Story Brought Together in the Sequel, but the Same Flaws Mire a Great Game
A great feature in this game is that if you kept your save file from the first game, it accesses it when you begin the second and gives you extra battery cores and a head start on Karma, depending on if you maxed out in one direction or another. I did a fairly thorough, to me, review of the first game, so I will say that the game play and story were somewhat shallow, but put a great game together on the whole. The same can be said about the sequel.
The controls changes slightly from one game to the other, using some different combinations not used in the first game. What disappointed me was that the issues from the first game, to me, persisted into the second. I still had trouble controlling Cole, and in ways that didn't make sense. Most frustrating to me were the jump and grab controls. The environments are greatly detailed, but in some ways that works as a disadvantage, as Cole can't always grab on things, or more likely, grabs onto things you don't intend him to. As with the first game, the controls were very touchy, to the point that I felt frustrated at times.
The graphics are superb. The different areas of the maps were well differentiated and seemed very representative of the New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The music was pitch perfect, but it often turned on/off at random intervals.
The story is where this game shines. In the first game, it was a very basic concept of guy gets super powers, has to choose to be good or evil and goes up against person who he thinks is responsible. In the sequel, and not to give away any spoilers, Cole is faced with much more serious concerns, whether he is good or evil and it shows with both the writing, voice acting and overall narrative. I am curious to play it again and be bad, but I don't know that I have the time. It was a great leap forward for the franchise, and although cheesy at times, as the first one was, the improvement in the driving force in the game can't go unnoticed.
I also felt that the Karma choices, at times, were much harder to choose between. In a simple example, on occasion, regular people will be running around with blast shards, which is how you increase how may battery cores you can have, and it would be so easy to just kill them and take them, but the evil Karma, to me, wasn't worth it.
The 7.5 given by Gamespot, after completing the game, is understandable, but undeserved. This game is a very enjoyable and while I can't say it is perfect, by any means, it is well worth playing and if you have a PS3, this should be a game you need to play.