June 14, 2011 by

In a time saturated with Grand Theft Auto clones, Infamous took a leap of faith. It introduced us to a super powered being named Cole Mcgrath, who was not pigeon holed into being a good guy. He could utilize his powers for the purposes of good, or be as cold and brutal as he needed to be to get the job done. This character could use parkour and his powers to get around the city, and he constantly evolved through morality choices. Infamous 2, seeks to refine these fundamentals, but turn up the scale of combat to a hundred. Does it succeed in this quest, or should we stick to the first, Infamous?


Infamous 2 goes a long way at taking what we loved from the original, and turning it up a couple notches. Let's start with the intensified power-sets. By the end of the first game; Cole was a pretty dominant superhuman being. In the second game, he already has most of his powers from the first game unlocked. So the upgrades that he receives increase in scale and effectiveness. Let's use Ion Storm as an example, as soon as you gain this you'll realize how strong Cole is.

Having powers that can take out an entire city block is beautiful. Now on the other hand, is it something that can be deemed "too powerful"? That's just the thing, the enemy presence and A.I. aren't affected by powers the same way. Let me explain this in a bit more detail. The human soldiers are aggressive and use swarming tactics on players. They are also vulnerable to every power in Cole's vast repertoire. In comparison, the monsters are much more diverse in how they can be taken down.

The smaller creatures leap about trying to pincer Cole in, while the serrated armed beasts try to close in to melee him. These beings aren't susceptible to being knocked off their feet, so Cole will have to engage them in one on one combat. Then there are two types of chargers, one will kamikaze and explode when near Cole. While the other is a gigantic beast called a Ravager, which can literally destroy anything in its path with one charge. These beasts are completely immune to the higher tier spells, and will take a bit more finesse to take out.

It's this kind of diversity that forces players to react quickly to Cole's enemies. Each opponent forces players to use a different power, that keeps them on their toes during extremely hectic situations. Another area in which Infamous 2 trumps the original, is the vast amount of attention that's paid to mission variety. I'm not going to talk about the user-generated content just yet, because that's an entire subject of its own.

Sucker Punch didn't just lean on the UGC for their missions. They've got enough to keep players busy for many hours without it. So aside from the main storyline, you have random missions and side-quests. The random missions are mostly useful for shooting up your alignment, which in turn will give Cole better powers for that choice. Now the side-quests are also used to gain experience and higher powers, but these can pop up just about anywhere. Sometimes even completing a random mission can lead to unlocking a side-quest.

Now let's get into the Infamous 2's version of Little Big Planet's creator. The UGC is going to be what keeps players attached to the game. Using a majority of templates or starting from scratch, players can make all sorts of weird missions for others to play. The depth of creativity allowed here is really only limited to the mind in charge of it. You can sink hours and hours into making a highly detailed quest for Infamous 2. Or if you're not into creating anything at all, just search around and see what other players have made. Just this one feature alone offers limitless replay value for the game.

The graphics have also been tuned up quite a fair bit. Cole's electric powers make a big impact on the environment and enemies. Hitting humanoid opponents show off x-ray like effects, while explosions create impressive motion blur across the screen. The new combination powers with Kuo and Nix also look spectacular, encasing people in ice and blowing them to bits with black goop is awesome. New Marais, also sells itself well as a down trodden swamp of a city, its murky and unsettling atmosphere is a big time change from, Empire city.


I'm just going to come out and say it, the storyline is like a less interesting version of, Rocky. Cole needs to train himself up for a fight against a monster named, The Beast. So he spends all of his time looking for Blast Shards that can make him stronger. The Beast, slowly makes his way towards Cole over the course of the main storyline. So everything that happens to Cole in the mean time is pretty much filler. I say that because the side story between Kuo, Nix, and Bertrand, could have been given more substance. They almost feel like they were thrown into the mix just to give Cole new powers.

Parkour is absolutely amazing in this game, I think that Assassins Creed could take notes from it. On the other hand, it can become much too sticky in the wrong situations. If you're jumping towards anything, Cole will most likely stick to it. In situations where he's surrounded by gunfire and mass amounts of enemies, this is a no-no. I can't tell you how many times Cole died from trying to get off a wall. It can be frustrating to have to repeat an entire mission, due to one little mishap like being stuck on a wire.


Infamous 2, takes the elements from the first game, and puts them in a melting pot of fantastic. The storyline is pretty average, but the new powers, intense combat, and UGC make up for it. If you're looking for a no nonsense Superhero game, this is the one for you. Cole Mcgrath and the crew of Infamous 2, receive an A- from Half-Ass Gaming. Let's hope that we can get some sort of cooperative play for, Infamous 3.

Submit Blog
blog comments powered by Disqus