Developer: Sucker Punch
Publisher: SCEE
Release Date: Out Now
Players/Online features: One, User Generated Content
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It still seems a little strange that a franchise like InFAMOUS, a game that has a definite dark side to it, comes from the makers of cheery Sly Raccoon platform sneak ‘em up. Former bike delivery boy turned super-electric-power-possessing antihero Cole MacGrath meets NSA agent Lucy Kuo, who knows of a certain Dr. Wolfe, the scientist who developed the Ray Sphere—the device that gave Cole his powers but exploded, causing the deaths of thousands of others in Empire City and the events that unfolded in inFAMOUS. Dr. Wolfe lives down south in a city called New Marais (it looks a lot like New Orleans), and Lucy, Cole and his best mate, plan to set out to meet up with Wolfe so he can maybe help Cole understand his powers better. As the odd threesome plans to depart for New Marais the Beast appears in Empire City. Cole attempts to fight the massive, fiery humanoid but is too weak, and after a standoff he leaps aboard a ship and off they go.
Empire City is destroyed by the creature and as Cole & Co. sail south they learn that the Beast is slowly following them, leaving a swathe of death and destruction in its wake. Cole arrives in the steamy swamps to the West of New Marais, and finds a city controlled by wealthy industrialist Bertrand. Bertrand has organized a thug-like heavily armed Militia to wipe Conduits (humans who possess the potential to gain superhuman abilities like Cole) from the city. Cole refuses to make a deal with Bertrand or the militia and so Bertrand’s army tries to wipe Cole out. Fortunately for us Cole’s powers turn him into an awesome human weapon who can kill Bertrand’s militia thugs with ease, so Bertrand tries to set the city against Cole, informing the public via TV broadcasts that Cole is evil and dubbing him "the Demon of Empire City".
If you didn’t play the original inFAMOUS the gameplay hasn’t changed much at all-“if it ain’t broke” and all that. Cole rarely uses vehicles (other than to ride atop of car-surfing style) and travels around the city via a mixture of walking, running, climbing and Parkour, combined with not insignificant propulsion powers that he obtains like ‘Static Thrusters’ that allow him to lift off and do a downward glide, an ‘Ice Jump’ that blasts him high in the air, ‘Lightning Tether’ that acts like a bungee rope connected to a grappling hook (a bit like Rico’s grapple in Just Cause 2) and the ‘Firebird Strike’ that blasts Cole through the air for 50 yards or so, and can be used as many times as his energy gauge allows. Cole’s basic climbing abilities are pretty good, and he seems to scale most surfaces that look climbable now, which wasn’t always the case in the original. He still has problems with a few objects though, and often passes through the base of ladders rather than grab hold and even seems allergic to some lamp posts, trees and other upright objects, which can lead to some frustration (apart from looking daft.)
InFAMOUS 2 also has an improved fighting mechanic - Zeke makes Cole a kind of zap-stick that can focus his energy and he uses this like a kind of sword to whack enemies with. The melee combat is extremely satisfying and includes finishing moves that, if successfully performed, fully recharge Cole’s energy bar. Most of your fighting will be done from mid to long range though as Cole has a variety of electric bolts (your main weapon), blasts (like a Jedi force push), electric grenades and rockets to shoot at enemies with, even obtaining an energy sapping ‘precisions sniper mode’ eventually. Cole’s most spectacular attacks are his Ionic powers; Vortex (like an electric tornado), Ionic Freeze (causes a wave of huge ice spikes), Drain (sucks the life out of any human-sized enemy within range) and Storm (summons a spectacular lightning storm). These are mapped to the D-pad and are dependent on picking up glowing Ionic cores that are dropped by random enemies.
InFAMOUS 2’s gameplay heavily reflects how you’re feeling while you’re playing it; feel like living up to Bertrand’s nickname? Then go down the evil route at every opportunity and gain all the evil powers you can. Prefer to prove him wrong and turn the public in favour of you? Then do good deeds, don’t kill innocents, heal the sick, stop the militia from mugging innocents and defuse bombs (your first choice comes very early on in the game.) A karma gauge in the top left of the screen indicates your good/evil level through ‘Hero’ at the top through ‘Champion’ to ‘Guardian' on the good side, through 'Thug', 'Outlaw' and of course ultimately 'InFAMOUS' on the evil scale at the bottom. These karma ranks unlock passive abilities like the ability to heal an entire group of people or have unlimited energy for a time. Each and every action earns you good or evil XP, so your reputation can fluctuate quite a bit during the story. Cole’s physical appearance and the powers he gains depend on whether you’re going to be good or evil. Play it straight down the middle and you’re going to miss out on a few powers, so it’s best to decide early on whether you’re going to be ‘nasty or nice’. The great thing here is that the good & evil stories and related powers are different enough to justify playing the game through twice-unlike most games around at the moment. Much like real life the Good and Evil karma choices usually seem to be between doing the right thing (good) and having fun (evil.)
There’s some female interest in the form of two very different girls, Nix and the NSA agent Kuo, who turns out to be a conduit too. Both of the girls seem to have more interesting powers (if less devastating) than Cole. Nix is a wild, hot swamp girl, who can gunge enemies in place with an oily substance, at which point Cole can incinerate the bonded enemies. Kuo has the power of ice, and can create a frozen cloud which if hit by Cole’s electric bolts will freeze solid, turning any nearby enemy into an ice cube. Cole gains partial powers from both girls, and you purchase the right to use these by spending the XP you earn for completing story missions.
New Marais consists of two large islands linked by bridges with several smaller islands dotted here and there. It certainly isn’t as vast as say, Liberty City in GTA IV and doesn’t feel any bigger than Empire City from the original inFAMOUS, but the draw distance and the way that the scenery fades into the distance looks superb, with more interesting, varied and detailed architecture. The way Cole’s electricity arcs around conductive objects (like metal fences etc) is very impressive, and some of the explosions and electric blasts are absolutely beautiful to behold. Although most of Cole’s enemies are human or human-sized, InFAMOUS 2 also features much larger enemies than the original from time to time, some of which are spectacular and very hard to kill.
As in the original game blast shards are strewn throughout the city and can be found and collected in order to extend Cole’s power bar. Some misguided citizens also have them on their person and need to be killed in order to steal them from them (obviously an evil karma choice).
There are dozens of side missions that often have related side plots but can be done at any time or even left altogether if you want to just zoom through the story. You’d be missing out if you did try to play the game this way though, as side missions fill in areas of the city so they’re under Cole’s control and also gain you valuable XP, blast shards etc.
Just like the original (and maybe even more so) inFAMOUS 2’s city of New Marais is so dynamic and the AI of the enemies so varied that the same mission will seldom play out the same way twice. Some missions and fights are little more than boss battles against the larger creatures in the game, but as with any other mission New Marais is such an interesting a place to fight in and Cole’s powers so much fun to experiment with that all battles seem different. If you fail attacking an enemy or enemies one way, just try a different power or combination of powers-there’s always a way, even if it isn’t immediately obvious. This gives the game an incredibly fresh feel and the steady string of side missions and blast shard hunting makes it one of the hardest games to turn off that I’ve played for some time.
As previously mentioned Cole’s appearance changes depending on whether you’re good or bad but not as much as it did between inFAMOUS 1 and 2. He’s a completely different bloke; altogether more likeable and easier on the eye than the gaunt original character. Personally I think they bottled it. Some people obviously didn’t like the way Cole looked and dressed, but the whole point is that he’s not a classic superhero, he’s just an ordinary bloke thrown into extraordinary circumstances. I guess we should at least be thankful that they stopped short of giving him a spandex costume and the face of David Beckham. For some reason they also removed Cole’s ability to recharge his energy by grinding along live cables and the tram lines, I know not why but the loss of this ability makes no sense at all, much like the rest of the game’s barking mental plot.
InFAMOUS 2 also allows gamers to create their own missions and add them to a central database as user-generated content, using a selection of locations, in-game characters or objects. You can make a number of different missions from checkpoint races to target practice, these will then appear randomly to other players. You can create missions from a selection of templates of the various different types of mission, and then change all kinds of parameters, like time limits and even the size of the mission, the core logic (how characters behave etc) and add all kinds of modifiers. Players can rate these user-generated missions and Sucker Punch will allow the most highly rated to appear in-game for all players. The problem is that the mission editor is extremely complicated to use and really needed an in-game tutorial, I can’t understand why one wasn’t included but I’m sure someone will put one on YouTube before too long.
InFAMOUS 2 is better looking than the original with a more detailed cityscape and a lot more spectacular effects-and no matter how much is fizzling, popping and exploding the frame rate never seems to drop either. The sheer amount of on-screen action is very impressive, if a little disorientating at times. Various other little weapon effects like smoke, debris or the fact that many actions show up people’s skeletons through their skin like an X-ray add to the visual finery and the general feeling of power. There seem to be a lot more destructible objects and buildings around this time too, and throwing cars around makes for some truly eye-catching explosions, as well as being very handy improvised weapons, particularly against the bigger enemies.
Cole MacGrath might not be your typical hero (or antihero) but his game supplies a lot more action than all of the Hulking Spider-Men Super Bat-type dudes out there put together. InFAMOUS 2 delivers a genuinely varied and addictive adventure and earns high recommendation. One of the most visually impressive games this year.
Best Bits
- Always good looking and occasionally stunning visuals. - Tons going on on-screen without a hitch. - Cool new powers. - Varied enemies, some of which are incredibly sneaky. - At times, the game is simply unputdownable. - Two campaigns with different sub plots and some very different powers.
Worst Bits
- The game camera is usually too close, and frequently messes you about. - Cole doesn’t always grab onto things he should.
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