards a PS3 game that will get you in trouble.

  • Goodfella #34 3 years ago

    Ha! Your English is better than a lot of English people who post here.

  • Widge #35 3 years ago

    21st for the demo btw.

  • DrDamn #36 3 years ago

    When does the exclusivity of the IGN reviews run out?

  • DrDamn #37 3 years ago

    Answering myself - 20th apparently.

  • Miths #38 3 years ago

    I just read all three IGN reviews (US, UK, AU) and I gotta say that I'm really looking forward to this game now. For an open world game it does sound a tad on the short side, but then again, I rarely make it all the way through any games anyway - 10 hours or a hundred :).

    It will be interesting to see how Infamous and Prototype stack up against each other - or if they are even as similar as they sound on paper (and I've admittedly only just started reading up a bit on Prototype and watch the seemingly rather few preview videos out there).
    If nothing else I think I'll appreciate the fact that Infamous seems to be based mainly on ranged combat, which I tend to prefer over melee brawls, which seems to be closer to what Prototype is doing.

  • penhalion #39 3 years ago

    Soooo.......It wasn't so much finished early as cut short..

  • RexRunti #40 3 years ago

    To be honest, the biggest thing stopping me getting this game is that Prototype is out the week before (and Overlord II the week after). Hopefully we'll have some reviews of both titles from some trustworthy sites before release. (IGN is great for previews and things like E3 coverage but any exclusive review should be ignored.)

  • Goodfella #41 3 years ago

    ^^ Eh? Prototype is out 2 weeks after inFamous.

  • HermitArcader #42 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • makeamazing #43 3 years ago

    Well lets hope that the review on IGN is totally wrong and the game averages about 7 or something (or at least rates worse than Prototype), otherwise we will never hear the last of it from CountMuppet ;)

  • VandelayIndustries #44 3 years ago

    I don't get that jibe about the animation. Maybe because it's one of the few games coming out that isn't MoCap'd, that people think it looks odd. Anyway I quite like it, it fits nicely within the stylized world they created.

  • Beano #45 3 years ago

    25 hours for completion sounds more than fine to me. Very few single player games holds my attention for that long anyway. But I bet the xbot horde will still call it short and unfinished :)

    Having played the demo (got a key last week) I can say it's very promising and really looking forward to the full game :D
    Edited by Beano at 13/05/09 @ 19:11

  • darkmorgado #46 3 years ago

    @Widge: not at all, was just things that stood out from reading the review. P.S, I personally can't stand Halo 3.
    @ Goodfella: missing my point slightly! I was simply saying that what seemed (to me) to be some pretty significant flaws were immediately glossed over by IGN (though this being IGN, and has been mentioned their review is part of a 'deal', this is expected)
    @everyone else, I already said in my comment that I think Infamous looks like a good game, just not worthy of "9" material. For comparison, I would rate Halo 3 as a 6 IMHO, WoW as a 7, Half-Life 2 as an 8. 9 would be reserved for Super Mario Galaxy, with the only game I would EVER consider being worthy of 10 (which I consider to be "revolutionary" ala Edge scoring policy) being Genre Firsts.
    So, quite frankly, stop trying to dismiss me as a 360 fanboy.

    P.S, very amusing attempt to portray me as a fat geek ala Southparks WoW episode, but unfortunately my confidence is not that fragile. Want to see how far off the mark you are? Dale Christopher Morgan is my Facebook ID. Not all gamers are sad wankers, you know.

  • mcbi4kh2 #47 3 years ago

    Dale Christopher Morgan is my Facebook ID.

    I remember back in the good old days when we used to call those things "names".

  • darkmorgado #48 3 years ago

    @mcbi4kh2 I'm too Hardstyle for names.

    /sarcasm ends

    Besides, my name is Dale. I don't respond to someone saying "what's your name" by saying "Dale Christopher Morgan."

    And if I wanted to be really pedantic, ID = Identity. A name is also an identity (insomuch as it identifies a specific item/place/individual). Tomarto, tomayto, etc etc.

  • El-Dev #49 3 years ago

    Dale...good name.

  • h4rri3r #50 3 years ago

    I don't think that the game is short. 15/25 is ok for this kind of titles, principally if it has multiplayer modes.

  • Spekingur #51 3 years ago

    I still haven't finished GTA4 yet, no idea how long that was supposed to take. This would probably last me a few months.

    But still, it is being compared to Crackdown. With that tower thing especially. Without having tested the game it almost sounds like "we used Crackdown as the template and the we slapped on some magic (superpowers) and choices". Undoubtedly this and Prototype are going to be compared, guess I'll wait to see what reviews Prototype will get and compare them to inFamous to see which one is more worthy of money.

  • Beano #52 3 years ago

    I think Dale is a 5/10 name.... 6 tops!

  • DrowJones #53 3 years ago

    So EG will cover about 10% of the whole game in its review?

  • patchbox360 #54 3 years ago

    can't wait to get my ps3