Infamous 2 Review
- Thread starter Greg Tito
- Start date
I thought Infamous 1 was a pretty decent game, but nothing special.
This game, however, is at the top of my list for GotY 2011 so far. It just feels fantastic. Also, Zeke is awesome now.
This game, however, is at the top of my list for GotY 2011 so far. It just feels fantastic. Also, Zeke is awesome now.
its just illicit fun to butcher the people of new marais in all the glorious electric methods you have at your disposal, I especially love the mega Leech attack that basically has you murder everyone around you within a fairly wide radius by draining their life force from their bodies, i kinda dislike that the evil lightning is orange instead of blood red like before but, its an acceptable trade off for darth cole to look like a sith lord with the pasty pale skin and super veinified scarred look
Played through once already as good, going back as evil now. Either way is fun and the powers are neat. Combat is fun, especially once the later level enemies pop in that you can't simply flee up the side of a building to rest from. And the environments are awesome as is getting around them, with a nice mix between the city, swamp, flood sections, and industrial areas. Everything looks nice and aside from sometimes grabbing objects I don't want him to and the throwing power being a bit wonky sometimes, it's awesome. The whole game is certainly worth playing I have no doubt about it.
Two downsides for me though stop it from being perfect. One is the power system, just a minor nitpick but in the first game you gained your powers, and then leveled them up. This time around you just keep adding new versions. It seems kind of silly, like why would I ever use the basic bolt once I have one of the many more powerful versions I unlock later? A handful are unique enough that you might switch back, but it was pretty rare, only the Kinetic Pulse slot gets all the unique abilities that are actually worth switching about. Those should have been the only powers to switch, your four basic combat abilities should have just gotten progressively stronger and added their various modifiers.
Second thing is, I hope for the next game they just go for flat out good or evil with natural decisions to make. The story doesn't match what I'm doing as a player if I go evil in this game. Like, Zeke and Kuo never bring up the fact that I suck the life out of people and murder hundreds. And going evil you still have to do a lot of humanitarian missions. Sorry but it just doesn't work for me, it's fun to play, but plotwise it's stupid if the game is simply going to play out exactly the same whether I'm good or evil until the very end barring a handful of missions. Just pick a side and make a really good story around it. You can still have the player make choices, you can still have different powers. But the story simply isn't written where I can buy Cole as either a savior or Satan.
Two downsides for me though stop it from being perfect. One is the power system, just a minor nitpick but in the first game you gained your powers, and then leveled them up. This time around you just keep adding new versions. It seems kind of silly, like why would I ever use the basic bolt once I have one of the many more powerful versions I unlock later? A handful are unique enough that you might switch back, but it was pretty rare, only the Kinetic Pulse slot gets all the unique abilities that are actually worth switching about. Those should have been the only powers to switch, your four basic combat abilities should have just gotten progressively stronger and added their various modifiers.
Second thing is, I hope for the next game they just go for flat out good or evil with natural decisions to make. The story doesn't match what I'm doing as a player if I go evil in this game. Like, Zeke and Kuo never bring up the fact that I suck the life out of people and murder hundreds. And going evil you still have to do a lot of humanitarian missions. Sorry but it just doesn't work for me, it's fun to play, but plotwise it's stupid if the game is simply going to play out exactly the same whether I'm good or evil until the very end barring a handful of missions. Just pick a side and make a really good story around it. You can still have the player make choices, you can still have different powers. But the story simply isn't written where I can buy Cole as either a savior or Satan.
No more sewer areas. Thank God! And Cole seems more water resistant. He still doesn't like water and wants out of anything above his shoes, but the only time it'll really kill you is deep water. You do still have to turn the power on in some areas, but its actually kind of cool how you do it now. Also, it seems that enemies can't snipe with a pistol from 3 miles away anymore. I swear that could be a pain in the first one. Especially the police when I ran it evil (on hard to boot).thethingthatlurks said:
I recommend you ask others and read other reviews before you decide to pick it up. I'm a fan so I might see things in rosy colored glasses.
I already preferred InFamous over Prototype the first time around so this one was a no-brainer for me (InFamous has a better difficulty curve, an actual learning curve and more interesting traversal gameplay if you ask me). And they basically took out everything that was annoying in the first game and amped up the rest. Jinkies!
I never got why people thought they were getting gimped by going one way or the other in the first game. The gameplay style changes a bit but evil has the more fun powers whereas good makes you an infinite battery with the recharge on the normal bolt (a recharge they toned down a bit this time around because it was frankly a bit ridiculous that you couldn't run out of juice in the first).
I based my decision of going bad or good mostly on who I liked better, Kuo or Nix. They both have their good and bad points but in the first few choice missions Nix seemed like some sort of psycho to me, so a good boy it was.
I never got why people thought they were getting gimped by going one way or the other in the first game. The gameplay style changes a bit but evil has the more fun powers whereas good makes you an infinite battery with the recharge on the normal bolt (a recharge they toned down a bit this time around because it was frankly a bit ridiculous that you couldn't run out of juice in the first).
I based my decision of going bad or good mostly on who I liked better, Kuo or Nix. They both have their good and bad points but in the first few choice missions Nix seemed like some sort of psycho to me, so a good boy it was.
Playing this as Good on the first run-through because I know Evil is going to be way more fun and I am saving that for the second run-through. The same as I did with the first inFAMOUS game. But, Playing as Good feels more fun than it was in the original game too. As Greg says int he Video review the story is a bit meh, but the open world, powers and travel mechanics are awesome.
In future I can see me putting this disk in when I have a spare half hour to just go around blowing up New Marais.
In future I can see me putting this disk in when I have a spare half hour to just go around blowing up New Marais.
I never used the tether. Its unlocked too late in the game so i'm more comfortable using other things and i just plain forget about it. Like the electric rocket. I think i used both of them twice and thats it. I'm also doing an evil play through now, but i'm also going through infamous 1 evil as well.Saltyk said:Good to know I'm not alone in my love for Ice Launch. That was the best power in the whole game! It was just fun to do. Useful for traveling, avoiding enemies, being awesome. You name it. I just wish Lightning Tether was easier to use in conjunction. They could have been an epic combination.Andrew_Mac said:Onyx Oblivion said:
Every time i launch with this thing, i feel like a god! Really useful for getting around the place, and for getting on the tramlines from the floor.
Just started an evil play-through. Can't wait to see what I get from Nix.
By the way, has anyone realized that the 3 powers Cole can have are the 3 types of the dragon trio from pokemon black and white... Fire, ice and electricity...
Firebird strike you say? I'm intrigued. I'm definetly going to have to replay this game.Greg Tito said:
It sucks that EVERYONE else can fly but you can only glide for a bit.
Also, does anyone know if i could choose the fire abilities on a good run through and vice versa?
If you could, the game would lose the majority of its fun factor.Andrew_Mac said:
What makes the first and second inFamous so good is that the game makes you feel powerful, but not too powerful. Even when you're at your strongest you're still vulnerable even to basic attacks, which means it all comes down to the skill of the player.
Same with the travesal. They could've easily given Cole the ability to simply run up a building with the press of a button, but it would've felt far too uninvolving. That's why I never used the tether; It made getting around way too easy and boring. All you had to do was aim your sights at a wall and you would simply float toward it. I'd rather run, jump, clamber and ice launch myself across New Marais than fly.
I am buying this game. As soon as possible.
Although I'm pissed that fire is restricted to the evil cole, because I love fire based powers, but I also find it extremely difficult to play as a bad guy when I'm given the choice to play as a good guy.
Although I'm pissed that fire is restricted to the evil cole, because I love fire based powers, but I also find it extremely difficult to play as a bad guy when I'm given the choice to play as a good guy.
I ain't complaining about the lack of flight. i like all the climbing and ice launches. But its a bit weird that cole, the most powerful conduit ever, is also the only one who can't fly.Casual Shinji said:
i was very skeptical about it after the first hour i played it
i thought it would never be as good as the first one
but man was i wrong
new marais is just so much more varied than empire city
and the second island just blows you away with the flooded district, the industry district and the big rail(station?)
the powers i thought were more balanced than in the first but still it's way easier to play the good guy again
with the bolt stream + regenerating power you just never run out of power
never used the ice launch though... i liked the lightning tether way better
what i hated the most about the game was that it made you feel bad to play the bad cole
the game should have a neutral moral and encourage you either way and not rub your nose in the bad things you just did
but maybe that's just me
the interesting thing will now be whether or not there will be a 3rd game
it would be rather difficult to construct as it would basically be 2 completely different campaigns
i thought it would never be as good as the first one
but man was i wrong
new marais is just so much more varied than empire city
and the second island just blows you away with the flooded district, the industry district and the big rail(station?)
the powers i thought were more balanced than in the first but still it's way easier to play the good guy again
with the bolt stream + regenerating power you just never run out of power
never used the ice launch though... i liked the lightning tether way better
what i hated the most about the game was that it made you feel bad to play the bad cole
the game should have a neutral moral and encourage you either way and not rub your nose in the bad things you just did
but maybe that's just me
the interesting thing will now be whether or not there will be a 3rd game
it would be rather difficult to construct as it would basically be 2 completely different campaigns
As far as i can tell you can easily choose fire powers on a good run through, but the act of choosing the fire powers will give you some negative karma points. Nothing you can't work off with a bit of side missions and the like, but if your going for a complete run through you may miss some of the achievements for ice powers.ultrachicken said:
I never understood why Kuo is like "if you choose nix ill have to chase you down for being a criminal" when you get the power-swap-o-matic, I mean why does getting powers from nix who is more unhinged/psycho than outright evil( the mission with nix where I throw cars around is fucking fun as hell, and makes me wish for a more destructible scenery) I think that they both get jealous of the other during the powers choice(at least the dialogue leads you to believe so).
on a different note, i dislike how some of your R2 powers cost energy but others are freebies(firebird strike sucks up mad energy)
on a different note, i dislike how some of your R2 powers cost energy but others are freebies(firebird strike sucks up mad energy)
The comic book cutscenes aren't exactly needless as they are a different style on the regular cinematic cutscenes that we see in different video games. They paint Cole basically as a superhero and what would a superhero be without a graphic novel? Of which if I recall correctly they actually have one.Greg Tito said:
