InFamous 2 Review

InFamous 1 was a good example of a good game that was lacking something. It was great in it's own right, but it didn't quite feel... current gen. The city was a tad bland, the animations looked robotic (although I found that kind of endearing), and the story was a bit confusing. I hate time-travel. So how did the sequel stack up? Pretty well actually.

First things first. I immediately started looking at the animation. Gone are the weird, inhuman movements and in their place is a more standard look. I didn't quite get Cole's apparent need to slouch way the hell over and bend his knees when he was standing still, but I guess you can't knock it till you try it (Don't actually do this in public. People will think you are about to pounce on them). This may seem unimportant, but it's actually kind of indicative of the improvements. The game looks and feels better, and by that I mean tighter... well, mostly tighter. Why mostly? Cause they didn't improve the climbing. It's still the same "press up to climb" ridiculousness that it was before. It's actually not terrible, mainly because it's fast. But, I don't always want to climb fast. What if I'm tailing someone? I want to climb carefully like in Assassin's Creed by just pushing the stick in the direction I want to go. It allows me to control my movements much more. I have no problem with pushing jump to climb (especially if I'm a super human), but I want that other option. But let's move on to what was great about the first game, the powers.

There's no way I could just reach up and grab that ledge. Better jump.

You could really do some cool stuff in the first InFamous. Gliding, shooting, grinding, using an electric shield, and freaking summoning lighting from the sky was a blast. Well, all of that's back plus more! Now you can get fire or ice powers based on your alignment and almost every power can be expanded on based on EXP. Got an electric grenade? Play a few hours and upgrade it to an ice one. Oh wait, now you can make your electric one burst in to several ones. Like the ice one better? Well go ahead and switch back. I actually kind of like that system. Although sometimes it meant I would spend EXP on moves I never used. However, some useful powers overlap and can't be used at the same time. For example, the awesome ice shield and the grapple are used with the same button press, so if you grapple into trouble and want to use the shield you'll have bring up the quick equip menu and change it. Then change back if you want to grapple somewhere else. It gets kind of annoying, but the menu does make it a bit better. Everything is satisfying to use, though, and that only becomes more true the more you unlock. I will never get tired of using the vortex, which sends out a giant electricity infused tornado. Yeah, you read that right.

Wait... collateral damage... shit...

The enemies you use these powers on have gone from several factions with conduit leaders to one big faction with a religious nut in charge. As the game progresses, more monsters and factions arrive mixing things up a bit with some seriously cool fights. However, some of the things you fight in cool boss moments become enemies you encounter regularly which can become taxing, especially when they take forever to kill. Unloading on an enemy that you've started encountering more often and not killing it immediately means running around trying to recharge mid-fight. That's fine for a boss fight, but it gets tiring when it starts happening all the time.

You again?

But that isn't always the case. Some bosses stay bosses and are incredibly epic to fight.

Like this fella'.

The story has taken a turn for the better with a more straight-forward tale of "clean-up the town and gain support while becoming stronger before all hell arrives" theme (is that a theme?) while even partnering you up with other conduits. It creates a cool new universe of super heroes that I've actually become very interested in... except for one thing. I'm not going to spoil anything, but even though both endings are very different, they both effectively destroy the universe's potential. I found that massively upsetting because things were going in such a good direction. The heroes were getting better, the city was improved, and the powers were only getting cooler. Sure, it's a game and they might find a way to rectify things, but as of now I'm kinda pissed.

As a side note, the game also has a few amusing glitches, and what better way to plug our new youtube channel than with our first official video!


Look at him just a goin'!

So overall, it's a better experience, but not as good as it could be. It's definitely not wasted potential, but there's potential there that wasn't tapped, if that makes any sense. It's a thoroughly great experience that falls juuuust short of greatness. Damn, that sounded cliched.

8 out of 10