Solid, great game but the "choice" is still lacking.
Some of the major improvements in inFamous 2 are the diversity and detail of the city. This is a noticeable change from the first, even in terms of the number of small interactable objects and destructibility. inFamous 2 has some excellent music. I can't remember if there was even any music in the first game, it was that forgettable. I also liked that they removed the long, tedious and frustrating platforming sections.
When I heard that they were going to include a "make your own level" system I was immediately turned off. But inFamous 2 has one of the most innovative and, most importantly, non-intrusive ways of including user generated content. The editor is great and allows for a lot of flexibility and creativity. Some of the levels I played even told little stories. But at no point are you forced to create or play levels. You could play the entire game without even noticing the feature. On the flip side if you do take the time to check it out, it's so simple and seamless to jump in and out of levels. You also get a small boost of experience. I really think they hit the perfect balance. Sucker Punch didn't ram it down our throats but at the same time its accessible, integrated and relevant to the singleplayer.
The dialogue is great and the story is pretty good in inFamous 2. At times the story in the first game was gibberish. It seems like they tried to tell a more concise story in a better way. Just throwing in a cut scene where Cole and Zeke watch TV together is genius. They just sit in silence, but that one scene does more to establish their relationship than anything else. I absolutely love it. I was so impressed with the subtlety. A lesson to other game makers that there is no need to be so heavy handed and blunt with your writing. You don't need an explosion every three seconds to force artificial excitement in your one track simple minded story.
I know many people hated Zeke in the first game. I didn't mind him at all, and in inFamous 2 he's an excellent character. The relationship between him and Cole is so well done. I think maybe Sucker Punch was insulted by people calling out Zeke. That must be why they decided to show us what real annoyance is and create the most irritating character in video game history... Nix. Well... second most irritating. I think the crown still goes to Shiva from Resident Evil 5. While Nix is slightly worse, at least she is irrelevant to the gameplay. Shiva, while being supremely annoying, was also so effing frustrating in the actual game itself. Even if Shiva didn't say a word, she might still win simply due to how terrible and infuriating AI controlled Shiva was. Anyways I'm digressing...
The city is small enough that it is easy to navigate. It feels "just right". While I can appreciate the extra effort as sandbox games get larger, some, like Assassin's Creed or RDR for example, are just too big. Eventually the incredibly detailed and historically accurate environment loses its allure and the practicality of navigating them becomes a huge chore. I get bored out of my skull or end up relying on fast travel. A number of times playing inFamous I would see the next mission all the way across the island and groan, wishing for fast travel. But I would start hoofing it and before I knew it I was there.
There is lots and lots and lots and lots of repetition... but I actually didn't find myself getting bored, even on my second playthrough. The missions are short and fun. They get right to the point and it is easy to jump right into the gameplay.
I wonder why there is only a single recycled Caucasian male face in the city. I started to get a little paranoid that this guy had some kind of super power or was out to get Cole. One mission he would be a cop, then the next he would have a moustache and be dressed up like a school teacher, then the next he would be an engineer. What the heck was going on there? Did Sucker Punch forget to make different faces for the NPCs.
Cole controls well during the platforming in the sense that he sticks to objects. Unless you're trying to jump onto a vertical pole or ladder (which is nearly impossible for some reason), Cole pretty much goes exactly where you want him to and there are no cheap deaths. The problem is that the moment you have to go anywhere in a hurry, sticking to every object becomes exceedingly frustrating. And it seems like every third mission is a race or chase or something. I basically mash x constantly to climb for travel along roof tops. It's the only way to move with any speed and avoid getting glued to every single object to come across.
Once again the "choice" between good and evil is absurd. A far cry from the nuanced, complex decisions of a Bioware game fraught with ethical ambiguity and intimately tied to the gameplay. In inFamous 2 you're faced with such moral brain teasers as kill a group of sick freedom fighting rebels mercilessly or give them medicine. Also the fact that you either need to go all bad or all good to unlock the best abilities means that you only actually make one choice at the beginning of the game, the rest is just blindly following party lines. The evil ending is so ridiculously absurd I wouldn't even know where to begin. It takes every bit of character motivation and development, every bit of story continuity and logic and turns it on its ear.
I praised the first inFamous for how different the gameplay was between good and evil playthroughs. The same is true of inFamous 2, although maybe less so. The problem is that the story is exactly the same regardless of your decisions. They have to find contrived ways of keeping characters in the story and reaching the same outcome. I played good and evil back to back and I was really disappointed at how similar they are. The missions are so repetitive and unremarkable that I couldn't tell if the few branching exclusive missions were actually different. But the worst part is Cole's dialogue in the cutscenes because it has to apply to both the good and bad playthroughs. So regardless of whether you've slaughtered hundreds of innocents for fun or broken your back trying to save every kitten in town, you're still faced with the same dialogue exchanges.
"We could run a burning bus into the caged people." Cole – "Sounds great I love watching people burn." "Cole no, we could save them all and give them weapons." Cole – "Sounds great I would do anything to save a single human life." Maybe I exaggerate a little, but it sounds almost that stupid.
I can't imagine a video game doing a worst job of providing the player with "moral choices"... oh wait I played Forced Unleashed 2. Even though they completely dropped the ball on this one area, the rest of the game is very good. One final thing, explain to me why killing street performers is bad karma?