The fun combat and great story make not only a solid entry, but a remarkable and satisfying sequel with plenty to offer!
Picking up a couple months after the first game, the protagonist with electrical super powers, Cole, is still preparing for an abomination of animosity and colossal destruction known as The Beast. Cole's plan is to head to the fictional city of New Marais, gain new powers, to become strong enough to face the beast. That description could be shortened to; "Cole goes to a new city to get new powers," and it could be inferred that Cole's battle with the beast will either take place during the climax of the game, or in the sequel.
Luckily, it's quite different, as the Beast makes a surprise appearance far earlier, destroying a large proportion of Empire City, and later the east coast of the US. The first gameplay of the game will have you fighting the Beast itself. Newer enemies pop up and it's Cole's job to stop them. The story ultimately turns up the volume later on, taking some very surprising twists, introducing new characters that turn, what may sound like, one of the game's weak points, into one of its strong points.
The cutscenes and in-game dialogue are enjoyable due to the deep personalities of each of the characters. We see the good, bad and ugly sides of each member of this remarkable cast, who each have a true story arc, starting in one place and ending in another, giving an extremely natural and realistic feel to the lively and believable characters – a huge improvement over the previous game.
The ending itself felt very rushed, but leading up to that felt natural and just like the original game. The morality system is nice but the game definitely isn't built around it, despite being two endings to the game (which depend on your moral alignment). The course of the story is quite straightforward, so the good and evil side to things really only change mission objectives and your powers. That can be taken as a good or bad thing, but just like the original the only reason to choose the evil path is to be more destructive and try different powers.
The powers are fun to use, and there are lots of new abilities, ranging from all-new electrical moves, to the improved combat system, to ice or napalm focused powers – which you will gain depending on how far you upgrade Cole and if you chose the good or evil karma path. Upgrading Cole is fun and provides a good reason to play the side missions to those who just want to breeze through the story.
Where it was a struggle for me to grind through the extremely familiar missions of the first game during a second play through, Infamous 2 is riddled with new and exciting missions that feel fresh and even as the game goes on, still feel original. Boss fights are noticeably missing, which in the first game helped the pacing of the story. A bit of a disappointment.
Cole's attacks are devastating and destructive or strategic and precise, once again depending on your karma, and different strategies need to be applied to different types of enemies with their own weaknesses. Ultimately the gameplay is satisfying, fun and intuitive – running, jumping, gliding, climbing, shooting, throwing all provide variety to every enemy encounter.
The pacing of the missions feels fairly well done, and the ability as a player to create missions yourself is a great addition, even though the side missions their selves are up to par with some of the story missions.
The city of New Marais is beautiful with the New Orleans-inspired city structure and building architecture, with distinct districts and swamps, which really help the city feel alive – even in its darkest of times. The colours of the city, along with Cole's fireworks, create a beautiful and lively canvas. The music helps the comic book-styIe feel of the game too, and the overall presentation of Infamous 2 surpasses that of its predecessor.
With solid gameplay, smooth pacing, and fun new powers, Infamous 2 is a satisfying game that appears as a generic sequel due to its boring pitch but shines bright amongst its open-world rivals, offering quality content, and plenty of it, but also a strong story involving some of the most realistic characters seen in a super-hero game. This is an easily recommendable game to anyone who enjoys open-world games, with players given the opportunity to become engrossed in the rich city, upgrading Cole's powers, or just breeze through, and whatever path you take; this is a great experience that should not be missed.
Story – 4/5
Gameplay – 4/5
Presenation – 4/5
Overall Score (Not an Average):
8.5/10