Infamous 2: Electric Boogaloo

Infamous 2! Finished this a few days ago, but I've been a tad busy, so this report is a little late. I'll do better in future, I promise!

Infamous 2 is the sequel to (wait for it) Infamous, Sucker Punch's first PS3 game. It fixes a lot of the issues with the first game, and expands on a lot of the parts which worked well.

SPOILERS HO!

For those who haven't played Infamous 1, firstly, shame on you. Go buy / play it. Its a great game, and very worthy of your time. For you busy types, I'll sum it up. You play Cole McGrath, an everyman who has been given Wondrous Electrical Powers. One of the central themes is choice, with Cole given free rein to behave as he likes. This can lead to you becoming a hero of the people, or a scourge. This was achieved with mixed results, with the only real choice being whether to be a good guy or an arsehole. It was fun, sure, but the moral choices felt a little arbitrary.

Cue Infamous 2. It maintains the idea of moral choices, but integrates them into the story better. The choices mostly still amount to good or evil, but they flow nicer with the story, and complement your plot choices. Your allies will react to you differently based on how you play. You get a whole different set of powers based on your ally of choices, which just makes me want to crack back in for a second run.

Or you could just side with whichever lady you like the best.

Central to the plot is The Beast, the threat hinted at at the end of the last game. The Beast is a huge enemy, with seemingly limitless power, whose coming has been predicted by Kessler, the villain from the last game. It would take too long, and spoil too much to explain how Kessler knows this, so go play Infamous 1 already! The Beast appears, and attacks Empire City, forcing Cole and the gang South, to the city of New Marais, a pseudo New Orleans. The Beast is coming to New Marais, and the game gives you a constant update on how far away he is, adding a certain urgency to affairs.

The game plays great, Cole is the perfect balance between power and vulnerability. You can lay the pain on your enemies with ease, but the tide can turn against you in moments, forcing you to scramble around to find a power source before you kick the bucket. Cole can get around much easier in this game, and his new powers fix the tedious issue of climbing up lampposts from the first game. Now, you can leap off cars, jump off pillars of ice, or even tether yourself to a wall, Spider-man style.

Thwip!

Now the ending was what really made the game for me. Again, there will be spoilers here, so you have been warned. I played the evil track, and as you reach the end, you are given a choice. This was the first choice in the game that really made me think hard about it. There is a plague in the world, affecting everyone. You could sacrifice yourself, and all the other superhumans, potentially curing the plague, OR you could choose to kill the humans, to power up the remaining superhumans. While this seems like an easy choice, its not as cut and dry as that. The first option is not a sure thing, and you have no idea if it will work or not. The second option, while harsher, will definitely work. Annoyingly, the game then points these two choices in red and blue, so you know which is the "good" and "evil" choice. I didn't feel that the evil choice was all that evil, but the way it played out made up for it.

SUMMATION!

Infamous 2 is superb. As I said, it fixes problems from the first game, and expands on the series with great success. It begs for a second playthrough, just to see the content you missed. PLAY IT.

My Rating: 9 / 10


Next up: I played a dancing game. I'll explain later.