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    inFamous 2

    Game » consists of 9 releases. Released Jun 07, 2011

    The electric superhuman, Cole MacGrath, returns in the sequel to 2009's open world superhero third-person action game from Sucker Punch, featuring new graphics, a new city, and new powers.

    johncallahan's inFamous 2 (PlayStation 3) review

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    • johncallahan wrote this review on .
    • 0 out of 1 Giant Bomb users found it helpful.

    inFamous 2 Still Great

    Just over two years ago the original inFamous bolted onto the PlayStation 3, creating one of the first games that made buying a PS3 a worthwhile investment. inFamous was the total package; it looked gorgeous, introduced a new poster child in the form of Cole MacGrath, the electrically fueled superhero (or villain) of Empire City, let players scale the side of buildings with ease, and gave gamers the feeling of controlling a superhero. Now we find ourselves with inFamous 2, and for the most part it’s a solid improvement.

    inFamous 2 picks up a month after the events of the first game, you are once again put into the shoes of Cole as he heads off to the city of New Marais. Empire City has been destroyed by the gigantic monster known simply as “The Beast,” whose arrival was foretold in the first game. In order to stop the monstrosity Cole must seek the help of Dr. Sebastion Wolfe in New Marais, he unfortunately meets huge resistance in the form of southern political tycoon known as Joseph Bertrand III. Bertrand has more or less enslaved New Marais, putting his own specialized authoritative force known as the Militia in charge. Cole must put an end to the Militia, Bertrand, and a sudden uprising of Mutants who dwell in nearby swamps, all while having to power himself up enough to defeat “The Beast.” A pretty tall order, one that you’ll not face alone, your buddy Zeke from the first game returns to help you as well as a colorful cast of new characters.

    Much like the first game, the big draw of inFamous 2 is its open world traversal. New Marais (New Orleans) is a beautiful area to play around in, it’s colorful and has plenty of character which is a nice change from Empire City in the first game. Any building you see in inFamous 2 you can climb, and climb you do. Scaling the side of a building is still satisfying though it does boil down sometimes to just pressing the X button which is still good fun, though in the age of Assassin’s Creed which just looks and feels so fluid it’s hard not to notice a tad bit of stiffness climbing buildings. It’s not enough to break the game, but it is noticeable at first. Once you click into it however it quickly loses any sense of repetition and becomes second nature. Jumping off of the top of a building, hovering yourself to a trolley cable, and shooting along that cable at high speeds is still the most satisfying way to traverse an open world game I can think of. Your constantly gaining new ways to get around quicker; better gliding abilities, higher jumps, and faster grind speeds all get worked into your character as you progress, which makes moving around even more unique and enjoyable. The sound design is odd though; there are very few sound effects in the game. New Marais appears to be a busy city, with cars and people flooding the streets, but if you stop and listen you hear almost nothing. You don’t hear people talking often, the cars are whisper quiet, and at one point I stood right next to a trolley and it drove by without a noise. This usually wouldn’t be worth mentioning but the production quality of the game is so good in every other area the lack of ambient sound sticks out like a sore thumb.

    The combat in inFamous 2 is fluid and at times absolutely stunning to witness. You get a large array of powers you use to take out the various enemies that plague New Marais. Standard powers are in full force; lighting bolts, grenades, shockwaves, and melee combat are all easier to use this time around, and you’ll be switching back and forth between these different types of moves on the fly as combat necessitates. Later on you also gain access to truly astonishing super moves such as summoning a giant electric vortex, and calling down a storm of thunder and lightning that demolishes giant areas in an instant. While the combat flow is fast-paced and fun to engage in, it also shows us the biggest problem with inFamous 2, the enemies. Enemy variety is nearly non-existent, so expect to be seeing a lot of guys in hockey masks with a large amount of them donning rocket launchers. It’s understandable that Sucker Punch didn’t want the game to be glaringly easy, but considering you’re supposed to be an all-powerful super human it does get annoying when you get hit with four rockets all at once and receive an instant death.

    Morality choices were a big part of inFamous and they are back in full force in inFamous 2. The choice system and the way it works are necessary for how the game plays. Play the good guy and people will obviously revere you more and you’ll get powers that are more focused and precise so you don’t harm innocents while in combat. Play the bad guy and people fear you, your lightning will turn red, and you’ll have more AOE powers that are more powerful and take out large groups on enemies (and civilians). Down the line you also get access to special fire or ice powers which are tied to which karmic path you decide to take which adds a nice level of replayability to the game.

    A big new feature for inFamous 2 is its user-generated content. All across the map you’ll see missions pop up that were created by inFamous players, these missions range from escort missions, to races, to full on bombastic combat scenarios. There are of course well-crafted user-generated missions and some that are not so hot, thankfully they can all be sorted out by a robust filtering system; sort by highest rated missions, types, newest created, etc. These missions don’t affect your karma in any large part, and you don’t gain a lot of experience, but it is easy enough to craft these missions and there are some worthwhile creations out there.

    One more (possibly the most significant) point is the collection. inFamous 2 uses blast shards which creates that feeling the original Crackdown gave so many people. Blast shards are everywhere throughout the world and you can ping the map at any time to see nearby shards. There are over 300 to collect and every set number of shards give you another little boost in your energy. It’s incredibly easy to get distracted and go off for an hour just collecting shards, which is easily one of the best parts of this game.

    inFamous 2 takes what was already a very good game, and evolves some of the problems it had. The traversal is better than ever, you have a bunch of new powers at your disposal, and there is plenty of room for exploration. It’s not perfect, the enemies are all incredibly similar and will gang up on you, and the lack of sound effects is odd given how well everything else is done. inFamous 2 is not a major leap forward in the series, but it is a fun worthwhile romp for the PlayStation 3.

    *I originally wrote this review for my website Gamerzitch.com*

    Other reviews for inFamous 2 (PlayStation 3)

      inFAMOUS 2 is a Beast. 0

      There's an easy distinction between an open world game, and a sandbox. Open world games primarily use their open world mostly as a setting alone to portray realistic interactions, show off impressive environments and to mostly push the story forward, like Mafia 2, L.A Noire and for a less recent example, Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Sandboxes, on the other hand, are mostly striving to give you a giant playground full of opportunities for mayhem, carnage, destruction and many more terms relating to ma...

      14 out of 17 found this review helpful.

      Zeke still sucks, but that's about all that does. 0

      Infamous 2 is a hard game to place, they’ve changed so much about it while leaving so much of it the exact same. Yet it still manages to feel like a unique open world experience with a ton of content and a lot of replay ability. It’s a game for comic fans, open world fans, or even to some extent third person shooter fans. It reaches a broad audience and it mish mashes all these different genres and play styles into one gorgeous, fun to play and well told story. Cole's Character Model still loo...

      14 out of 18 found this review helpful.

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