I’ll tip-toe around the end of the original inFamous if you haven’t played it yet (and with it being a free game from PSN’s Welcome Back Program, there’s no reason you shouldn’t play it), but suffice it to say that a strange, powerful, supernatural entity known as The Beast is out to destroy everything, including our hero Cole McGrath. The beginning of inFamous 2 pits you against The Beast in a brief, scripted event sort of way that allows the game to have good reason to scale back all of the powers that you earned in the original game. That’s not to say you will start off as inept as Cole originally did, but you are much less powerful.
It’s obvious that Cole needs to increase his ability if he is to have any chance of defeating The Beast. Cole, along with Agent Kuo from the government and his buddy Zeke, head to southern Louisiana in a fictional town called New Marias. Meanwhile, The Beast, fresh off of obliterating Empire City, is carving a path down to Louisiana. He begins some 2000 miles away and at certain junctions in the story, the game informs you that he is now 864 and 353 miles, and so on, away. From the Pause menu, you can see a picture of the east coast of the US and the blackened path of destruction that The Beast has created.
This is not the Beast.. it’s a Ravager, but he’s just as unhappy to see you.
Your goal is to amplify your powers so that you can stop The Beast. To do this you will need to find core components of the RFI, a Ray Sphere Inhibitor that a certain Dr. Wolfe created. When you find these components and absorb their power you earn a new ability.
These story missions are surrounded by numerous side missions and also new UGC missions. UGC, User Generated Content, are side missions that you or any player of the game can make right there within the inFamous 2 world. The mission editor is available from the Pause Menu. The Editor looks easy enough to use but I did not find it very intuitive. The manual offers no support, which isn’t surprising, but I didn’t see any kind of tutorial within the game, either. Personally, I’m not interested in making missions and sharing them with the inFamous community, but I’m sure there will be a lot of gamers that will do so. As long as you’re connected to the PSN, these free UGC missions will be dropped into your game world and marked by bright green mission-start markers.
Side missions, just like in the original game, are really the best way to earn XP that you can use to upgrade powers. Unlike the original game, XP is not used to unlock powers, but just upgrade them. To unlock powers, you have to look at the criteria, if its available, in the Powers menu and perform those criteria, like blasting x number of enemies off of a rooftop or something. It reminded me of Splinter Cell: Conviction in that regard, as far as having Trophy-like requirements for in game elements. I’m not a fan of that kind of implementation because it seems really arbitrary and I think it forces you to play the game a certain way, but it’s not a deal-breaker.
Speaking of powers, Cole has a variety of new offensive maneuvers this time around, and the ability to quickly switch between different powers. In other words, Cole still has his standard electric bolt, but there is a high power single shot variant, as well as an artillery bolt (long, arcing shot), and a three shot burst (called the Pincer Bolt), too. The other standard powers — the Shock Grenade, the Shockwave, those also have variations that make them far more versatile than in the original inFamous. Switching between them is fast and easy too, giving you plenty of options. It’s important to note that Cole no longer has infinite bolt energy. Your battery cores will drain with bolt usage so you have to pay more attention than you did in the first game to make sure you don’t run out of juice in the middle of a battle.
Combat in inFamous 2 is tougher than the first game. Human enemies in New Marias are more prone to tossing grenades and rockets your way and there are a variety of organic creatures out to tear you apart too, including Devourers and Ravagers and Hive Lords. Health upgrades are hard to come by as well (unlike the original game).
Zap!
inFamous 2 also introduces four ionic powers that are a visual treat and a real thrill to use. The only one I have at this point is the Ionic Vortex which you may have seen in trailers or even in the new Street Fighter X Tekken video with Cole fighting Ryu. The vortex is a tall, black tornado that picks up cars and enemies and does a whole heck of a lot of damage. I’m looking forward to checking out the other powers.
Another major change with the sequel is the re-vamped melee system. inFamous one had melee, but it was just a matter of mashing a single button and watching Cole do one of a few different combos. inFamous 2 introduces a more evolved melee system that centers around the Amp, a short trident like device that Cole keeps on him at all times. With it, Cole performs a variety of attacks and Finishers that can be purchased. Melee combat now also uses two buttons (weak and heavy attack). The game still lacks the ability to block which is annoying though. And as a lesser complaint, the vibration function of the controller is over used in melee — when you do a finisher, the vibration of the controller feels like it’s maxed out for two or three seconds. I thought that that mechanic was a little jarring in the flow of the action and also literally, in my hand. The combat and finishers are pretty though, and very well animated.
Other neat things I like about inFamous 2 so far includes having L2 function the same as L3. L2 not only drains power when held, but also sends out the pulse the L3 did (and still does if you want it to) in the original game. Additionally, the pulse also shows the location of nearby Blast Shards, which are collected in number to increase your battery cores. I find myself even more prone to going after these things now than I did in the original. And, being that most shards are on the sides of buildings, I liked that Sucker Punch included a lot of vertical pipes that you can launch yourself straight up from, which is new. It makes scaling a building a lot more enjoyable and quicker.
There’s more to say about inFamous 2 and I will do so when I post my full review in the next couple of days after I complete the story and spend some more time with UGC. Thanks for reading.
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