Written by: Jim777 on October 26, 2011.

(This is my 3rd review in like half a week, and in fact I am beating sites like IGN to the punch! What does a guy have to do to get a raise!)

So during E3 this year we saw inFAMOUS 2 DLC get announced, Festival of Blood. Except as it  turns out, it wasn’t DLC but rather a standalone game.

There is no save import, and none of your choices from either of the first two inFAMOUS games will be shown or matter here.

Festival Blood is set in the same city as inFAMOUS 2, New Marias (Orleans) and is for all all purposes a complete non cannon excuse for Cole to beat up some vampires. The premise is that the whole game is a story Zeke is telling a hot girl at the bar, and thus non of it is any kind of real. This does however lend itself to some neat elements.

GAMEPLAY

Festival of Blood plays exactly like inFAMOUS 2. So much so that you would think its an add on and not its own game. There is really only one new game play element and that is Cole’s new bat flight power. This power allows you to zip across the map very quickly but relies on blood, and once your meter is empty you have to refill. You do that by sucking someone dry, or finding cans of stored blood (collectibles ala blast shards) or beating up vampires. Sounds like a neat chance for that famous inFAMOUS moratliy system right? Wrong.

There is no morality in this game, you are a vampire and its accepted you will be “evil” for the greater good. The name of this game (inFAMOUS) is a nod to the games constant moratily, and they removed it from this one. Not good.

So yea its inFAMOUS 2 with a new power….neat I guess.

PRESENTATION

The story is told via narration from Zeke, wich is a cool touch. However there are about 3 missions halfway through that decide to let you know this game has the full User Generator Tool that inFAMOUS 2 had and as a result these missions are made with said tool to let you know the tool exists and to show it off.

So first you get a massive EULA pop up you have to agree to, then you do 3 missions made by Sucker Punch to show off the tool. This means they are told via comic book cut scenes with speech bubbles…it’s massively jarring and hurts the games experience. I understand the tool is cool, and it’s nice that they put it in Festival of Blood but they did not need to smack you in the face with it like they do.

Length & Replay Value

I installed this game at 9:00, and beat it at 1. So this is a very short 3 to 4 hours of game play (and I stopped at a point to collect every blood jar). This is sadly average length for most DLC, however seeing as this game is being pushed as its own game they should have had at least double that. Due to the fact that the entire story is nothing more then a way for Zeke to get some action, the whole thing feels like a bit of a waste of time.

The game does have some replay value, the game will drop you off to free roam the city after you beat it, to collect powers, earn trophies and play User Generated Missions. But thats about it. Overall this is not going to hold you interest for more then a few days at most.

Closing notes

The game is fun don’t get me wrong, but you could just fire up inFAMOUS 2 and have just as much fun if not more. Like most DLC packs if you love the main game, then its probably worth a look. However with Dungeon Defenders only $5 more and scoring a perfect 10 from me, and Payday 10 more, I cant really recommend this game much when there is just better content out on the store right now, not to mention all the huge AAA games coming out this month and next.

It is also glaringly obvious this was meant to be an add on for inFAMOUS 2, and for some reason Sucker Punch just decided to have it stand on its own.

The game is $9.99 and $7.99 with PSN Plus.

The game features Move support, but I turned it right off after trying it out.

Overall if you really want more inFAMOUS 2, and you don’t mind a half baked game and story that wont have any significance, and don’t mind the lack of mortality system (you know the games namesake) and don’t have anywhere else to drop your money (Llike Dungeon Defenders its really damn good) then go ahead and bite in to Festival of Blood. Hoho a vampire joke!

inFAMOUS Festival of Blood 7/10
Gameplay
inFAMOUS 2 was a very fun to play polished game, and thus so is this one.
Presentation
The game looks good, and its told in an interesting way but that UGC insert lost it some points.
Length
3 to 4 hours, its short and its not sweet.

Overall
Average score from all categories.