inFAMOUS 2

Game Info

In 2009, Sly Cooper veterans Sucker Punch and Sony Computer Entertainment brought us a superhero-sandbox game by the name Infamous. Infamous gather critical success as well as success on the shelves. One of the most popular elements from the game was the ability to choose to be a good superhero or an evil villain. Infamous’ popularity even allowed it to spawn it’s own comic book series from DC comics.  As we stand two years later, Sucker Punch and Sony have brought back Cole McGrath and his superpowers for round two in inFAMOUS 2.

In inFAMOUS 2, Empire City (resembles New York City) where Cole lived in the first game has been destroyed by “The Beast”.  With the city being destroyed, Cole travels south to a new town named New Marais (resembles New Orleans).  It is here that he meets up with some doctors who say they can make him more powerful so he could be strong enough to defeat “The Beast”.  The developers have left in the option to be either good or bad.  The choices that the player makes will change the way city reacts to Cole and your change his powers.  Also whichever path is taken, whether it be good or evil will change Cole’s look. The enemies players will face can be from as little as Cole to up to fifty times his size. With the size advantage and a realistic A.I., the level of difficulty has been kicked up a notch from the predecessor. To power Cole up, players must collect blast shards that are scattered throughout New Marais. Sucker Punch has managed to included a lot of new powers for you to collect when in comparison to the first. When Cole gets stronger in this title though there is more of an unstoppable feeling delivered to the gamer.  The story is epic and filled with characters that make the user get an emotional attachment to unlike in the first game, where the characters felt bland and lifeless. You can also transfer your save file from inFAMOUS to inFAMOUS 2 which starts Cole either good or evil depending on the choices made in the first.  The only complaint with the gameplay is the clunky camera when melee fighting.  The camera moves too close in and makes it hard to follow the action.

Sucker Punch has included a plethora of side missions to do, which helps extend the life of the game.  They also have included mini-side missions such as stopping a mugging in progress or hurting a crowd of people who don’t like you.  The option to create your own missions and share them online with the world has been added to this sequel.   The first few available online, which were created by Sucker Punch, did not meet expectations but with other Sony titles that have user created content (Little Big Planet and ModNation Racers) being outstanding, gamers will be anxious to see what other people come up with in the near future.

In conclusion,  inFAMOUS 2 is better then its predecessor in every way. The experience from beginning to end is captivating.  There are no load times in the game, which usually make it prone to have some glitches. I didn’t experience any such glitches while playing, like I did during the first game. This game will take the average gamer 15-20 hours to complete, but the fact that Cole can become good or evil will make this epic adventure last a little longer and feels like a different game when playing through on both sides.   It was disheartening that not all of Coles powers were not carried over to inFAMOUS 2 but the developers did add new powers and most likely did that so that it would be more challenging.  While the story is tied together nicely I would still recommend playing the first title before jumping into this new one, to get the full impact of the story.