Review: inFamous 2

Just over two years after it's predecessor, inFamous 2 hit shelves in early June of 2011.  The first inFamous, released in May of 2009, was a great success, blending sand-box style game play with an innovative style of third-person shooter/action and complex moral choices.  For those who didn't play the original inFamous, I will give you a bit of a synopsis.  You play as Cole MacGrath, a bike messenger who was given a mysterious package to deliver.  The package explodes and rather than dying, Cole suddenly exhibits electric powers.  You go through the first game fighting other people with powers (or as the story calls them, conduits) and are given the option to either be good and save Empire city or be evil and conquer it.  In the second game your sole objective is to defeat "The Beast," an ominous and looming figure ever present in the background as you try and increase your power as Cole MacGrath.  The game takes you to a new city, New Marais, quite obviously a replica of New Orleans, so much so that New Marais was recently hit by a hurricane.  As Cole you fight new enemies consisting of three factions: the Militia, the Corrupted (swamp monster type things), and Vermaak 88 soldiers (ice conduits).  You go through the game searching for blast cores which will increase your power and help you to eventually defeat The Beast.

As the story goes, it's solid.  You actually have a motive from the very beginning and a solid of idea what to do.  It isn't straight and linear, however, and there are some significant bumps and twists in the storyline, a few of which were quite unexpected.  The characters are memorable and you will undoubtedly have those that you grow to like and those that you grow to hate.  The only character that didn't have as much impact as I would have liked was Bertrand, the second most threatening antagonist, but without doubt the most present.  Interactions with him are few and far between and when you do confront him, you never really feel an overwhelming sense of dread or danger.  The best character development comes in the form of Cole's sidekick from the first game, Zeke, and a new operative, Lucy Kuo.  For those that played the original, Zeke and Cole had some complications toward the end of the game, and Sucker Punch did not forget about this, successfully carrying both their long friendship and awkward tension into the second game.  Kuo is potentially the most interesting character in the game, in particular because something drastic happens to her, but I'll let you find out what that is for yourself.

Two factors play the largest role in concerns to the game play of inFamous 2: the powers and the moral choices.  The electric powers are just as sharp as they were in the first game.  Firing is accurate and your power choices are varied.  Toward the middle of the game you're even given the choice to add a power: fire or ice.  I chose ice and some of the ice moves were some of my favorites throughout the entire game, especially the ice jump which made traveling and evading even more efficient.  While I had my go to favorites (such as the generic electrical shot and the electric grenade), the game does a good job of making you want to change your favorite power.  At times I found I liked grenades the most, but then I would get an upgrade for my Amp (the games melee equipment) and found myself enjoying hand-to-hand combat more.  Then I would get and upgrade for my grenades and they would quickly become my most used.  Another thing that is great about the game is the upgrade system.  Even though I made it through the entire game and did every single side mission, by the end there were still powers I hadn't unlocked or purchased.  This is in part because I decided to take the good route and there are both good and evil powers, but some of the more expensive upgrades I didn't get a chance to purchase, which only made me want to do a second play through that much more.  The moral choices, unfortunately, aren't as well developed.  While the first game made you decide between sharing a care package of food between a group of hungry survivors or using your powers to keep all of the food for yourself, inFamous 2's choices aren't quite as morally confusing.  One option that is present during the entire game as a side option to gain more positive or negative karma is to chose between stopping a mugging or beating up a group of cops.  The moral decision there is pretty clear and is very cut and dry in terms of which option is good and which option is evil; what inFamous 2 lacks in its moral decisions is a gray area, something the first installment succeeded at.

The graphics in the game are excellent and quite detailed.  The city of New Marais is teeming with life with people running around, street performers lining the streets, and cable cars running through the city.  The buildings also provide a touch of life with colorful, glowing lights, art deco exteriors, and even sunken buildings later in the game.  The AI is also pretty diversified in terms of the way they look and act.  The voices are all relatively distinct and while you will hear an AI say the same thing every now and again, they don't talk every single time you're around them, so it isn't frequent enough to become an annoyance.  Furthermore, while all of the characters are made from the same basic model, none of them look exactly alike, with slight variations such as hats, clothing style, and facial hair.  This just makes the city breath that much more life and seem all the more authentic.  The one downside to the AI is that the citizens are incredibly stupid.  They run everywhere and seem to fall down at the slightest tap.  Citizens carrying blast shards (which you can take from them for negative karma) run away from you screaming, even if you've been proclaimed the "Hero" of New Marais.  Another instance where the AI broke the believability barrier was when I was watching a news report and several of them ran up to the screen holding their heads and screaming, even though the report wasn't about any imminent doom (at least not yet).  The unfriendly AI on the other hand is great with varying sizes of unrelenting enemies.  The small enemies don't take breaks from shooting you and will pump an entire clip into you if you let them, immediately killing you.  This makes the fighting more challenging and makes you up your game when confronted with a swarm of enemies.  The larger enemies aren't frequent enough to become an annoyance, but I found that they sometimes get stuck in particular areas and freeze, making them a sitting duck.  Beyond that, all of the body motions (Cole's especially) are fluid and believable, as are all of the special effects and explosions, and I ran into very little frame rate issues.

One other thing I want to point out is the combat system.  The combat system in inFamous 2 is incredible and is one of the best I have ever played in.  There's a solid balance of shooting and melee which makes the combat more fluid.  In the first game I found myself rarely approaching the enemies and shooting them from a distance while I strafed back and forth dodging their bullets.  In this game I would perch on a building, toss a grenade, jump into the fray, smack a couple of guys around, dodge a couple of enemies, shoot the last remaining few with an electric blast, and proceed to restrain any of the survivors.  While there have been a lot of complaints about the "action camera" during some of the finishing moves interwoven into the melee system (and yes, at times it was a little troublesome with terrible close-ups or crops), it didn't seem like that much of an issue throughout the game.  It's true that I couldn't see enemies that were behind me at times and I couldn't prepare to move left or right away from a thug with a gun, but that kept me on my toes.  After beating the crap out of a guy, I would immediately whip around, perform a back hand spring, and pull up my trusty electric powered hand and be ready to fire. 

inFamous 2 also added a create your own mission system that consists of user generated content, but from what I played of it I wasn't terribly impressed.  There have been some creative missions, but overall it seems like a petty attempt at adding extra re-playability to a game that doesn't necessarily need it.  Another quick side note that may be of concern to some.  While the voice actor of Cole was changed and was a little grating at first, I quickly grew fond of the new voice actor and his slightly smoother voice led to a much greater opportunity for comedic writing within the game.  While the writing in the game isn't superb, the comedic bits are well placed and funny enough to break up the constant action and waves of enemies.

inFamous 2 isn't as striking as the first game, but it manages to grow in areas that inFamous fans should welcome with open arms.  The graphics are crisp and detailed and I saw no evidence of pop-ups and very few frame rate issues.  Cole and his supporting cast make you want to invest in them and they help you decide which path you want to take.  They even provide for a shocking twist at the very end of the game.  While the moral choices aren't as murky as I would have liked, the upgrade system and combat more than make up for it, making for an innovative and fluid fighting style.  The game's story is strong and pointed, but has enough bumps in the road to keep the player guessing and intrigued.  While there are camera issues and the user generated content system is lack luster, the many positives of the game outweigh its negatives.  inFamous 2 is a must for any PS3 owner and fans of the first game are sure to be proud of the second installment.