FTG Review: Infamous 2 (PS3)

WEEEEEEEEEEE

In addition to the new city and story, the team at Sucker Punch also have given Cole some new toys. First and foremost is the ability to levitate objects (cars for instance…or just random civilians if you are so inclined) and then toss them at distant foes. Another new and much needed addition is the melee weapon know as the “amp”, which is pretty much just a piece of a high tension wire that cole uses like a club. While swinging the amp around, Cole builds up a meter that allows him to unleash powerful melee finishers and even more powerful ultra attacks, making melee a viable and satisfying option. Even better and more of concern to the average player is the nice list of new powers given to Cole. Not wanting to fill up a whole page of this article with the list of powers, I will say that the designers added several interesting new ways to zap people and still managed to fit Cole into that very small space between too weak and far too powerful. While you get the feeling through most of the game that you can take on hordes of enemies at once, you often find yourself being humbled by a couple of thugs with assault rifles simply because you got to overconfident.

I can haz powerz?

The missions in the game are still pretty similar to the first. You have your main story missions, side quests, and your good/evil side quests. You also have collectibles in the form of blast shards, though the satellite arrays have been replaced with carrier pigeons that now carry the dead drops around. There are also the little events that take place all over the city that allow you to gain a tiny bit of karma for either good or evil; for example, killing street performers or rescuing people from muggers (if you need me to tell you which gives you good and which gives you evil, than you may be a sociopath).

On top of all that and one of the game’s largest additions from the first game is user generated content, which allows players to make their own missions and play others made by the community. Of the few player-made missions I played, it would seem people are getting used to the system, since they were very simplistic in nature (blow up a single tank of propane or kill a horde of angry civilians). I am looking forward seeing what folks come up with given a little bit of time to learn the mechanics.

All in all, Sucker Punch managed to make a great sequel. They recognized the faults with the first game and added a great deal of improvements. The combat feels more refined and the story still manages to grip you, even after the events of the first Infamous seemed to go off in a strange direction. They also made it fun and rewarding to play as either good or evil this time around, by making the powers awarded to either karma type as useful as the other. At the end of the day, there is very little to complain about in the game.