An excellent sequel that makes solid improvements to movement and powers.
You arrive in New Marais with two allies, Zeke Dunbar and Lucy Kuo. Zeke is a familiar face for those who have played the first game. His lax attitude and loyalty to Cole provide some of the comic relief. Kuo, a CIA agent, sticks around to help Cole defeat the beast. Kuo represents the side of Good Karma, the side that says you shouldn't shock civilians with your lightning powers. Nix takes up the role of Bad Karma, shown by her aggressive nature and indifference regarding collateral damage. New Marias does not welcome Cole with open arms.
New Marias is under the control of Joseph Bertrand and his gang of Redneck Militia. The militia have taken the law into their own hands, battling the local police and terrorising the populace. Not surprisingly, Cole quickly makes an impression with his conduit powers and becomes the enemy. Infamous 2 makes a range of changes to the core mechanics of the original. The combination of improvements makes for a much more enjoyable game. The three core improvements involve AI, movement and powers.
The AI works better because you are harassed less and given the opportunity to engage on your terms. The original game incorporated AI that would stand on the edges of roof tops and snipe you from blocks away while you walked the gloomy streets of Empire City. In the sequel the AI take up small patrols on roof tops and this keeps them away from edges so you won't be harassed from above. Because the enemy visual acuity has been reduced you also see enemies before they see you. Both of these simple changes make moving through New Marias less of a chore.
The other big change to the AI is a focus on the nuances of enemy types rather than just throwing more difficult enemies at you. Rednecks with guns are easy to take down but pack a punch in groups. Mutants rush and attack in mobs, making good use of your new melee sticks. New ice enemies may not be accurate with weapons but they are nimble. Perhaps the most pleasing improvement for the sequel was how small changes to movement greatly improve combat and travel.
In the original Infamous, Cole was a man of great upper body strength. He could climb buildings with the push of a button. Unfortunately this was slow and Cole felt more like Sticky-hands man than an electric superhero. Simple changes to powers and world design make for a huge improvement when navigating.
The world design has been created with a focus on how Cole moves about. One simple change is adding electric poles to the base of many buildings. Once Cole latches onto a pole he shoots up with great speed, drastically reducing the time to ascend buildings. The second area in New Marias is a flooded city with rooftops and buildings surrounded by shallow water. Since this area is low profile it is the easiest to navigate. The water is dangerous to Cole and deadly to enemies but due to the design it's easy to avoid. There are also powers which have been tweaked to allow for smooth transitions.
One power Cole acquires early is the ability to electro jump from a car. The height is just enough to leap onto the cable car power lines and zoom around the city. This makes quite the change from climbing up a pole or floating from a building. Later, assuming Cole chooses to side with Good, he gains the ability to Ice Launch. On any flat surface or roof top he can super jump with the aid of an ice spike. When paired with the standard electric gliding it makes movement an absolute joy. These superior movement abilities go hand in hand with enhanced offensive powers.
The biggest improvement to combat is the melee sticks Cole starts with. These electric batons make short work of enemies in close quarters and even grant Cole full electric recharge with instant kills. Mutants are no longer annoying when they get close because you can just whip out your shock sticks and take it to them. These melee attacks leave you open to bullet fire but you don't need to run away anymore.
Most of your electric ranged attacks have multiple ammo types. The standard lighting bolt is broken into a long range Artillery Bolts, high damage Magnum Bolts or even a quick fire Bolt Stream. Cole's Blast can send enemies flying into isolated low gravity or fire a charge on a surface that explodes when shot with electricity. The game pauses when Cole switches between these various ammo types, so there is little reason not to change things up.
When you combine the improved powers, the better movement and the focus of different AI you get a much more enjoyable game. You can leap across rooftops with ice launch and then switch quickly between melee attacks and ranged powers. You can blast enemies off roof tops and shoot them after they land into the conductive water. Feel free to borrow a car and hurl it towards groups of militia and mutants fighting each other in the streets.
Sucker Punch has greatly improved the visual appeal of the game with great looking cut scenes and a much crisper world. The cut scenes in particular have been improved with better direction, great looking characters and excellent anti-aliasing techniques. This carries over to the main game with crisper textures, more saturation and even more detail in the environments. It's also the little things that make a big difference. Plants on rooftops, colored lights lining the facades of buildings, better draw distances and the sunken city greatly improve the aesthetics.
The sequel includes User Generated Content that allows others to create their own missions. The game will show you the "best" ones by default although all of these were created by Sucker Punch. Some aren't bad but many break the fourth wall. They act more as tutorials for what can be done with the UGC rather than great side quests. Unfortunately this will probably cause you to stop playing them because they just break the immersion.
Quest structure and quality mirrors that of the first game. Some of the quests are indeed fairly lacklustre and there are odd difficulty spikes offset by generous auto saving. The first few hours of the game are the hardest and your power upgrades keep you one step ahead of the curve. The repeating quests are basic but easy enough that you'll want to do most of them anyway. The moral choices are black and white but it works fine when the game funnels players down specific paths with powers to unlock. Alternative quests give enough reason for a replay.
Infamous 2 might not be the perfect game but it is a brilliant sequel. Changes to AI and movement remove almost all annoyances when navigating. The power options and enemy nuances work a whole lot better than the silly Dust Men in the original. The visuals in the sequel are better and New Marias is a refreshing change from the dreary Empire City. Infamous 2 is a shockingly good open world action game and one of the best games on the PS3.