I rarely play an entire game series in a short span of time. When I beat Infamous a couple of months back, I figured it would be six months at least before I finally play Infamous 2, and even longer still until I play the standalone DLC, Infamous: Festival of Blood. When I realized that these two titles were the last games in my backlog, I decided to just put my shoulder into it, and plow through them both back to back.
Infamous 2 is better than the original game in basically every way. The at-times uneven foundations laid in the first title were reinforced and enhanced in the sequel. The writing, the characters, the combat, the traversal, the overall performance of the game, all of it was noticeably refined in Infamous 2. Having recently played the first game, all of these elements were fresh in my mind, so it immediately stood out to me just how greatly improved it felt. That being said, I don't anticipate this being a lengthy review, as the two games are quite similar in most ways, and I've already covered a good deal of this material in my review of the first game. I tried to focus more on the things that Infamous 2 handled differently from the original title.
Infamous 2 picks up the story as Empire City, the setting from the first game, is annihilated by an unstoppable monster known as The Beast, and Cole loses most of his superpowers in the assault. Our battered hero, his best friend Zeke and an NSA agent named Lucy Kuo climb aboard a ship and set sail for southern port city of New Marais (which is heavily based on New Orleans), where they hope to find a new Ray Sphere-like device to empower Cole with enough strength to go head-to-head with The Beast. Their escape from Empire City results in The Beast pursuing Cole across the eastern and southeastern United States. Once established in New Marais, Cole has to navigate the bizarre and violent societal strife gripping that city, while also trying to prepare for the inevitable oncoming apocalypse of The Beast. I have to add that as someone who has lived in the Southern United States for my entire life, and has visited New Orleans many times, it was really cool seeing such an iconic city serve as the setting for a video game like this. It felt very unique and distinct from other similar open-world games, with its distinct architecture and surrounding bayous and swamps.
I was impressed with the writing pretty much across the board. Where the original game left me wanting with the characters, Infamous 2 gave each character slightly greater depth and a more pronounced personality. Cole feels more like a real person, torn with how best to help. Zeke, who I didn't care for in the first game, was immediately more likable in Infamous 2. I found myself really enjoying his and Cole's camaraderie, especially a surprisingly sweet moment between the two toward the end of the game. The newly introduced characters are each compelling in their own ways. Cole interacts with a couple of other superheroes in New Marais, and they'll routinely pop up to assist with different missions, and eventually join his efforts to plan for the climatic battle against The Beast. These other heroes each have their own goals, aspirations and tragic backstories that add color to both New Marais as a setting, and to the wider comic book influenced universe of the Infamous franchise, which we eventually see more of in Infamous Second Son. The game's Karma system is also connected to these two heroes, and had some genuinely surprising twists and turns as the plot developed, and Cole becomes more familiar with their personalities and motivations.
The combat in Infamous 2 wasn't a huge departure from the first game, though I feel like they did a better job of diversifying Cole's moveset. The standout addition here is a proper melee combat system. Cole is given a tuning fork weapon called the Amp, which he can use to beat the tar out of nearly every enemy (or passerby) in his vicinity. It felt so good to be able to actually utilize melee combat in this, as opposed to the bare bones, nearly useless brawling from the first game. In regards to your powers, almost every button is linked to a different ability, and each ability comes in a variety of different forms that can be unlocked over the course of the game. For instance, your basic electric shock ability, the Alpha Bolt, can be altered in myriad ways, like the rate of fire, the range, the power, etc. I believe every power from the original game returns, along with several wholly new powers. Sucker Punch added some great utility abilities to Cole's arsenal. He gains the ability to use lightning a la Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, with a "Get over here!"-esque move, where he can yank enemies towards him. He can also use it as a grappling hook, which is an incredibly fun way to zip around New Marais, and makes Cole feel almost akin to Spider-Man. At a point later in the game, Cole can even pick from the two superheroes that you befriend in New Marais, and learns non-electricity powers from them. These come in the way of frost-themed abilities, and oily/napalm powers. With the first game, I felt like I quickly found my favorite rotation of moves and didn't really bother experimenting much with Cole's wider ability pool, but with Infamous 2, I was frequently swapping between powers and trying out everything that I unlocked. Every move felt distinct and helpful for different scenarios that I encountered through the course of the game.
I have a couple of minor complaints with Infamous 2. Many of Cole's powers are locked behind completing challenges, which isn't a huge barrier, but I did find it somewhat annoying. The game will sometimes communicate to you like you've unlocked X or Y ability, but upon pulling up the skill menu, you realize that you actually need to complete some sort of combat challenge before you can access the move. These challenges were never prohibitively difficult or anything, but nevertheless, it was aggravating when it felt like I needed a new ability for a particularly challenging mission, only to be met with another hurdle. I also felt like the side missions weren't particularly interesting in this game, which unfortunately echoes my thoughts with the first game. They aren't bad per se, but I never felt compelled enough to spend all that much time with them. It also felt like there was some sort of dissonance with the core plot to spend all this time on secondary missions around the city when we know the apocalypse is only a few days away.
Infamous 2 delivers a solid package. An all-around smoother, more polished follow-up to the original game, this title delivers on nearly everything the first game aimed for. Between the polished performance, electrifying combat, delightful traversal mechanics and a gripping, high-stakes story, I was thoroughly impressed with Infamous 2. With the PS3 store set to shutter in the near future, I genuinely hope that PlayStation manages to get this duology (and Festival of Blood, the awesome standalone expansion for Infamous 2) off their dying platform and available again on the PS5. These games are genuine classics.
VERDICT: Recommended
Reviewed on PlayStation 3
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