InFamous tWo

[hepcat]

Put in an about 90 minutes last night with it and I'm happy.  It's exactly what I wanted from Infamous 2: Infamous 1 with a new story, powers and enemies. 

When I played the first Infamous, I had just come off an extended play of Assassin's Creed (another of my favorites) so the climbing felt very arcade like.  Unfortunately, I just finished Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood about a month ago, so the same issue is there for me.  However, it doesn't take long to get used to Cole's quirks when it comes to movement.  I expect to be runnin' and gunnin' my way through the city in no time.

[Purge]

Clearly it doesn't keep you warm.

[Turtle]

I have to lodge a major complaint though. When the reviewers said there were camera issues, boy are there camera issues. It doesn't become an issue until you meet the later enemies, but there's a particular set of enemies where if you try to get in close, due to the way their attack works the camera just goes crazy, almost always resulting in a death.

[hepcat]

 

that sucks to hear.  I wonder if it's something that can be addressed in a patch?

[CeeKay]

do you have to get in close?

I also grabbed the Lightning Hook DLC that came from Gamestop.  it feels completely worthless compared to the force wave attack you have to replace it with.

[Turtle]

No, the enemies I'm talking about you always want to fight from a distance, your close in attacks do almost nothing.  However, if you get within a certain range, they will charge at you, which is one of the problems.

I also didn't use the Lightning Hook much, although there's a type of enemy that it should have worked well against, but the hook is too slow to fire. Specifically:

Spoiler for Hiden:

the ice soldiers with the way they leap around.

Also, I've finished the game. I know, marathon session and all that, but I was hooked. Thanks to the shard finder power I picked up all the 305 blast shards.

As you watch the in-game cutscenes, check out the facial animation, especially in the later scenes. It can be pretty nuanced from the main characters, and all that comes to a head in the endings. Oh man... I just... I've got to spoiler tag this. I've got to talk about it because, well, non-spoiler these are pretty ballsy endings from a developer.

Oh, do yourself a favor and save before the final mission.

Good ending:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Much more traditional heroic stuff. But I could feel the grief and heartbreak with Kuo, and knew exactly why she turned on me just before the end, only to feel just as hearbroken when she came back to the good side at the very end, knowing that my choices would be killing her. Kuo is one of my favorite characters, although it also helps that it's an Asian in mass media, but still, her actor and the music playing over her last lines made me regret everything even as I charged up the RFI.

That said, at the very, very end of the final cutscene, you see a lightning strike in the shape of a question mark hit the boat Cole's body is on. Which bodes well for something happening with inFamous 3.

Evil Ending:

Spoiler for Hiden:

Man, if I thought the good ending was heartbreaking, the evil ending was so much more so.

Such a fitting final confrontation with Nix, but then a way more disturbing final section with Zeke.

"Half as long."

"Twice as bright." The animation right there, the slight nod, the change in posture as Zeke takes his stand, lifting his gun. I felt heal pangs of heartbreak right there. "I have to try."

"I know."

I didn't like Zeke much in the first game, but he was a much more rounded character in the second, and killing him was quite heartbreaking, especially in the way they handled it.

After that, when John/Beast started talking about how he couldn't go on with it. I got this sinking feeling that the devs would back out of such an amazing ending. But then they did the right thing and had Cole be the one to carry out basically the genocide plan.

Of course, the comic style final cutscene for the evil side wasn't quite in line with how emotional that was, but I suppose it would fit if you were playing evil through the whole game.

Endings in general

Spoiler for Hiden:

I suspect they'll go for a new character in inFAMOUS 3. And yes, they will do an third game since inFamous is one of their major properties.

Perhaps, if you had the good ending, Cole is a mentor figure of a new breed of supers that aren't quite conduits, or there's some new threat with new powers emerging. After all, there's still the First Sons and all the other conspiracies there to play with. If you import the evil ending, you're one of the new conduits that's fighting against what Cole has done.
 
Also, the whole plague angle was a nice touch as to why Kessler let John still become The Beast. The Plague was around since before the first ray sphere detonation, probably even before the ray sphere was a in concept. The beast was just a means to an end, the real threat was the plague and what it meant for the world.
 
As I mentioned already, at the end of the good ending, you see a lighting in the shape of a question mark strike the ship that Zeke and Cole's body is on. I suppose if they go for inFAMOUS 3, they can just not bother to import data and go with the good ending. Either way, a new super with new powers would be a nice change. They're pretty much done all they could with Cole as it is. Just giving him new elemental versions of powers would get old, and the world has changed so much.

Although, despite it making their sacrifice have less meaning (is there ever really meaning in death) I would love to see Kuo, and even Nix return in some way.

Also, fans of comic media will see all sorts of parallels in the story, what with Dr. Manhattan style villain combined with Magneto's schemes to destroy all humankind and leave only mutants. Nothing original, but the way it was presented was pretty interesting.

[CeeKay]

how long would you say it took you?

[Turtle]

My count is 14+ hours, but only because I did all the side missions. If you rushed the main plot missions you could probably finish the game much more quickly, but then you miss out on powers and other fun things. Even though I got through it in a marathon session, I got my money's worth.

I really want to hear what other people think after they finish.

[Teggy]

How did they change the good/evil system? Are you basically stuck going down one road like in the first game? Is there worth in doing good and evil playthroughs?

[Turtle]

You're not stuck going down one road in terms of missions. There's leeway in the character specific karma missions and decisions. You're still going to have to choose between good or evil though since there's only one Karma meter, and you can only fill up one side at a time. Some of the best versions of powers are locked behind the karma wall.

Oh and the powers for both sides are awesome this time around. The default good powers you get just for filling up the meter are kind of "meh", but the actual good karma versions of your bolt, grenade, blast, etc powers are very nice and fun to use. The good traversal power is just fun to use. I think there's an evil traversal power too, just haven't gotten it.

[metallicorphan]

7.5 from Gamespot.   That's unexpected.   

6 from EDGE

but then again,it's Edge

[leo8877]

7.5 from Gamespot.   That's unexpected.   

6 from EDGE

but then again,it's Edge

I don't understand the reviews, the game is much better than part 1 and part 1 got all 8s and 9s.

[Turtle]

It's the, "Not changed enough." Syndrome for sequels. Not to mention that the game still has significant problems, but those are few and very far between, but when they do pop up they can be very annoying. You'll encounter more of it later on. There's also story issues, but not really glaringly bad issues, but rather just that you can tell some things were written in the game design mind set to not exclude a player from content too early.

A 7.5 I can see, depending mainly on the reviewer's preferences for games and what he's willing to see as just art of it being an open world game.

A 6 is kinda rubbish for a review if you consider other things that have been given a 6 in gaming history. That is, if they're using a similar scale to other places. I think EDGE is one of those places that tries to use the whole number scale, for better or worse, so their 8 is probably around a 7-8 in terms of what most people think of review scores. My opinion on this number scale issue is that it's a bit like letter grades and how they correspond to percentages. Cs and Ds may pass, but aren't usually worth the time and money, especially at release. As and Bs are the kind of games that matter.

Sure, it's opinion, but there's also context needed when assigning scores. There's absolute drivel that have been rated 6, or even 7.5, and inFamous 2 would be a 9+ compared to those games.

[leo8877]

This made me laugh…

[CeeKay]

I take it the stunts to unlock powers get tougher?  I flew through the first batch that were available since a lot of them seemed to overlap.

[Turtle]

Not really, the stunt requirements are there just to get the players to try something interesting, none of them are that much of a challenge.

[CeeKay]

Not really, the stunt requirements are there just to get the players to try something interesting, none of them are that much of a challenge.

that stinks.  most of the first ones were stuff I was doing already.  of course since headshots don't seem to do much anymore except give one XP the first time you connect I've just been aiming for the crotch, either way seems to take as many shots but my way just feels more satisfying.

I just pretend I'm sterilizing the inbred rednecks to prevent future breeding, and using those energy bindings prevents them from trying to soothe the pain 

[Bullwinkle]

I keep meaning to come in here and talk up the music.  It's pretty fantastic and unique.  There are some really good driving beats during some missions that propel you forward.  It's not unusual music, but it's not something you hear in games very often.  Very impressed with it.

[leo8877]

I keep meaning to come in here and talk up the music.  It's pretty fantastic and unique.  There are some really good driving beats during some missions that propel you forward.  It's not unusual music, but it's not something you hear in games very often.  Very impressed with it.

Agreed and it fits the location they set the game in as well.

[CeeKay]

finally got back to playing this, and all I have to ask is this:  who the heck got their prototype in my infamous?

[Bullwinkle]

finally got back to playing this, and all I have to ask is this:  who the heck got their prototype in my infamous?

The mutants you meet are verrrrry similar to the ones in Prototype, to the point that when I first saw them, I thought they were making some kind of commentary.  I'd forgotten about that.

Was there something else?

[CeeKay]

finally got back to playing this, and all I have to ask is this:  who the heck got their prototype in my infamous?

The mutants you meet are verrrrry similar to the ones in Prototype, to the point that when I first saw them, I thought they were making some kind of commentary.  I'd forgotten about that.

Was there something else?

not yet, but I'm only just one or two missions past the one that introduces two new ways to get blast shards.

[spigot]

Finished the game. I thought it was pretty good. Got real sick of fighting a new enemy type the introduce later in the game, they were just pure annoyance. Some of the major boss fights later in the game are pretty neat but the mid boss battles got tedious and boring. If I ever fight another

Spoiler for Hiden:

ice titan

again it'll be too soon.

I liked how there are certain sections in the story that force you to make a decision on a few major events, although it felt like the story kept slowly nudging you towards the good path. The bits where you had to fire a tesla rocket from one generator to the next and then proceed to that generator to defend it as it powered up overstayed their welcome.

[CeeKay]

ugh... now those Reavers (the ones with the homing acid spit and need to be hit with heavy objects) are encountered on the street AND they can burrow up buildings?  ugh. 

it is fun watching them and the Militia fight though.

[hepcat]

ugh... now those Reavers (the ones with the homing acid spit and need to be hit with heavy objects) are encountered on the street AND they can burrow up buildings?  ugh.  

it is fun watching them and the Militia fight though.

4 or 5 sticky grenades wipes them off the face of the planet in short order.

[CeeKay]

ugh... now those Reavers (the ones with the homing acid spit and need to be hit with heavy objects) are encountered on the street AND they can burrow up buildings?  ugh.  

it is fun watching them and the Militia fight though.

4 or 5 sticky grenades wipes them off the face of the planet in short order.

  I totally fogot I could upgrade to those.  heck, I only just upgraded my blasts to:

Spoiler for Hiden:

and totally skipped over artillery.  I guess I should spend the 8k or so XP I've got.

[Turtle]

Artillery bolts haven't gotten much use from me. You can safely skip that upgrade.

You'll find that various powers are much better than others to take on certain enemies.

[Bullwinkle]

Artillery bolts haven't gotten much use from me. You can safely skip that upgrade.

You'll find that various powers are much better than others to take on certain enemies.

Artillery are the machine gun-like ones, right?  They're actually my default.

[Turtle]

Nope, the machinegun one is the bolt stream. Artillery are the ones that have extra long range.

[Bullwinkle]

Nope, the machinegun one is the bolt stream. Artillery are the ones that have extra long range.

Yeah, never mind, then.

[CeeKay]

unlocked those last night.  I was kind of surprised how quickly I hit level 3 good karma, it was just after I encountered my first new friend in the city.  the funny part is both times I've hit the next karma level I've gotten evil points because the blast injured civvies or killed downed enemies around me.

sticky grenades are so much better, still can't believe I forgot to buy them after I did the stunts to unlock them.  not very impressed with Iconic Vortex though, I'm having trouble aiming it right and it seems to go off to the side of what I'm aiming for.  I had an alleyway full of enemies, so I activated it while facing them and it hooked off to the right, missing half of them.

[hepcat]

Despite the flaws, this game has its hooks in me just like its predecessor.  I log in each night for a few missions at least.  I like the pick it up/put it down style of play it engenders.  It's everything I loved about the first game but with a few more powers and a much more diverse landscape. 

[Teggy]

I need to get back to my inFAMOUS 1 replay so I can pick this up. I remembered the bus escort mission being a PITA and it's just as much a PITA the second time around.

[Turtle]

Infamous 2 imports based on your achievements, not the save file itself. So if you've already beaten infamous 1, you can get everything out of 2.

[Teggy]

Infamous 2 imports based on your achievements, not the save file itself. So if you've already beaten infamous 1, you can get everything out of 2.

It wasn't about that (I have a near-complete "good" save already), I just wanted to refresh myself on the story, and finish off some off the trophies I didn't do the first time by doing an "evil" playthrough. Will be leaving the hard mode trophy and the 100% shard trophy on the table, though.

[Turtle]

You sir, are a monster. Infamous 1 on Hard?

[Teggy]

You sir, are a monster. Infamous 1 on Hard?

No, that's why I won't be getting that trophy.

[hepcat]

I don't think climbing to the top of the highest tower you can find, jumping off and holding down the square button will ever get old for me....

[godhugh]

You sir, are a monster. Infamous 1 on Hard?

It's not that bad, really. I finished it on Hard my first time through. The only really annoying fight is the final boss.

[Purge]

Infamous 2 changes enough up. I hate the last set of enemies on inFamous (gasmask wearing freaks) more than the ice men.

Also, the monster mentioned above by spigot (and for the most part, the Reavers), the sticky grenades or the sticky rockets pretty much wipe them out.

The only thing I don't like about the game is the fact that it feels shorter, and that there needs to be more upgrades. I also think the sniper option is weaker (uses a lot more power) and the bolts don't power up.

Also, the UGC needs to have camera focus.

The boss on inFamous 1 was bunk. My f-bombs alone should have killed him. Also, not being able to move around the city as a means of fighting him was tragic, and his shockwave ground attack was a POS.