Infamous 2 Review

Back in 2009 we got the first Infamous and got to strut out lightning powers all over empire city. Two years later and most of us have had the opportunity to play it due to the welcome back program. Enter Infamous 2 and a new setting and new powers. The question is, is it worth picking up or skipping? Find out in our review.

When looking at a sequel you have to look at what it improves and what it changes to see if it is better or worse then the first. In the case of Infamous 2 it is better.

I’ll start with the story. In Infamous 2 you are still after a big bad guy and still trying to improve your powers to bring him down. The start of story pretty much shows you that you are to weak to bring down The Beast so you go look for a guy to help you improve your powers and prepare for The Beast. Most of the missions are pretty basic but they do throw in a few twists and turns as you go. They also have tons of side missions that you can choose to do for additional neutral powers like draining energy faster and finding blast shards on your mini map even if it isn’t close. Still the big thing in the game is if you want to be good or evil. Do you want to kill people to make your life easier or take the hero route and basically put yourself in danger a lot more. You’re constantly reminded of this as you go through the city as good and bad choices appear everywhere. You can kill cops or stop street performers if your a bad guy or heal the wounded and disarm bombs if you are good. These little things don’t raise your karma bar nearly as much as the story missions will. At the end of the game you have to make a major choice that will likely fill your bar if it isn’t filled yet which ever way you choose. Don’t worry though after you beat the game you can go back and clean up anything you missed. A quick note if you do a good mission it will block out the bad mission and vice versa. You get exp for every mission you complete and can upgrade your abilities with that exp. One of the best things as far as missions go are the user generated levels. I didn’t get to play many of these but the ones I did play weren’t to bad. As the days go more and more missions will be added giving the game tons of replay value. Most people will likely play the game again anyways to try the opposite side they choose.

Next we’ll move onto the powers. Infamous 2 brings back tons of old powers and some new ones as well. The most notable new powers  are the ionic powers. These are huge moves that are capable of taking out multiple enemies at once and even bringing down the bigger enemies in a couple hits. You start of with a Vortex and as you go you get an evil or good one then the last one which helps you bring down The Beast. Other then that we have the basic lightning strikes which can be upgraded for long distance, slower but stronger hits and, rapid fire which is what I used the most. You also get grenades, missiles and a blast that can knock enemies back or deflect attacks. Every basic attack can be upgraded in some way. They also give you an ability to pick up cars or anything really and throw it at an enemy. This is very useful at first but dwindles as you get stronger. As well as ton of super powers you know have the amp. It basically adds electricity to all your melee attacks. This is a nice addition but it is best saved for melee fighters because the Militia will kill you quick if you try to charge them. Last but not least is the addition of two new elements, fire and ice. As I’m sure you can assume one is bad one is good. You only have the choice of one unfortunately so be sure to pick the one you want. These basically upgrade a few of your abilities and give you a new ionic power.

The game play in Infamous 2 isn’t much different from the original. You still scale building by taping x and pointing the stick. It is better looking the the first one though. You still take cover and fire from behind it as you did in the first one. You still go to the mission and click R1 to start a mission. You still have to power up parts of the city but it is changed a bit. Instead of going underground you known have to fire a lightning missile at generators then defender it while it charges up. You get unlimited energy at these points so it’s easy. You still get to pick good or evil and people will love or fear you for it. So for the most part they went with it’s not broken don’t fix it approach and it works.

Now for the technical stand point. Infamous 2 is defiantly better then Infamous but still isn’t breaking any barriers as far as graphics go that for sure. It looks better and seems to hold a lot more people in one area but it’s nothing special. The audio works good with the game. They play the music they need to at the right time and all the voice work is fine for the game. No one tries to oversell themselves or anything like that which is nice. The sound effects for the abilities sound perfect and correct. Though it’s not breaking any limits for what it does it does well.

For my closing notes I’ll typically do any bugs or nit picks I have about the game. First off the bugs in Infamous 2. I only had a couple. One I feel through the map a bit but I was able to jump out so it didn’t effect me anyways. The other was when I tried to melee a rocket launcher guy and he hit me. I went through the building to the nearest ledge. It actually saved me. Then the guys started falling off the ledge and I got exp for it. Odd glitch but helpful. I guess my biggest issue with the game is that after you beat a boss you have to fight it again later sometimes two or three at a time. I really don’t like this in games I want boss fights to be boss fights. I kill it it’s dead and I don’t have to deal with it anymore. The lack of enemy variety is annoying. They introduce new types of enemies in each zone but they only have a few different ones so it doesn’t matter. Only about 12 enemies in total at the end of the day, including bosses.

That will wrap up the Infamous 2 review and it will get the 4/5. It is pretty good but somethings could of been different or improved in my opinion. Still a fantastic game for what it is and with user generated content it could keep going for a long while. Pick it up if you are looking for a game post E3 and before the dry spell hits us in July.

Infamous 2 review – 4/5 Pick it up.