Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Just plain fun"

Several recent sequels this year have turned out to be festering disappointments, but it is pleasing to say that inFamous 2 is in many ways, a vast improvement over the first game. Now, what exactly is inFamous I hear you say? It's a fast-paced, story-driven superhero game that puts you in the shoes of the former delivery boy Cole MacGrath.

After a brief recap of the story, inFamous 2 begins with the arrival of "The Beast"; an all-powerful monster teased at the end of the first game. Our protagonist Cole is forced to travel to the town of New Marais; where he can supposedly find a way to amp up his powers so he can face the Beast. Only thing is, there's a bit of a problem: A faction known as the militia are present in New Marais, and they are bent on exterminating all super-powered individuals, thus cleansing the town of "freaks". Even though in the main part of the plot Cole is supposed to be on the run from the Beast, it often feel disjointed from the Militia side-plot which gives the game an odd pace. But regardless, the story is both complex and engaging. Cole's best friend Zeke (who was often regarded as one of the most annoying characters ever), is actually incredibly well-developed and sympathetic this time around. But of course Sucker Punch couldn't release the game without an annoying sidekick, which brings us to a new character named Nix. Nix not only has an extremely annoying voice, but her character lacks believability.

As an extremely powerful conduit, Cole has the ability to create and manipulate electricity. The core gameplay mechanics remain nearly identical to the first game; which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The combat plays similar to a third person shooter in that Cole uses bolts of lightning to combat enemies, with other attacks such as lightning grenades and rockets available as well. It isn't as jumpy or button-mashy as similar games like Prototype are, because much of the combat relies on tactics as well brute force. This is because enemies often appear in large groups, forcing you to make decisions on when to use certain powers and where. This is further complicated by the fact that Cole is essentially "a walking battery" and is required to recharge from electricity sources scattered around New Marais. Doing so also restores Cole's health, which not only eliminates the infamous black-and-white screen of "you're nearly dead", but also allows you to be reckless if you know there's some electricity handy. On of the bigger improvements in inFamous 2 is the new feature that allows you to select different powers via a "quick select" menu system. Each button has a certain power type associated with it, and pressing the button will toggle between the different powers available. For example, standard bolt powers are linked to R1, so pressing R1 in the powers menu will quickly switch between different bolts. Although it can be annoying when you accidentally select the wrong power, it gives a lot more freedom and variety than the first game offered, especially when about halfway through the game you're given the choice between ice and napalm powers; adding even more variety. Cole is also equipped with a melee weapon known as the "amp". Most of the time melee is not a very effective way of fighting (save for a few certain enemy types), and all it really involves is pressing square until you can pull off some some impressive finishing moves that simply look awesome.

There is also a great deal of enemy variety. Rather than have three differently skinned factions like in the first game, inFamous 2 has different factions that all fight in completely different ways. The militia mentioned previously are standard gun-wielding goons that simply shoot Cole until he's dead. "The Corrupted" are a bunch of monsters that use mainly melee attacks, and the final opposing faction is the Vermaak 88; a faction of soldiers that are obsessed with constantly jumping around and displaying their agility like a bunch of show-offs. Some of these factions have boss enemies of their side, and while epic at first, they are eventually repeated, leading to the same enemy being faced multiple times. On the other hand, they are at a much larger scale than the boss fights of the first game, so it is always satisfying taking down a huge enemy.

Traversing the city of New Marais is a lot more involved and satisfying than it was to do in the first game's Empire City, thanks to several new powers. In particular are the improved static thrusters, a gliding ability that gives a small but noticeable boost of height. Others include the lightning tether, which is essentially a bolt of lightning that acts like a grappling hook (I'm no scientist, but don't ask me how the hell that works), and my personal favourite; the ice launch. The ice launch gives Cole an enormous vertical boost, which can be used to jump over small buildings with minimal effort.

For a game released in 2009, inFamous had a rather ugly visual design and it's graphics have not aged well. Thankfully, inFamous 2 looks leaps and bounds better with more detailed textures and lighting effects, and some much needed colour. Aside from a few jaggies, inFamous 2 is a pleasant game to look at, and is easily on par with some of the best-looking open world games like Just Cause 2 and Red Dead Redemption. Unfortunately, inFamous 2 suffers from similar visual glitches that the first game had. During melee combat, some of the finishing moves can make Cole appear to be swinging right through a brick wall, and some powers; particularly the ice powers that leave shards of ice scattered around the battlefield, seem to defy physics by refusing to make any movement. This leads to some awkward moments with chunks of ice floating in the air after the object they were on is destroyed. It's nothing major, but certainly noticeable.

The game also features a morality system much like it's predecessor. It's nothing deep that causes strong moral dilemmas, but an incentive to play through the game twice. The choices are very black-and-white, and it's obvious that this is what the developers were aiming for. Some mission icons are colour-coded red or blue to help the player distinguish the difference between good and evil, so it's clear that Sucker Punch had no intention of giving the morality system any grey areas. In fact, most of the moral decisions aren't even decisions like they were in the first game. Rather, they play out as small events happening in the city (ei defuse the bomb or let it explode). Again, it isn't really a very deep system, but it gives plenty of reasons to give the game a second playthrough, especially since your there are two different sets of powers attached to your karma as well as two completely different endings to the story. Some of the main missions play out differently as well, the notoriously annoying Nix guides the player through evil missions, and a character named Kuo will supply the good missions.

Another new feature is the addition of user-generated content. It's a powerful feature that allows players to make their own missions. Although the vast majority of the missions out there are simply terrible, there are a few great missions out there that are on par with the ones that come with the game. The UGC tools seem daunting and complex at first, especially since there is no in-game tutorial like the one in LittleBigPlanet, but after a while it is fairly easy to make some interesting missions.

inFamous 2 is one of those rare sequels that manage to improve and expand upon what made the original great. The core gameplay feels very familiar, so those who didn't enjoy the first game might not like this one either. On the other hand, fans of the original will not be disappointed by this ambitious sequel that is superior to the first game in almost every way.

Pros:
-Great story and production values
-New powers are awesome fun
-Heaps of enemy variety
-You won't be done with all the content anytime soon

Cons:
-Glitches
-Boss fights are repeated