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Source: www.consolegaming.eu
One of the greatest superhero games to embrace the PS3.
Recent superhero titles have left me with a sour taste in my mouth. I used to love the open world Spiderman games and I was crazy about Crackdown on the 360 when it first launched. However recently, many games of this genre (most of them are terrible movie adaptations) have forced me to lose my faith in third person sandbox superhero titles. I now only look forward to Batman, due to Arkham Asylum being so great.
The first Infamous was a decent title. It wasn't anything revolutionary or spectacular, but when compared to other superhero games out there, it was worth renting at the very least. With that being said, developer Sucker Punch promised that Infamous 2 would be miles better than its prequel. Fortunately for us, they were telling the truth. Infamous 2 is quite possibly one of the best third person action titles on the PlayStation 3 to date.
Those who haven't played the prequel may miss out a little bit on the story, since you aren't educated enough with regards to how your character gained his powers. Nonetheless, if you haven't played Infamous, you still won't be disappointed. Although this continues on from the events that occur after Infamous, the link between the two plots is weak enough for you to be able to skip Infamous' story.
You play as Cole MacGrath, a survivor of the destruction of Empire City. After having been exposed to the Ray Sphere, you are given the powers to defeat the main monster, only known as The Beast. Rest assured, this is not the main villain of the game. However, the entire story becomes a journey to obtain enough power to finally defeat it. After fighting the Beast early on, you soon find out that you're not powerful enough. By travelling to New Marais, Cole is given enough time to improve his powers before the Beast finally reaches you again.
The Beast itself is a brilliant character. It's not just a monster, there is a history behind it. Without giving too much away, it's moments with the Beast that allow you to appreciate the linkage between Infamous 2 and its predecessor. Infamous 2 is completely focused on the very few characters that helps the gamer fully empathise with Cole's situation. Zeke makes a triumphant return, as he helps you take down the Militia and Betrand (the main villain of the game). The Militia are out to kill the demons and monsters of New Marais, including the 'Electric Man', who is Cole himself. Betrand's propaganda techniques result in the entire town believing that the events at Empire City were in fact due to Cole. Betrand is a brilliant villain with major secrets of his own that are uncovered as the plot thickens. The theme of irony runs throughout the game. Once again, this is a story that you must experience yourself, so no spoilers will be given.
Due to the current climate in New Marais, you are given the choice to lead a heroic or villainous path yourself. Your actions determine what way your 'karma level' swings. Based on your karma level, you unlock special abilities and powers. At the beginning stages of the game, you're given a new weapon, known as the Amp. This is the main weapon for close quarter combat. There are a variety of combos and moves at your arsenal, many of which can be unlocked later on. This weapon makes the entire gameplay experience a lot more enjoyable and varied.
Cole is not a weak character. He is full of personality and more importantly, he actually feels like a superhero. HIs powers aren't gimmicky and there will be plenty of jaw-dropping moments throughout the entire campaign. Some of his special abilities are pure genius and visually stunning. The main aim of the story is to make yourself more powerful. For that, you need to obtain blast cores. This is done by completing missions. By absorbing the powers of the blast cores, your main aim is to be able to use a device known as the RFI, which should give you enough powers and strength to defeat the Beast. Of course, absorbing blast cores slowly makes you stronger. These powers come in handy when fighting the Militia or swamp monsters.
As mentioned before, Infamous 2 is a visual masterpiece. I didn't once notice any framerate issues, despite the fact that there were often moments where multiple enemies would be firing rockets whilst you're absorbing a high amount of electricity to recharge yourself. The sounds are great too, ranging from voice acting to how combat sounds (close quarter and power usage). You will certainly not have any complaints with the gameplay (although the camera occasionally wanders in an awkward position). Your environments are superb too, since New Marais feels like a living, breathing city full of people to help or hurt (based on how you choose to tackle the game). Enemies are varied too. Although you start off by facing very basic Militia soldiers, there are plenty of larger creatures and more skilled soldiers (as well as massive ice titans) later on. Eventually, you would have to fight all of these in one go!
New Marais is full of side missions. Therefore, whenever you're not up for tackling a lengthy campaign mission, you can focus on these. They range from simple rescue missions to infiltration tasks. There are plenty of other ways to boost your karma levels in one direction too. Scattered around the city at random points are minor tasks (defusing a bomb, healing the wounded, quietening street protestors etc). Each one of these will swing your karma level one way or another. It's a lot easier to get an evil rating since you can easily bully civilians and random pedestrians.
Two other main characters in the game are Nix and Kuo. Although they are both at your service and are willing to help, they have different methods of tackling the same mission. One character often wants to choose the more evil route and the other would therefore choose the heroic route. This gives you the option to decide who to listen to. The initial choice is the most important, since that decides whether you have fire abilities or ice abilities throughout the rest of the game. If you want to play with the other abilities in the future, you must replay the entire game! You can only appreciate what the story has to offer by playing it twice (and making the opposite decisions to whatever you chose in the first run through). Requiring you to play the game twice definitely adds lasting appeal to make up for the lack of multiplayer.
If you have completed the story, you still can travel around the massive town of New Marais, collecting the blast shards scattered all over the place. These increase your energy levels, which are very important especially later on in the game. The higher your energy levels, the less you need to recharge.
One of the major features and additions to Infamous 2 is the ability to allow users to create their own levels. This makes Infamous 2 truly a unique game, since this type of freedom has never been given to you in a game of this kind. If you have access to the PSN, you can create your own missions, upload them and let others download it. When you load Infamous 2, you will see some of these missions already scattered around the map. These are made by Sucker Punch using the same tools that are at your arsenal. The level of detail is astonishing and although the tools at your disposal might be tricky to understand at first, it just goes to show that there is a lot that can be done. This little feature makes Infamous 2 truly a remarkable game.
In conclusion, Infamous 2 is the perfect sequel to a game that already was decent. Sucker Punch have definitely restored my faith in superhero games. They have done a great job in forcing you to play all aspects of the game, rather than speeding through the story. You need to collect blast shards, you need to do side missions and you need to wander about for a while. Although this is all necessary to help you complete the game properly, you will never actually feel forced or restricted into doing anything. The gamer always feels in full control of what he's doing. The addition of user generated content is a brilliant feature that many other developers should be looking to do for their own games. Sucker Punch have somehow managed to prove that a game can last for a very long time despite the lack of any multiplayer and due to that, anyone with a PS3 would be missing out if they choose not to consider this as a future purchase.
Rating:
Gameplay: 9.0
Graphics: 9.0
Sound: 9.5
Lasting Appeal: 9.0
Overall: 9.1
One of the greatest superhero games to embrace the PS3.
Recent superhero titles have left me with a sour taste in my mouth. I used to love the open world Spiderman games and I was crazy about Crackdown on the 360 when it first launched. However recently, many games of this genre (most of them are terrible movie adaptations) have forced me to lose my faith in third person sandbox superhero titles. I now only look forward to Batman, due to Arkham Asylum being so great.
The first Infamous was a decent title. It wasn't anything revolutionary or spectacular, but when compared to other superhero games out there, it was worth renting at the very least. With that being said, developer Sucker Punch promised that Infamous 2 would be miles better than its prequel. Fortunately for us, they were telling the truth. Infamous 2 is quite possibly one of the best third person action titles on the PlayStation 3 to date.
Those who haven't played the prequel may miss out a little bit on the story, since you aren't educated enough with regards to how your character gained his powers. Nonetheless, if you haven't played Infamous, you still won't be disappointed. Although this continues on from the events that occur after Infamous, the link between the two plots is weak enough for you to be able to skip Infamous' story.
You play as Cole MacGrath, a survivor of the destruction of Empire City. After having been exposed to the Ray Sphere, you are given the powers to defeat the main monster, only known as The Beast. Rest assured, this is not the main villain of the game. However, the entire story becomes a journey to obtain enough power to finally defeat it. After fighting the Beast early on, you soon find out that you're not powerful enough. By travelling to New Marais, Cole is given enough time to improve his powers before the Beast finally reaches you again.
The Beast itself is a brilliant character. It's not just a monster, there is a history behind it. Without giving too much away, it's moments with the Beast that allow you to appreciate the linkage between Infamous 2 and its predecessor. Infamous 2 is completely focused on the very few characters that helps the gamer fully empathise with Cole's situation. Zeke makes a triumphant return, as he helps you take down the Militia and Betrand (the main villain of the game). The Militia are out to kill the demons and monsters of New Marais, including the 'Electric Man', who is Cole himself. Betrand's propaganda techniques result in the entire town believing that the events at Empire City were in fact due to Cole. Betrand is a brilliant villain with major secrets of his own that are uncovered as the plot thickens. The theme of irony runs throughout the game. Once again, this is a story that you must experience yourself, so no spoilers will be given.
Due to the current climate in New Marais, you are given the choice to lead a heroic or villainous path yourself. Your actions determine what way your 'karma level' swings. Based on your karma level, you unlock special abilities and powers. At the beginning stages of the game, you're given a new weapon, known as the Amp. This is the main weapon for close quarter combat. There are a variety of combos and moves at your arsenal, many of which can be unlocked later on. This weapon makes the entire gameplay experience a lot more enjoyable and varied.
Cole is not a weak character. He is full of personality and more importantly, he actually feels like a superhero. HIs powers aren't gimmicky and there will be plenty of jaw-dropping moments throughout the entire campaign. Some of his special abilities are pure genius and visually stunning. The main aim of the story is to make yourself more powerful. For that, you need to obtain blast cores. This is done by completing missions. By absorbing the powers of the blast cores, your main aim is to be able to use a device known as the RFI, which should give you enough powers and strength to defeat the Beast. Of course, absorbing blast cores slowly makes you stronger. These powers come in handy when fighting the Militia or swamp monsters.
As mentioned before, Infamous 2 is a visual masterpiece. I didn't once notice any framerate issues, despite the fact that there were often moments where multiple enemies would be firing rockets whilst you're absorbing a high amount of electricity to recharge yourself. The sounds are great too, ranging from voice acting to how combat sounds (close quarter and power usage). You will certainly not have any complaints with the gameplay (although the camera occasionally wanders in an awkward position). Your environments are superb too, since New Marais feels like a living, breathing city full of people to help or hurt (based on how you choose to tackle the game). Enemies are varied too. Although you start off by facing very basic Militia soldiers, there are plenty of larger creatures and more skilled soldiers (as well as massive ice titans) later on. Eventually, you would have to fight all of these in one go!
New Marais is full of side missions. Therefore, whenever you're not up for tackling a lengthy campaign mission, you can focus on these. They range from simple rescue missions to infiltration tasks. There are plenty of other ways to boost your karma levels in one direction too. Scattered around the city at random points are minor tasks (defusing a bomb, healing the wounded, quietening street protestors etc). Each one of these will swing your karma level one way or another. It's a lot easier to get an evil rating since you can easily bully civilians and random pedestrians.
Two other main characters in the game are Nix and Kuo. Although they are both at your service and are willing to help, they have different methods of tackling the same mission. One character often wants to choose the more evil route and the other would therefore choose the heroic route. This gives you the option to decide who to listen to. The initial choice is the most important, since that decides whether you have fire abilities or ice abilities throughout the rest of the game. If you want to play with the other abilities in the future, you must replay the entire game! You can only appreciate what the story has to offer by playing it twice (and making the opposite decisions to whatever you chose in the first run through). Requiring you to play the game twice definitely adds lasting appeal to make up for the lack of multiplayer.
If you have completed the story, you still can travel around the massive town of New Marais, collecting the blast shards scattered all over the place. These increase your energy levels, which are very important especially later on in the game. The higher your energy levels, the less you need to recharge.
One of the major features and additions to Infamous 2 is the ability to allow users to create their own levels. This makes Infamous 2 truly a unique game, since this type of freedom has never been given to you in a game of this kind. If you have access to the PSN, you can create your own missions, upload them and let others download it. When you load Infamous 2, you will see some of these missions already scattered around the map. These are made by Sucker Punch using the same tools that are at your arsenal. The level of detail is astonishing and although the tools at your disposal might be tricky to understand at first, it just goes to show that there is a lot that can be done. This little feature makes Infamous 2 truly a remarkable game.
In conclusion, Infamous 2 is the perfect sequel to a game that already was decent. Sucker Punch have definitely restored my faith in superhero games. They have done a great job in forcing you to play all aspects of the game, rather than speeding through the story. You need to collect blast shards, you need to do side missions and you need to wander about for a while. Although this is all necessary to help you complete the game properly, you will never actually feel forced or restricted into doing anything. The gamer always feels in full control of what he's doing. The addition of user generated content is a brilliant feature that many other developers should be looking to do for their own games. Sucker Punch have somehow managed to prove that a game can last for a very long time despite the lack of any multiplayer and due to that, anyone with a PS3 would be missing out if they choose not to consider this as a future purchase.
Rating:
Gameplay: 9.0
Graphics: 9.0
Sound: 9.5
Lasting Appeal: 9.0
Overall: 9.1
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