inFAMOUS 2 (PS3, 2011)

I need to be up front about this review right from the start. I loved the first inFAMOUS. It's fun to feel so powerful and hover down from rooftops to bust criminals. The simple mechanic of absorbing electricity from anything that had it to replenish your strength made you seem like a battery with limited resources. This allowed moments of dread when you walked somewhere where the power was turned off, and honestly makes you seem more badass for moving forward regardless.

I have played many games since I played 2009's instant classic, and I didn't quite remember various things about the story, but inFAMOUS 2 came along and reminded me of the story up to this point. It manages to walk a fine line by not being hung up on what has happened in the past, but not ever forgetting about it. Every now and again it will have a casual line in the dialogue that shows that the characters are still effected by the events of Empire City, but the big action of inFAMOUS 2 starts right in the opening seconds when you realize, that stuff before was nothing compared to the stuff now.

I need to get this out of the way too. Cole, our main character, has since had a change of  voice actor, and this is actually an improvement. Before it was a standard growly voice, but now it's a very unique voice that perfectly fits his face and has a lot of personality.

Where this game excels is definitely in being different than other games, and only now can I say that it has become a completely unique thing. In inFAMOUS, you had great combat mechanics, amazing powers and brilliant climbing, pared with a cool story that allows decision making. inFAMOUS 2 looked at the formula and said, "let's make what was good better, and give it all a whole new style that no one has seen in a game before." Simple things changed, like the location, from Empire City to New Marais (or New York to New Orleans) allow for beautiful scenery with swamps and bayous as well as beautifully designed New Orleans style buildings. Throw in some of the most original and incredible music from a more jazz and blues background and it changes the feel completely.

The story itself starts off shortly after inFAMOUS' ending where Cole defeats his alternate future self who came back to make sure Cole was ready with his powers in time to deal with "The Beast". Since then he has found a scientist from New Marais who can help him grow his powers so that he'll be ready for whatever this beast is. As he is getting on the boat to go to this scientist, the beast shows up and starts destroying Empire City. This whole first mission finds you flat out facing the beast in all out mortal combat, and draining most of your power just blowing him away. In the end, you find yourself nearly dead. Eventually Cole wakes up on the boat going to New Marais with the discovery that The Beast has just reformed himself and destroyed Empire City. A wave of destruction is moving down the east coast of the U.S. from Empire City to New Marais and no one can stop it. This game is about getting ready for when The Beast arrives.

This is not The Beast. The Beast would mess this thing up!

This whole game has a whole sense of dread to it, as you've seen how powerful this adversary is, and you keep hearing the news refer to it as a force of nature that is wiping out cities by the day. These places literally vanish with no one able to report it, so the government doesn't even know what is happening. On top of that, a plague has begun to spring across the country killing hundreds of thousands. That is a lot on your shoulders! It doesn't help that when New Marais flooded, it was taken over by a militia that was lead by a power hungry tyrant named Bertrand, who just has to be a superhuman himself. The whole story just glows as an awesome superhero story!

Another fun thing is that this time around, if you play the game as a good guy or a bad guy really does matter. In the past games have had certain things change depending on how good or bad you've played before it, but this game really has to take the cake with how big the difference is. I advise two playthroughs just to see how amazingly different the final missions are as well as the endings.

When Uncharted 2 came out, it changed gaming in a big way. Now people are really looking for honest to goodness characters. inFAMOUS 2 has learned from it too in a big way. The interaction between Cole and his best friend Zeke (who has to make up for some big mistakes from the first game), is at least as good as that between Nathan Drake and Sully. There is a mission that requires you to go hang out with Zeke and just watch a western on TV and drink some beers. It may sound dull, but it's played as hilarious as possible and this is what I feel games need more of. Make me care for these characters and I'll put more of myself into trying to do what's best for them.

There isn't much that is negative to say about this game. I'm even pretty fond of the user generated content that is added on, though I'm not entirely convinced that it really is needed for this game. Essentially that feature allows people to make their own missions for other people to play. Sometimes they are amazingly fun and other times they are so incredibly terrible that it's just depressing.

Overall, the missions do tend to eventually be a bit on the repetitive side, but I like it a lot. Both endings are great, but the good ending is perfect, and I'm very excited to see if there will be an inFAMOUS 3 as, I have no idea how you move on with either of these crazy different endings.