That demo was really long. I really enjoyed my time with it, though; the extended length of the demo gave me ample opportunity to just run around and test out the powers and controls.
One of the more interesting new things I found just running around in the demo is that there are now random civilians running around with Blast Shards. You want those Blast Shards, of course, so in order to get them, you need to take them from those civilians. Attacking them went into the wounded state worked (a message popped up proclaiming "BLAST SHARD STOLEN!"), but I'm not sure if there's another, more benevolent way of going about it. It was also amusing to be chasing after the holder of the Blast Shard amidst a crowd of angry civilians, who actively attacked me. I wasn't sure whether it was because I was playing as "renegade red" Cole or simply because I was chasing down the poor man (who was quite swift, I might add).
Melee is also new and enhanced, and I actually had a bit more fun just jumping in the middle of a mob of enemies and just wailing on them with my giant tuning fork, but the aiming and the camera did seem a little unruly at times. I did appreciate the combo meter that would enable you to pull off more flashy and damaging finishing moves, though.
I also thought Sucker Punch did a good job once again at augmenting the main electric powers depending on your moral alignment. Even the standard electric bolt varied quite a bit between alignments; the "benevolent blue" Cole (sorry, that's the last time I'll use those lame alliterations) was able to just be "straight dumpin'" if you held down R1 while aiming, and I didn't see that there was an overheat/cooldown mechanic for that. The evil route, on the other hand, maintained what is likely the standard firing rate, but granted an "arc lightning" effect that spread to nearby enemies. I'm not sure if that's how it worked in the first game, as it has been a while since I played through it, so for all I know, that's how it worked in the first game as well. The grenades, if I remember correctly, had the same effects as in the first "inFamous," with good having sticky grenades and evil having your grenades break up a multitude of smaller grenades. I couldn't get a good sense of what the rockets did for the good side, but the evil side had a really cool bolo effect to the rockets, with a rocket splitting into two with a horizontal bolt of electricity in between the two. The shockwave power was actually kind of disappointing for me; it never seemed to push enemies very far, though it will probably be a lot more potent when properly leveled up. The good side did have that same slow-motion stasis effect on the enemies hit by the shockwave, though. Not sure about the evil side.
One of my complaints about the demo (and perhaps subsequently the game) is that one of the missions available was an escort mission. The problem with this is that you play it as evil Cole, whose "widespread destruction" didn't really help when trying to defeat a group of enemies with the civilian standing nearby. I guess that is the inherent nature of the game (some missions will probably be easier with one side than the other, and you'll have to switch up your tactics accordingly), but that doesn't mean it makes for an enjoyable experience. Also, would evil Cole even bother to be helping out a single hostage in the first place?
Finally, and obviously most importantly, COLE CAN CLIMB FENCES NOW. Granted, they were somewhat shorter fences of which you could grab the top, but still. COLE CAN CLIMB FENCES NOW. Game on.
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