Video: Infamous 2 Karma System Completely Changes the Game

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
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Video: Infamous 2 Karma System Completely Changes the Game

Sucker Punch demonstrates how Infamous 2's karma system will significantly alter the game's experience.


told us [http://www.amazon.com/inFAMOUS-2-Playstation-3/dp/B002I0GX88/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297564973&sr=8-1] a little bit about how the game's new karma system would work, but now the studio has demonstrated it with two videos. Each shows the same mission that takes a very different turn depending on which of the karma NPCs the player chooses to follow.

The upper-right video demonstrates what happens when you follow the righteous path. Kuo, the "good" karma NPC, gets kidnapped by a local militia. By following returning buddy Zeke's lead, the player will rescue Kuo by taking down a convoy transporting imprisoned police officers, putting them back on the streets and providing Cole with a small battalion to help free Kuo.

The video below shows what happens when players follow Nix, the "bad" karma NPC. This somewhat unstable lady suggests that Cole fill up a trolley with explosives and ram it into the mansion where Kuo is being held, disregarding any collateral damage.


They're two completely separate approaches to the same mission, compared to the morality system of Infamous [http://www.amazon.com/Infamous-Playstation-3/dp/B000ZK7ZOE] which basically left karma up to the player in how he/she would act during tasks, though there were missions unique to "bad" and "good" players. Brian Fleming of Sucker Punch explains that there will be a "very sizable number of missions" set up like this, with "plenty of unique content on either side." That sounds like a lot of replay value to me.

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Jumplion

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Mar 10, 2008
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While this is great on a gameplay standpoint, as a story standpoint it's just pointless. It'll warrant two playthroughs, one on nothing but good and one on nothing but evil. This will not have any difficult moral choices in this because it's all going to boil down to "Take this mission for +3 Paragon points!"

Still looks like a kickass game, though. Most everything I see is improved from the first one, from the samey looking districts, to the animations, to the light(n)ing effects, and the cutscenes. It's looking like one helluvah game.

This better not be released in the holiday season...
 

Antidrall

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Mar 16, 2010
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Ugh, this is even worse than the first Karma system. there are always at least two reasons why you would perform an action. lets set up a very typical rpg or video game scenario:

you're walking along and see a man being attacked by someone. you could:
a) fight off the attacker
b) walk away

why would you fight the attacker? it could eather be because you believe in defending the weak, or it could be because you just want to ruthlessly kill someone.

as for just walking away, it could be because you don't feel like helping someone, or you're just scared of getting into a confrontation or have more pressing matters to attend to. Or it could be to go inform a guard/ police officer of it.

no lets say that you killed/defeated the assailant and the man wants to repay you:
a)accept the money
b)refuse the offering

If you accept the money, it doesn't mean that you expect to be rewarded, you could just be a guy who's down on his luck and needs to make some money, and saving lives just so happen to be what you're good at. Or of course you could be the kind of asshole who snatches the cash from his hand and walks away without thanks.

refusing the award doesn't always mean that you're some selfless paragon of justice that shits out words of wisdom, you could just care less what the man thinks about you, or even that money has little value to you.

All morality systems in games are very shallow, and unless someone comes up with a better way to get inside the player's head instead of get the player in the character's head, I'll always see it that way.
 

zaphod121

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Nov 15, 2010
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As long as you know which karma choice is "good" or "bad" karma I don't have a problem with it. I hate when you choose what you think is the good path in a game and they turn it on you.

i.e. RDR when you grab the runaway for the stranger who turns out to be a cannibal. You can still shoot the cannibal but you get bad karma points regardless because you brought the runaway back instead of letting them flee.
 

Exort

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Oct 11, 2010
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This type of chooseing good or evil is just like chooseing black or white. No thought required.
 

Wilbot666

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Aug 21, 2009
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I just want to play it. Polarised morality-systems or not I loved the first game and am eagerly awaiting this one. That power disc/lifting trick he was doing has a lot of potential.
 

bushwhacker2k

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Jan 27, 2009
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I don't really feel like it improved on the system in the first game.

It's still at the Mother Theresa/Eating Babies level. I want to see specific things happening that motivate my actions, rather than just a generic desire to be a good guy or kill everything that moves.
 

Kyogissun

Notably Neutral
Jan 12, 2010
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Okay, sounds like there's little to no difference.

However, if they actually do it right and cause the game to, ya know, SPLIT OFF into two different directions with the story, then actual replay value will exist.

Essentially, every character/action/event involved with karma specific mission paths needs to start the player IN the direction of karma specific storylines. And not the halfassed minor alterations from the first, I'm talking SIGNIFICANT differences, I.E. both routes get different endings.

Sucker Punch, you need to just get over it and start working on two different story paths a la Mass Effect. Set it up so data can be imported into a future title. Just copy what BioWare is already doing right since it WORKS.
 

Lucifer dern

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Jun 11, 2010
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Looks fun, but so did the last game and I thought that was boring as hell.
as for moral choice...lets not even get started on that...2 dimentional moral choice systems will never be a selling point to me.
 

chromewarriorXIII

The One with the Cake
Oct 17, 2008
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Frozen Donkey Wheel2 said:
Woah. Looks like being evil lands with crazy black tentacle powers.
I think that was Nix actually. She's probably a conduit too.

I wasn't even paying attention to the actual karma thing. I just cared about all the awesome powers. The twister was awesome, it also seems like your electricity bursts fall a little more now. I also, never thought about using the levitation to lift a car up with you on top of it. Although, I probably wouldn't fling it, I'd probably just drop down on top of someone underneath me.
 

CarlsonAndPeeters

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Mar 18, 2009
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Karma system looks exactly the same. As do the missions. I'm hoping for some more variety this time around.

That being said, the graphics look unbelievable.
 

Crimsane

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Apr 11, 2009
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Whether or not I purchase this game is going to have less to do with this meh karma system and more to do with whether or not the releases around the time of its release leave me with any spare cash.
 

Warachia

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Aug 11, 2009
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Why am I getting less and less excited?

The more I see of this game, the less I want to buy it, I'm not into high graphics and it doesn't have the appeal/art direction that the first one had, which also made it special. This feels a whole lot more like a bland superhero game, which the first one was not.

The problem with black and white choices is yuou can't exactly apply them to a larger level and call it an improvement. When these choices are presented in smaller increments and more of them it can make the game feel a lot more personal.
 

mjc0961

YOU'RE a pie chart.
Nov 30, 2009
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Sounds like the same crap as inFamous 1: you just have to play the game twice now to see all the content that is likely not worth seeing. I do wonder if they'll actually change the story based on your actions though. The first game's choices were just a huge waste of time.

Although I see they've replaced Zeke with a guy who looks quite a bit like John Goodman in The Big Lebowski. That or Bono. Maybe Bono's head on Goodman's body? Yeah, I think that's it. Zeke looks like they put Bono's head on a Big Lebowski Goodman's body. Sucker Punch is clearly out of their element.

Warachia said:
This feels a whole lot more like a bland superhero game, which the first one was not.
The first game was certainly bland. Just a lot of samey third person shooting that wasn't as polished as the stuff you'd find in Gears or Uncharted. I agree with it not being a superhero game though. Superheroes usually do heroic things, whereas Cole was just a self-serving douche.
 

TheTygerfire

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Jun 26, 2008
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*sighs* This the exact. same. game.

I didn't really enjoy Infamous 1, but i beat it twice. That game was completely forgettable (not to mention having the most pointless morality system in gaming history), this looks like more of the same.
 

Azaraxzealot

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Dec 1, 2009
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i can see that they improved Cole's movement to be more flowy. This just makes comparisons to Prototype even harder to avoid... ugh... and i HATE comparing these games that i love each separately :(

EDIT: it also looks like it's going to have Playstation Move support (judging from the way the combat looks) or else they just want it to look like a 3rd person shooter for no reason.
 

Twilight_guy

Sight, Sound, and Mind
Nov 24, 2008
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It looks as technically sound as the first game, which I liked. Of course most of the issues I had with the first game aren't really visible in a bam boom gameplay trailer like this. Oh and this Karma system doesn't introduce that much replay value so much as enough value for two plays, one good and one evil since really that's your only choices.