Better in Every Way
Infamous 2 is almost exactly what you would expect from the a sequel to the first game. Almost. Infamous 2 improves on every aspect of the game, even story and characters.
While being chased out of Empire City by "The Beast", agent Lucy Kuo brings Cole Macgrath and friend and partner Zeke Dunbar to New Marais. Throughout the course of the game Cole's objective is to collect blast cores to becomes more powerful so he can activate the Ray Sphere Inhibitor to neutralize The Beast. While the game is not on any clock, it still manages to create a minor sense of urgency by showing you The Beasts location on the coast and informing you how many miles away he is from New Marais as you progress through the game. News reports that will appear on televisions throughout the city serve to document The Beasts wave of destruction and power.
This sequel plays very similar to the first with a few tweaks. For one, there's now a sort of magnetic snapping toward platforming objects to help you land on them. In cases where you're trying to jump across thin pieces of wood to a boat it's really helpful. In other cases you might find yourself attempting to jump on to something but Cole keeps getting caught on other nearby objects. Despite the minor annoyances that can be presented by this mechanic, the inclusion of things such as a grappling hook mechanic and the fire and ice powers has made Cole much more mobile and traversing the cities is more fun than in the previous Infamous game.
The Karma choices in Infamous 2 are as clear as they were in the first game, even using colors to represent the different sides. Also like the first Infamous, your karmic alignment will decide which powers you got. In this case, being on the side of good will net you Ice powers, and evil will give you fire powers. The choices you make also influence which character Cole is most cooperative with between Lucy Kuo and Nix. Like you would expect, the choices always influence the way cut scenes play out and in some cases the missions you undertake. The choices are not hard to make are more about whether you want to be good or evil and less about doing what you think is the right decision.
The powers on both ends of the spectrum are far more interesting this time around. Like the first game, the evil side is more focused on mass destruction and the good side is focused on control and precision. However, one side doesn't necessarily feel just better and more useful like evil did in the first infamous. Both offer high levels of mobility as their basic powers. Ice offers a highly improve jumped, and fire offers a mid-air dash that is repeatable. The power categories are the same as the first Infamous. You have your basic bolt, your grenades, your rockets, your shockwaves, and your mass devastation. Cole was able to call down an electrical storm in the first game. That power makes a return in Infamous 2 along with four others. I won't say what the fire and ice ones are, but the one you start with is a massive tornado that destroys anything it goes near and is incredibly satisfying to use.
Many people hated Zeke in the first game and saw Cole as a rather flat sort of cliched character. Infamous 2 practically reinvents these characters to create compelling situations and people you can actually get behind and feel for. With the addition of two new major characters in Kuo and Nix the main cast actually has a good amount of interaction that feels important to the game rather than just tacked on, but the Zeke and Cole relationship is what really shines in terms of plot in this game. Naturally, it's stressed due to events in the first game, and though they've seemingly managed to repair their friendship they definitely haven't forgotten. There's one great scene that involves the two of them sitting on a couch, that's all I'll say. Toward the end of the game there's some scenes that can actually be kind of touching, and one sequence that I found to be really sad on the evil side. Not everyone will have the same reaction to these instances that I did, but Infamous 2 certainly does a better job of creating worthwhile characters than the first Infamous did.
Despite the absence of ambient sound and seeming disregard for bringing sound design up to par with the rest of the game, there's actually a couple moments where a really unexpected, and unexpectedly good score will kick in. Though the sound flaws are likely to detract from the game for many, I don't feel it hurts the game too much.
If you liked the first InFamous and want more, then this game is for you. Some might say more of the same is a bad thing, but what if that same is improved in literally every way?
