Customer Reviews

inFAMOUS 2

5 star:		(99)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Infamous 2 has a pretty big set of shoes to fill after the success of the first. It seemed like it would be hard to improve upon the mechanics of the first game. Yet Sucker Punch studios managed to find a way, and produce a worthy sequel to Infamous.

GAMEPLAY
If you have played Infamous then you will feel right at home with Infamous 2. Not much has changed gameplay wise from the original except for loads of polish. Your character will keep his powers, avoiding a Metroid or God of War scenario, and earn additional powers throughout the game. Climbing mechanics, aiming, melee combat all feels more fluid and lively when compared to the original. You will explore a brand new city, take side quests and missions, find dead drops and shards... its all here all over again just with a new coat of paint. On top of new powers to unlock, Cole now has access to THE AMP which allows him additional combat moves especially with melee. To top it all off the map now has some destructible elements which add a nice bit of devastation to Cole's attacks, and goes along exceptionally well if you decide to take the EVIL path.

One thing that does put a damper on the gameplay however is the camera mechanics. This time around the camera got in my way a lot more than it did in the first installment, especially when it came to melee combat with the amp. The camera gave this really nice comic book effect sometimes, giving nice low angle close ups to the fight but it also cut off my view of oncoming danger; and sometimes when jumping would go behind a building or wall leaving me blind to my position. While not a major problem it does put a tiny damper on the gameplay

GRAPHICS
A big time improvement over the first game, and overall the game looks great! The graphics are rendered exceptionally well, and the effects of Cole's powers never looked better. The best part of all is the new city. It looks magnificent when compared to the previous. There is a lot more activity and visual effects going on that really do make the city feel more alive. It is a major improvement over the first title I feel.

SOUND/STORY
Sound wise, the game is very lively. Cole's powers have a lot more effect to them and overall the game just sounds great. Voice acting is of high quality in my book. The new voice actor for Cole at first might seem out of place, when compared with the original, but it grew on me over time. Story wise the game has a decent story, on par with the first game. Like in the original you can chose to be Good or Evil depending on your actions making for two endings and in a way; Two story arcs each leading to different sets of skill upgrades and storyline elements.

REPLAY/LENGTH
Depending on how obsessed you get with collecting shards, dead drops, side quests etc the game should take you anywhere from 14 - 17 hrs. Replay value is exceptionally high! Not only do you have both a Good and Evil storyline to complete, but shards, dead drops, side quests all return and then some. If you loved the first you will have no problem playing though this game twice with ease.

There is also an online element to Infamous 2 which allows you to create and play user created maps/content. While the controls and implementation of the creator do need some work (in my opinion) the level of creation available is high. Given some time expect to see some wild user-generated content online!

OVERALL A- ... 90%
Infamous 2 does the original game justice. It doesn't change the formula much, instead just improving upon what made the original a greatest hit; while also giving it a nice face lift graphically. Throw in new super-powers, user-generated content and online, and you have yourself a winner. While Infamous 2 is not a perfect game, it does more than enough to make itself out to be a powerful, high quality title well worth the price of admission.

...you will LOVE Infamous 2! Infamous 2 improves on Infamous 1 in almost every way.

Simply put, Infamous 2 is fun. Fun! Why?
-Satisfying combat
--The new combat system is much improved from Infamous 1, essential giving you a huge arsenal of unique powers to choose from. You will unlock different bolts, blasts, grenades, rockets, and ionic attacks (think lightning storm). You can only equip one of each type of attack at a time, but can switch which is equipped on the fly. I should point out Good and Evil paths unlock different powers.
--Combat is more difficult than Infamous 1 (I'm playing on hard), which is a heartily welcomed improvement. Enemies are tougher and your wounds don't heal as fast when you exit combat. Also unlike Infamous 1, you can challenge yourself by your selection of powers. I see myself going back and completed the game again with just weakest powers for an additional challenge.
--Stealth can play a larger role because enemies don't notice you as easily, which is nice.
--The amp! Melee combat is a blast thanks to it
--Interaction with environment means lots of ways to take down enemies
-The parkour platforming elements means traversing the city is never boring, and can be quite enjoyable
-Many many side missions to complete
-Many many blast shards to collect
-Many many powers to unlock
-Improved karma system from Infamous 1
-More random city events than Infamous 1
-User generated content. Although limited at the moment, seems to have much potential.

Negatives:
-The camera can be a bit wonky at times
-Cole sometimes falls through objects unexpectedly while climbing
-Side missions can become repetitive (but hey, there's 60 of them, what do you expect?)

All in all, Infamous 2 is an awesome blend of FPS, action/RPG, and platformer. I highly recommend it as one o the best games for PS3. But play Infamous 1 first so you know the story!

'Infamous 2' is the best video game I've played all year. It's a sequel that takes the strengths of the original game, polishes off the rough areas and injects a heavy dose of color and personality. The gameplay's more exciting, the setting is more appealing, and not since 'God of War' has there been a game that makes you feel like a super-powered badass!

'Infamous 2' puts you in the role of series protagonist Cole MacGrath, a person with electric superpowers who's done great good or evil (depending on how you play) for his home town of Empire City. After losing a battle with a super being known only as 'the Beast', Empire City is destroyed and Cole and his allies flee to New Marais (think New Orleans) to upgrade. The story is pretty straight-forward comic book fare with Cole getting involved in the conflicts of New Marais while powering up for his rematch with the Beast. The comic-style cutscenes from 'Infamous 1' are back and sharper than ever, but the real joy is the improved in-game cutscenes which seem movie-quality thanks to the engaging main characters. The cutscenes and story do change a little in 'Infamous 2' depending on whether you're a hero or villain but it's mostly towards the end of the game. The story DOES assume you've played 'Infamous 1' so interested gamers will want to start with the original game first.

The graphics in 'Infamous 2' (with a few exceptions) are excellent. While the actual graphics are a little more detailed in texture than in 'Infamous 1', the improved motion-capture makes Cole and other characters move naturally giving them an organic look. The setting of New Marais is also a big improvement over Empire City as each location looks fresh and varied with excellent use of color and details to make the town come alive. It's no Liberty City (and is a bit smaller than Empire City) but it suits 'Infamous 2's comic book world perfectly!

The audio in 'Infamous 2' is also a treat with more Bluegrass-inspired tunes to compliment the New Orleans-themed setting. The voice-work is top-notch with new voice and mo-cap actor Eric Laden (of 'Left 4 Dead 2' fame) making the character of Cole his own! Nika Futterman is also a standout as the fire-powered 'Nix'.

While 'Infamous 2' is aesthetically an improvement over 'Infamous 1' the basic gameplay is very much the same. You're still running/jumping/climbing/flying across buildings and covering and shooting with your powers. The side quests are much more varied than 'Infamous 1' but still not that complicated. The dead-drops (which I all but ignored in the original game) are now essential if you want to flesh out more of Infamous 2's story and characters. There are some racing-type missions (or 'overload' missions) on rooftops but they take a back seat to more super-powered battles in the streets. I personally liked this change as battling against other super-powered beings was my favorite part of Infamous 1 but some gamers might be put off with a more 'shooter'-minded approach. Also, the camera does get stuck sometimes (especially during the melee attacks) and while I never died as a result it did become a hassle.

The major gameplay change in 'Infamous 2' is your powers. You still need EXP to upgrade abilities (which get unlocked as the story goes), but to actually obtain a power you have to pull off certain stunts and moves with your current abilities. This makes the game much more involved in my opinion in that it makes you experiment with each power before upgrading. There's also a LOT more powers to obtain in 'Infamous 2', so much so that you have to go into your menu and assign different upgrades to different buttons. The Good/Evil powers are much more varied as 'Good' powers focus on precision and 'Evil' powers focus on destruction. For that reason alone the game is worth playing through twice!

While 'Infamous 2' won't impress detractors of the first game, it does just enough different and does it with more excitement and thrills that it'll easily entertain series fans! I want to stress that you DO want to complete the first 'Infamous' before diving into this sequel as certain story-elements may not make sense ( and hey, Infamous 1 is still a great game...which will hopefully make one kick-ass holiday bundle!!). Fans of Infamous 1 and empowering sandbox games, this is a must buy!

I liked INFAMOUS 1. It was a fun open world adventure where you could do missions or just explore and kick butt. You also had the option of being a hero or being an evil SOB. INFAMOUS 2 keeps the same concepts but has much improved graphics, gameplay, powers, missions and fight sequences. INFAMOUS 2 ranks up there with the best games like Arkham Asylum, Call of Duty, Uncharted and Red Dead Redemption.

Just buy this game. I was a fan of the first infamous, but I felt like it just never was what it should be. THis game is the game it needed to be. THey have improved on every single aspect of this game. The beginning intro is right up there with the God of War 3 intro, and it sets the tone for the entire game. You are reminded every now and then just how far the Beast is, and hes coming for you! So many times when I was playing it, I just had to look around and take it all in. Thing is beautiful man. And the pre order dlc I got is pretty cool, the gold amp, sly cane, caveman stick, and samurai sword. WHats cool is that for all the other "amp" skins, they have their own unique electrical field when you use it. This game is a beast yo. No pun intended

For the purpose of the review, I've played the standard edition of the game.

The game starts up with giving you an option of continuing a past inFAMOUS storyline. (As either good or evil, and will also import blast shards. I've had to format my hard drive since last beating the first game, so I'm unsure of how well this feature works) Once you've decided to continue your storyline or begin a new game, you're thrown in to a very exciting opening scene. From here on, I'll separate each major piece of the game into separate sections.

Graphics - The game looks really good. The shadows glitching on the faces from the first game in the series is gone. Cole, as well as other characters have updated looks (and voices). The animations are really smooth as well. Power special effects are also really cleanly done. I have absolutely no complaints about the graphics of the game.

Audio - The soundtrack to this game has a sort of overarching main melody, but is pulled off to play during separate feelings of emotion, and I have on more than one occasion gone to find the mission on a youtube video to hear the music again.
As mentioned before, Cole has a new voice actor. This is because they (Sucker Punch) have decided to do motion and facial capturing for scenes, whereas Cole's original voice actor did not have the physicality for the part. It took a few missions to get used to the new voice, but I find that it fits in just as well.
Audio effects for powers and firearms are also well done.

Controls - For the most part, they are spot on. I especially love the addition of a powers quick change button. The only moments of 'wonkyness' I've experienced are in hand-to-hand combat while civilians are around. I was playing through as a good character, and on more than one occasion in a karma boosting side mission, I've hit the civilian while intending to hit the crooks. That aside, climbing controls, movement controls, and menu controls are great.

Gameplay - This is the most important part, and it works incredibly well. The game's tempo runs similarly to the first one, but the substations charge differently, and in my own opinion, it is much more fun to do.
The power-ups are plentiful, and the side missions are many (60 in total!)
Part way through, you also receive an additional element as a power for Cole as well. These powers compliment an attribute of Cole's own arsenal. There are many Blast Shards and Dead Drops to find within the game, too. 306 Blast Shards, and 29 Dead Drops.
Throw this in to the fact that you can also play through at least twice, one for each karmic branch, as well as the addition of User Generated Content, and you have one really replayable game.

(Side note, while I don't agree with User Generated Content as a game attribute, it does work well with the game for extra experience and things to do. I feel as though developers using UGC as a means of adding in to a game really pulls away from the main story, or additional things that could also be fun to play with)

Total - 94/100
I really do love the inFAMOUS games, and this one is a great enhancement on the first one. I find they've really fixed some things I may have had a small problem with from the first one, (Static Thrusters, to name one) I just feel as though there are some things that could have been fine-tuned (combat targeting civilians) and karma-choices lock out and potentially make a powers tree invalid if you choose incorrectly within your own game.

That aside, I definitely recommend this game to anyone with a Playstation 3.

I really like the game to begin with but there are some things that were added that should have stayed away.

- The first one is the good and evil women that are now interlaced in the game. Especially the stupid Voodoo woman she is so annoying. They are like the classic angel and devil on somebody's shoulder when they are trying to figure out the right thing to do. They should of just had him have realistic apparitions his pure humanitarian side and pure evil side.

- I loved the villains in the first InFamous. They were almost inhuman the chilling evil sounds they would make and their actions were actually scary. The new villains look like men in jump suits and sound like rednecks, that just doesn't give the same effect. which takes me to the next gripe...

- They cut out most of the 2D graphics which gave it this great comic book style and now we have a lot of cut scenes which make it seem less dramatic and softer. The illustrations they do have are similar but softened, not as dramatic.

- What happened to Cole's voice? he went from sounding like Clint Eastwood to a wimp trying to imitate Clint Eastwood. If they were going to change the voice guy they should have gone all out and used somebody like Gilbert Godfrey, that would make it interesting.

- This is a gripe about both Infamous games especially this one. They need to make Cole easier to kill so you feel you have to actually have to dodge bullets and keep from being killed. It seems like I can easily take 20 rounds of bullets before I'm actually damaged in some way.

It doesn't sound like it but I still love this game, the problem is they made the first one so good to begin with so any changes just make it worse.

Infamous 2 continues the tale of Cole MacGrath, traveling to New Marais ahead of the Beast, a monster bent on destroying the world, and only Cole can stop it with the help of his best friend Zeke and a handful of allies.

The story picks up fairly well, though I scratch my head as to why they bent over backwards to avoid spoiling the plot of the original. While I can appereciate the effort, given how long the original Infamous has been out, it doesn't seem necessary. This apparently also gives them the latitude to assume that everyone playing the current incarnation has no idea what was contained in the original, and allows them to repeat the entire initial game. All of the powers are repeats, with the exception of a handful of add-ons and the new elemental power that can be acquired later in the game. So you're left with the feeling that you're playing the exact same game for a second time for the majority. While I can understand that they need to allow you to continue building your character and his abilities, there were far more options than hitting the "reset" button.

Also missing are the multiple factions. Rather than multiple groups competing against one another, your left with 2, and both against Cole. While it simplifies certain things and helps drive the story, its bizzare when yo reach a certain point. The Godzilla-like boss encounters are a nice deviation, but the mini-boss Conduit encounters are tedious in the extreme. Also absent are all the other Conduits, which I expected far more of given the overall storyline.

Graphics are a surprising let-down. While the environments are great, especially the water-flooded bayou which is anathema to Cole, there are oceans of clipping and catchment errors. I pulled myself over a ledge and into a building several times, resulting in odd glitches and crashes without any efforts to seek them out. Probably the best portion comes with character editing, but even there its something of a misnomer, as you recieve every side quest from the same 3 people, with the exception that they wear fake mustaches and wigs that don't move in time with their faces.

Audio is spot-on, but thats not really a bar anymore. Given tech, bad audio is more a rarity than decent.

Gameplay is hit-and-miss. Its in true form to Infamous 1, in that there are really 3 side quests that're repeatedly repackaged and spoon-fed to you. There are a few exceptions, but sadly those writers with original ideas were apparently shouted down in favor of tedious monotony and pointless mass fight missions. The karma missions lift the bar slightly, but only just.

Karma manages to be handled far better, as its more between selfishness and selflessness, so you're not devouring babies, but you're still hated for solely looking out for No. 1. And character modification is toned down slightly, so you no longer look like Darth Vader if you choose to be Infamous.

Overall, a repackage, which is a shame. Given a little more freedom, this could've be handled in much better style, and without forcing you to replay the same missions over and over. Better writing, more characters, and mission design would've launched this easily to 5 stars, but its left as a mush of a good story struggling under the weight of its monotony. Slinging lightning is as fun as ever, but outside of the main story missions the game is just... boring.

This is a great game, many people say its not as captavating as the first but I for one disagree. You cant compare the beginning of a story to to the middle as of course the very first will be more interesting as you dont know what to expect. The second installment as I have played thus far for about 15 hours is still as entrancing as the first was. His powers become more powerful than they were in the first and you start off with a few of the perks that you left off in the first with, as you progress you get a whole lot more and depending on which side you choose you get a whole new set of powers which for those who havent played or watched much on this I will not spoil. Overall this is a must have game for fans of open world or platformers and should not be passed up.

The first Infamous game was one that I hold very near and dear. I spent countless hours just scouring the city for any collectible I could find and loved every minute of it. So, it was a no brainer when the time came to pick up Infamous 2. I had been waiting quite a while for the release and I couldn't have been more excited. The following are some initial impressions I have of the game after putting in a solid 8 hours or so across a few days. If you're interested in the game or just want to see how it's being received by people, read on.

The first thing I noticed about the game was the fact that it felt a lot like the first (which is a good thing). Depending on how much of the first game you completed, your trophy data will unlock different features in the sequel. The game begins shortly after the first game and the Beast has come to wreak havoc on the world. It is your destiny as Cole to end this creatures existence, but in your first attempt you fail. Badly beaten by the Beast, you flee with your entourage to New Marais, a city that closely resembles New Orleans. It is here that your special agent contact has told you meet with a scientist who can increase your powers, making you able to confront the Beast and actually have a chance to defeat him. Over the course of the game, you will meet new characters and join forces with either the evil or good side of the spectrum and work towards your ultimate goal of defeating the Beast.

The story really does a nice job of giving you a goal to complete in the game. You always know that the Beast is hot on your trail because the map of the US in the pause menu specifically tells you where he is and how far from New Marais he currently is. But time is a strange beast in New Marais. Don't feel like you have to do everything at once. Hell, for the first couple hours of the game I collected blast shards to upgrade my character. Just as addictive as it was in the first game, collecting blast shards and upgrading your powers almost becomes a sort of meta-game in and of itself. You'll have to fight your "just one more" instincts to pry yourself from the tv to go to bed at night. I don't know what crack feels like, but I'm sure it's similar to the feelings I get while searching for these shards.

Since Infamous 2 is a sequel and the first Infamous was an origin story for Cole as a superhero, they had to get around the power aspect. Cole was a wimp in the beginning of Infamous 1 but by the end, he was pretty badass. They had two options to go with the second. Either do a God of War and strip him of his powers or make him crazy powerful in the sequel. Thankfully, they went with the latter. You begin the game with most of the powers from the first game. Over the course of the game you will continue to unlock more and more powers almost making Cole a super super hero with some of his abilities. It's an awesome feeling to truly feel crazy powerful in a game and then watch as you just become more and more powerful over the course of the game.

The story was always a major selling point for me in Infamous 1. Origin stories are always fun and give you a sense of wonder as you learn about how the characters grow and evolve into the hero (or villain) they are to become. In the sequel, Cole gets some friends to help him along the way. There's both a good character and a sudo evil character for both sides of the spectrum. This adds a lot of depth to the story and I found myself caring for them a lot more than Cole's actual story. You get a feeling of relief when they show up on the field of battle to help you, just like I assume a superhero would when his side kick enters the fray. The story never really gets dry (up to the point I played) and you are always pushing forward to see what will happen next. The tyrant of the town, an old man named Bertrand who controls a militia, is a fitting enemy who seems to have a lot of secrets around his motives. I'm looking forward to playing more to find out where the story goes.

The major draw of the game is most definitely the gameplay though. Being able to climb walls, shoot electricity from your fingertips, and stalk enemies from the rooftops never looses it's appeal and you'll have plenty of time to mix things up. The way to complete a mission is never set in stone and you are left with a variety of ways to go about your mission. If you are going good, you need to always worry about pedestrians getting hurt in the line of fire while evil characters would revel in such an act. The choice is yours and you truly do feel powerful after making it.

If you played the first and enjoyed the game, it's a no brainer that you should pick up the second. If you were on the fence about the first though, you might not find anything new here to change your mind. People new to the series should pick up the first game first though since the second assumes that you have played it. There's some recap, but in all honesty, you'd be missing a lot. Infamous 2 is one of the best games of the year so far and you owe it to yourself to pick it up if you enjoy these types of games. I hope this first impression has helped clear up any questions you may have and if there are any others, post in the comments section below.