inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood (standalone PSN game) – OUT NOW!

[Shin-Ra]

inFAMOUS 2: Festival of Blood Drowns PSN in October
+ Posted by Ken Schramm // Sucker Punch Productions

inFAMOUS 2 Festival of Blood will be a brand new standalone single player DLC for download via PSN. Vampires swarm New Marais, and revered superhero Cole MacGrath has been bitten. To save his soul – and the city – he has just one night to find and kill the head vampire. Featuring new missions, themed environment settings, plus new characters and enemies, Festival of Blood explores the darker side of the inFAMOUS universe. Previous inFAMOUS games will not be needed to play this DLC.

The DLC will swarm PSN in October, in time for Halloween.

inFAMOUS™: Festival of Blood Launch Trailer - YouTube

inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood Previews

inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood hits the PSN Store next week on October 25th, and the press got their hands on it last week and previews are starting to roll in. Check out all the previews below, including a 15 minute demo by our own Animation Director Billy Harper.

GameSpot [15-minute video preview]

Shacknews

Kotaku

Examiner

Destructoid

IGN

GamesRadar

Festival of Blood takes place in the same setting as inFAMOUS 2. On Pyre Night (a New Marais holiday that's like a mix between Halloween and Mardi Gra) Cole MacGrath is bitten by the vampire queen Bloody Mary, the leader of a vampire cult that is rampaging through New Marais. In classic vampire story telling, Cole has one night to find and destroy Bloody Mary before he completely turns into a vampire and New Marais falls to her wicked plans.

The narrative of the story is told through the eyes of my favorite inFAMOUS character, Zeke. While trying to pick up a sexy lady at a bar, Zeke retells the events of Pyre Night to try and impress the young bar patron. This provides a fun twist to the narrative since it's unclear if the events playing out in Festival of Blood have actually happened or if they are really Zeke embellishing aspects of the story to impress this young lady. Either way, Zeke provides his comedy stylings to keep things fun while Cole fights his way to Bloody Mary.

You'll see giant, destructible effigies, new NPC models and familiar locations done over to make them feel horrific. You'll also take Cole into entirely new areas like the Catacombs, the underground locale where the vampires of New Marais live.

The biggest change in FOB might be the elimination of the Karma Meter, which has measured how much of an altruistic hero or a selfish vigilante you're making Cole become as the game progresses. Different powers become available depending on how good or bad you are, but Festival of Blood will have only one new set of skills-along with Cole's electrical powers—for players to unlock. One of them fundamentally changes how you get around New Marais. Shadow Swarm lets Cole fly, changing him into a swarm of bats. It works well with the new Move support that's also coming to the game. The new abilities get governed by a Corruption Meter, a beating heart which gets filled by the blood you consume from NPCs. Cole's new powers also include a Punch Blast, a wave of force that pushes enemies back and a stake kill.

The Harpy class of enemies will be able to parkour around the environment like Cole does, meaning that the easy tactical advantage of grabbing high ground won't last very long. Part of Festival of Blood's plot will involve Firstborns, vampires that hide amongst the regular folk of New Marais, and they'll be able to turn bitten NPCs into Minions. Minions won't have full vamp powers but will be able to pick up slabs of wood and other objects in the world that can be used as weapons, which is also another new feature never seen before in an Infamous game. Lots of other little touches will differentiate Festival of Blood from the mainline Infamous games. You'll use a new skill called Vampire Vision to hunt down Firstborns and you'll see that they don't have hearts or circulatory systems Fiends, a vampire class that have been around for centuries, will use crossbows or boomerangs depending on when in history they were turned. And the Firstborn will be able to employ the same cinematic takedowns against Cole that he became able to do in Infamous 2.

Festival of Blood is truly an extraordinary expansion. I joked that if Capcom had published this, it would have been repackaged as its own $40 retail game. But no, it's $10 (and even cheaper for PlayStation Plus members). Even if you haven't played Infamous 1 or 2, I still recommend you check this out when it releases on October 25th.

TROPHIES

1. Fangs For Playing – Defeat Bloody Mary.
2. Blood Junkie – Collect all Canopic Jars and max out your blood meter.
3. Bleeder's Digest – Discover all of Mary's Teachings.
4. Count Dra-Cole-a – Unlock all powers.
5. Stakehouse – Stake 20 hidden Firstborn vampires.
6. Blood Bank – Collect half of the Canopic Jars.
7. Flight Night – Stay airborne for 250 meters while in Shadow Swarm.
8. Bite Club – Bite 100 Civilians.
9. Underground Tour – Return to the underground while no mission is active and travel from one end of the catacombs to the other.
10. Raising The Stakes – Stake 100 Vampires.
11. Hindenburg Complex – Destroy a balloon.
12. Dinner Theater – Bite a member of a street parade.
13. Give Them The Fanger – Clear out 20 Vampire packs.
14. Play. Create. Scare. – Play 20 Festival of Blood UGC Missions.