When the first Infamous was released back in 2009, it gave players a fresh new super hero experience with an amazing story full of twists worthy of a Hollywood movie. With the game being one of the most successful titles on the Playstation 3 and ending with a great lead in to a second game, Infamous 2 was inevitable. Now here in 2011, Sucker Punch has released the sequel to one of the greatest games of our generation.
But even though this was a much wanted title and absolutely necessary to the story, does it hit players as hard as the first game? Does it offer anything new to the series? Or does it just fizzle out and fall flat on its face? Here are the Hots and Nots for Infamous 2.
Hot
Story
My favorite part of the first game in the series was its amazing story that delivered a solid kick to my brain in its final moments. Watching as Cole developed his powers and took on the evils of Empire City by either being its protector or its harbinger of death was fun to watch unfold. Now that we are onto the second part of Cole’s tale, what is there to bring to the table story wise? The answer is a whole lot of awesome.
You begin the story in Empire City after you get a full recap of the first game telling the events that took place. As soon as you are put in control of Cole The Beast, the super being who Kessler was training you to defeat, attacks Empire City and pummels the living hell out of you. Broken and beat down, Cole travels to New Marais in order to power himself up in order to defeat The Beast and put an end to the evil once and for all. But once he arrives, he finds that the city has been overrun with militia who have taken over the town and mutated monsters that run amok and kill everything that moves.
Like the first title, there are points in the game where you must make decisions that will affect your karma in either a positive or negative way. Each path has its own unique set of powers involved as well as a different look for Cole and different types of side missions such as saving innocents or assassinating targets. Your choices throughout the game will ultimately determine which ending of the game you will get out of two. Neither of the two disappoint and both offer some pretty startling moments that are on par with the first games moments. It definitely doesn’t disappoint.
Content
Along with an awesome story this game comes jam packed with content that will keep you occupied for quite awhile. The main story runs about 40 missions altogether while the side missions number at 60 and have you doing a variety of things such as destroying a convoy of militia or escorting an object of importance to its destination. Aside from missions you can also explore the vast network of buildings and hunt for the 305 blast shards in the game to power yourself up or you can hunt for the scattered dead drops around New Marais that fill in some more of the backstory behind the two games.
Along with all of this content comes the user generated content which follows the play create share style of LittleBigPlanet 1 and 2. Users can create and upload their own missions into the city of New Marais for other players to try out and have fun with. The options are near limitless as to what you can make out of the content you are given. Want to make Cole an invincible lightning God and send a slew of enemies after him as target practice? By all means go ahead and do it. This definitely adds quite a bit of replay value into the game and is a welcome addition to the title.
Gameplay
The core gameplay of Infamous 2 has improved greatly over the first title. The animations are a great deal smoother, the combat has been upgraded to include finishing moves which have a stylish flair to them, the free movement has more options to get you around the city quicker, and Cole has even more powers at his disposal. Along with his base powers such as the standard bolt and pulse moves comes the ability to swap these out for different varients of the moves that have different effects or strength. The standard Alpha Bolt can be upgraded to bolts such as the Artillery Bolt which can be used at longer ranges while the pulse can be upgraded to suspend enemies in the air for easier pickings.
Once again there are multiple different powers you can choose from based on your positive or negative karma levels. These offer you unique upgrades only available to one side or the other. But along with these upgrades comes the addition of fire and ice powers that Cole can acquire. These offer a fresh new way to destroy your enemies (or civilians) as well as various ways to traverse the terrain. The way these powers tie into the story is pretty awesome as well.
Graphics
Infamous 2 truly is a visually pleasing title. Whether it is from the red or blue lightning effects or the character models in action, this game is pure eye candy deliciousness. My personal favorite in the effects department is the look of the Ionic Vortex as Cole throws it out into the street and it sucks up everything in its path. The color of the lightning mixing with everything else being sucked into it is truly a sight to behold. And it gets even better once you unlock the Ionic Storm.
Not
Climbing
Back before the game was released the developers said that they were working on the climbing mechanic to make it seem more fluid and more than just mashing the jump button and watching Cole hop up a building clinging to whatever ledge is closer to him. Sadly it seems that they did nothing to improve it and just left it the way it was. While it is not terrible by any means and works well, it would have helped add to the immersion if his climbing animations were smoother and more fluid.
