Game Review: inFAMOUS 2
Release Date: June 7th 2011
Genre: Super Hero- Sandbox Action Adventure.
Developer: Sucker Punch Productions
Available Platforms: PlayStation 3
Players: 1
MSRP: $60
ESRB: Teen.
Website: www.infamousthegame.com

inFAMOUS holds a special place in my gaming library. It’s one of the few games in which I will play over and over again. From its comic book cutscenes, to its open world gameplay, it’s definitely a unique game. In inFAMOUS 2, we pick up several months after the end of the first game. We know of a powerful being called The Beast, and that Cole needs to become insanely powerful to overcome this foe. However, due to Kessler’s actions of going back in time and re-writing history, The Beast shows up much sooner than anticipated. Taking Cole by surprise, The Beast shows up wrecking havoc upon Empire City. Cole takes immediate action and faces off with The Beast, however the Beast is far too powerful for Cole to handle. Defeated by The Beast, Cole, Zeke, and NSA Agent Lucy Kuo flee to New Marais, where Dr.Wolfe is said to be able to amplify Cole’s abilities. This is where inFAMOUS 2 takes off.

inFAMOUS 2 keeps the similar gameplay from the first game, so veteran players will feel right at home while new players will get familiarized with the game quickly. Cole starts out with some of the basic powers from the first game, mainly the traveling powers. It’s all the basics, and we build on from there. Thanks to the Mo-Cap that Sucker Punch did all the movements are solid and fluid. Voice Actor Eric Ladin provided Cole’s voice and movements; Ladin provided the dialogue while acting out the scene in Mo-Cop. This gives the new in-game cutscenes much more emotion when Cole speaks; I have to say Eric did an amazing job. Getting back to gameplay, an added new feature is a quick menu for switching powers on the fly. Buying new powers now requires a certain Karmic level, whether good or evil, and some powers requires you to switch things up in combat. By doing Stunts such as zapping a baddie while he is airborne five times, you can unlock a new power. This is a welcome new addition to the game; it keeps thing a little more varied, and it gives players a chance to be creative while being a hero or a villain.

Kuo, Cole, and Nix

The Karma system is back for inFAMOUS 2, and much like the first game, it all depends on your actions and who you team with. However, new chances always pop up, should you ever have a change of heart and want to go from Hero to Infamous. Sucker Punch added small encounters throughout map. They vary from killing a civilian holding a blast shard, to reviving a group of hurt people. Each of these small encounters award you with some XP depending on what you do. Of course, during missions there are moments where you have to choose between being good or evil, or which characters to team up with, and these choices will reward you with a good chunk or Karma Points. In this sequel however, there will be a huge difference in endings depending on Karmic alignment.

Gorgeous Scenery like this is everywhere.

inFAMOUS 2 is a beautiful game. It improves on everything that was visually off in the first game. New Marais is definitely a sight to see. Empire City captured the city feeling, whereas New Marais has a warmer, southern tone, since it’s based on New Orleans. Game Director Nate Fox explains that his father, being from New Orleans, would tell him stories about all the folklore and myths, so from those stories New Marais was born. inFAMOUS 2 follows on the comic book style cutscenes from the first game, and now includes in-game cutscenes as well. The art style was slightly changed for the comic book cutscenes, as the trademark splashed ink was vaguely seen. The newly rendered art sequences were much cleaner, but they still resembled the original art from the first game. The in-game cutscenes are done with exceptional mo-cap, as Eric Ladin himself did Cole’s movements. The game runs exceptionally smooth; Cole’s movements are fluid, and the climbing animations are better than the first game.

However, I would like to see the climbing cleaned up a little more. Something more reminiscent to Assassins Creed, because when you are climbing in game, you constantly have to press X to jump higher and higher. As where Assassins Creed you simply jump on a wall, and press forward and your assassin will start to climb. Like I said, it’s not a huge deal, but it would make the game a little prettier since Cole’s way of getting around is parkour. Also, make Karmic moments more subtle, rather than making it obvious as to what is good and what is evil. Make it much more immersive for us the players to think about the choices we make and who we team up against. Also, it would be awesome to know how in the world Cole can shower without dying! The camera could be a little infuriating from time to time, but it wasn’t a big issue. I do want to say, however, please Sucker Punch Productions, label our Game Saves. I have multiple files of inFAMOUS in which it’s hard to know which is which since it doesn’t even say if we are inFAMOUS or Hero. So hopefully there is an update on that.

"Half as long...twice as bright

All in all, inFAMOUS 2 is a must have game, with plenty of replay value, and a very interesting story. It’s a beautiful game to just roam around in, and enjoy the views and landmarks of New Marais. Plenty of hours will be spent completing the story mode, and that’s without the inclusion of the Side Missions and the User Generated Content.

• Solid Voice Acting
• Gorgeous Environments
• Gameplay is fluid and fun
• Hope to see some DLC in the future (E3 skins maybe for all the E3 Cole lovers out there)
• Audio was immersive and fitting.

I give this game a 9 out of 10.

I don’t often review handheld games on this column, given that most of them are just quick cash-ins or an easy way to make money off of a successful franchise. Once in a while, a good handheld game will be made, and I’ve only reviewed a handful of them. I’ve done Resistance Retribution and have my eyes firmly set on the God of War PSP game in the near future, but I feel this place is still lacking a collective place for handheld game reviewing. I guess it comes down to two things; one that we don’t really care about handheld titles and two, they’re not meant to compete with console titles, they’re meant to compete with boredom. This makes us just a step away from boredom at all times with a bad handheld game, since many miss that message completely and try to emulate the core title’s vision.

Bioware is known for their rich universes, their deep storytelling and for generally being awesome. Microsoft is known for dispensing products into the consumer’s lap and furthering their empire across the world. What neither of them do is handheld gaming, which seems like a marriage made in hell, or a play written by a dog. We’ve had some fantastic titles come out of both studios, and it makes all of a sudden… completely weird that they join together to release a title on the iPhone… that’s like Sony deciding to release Resistance Retribution on a toaster.

The story. You are Jacob Taylor, the guy you recruit in Mass 2, and it seems he has some sort of character dysfunction. Suddenly in Mass 2, he is all complex and characteristic, and now he’s just a faceless husk for the developers just slap on to their product. Whether or not his story was planned from the beginning, or it was buckled into Mass 2 (with a few lines of dialogue) is something to ponder about. What is something more worth pondering about is what in god’s name is the point of this. You protect a cruiser, go to planets, they all say “Batarians bad, they want poison Citadel.”, then you meet Miranda from  Mass 2 too (ouch unintentional alliteration). In the end, there’s no swagger or Bioware style, it’s just a shallow title with no heart.

Combat works a lot like a Miley Cyrus, in that it doesn’t. You’re supposed to click on the target you want to, and Jacob will automatically shoot to kill. You can cycle the different abilities he has on the right… thing, and then you can even pickup powerups to blah blah blah, there’s only one thing you need to know, the iPhone was not built to be a games machine. It was not built for you to play Mass Effect on and it was not certainly built for AWFUL controls in mind. The Call of Duty Zombies game for the iPhone is a hell of a hoot with friends, but this just lacks in every department. If you really want to put it into perspective, you have to tilt the thing to slide Jacob around. More than often, you’ll just die by accident or just keep sliding into something. It’s a stupid control system and doesn’t shine a candle to the triumph of Mass 2′s 360 controls.

Dialogue works much like the Saints Row games, in that it doesn’t. You’re supposed to cycle your choices, select one, and then watch the events pan out. You can try to convince people to not do stuff, but more than eight out of ten times, you can’t convince people at all. It just forwards you to the next awful combat arena, until you get the last arena and some brief cut scene happens. Surprisingly, these are visually sharp and epically stylized, I could totally see this being the main image of a handheld Bioware title. What really grinds my gears if the voice acting, or lack there of. The first line of ANY conversation is spoken by an actor/actress, but the rest has to be read on screen. Nice.

Simply put: don’t buy this or get lured in. It’s cheap but just save your money for Plants vs Zombies (squee!)

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