With no lock-on and no health bar, you end up seeing most fights through that washed out black and white filter as you struggle to know how the hell to take on more than about 2 guys, whilst the awkward floaty jumping controls make you stick to random outcrops and lampposts anyway!

Do you guys find yourselves hanging back to take on wider groups of dudes? So far I'm hating every combat showdown, as the melee attacks are hella slow, and should you take the time to try and aim you'll just get ventilated by gunfire.

Help please!

Use the dodge. Constantly. Circle button is your friend. Also, there's plenty of crowd control moves. The smoke grenade has a huge radious and is super useful. The other versions of the move less so but it will clear out crowds.

Melee is a last resort . You should stay back but you can always get the jump on enemies. I'll often open up with a ground pound from up high, then dodge my way back to the rooftops and keep fighting there. You build up Karma bombs so fast that you can just pick off a few dudes and then unleash when you're having issues.

Having been a fan of the infamous series since the first one - I found the combat to be pretty similar in all entries of the game. I didn't have any trouble busting heads from the get go on Infamous Second Son. I know Delsin is a little fragil at first, once you level up a little and you get some more offensive moves, it gets easier. Honest advice would be to clear a few zones and collect some shards so that you can level up your powers a bit. When in combat, its all about stick and move. If you start taking some shots, use the smoke dash to create some distance and find some cover. If all else fails, dash into a vent and head to a rooftop to catch your breath. One upgrade even gives you some health back when going through vents. The L1 attack is a good bet early on as it renders those caught in it coughing and easy prey for a take down.

Trust me duder - it gets easier and feels more natural the more you play and the more you add to your arsenral.

I really liked the combat. I think smoke is the worst power (besides the last power) because it has the worst mobility. When I used smoke I mostly just spammed the smoke grenade (while running back and forth) so I could dash in, subdue everyone, and dash out. Then use the karma bomb when it was ready. With neon I never really went up close and personal. I hung back and used the slow down time power to subdue everyone, dashing around to get different vantage points and using the karma bomb when it was ready. With TV (the best power) I would go invisible, subdue two enemies, dash out, go invisible, subdue two enemies, rinse and repeat until everyone was down. Also ending with the karma bombs.

The last power is absolute garbage after having experienced neon and TV.

I really liked the combat.

Is the thread title pun intended?

I do feel a little squishy at times, but overall i really enjoy the combat :)

Always be moving, it takes some getting used to while aiming but it is the key to the combat. The basic bullets use very little energy so don't be afraid to hammer on that R2 trigger, especially with smoke. If you are playing good focus on using the instant subdue abilities (hitting guys in the head with smoke, or legs with neon) and if evil abuse the dash melee attack. Don't be afraid to go vertical as well, use vents to launch yourself with smoke and do comet drops on enemies (it both damages and spreads them apart from each other) and use the neon dash and jump to get around enemies. Also remember that absorbing power sources regains your health too, it can be risky at times but is pretty fast with Quick Drain. Also spam the missile attacks, especially with Neon as you get a ton of ammo and neon sources are all over the place. Another thing to keep in mind with smoke is that destroys enemy structures super quick with the blast attack so use it to take down guys using the towers and bridges.

Platinumed the game a few days ago and didn't find Expert that much of a challenge. The main thing is to remember to keep mobile and not give the enemies a target to hit, the game gives you a ton of mobility for each power. Smoke is best for getting up close to enemies while Neon is great for getting behind enemies or quickly to a rooftop. Frankly I rarely used the last two powers for combat. Smoke is totally underrated it seems, it is great for destroying enemy cover, if playing good the upgraded headshots instantly subdue weaker enemies and if evil then the blast attack can incinerate like 3 or 4 weaker guys at a time.

Heh, shockingly.

I totally agree with this sentiment. I loved the first two and played through both games twice (once good and once evil obviously), and I'm not even sure I'm going to finish this one once. The powers are simply too inconsistent. Smoke seems to be the most efficient for taking enemies down, but it makes traversing up buildings and across the city a pain. Neon makes traversal a breeze, but having to aim at feet the entire game is not fun for me. What would have been wrong with making chest shots subdue the enemy? The video power is alright, but I wish you could "fly" unlimited, since two quick bursts isn't enough often. And there just doesn't seem to be enough power sources around the city to support it's automatic firing. It's a shame too, because I was so excited for it.

I really liked the combat, but the mission design is balls.

Man, what you're describing sounds exactly like the first game. WHY doesn't SuckerPunch change things about their games? The things they really need to improve on I feel they're just blatantly ignoring. Sure the game looks amazing but man, the amount of crap you have to put up with in a fight is annoying and doesn't make any mechanical sense. When 4 guys are shooting you from 500 meters away on a roof with assault rifles at pinpoint accuracy and your only feasable thing to do is dodge like an idiot, you know you gotta change something about your game.

@xyzygy: The Infamous series has always felt too much like a third person shooter for a superhero game. Haven't played this last one, but when there were multiple enemies to deal with that were spread out, it just turned into a cover shooter with magic instead of guns. That was always one of my biggest complaints with the series, I just never liked the combat that much.

I don't enjoy it as much as the previous two (mainly due to the lack of enemy variety). But at least it's still tactical and pretty empowering once you get a hang of it.

The no health bar is definitely annoying, but a lock-on would ruin the game, I mean inFamous is basically a shooter without guns, so having the aiming done for you would suck.

I could not disagree more.

The combat really clicked with me on my second playthrough (evil/expert). Once you get moving around, throwing grenades, dashing up and down structures and switching powers on the fly, the combat becomes pure bliss. When you pull off an encounter well you feel like an unstoppable demi-god.

If you ask me, I think the combat is smokin'!

No but seriously, I fucking hate playing shooters with a controller but the inFamous games have always been amazingly fun. Probably because of the emphasis on agility/mobility instead of the stop-and-pop snorefest of most console shooters. Yeah, you're fragile in those games (especially in the beginning), but there are so many upgrades that make it easy to instantly refill your health mid-battle it's basically a non-issue once you find out what a blast shard is.

Agreed. I got bored fast, it has no weight to it and when you're in such a lifeless world, it makes it worse.

Strange, I thought it was super fun. The variety of powers also kept things fresh enough for me throughout the game.

I had no probs with the combat. I just wish there was more mission variety.

The game definitely isn't like that anymore. The only enemies patrolling the streets are in trucks. If there's enemies on roofs or towers, it's because that district is under control by the DUP, which you can kick their ass out of. The combat is so fast paced that if you're getting shot, it's because you're not being mobile. The dash powers in this game make getting around to different vantage points during battles so easy that there's never any reason why you should be staying in one spot.

I've played a few hours of the game so far, and my experience with the combat has been up and down. Even when I stand back and shoot, I feel like I'm constantly taking fire too quickly and repeatedly have to smoke dodge to escape while on the verge of death. Taking down district control points is a pain in that way, because I have to run in amidst heavy fire, do what damage I can, and then duck back out on a repeat basis before I've cleared out enough guys that I can smash up the armored vehicle and blow up its power source. It doesn't help that some enemies, particularly the heavy-weapon toting armored guys, seem to take forever to kill and there's no visual indication that I've been able to distinguish that they've been taking damage. It's just shooting and hitting the guys until they either don't get up or I'm prompted to either spare or finish them.

I don't agree. My biggest pet peeve is the fact that the enemies are dead shots 99% of the time. Like once someone spots you, it's almost impossible for them to miss their shots. Which on the harder difficulty gets pretty annoying, as you're trying to run away. Aside from that, I actually like the feel of combat.

Overall I was very disappointed with how the game played. Perhaps it was unfair coming from Dark Souls 2 to this but man is this game rough. The whole game felt a lot like a side activity that is only difficult at times because the controls are so fundamentally loose. The last few boss fights were pretty terrible, just throwing loads and loads of effects on the screen just to pretend it's a difficult fight. They looked incredible but were just a mess to play.

The game on normal was mostly easy except for the times they force you to use smoke powers. Either smoke power is way under powered or the others are way over powered. I hated how they forced which powers they wanted you to use later in the game because I love having the freedom of choice so I can play how I want to. I bet they realised people were destroying the later half of the game with the other powers so they decided to force smoke on you to make it more challenging.

I was very disappointed by the game, I enjoyed the original a lot more and I felt it controlled so much better. I think Sucker punch still make ps2 games, albeit very pretty ones. It makes me excited to see what Sony can do with future PS4 releases because the effects were incredible, it just sucks that the game was so mediocre. Killzone: Shadow Fall, Knack and Infamous all share console launch syndrome I suppose.

@shalashaskauk666:

I didn't find the combat shockingly bad at all. I actually enjoyed utilizing the different powers to rid of enemies. However, it did get a bit frustrating at times, without a lock on system you had to wonder around like a complete fool until you find an enemy to attack. the combat was 85% for me. Also, never forget to use X then Square. It might help you. Make use of the back buttons too.

I'm bad at the combat, ergo the combat is bad.

See I didn't know that there were even dash powers. I've been kind of blind about this game on purpose, not wanting to spoil anything. That'd definitely something that the combat needs.

Neon is king.

lol

@xyzygy: My bad man! If you're going into the game completely blind and haven't seen trailers, well your eyes are going to explode when you see the powers in action. The powers look gorgeous, that's all I'll say.