InFamous 2 Review

Cole McGrath and Sucker Punch's debut on PS3 was a smash in 2009, with it's dramatic story, tight gameplay and deep morale choices. Two years later and Infamous 2 has reduced the series to simply good status, no thanks to a serious lack of innovation.

The story picks up from the first game with Cole McGrath facing down the beast before it severely wounds him and destroys Empire City. Cole flees with his friend Zeke to New Marais down south to train up Cole's powers with the help of a few new allies. The story unfolds through audio diaries, in-game cut scenes and the comic book style cut scenes that characterised the previous game. The story is an intriguing premise for those who played the first game and the new characters Lucy Kuo and Nix help to bring some contrasting personalities to the plot. However the story is severely hampered by a huge mistake; the story refuses to take into your account your decisions from InFamous 1. This will be a massive disappointment for any fans of the original which takes away almost all of the story's impact. This is also exacerbated by a lack of major story twists, recycling of old characters from the first game and an end to both good and evil play throughs which leaves little room for a sequel. Indeed Infamous 2 could be Sucker Punch's last PS3 game and the little effort on the story clearly shows.

Infamous 2's standalone single player mode is a good length with the open world divided into three islands, each of which being unlocked further through the game. The entirety of New Marais is open but cut off by powered down areas which Cole needs to charge up by directing and connecting Tesla missiles at power generators. The missions are varied with story missions and side tasks including races, taking out enemies or destroying items. You'll also be collecting blast shards scattered around the city as well as shooting down pigeons to retrieve audio diaries. Infamous 2 introduces user generated content, giving players the tools to make their own missions from a variety of templates. The tools can take some time to learn with little in the way of training modes but specialists will be able to make some fun missions eventually with practice. These user generated missions then appear on the map in single player for you to begin by going to green markers. These do extend the longevity of the game slightly but it's difficult to shake the feeling that Sucker Punch threw in this feature to have the community provide most of the creativity for the game's missions.

Just like the original, gameplay in Infamous 2 is divided into combat, platforming and moral choices. Climbing buildings is as simple as ever with the X button getting Cole up most buildings, though the new vertical boost posts push him to the top faster. However both combat and moral choices have taken a turn for the worst. More emphasis has been placed on melee combat with Cole's new amp tool, but this devolves into mindless button mashing instead of a more in-depth system. Enemies, particularly the tedious boss types, constantly knock you backwards and force you to watch the same death animations when you finally kill the creatures over and over again. The shooting remains fun and the game certainly encourages you to use new powers effectively. Unfortunately other than the fire or ice powers acquired halfway through the game there are few new powers to use. Instead the game recycles old powers with different variants for each; for example Cole's standard lightning bolt receives an electrocution bonus for headshots. The moral system is also flawed too. Cole no longer delivers dramatic monologues that spell out the choices in front of him, instead you either go to a mission start point for either a good or evil choice or simply solve a random good or evil crime popping up around the city. This is a huge step back from the previous game and it really diminishes the impression that Cole is thinking about these choices. It seems here that he's just going along with whatever input the player puts in and this weakens his character as a result.

On the other hand the visuals have received quite an update since the original. Gone are the drab black and grey environments from the first installment and in comes a wider range of environments from the green swamps, populated with nasty monsters and the busying neon district filled with dazzling lights and colour. The music also tunes in at the right moments for some of the more tense confrontations in the game. The anime inspired cut scenes still look great but there are less of them this time around. The voice acting is acceptable with some good writing but its just a shame that Cole himself comes off as a weaker character than the rest due to a lack of emotion or thought into the choices he makes.

Infamous 2 is a fun game but a flawed one. It's clearly a lazy sequel with it's undramatic story, sometimes tedious combat and stilted moral system. If you're a fan of InFamous 1 this will be a sore disappointment, but if players both familiar and unfamiliar with the series look past its flaws it will be an enjoyable third person action game.

Rating: 7.5/10