inFAMOUS 2 Review

inFAMOUS 2 takes place not too far from the end of inFAMOUS 1. When you select a new game, you can choose if you want to load your good or evil data (which gives a few bonuses, like extra karma for that selection, and a bit of extra experience points), or just go plain neutral. After you make your choice, you see a bit of a comic-book like sequence that tells a bit of Cole’s story, what happened in the last game, and what happened between inFAMOUS 1 and 2.

After the events of the first game, Cole is approached by Special Agent Kuo, who knows all about the Beast and what he can do. She also tells him about a way to get stronger, so he is ready to face the Beast when he appears. Zeke (Cole’s best friend), Cole, and Kuo all get on a boat so they can go see Kuo’s contact in New Marais, when something unexpected happened. The Beast appeared in Empire City ahead of when they were expecting. The Beast starts causing widespread damage, and Cole jumps off the boat to deal with the threat. He runs down the docks, with brief tutorial messages to explain some stuff to the new players. When Cole reaches the end of the docks, you start attacking the Beast. Of course he doesn’t just let you do this, and he throws part of a statue at Cole.

While Cole is recovering, the Beast approaches him, then you begin fighting toe-to-toe with him. After awhile of attacking and avoiding attacks, the Beast sinks into the water. Cole, thinking he has won, runs back to the boat and just as he is about to jump on, the Beast rises out of the water and grabs Cole, who uses all of his strength to take down the Beast. Cole falls into the water, drained of almost all of his strength. Some more comic-book style cut scenes later, and we are in New Marais.

Kuo notices a Militia (one of the main groups you fight) block aid in the path of their boat, and yells at Zeke to cut the engines, and this is where you see Cole’s melee weapon, the Amp, and then set off to clear a path for Zeke and Kuo. The melee combat feels a lot better than it did in the first game. In the first inFAMOUS, you just had a bunch of basic punches and kicks, it was more fun to just sit back and fire lightning at anything that moves. But in inFAMOUS 2, I found myself using melee more. It felt natural, and some of the attacks were cool looking. The amount of powers Cole has in the second game has grown, and they provide a good method of switching between what powers you want to use.

You just press and hold left on the d-pad, and press the button that corresponds to the power you want to use. Like if you wanted to change what Bolt (basic lightning attack) you want to use, you just press and hold left on the d-pad, and press R1. This will cycle through all the abilities you have unlocked in that category. In total, most of which have at least 2 Neutral and 2 Good or Evil related powers, there are 7 Bolt, 6 Blasts, 6 Grenades, 6 Rocket, 6 Misc Powers, 4 Ionic Powers, 5 Amp Upgrades, 6 Upgrades, and then you have some Karmic Boosts that unlock when you reach a specific Karmic level. There are some very fun abilities, but only a few make a return from inFAMOUS 1, which are the basics in Bolts, Rockets, Grenades, and Blasts.

Precision Aim also makes a return, along with Static Thrusters. One of my favorite Evil powers (which was that continuous stream of lightning) does not make a return, but it does come back in the form of another Good power, Magnum Bolt, which basically lets you fire off a small lightning bolt. Anyone that was hoping for some sort of flight or teleport ability will not be getting what they wished for. Cole’s abilities are still limited in that area, but we do get a few extras. Depending on one of the choices you make in the game, Cole will learn the ability to launch himself into the air with a pillar of ice.

This is a fun ability to use in combination with Static Thrusters, as it can get you around a lot faster. At one point, close to the end of the game, you get a skill called Lightning Tether, which basically a grappling hook, but you can’t use it on people. I have seen a DLC power for 99 cents that acts like that, but I haven’t downloaded it due to not wanting to spend money on more powers.

The story of the game overall is very entertaining, but the length of it feels lacking. My first play through of the game was as an Evil Cole, and I beat that in one sitting. My second play while being Good took a bit longer as I took more time to do some of the side quests. inFAMOUS 2 also lets the players create their own missions, and share them with the rest of the world. I didn’t play around with this feature myself very much, but I did find one thing that can be abused on it. When you open up the mission creator, you can fly around the map to build the mission how you want. Now when you exit this mode, you would think it put you to the last place you were standing. Wrong. It puts you were ever the cursor is at. So you can use this to cheat and go to any location you want.

Now while I didn’t play around with the editor much, other than to spot that little cheat, I did play a few missions. They didn’t feel as good as the official ones, which is why I didn’t play around with them too much. It just felt like an added-in feature, and I was glad to see I could turn off the markers. While playing through the missions, I noticed a lot of glitches and bugs popping up all over the place. More than once I would be jumping, trying to grab onto a pole or a ledge, and I would ether jump through the pole or just not grab the ledge. There was also a few times when I would be chasing after someone for a mission and I would jump from a high point, land, and roll backwards while I was holding forward.

I’ve also been attacked by things that aren’t even looking at me. Like with a Titan (giant creature made of ice), it can throw giant ice boulders at you, and most of the time it would ether throw them sideways at you, or directly behind him. This got annoying on more than one occasion. There were also a few instances of the game thinking I pressed either L2 or pressed my left thumb stick down to send off a Ping, when I pressed an entirely different button. My game even froze more than once while looking at my list of powers if I go into it from the start menu. This wouldn’t freeze my entire PS3, but just the game so restarting was quick and simple.

Looking past these bugs, the game is really enjoyable. The graphics are nice and the sound is nice. There are also a few gaming references scattered around New Marais that I got a kick out of. Overall, I’d give this game a 7.9 out of 10. I wish the game was longer overall, and Cole had more powers, but it is a fun game in the end. Due to the ending (which I won’t mention due to spoilers) I don’t think there will be a third game, but I will remain hopeful that they do make one.

Aldath

Visit My Website / View My Other Posts

Aldath is the lazy reviewer, reviewing when he feels like it which isn’t often. He mostly reviews games when they really interest him.