D+PAD: Can you tell us more about the city itself?

Bruce Oberg: Empire City is an iconic American city, with many varied neighbourhoods, and people from all walks of life. Since the blast, Empire City has become a shadow of its former self. Once a thriving metropolis, the city’s pulse is now fuelled by the chaos and despair of its civilians. Drugs, crime, and poverty, the defects in Empire City’s fabric, have been torn open by the aftermath of the blast and the innocent are disappearing into darkness.

D+PAD: How large is Empire City? Is the world fully explorable from the get-go?

Bruce Oberg: There are three huge islands in Empire City, and they open up as the player completes story missions. It takes Cole about 10 minutes to run the length of the largest island; there are lots of places to explore.

D+PAD: Certain areas around the city suffer from blackouts. What effect does that have on Cole? Does it leave him weak and powerless, like the effect of Kryptonite on Superman?

Bruce Oberg: Areas under blackout are dangerous for Cole, as he cannot recharge. These areas don’t actively drain him, but he has to watch what he does so he doesn’t get caught without juice.

D+PAD: The bar is being raised with increasing frequency in regards to gaming experiences – most recently with Killzone 2’s graphical prowess and GTA IV’s sense of scale. Is there an area of inFamous that you think will set a new standard?

Bruce Oberg: We’re not trying to set any records or establish a new genre. We just want to make a game that is as fun as possible. It doesn’t matter if your game is big or realistic if it isn’t fun. We’ve tried very hard to just create a fun and engaging experience for a broad range of players. Making something fun is hard, and we hope to set standards there.

D+PAD: The sandbox genre has really come to fruition over the last couple of years, to the point where some would argue that the genre has become saturated. Do you agree? How do you think inFamous differentiates itself from games like Prototype and Crackdown?

Bruce Oberg: We’re in a golden age of video games. No matter what your tastes, you can find games that are awesome. inFamous has a cool combination of urban climbing, great action, karmic consequences, and a deep and interesting storyline. We think this will give many players a unique and special experience.

D+PAD: More developers have chosen to go multi-format this generation than ever before. Why has Sucker Punch decided to stick with PlayStation?

Bruce Oberg: We love Sony. They’ve given us the freedom and resources to create a line of very special titles, from the Sly Cooper series to inFamous. And the PlayStation 3 is an incredible machine. By focusing on one platform, we’ve been able to squeeze performance out of our engine and deliver a really special experiences to PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 owners.

D+PAD: Has the team been able to achieve everything they set out to do with inFamous?

Bruce Oberg: We’re super proud of inFamous. It took us three and a half years, but the results are incredible and we’re very excited to let people explore Empire City.

D+PAD: Thanks very much for your time, Bruce.

inFamous releases in the UK on May 29th exclusively on PlayStation 3. For more on the game, be sure to check out our hands-on preview.

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