inFamous 2

I picked up a free digital copy of infamous 2 a couple of weeks ago as part of my Playstaion Plus Membership.  I have platinumed the first game, and enjoyed it enough to warrant giving the second title a shot, especially when it is free!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Infamous series on the PS3, it basically plays like reading a comic book.  Our (anti) hero, Cole McGrath, triggered an radioactive explosion in the prologue of the first game, giving hm electricity based super powers.  Cole doesn't have the ability to manufacture his own electricity, he constantly needs to drain electricity from various sources in the world around him to charge his powers.  He can then shape this electricity into various tools and weapons to help him make his way through the story.

Like Grand Theft Auto, the action is free range.  You are free to wander the city, hunting for side missions, or bonus perks, leaving the main story for long stretches.  While this means that there is alot to see and do, it can get somewhat tedious hunting high and low for the 305 blast shard pieces scattered across the giant city.

The most interesting part of this game is the idea at its core.  Cole's actions are monitered by a Karma meter, which shifts based on the choices he makes during the game.  Defuse a bomb and save the nearby civilians, your Karma swings towards good.  Take out the cops who are patrooling town, and lack the smack down on the unexpecting passersby, your Karma is headed straight towards evil.  With 3 stages of good or evil to progress through, there are plenty of unique powers, side missions, NPC interactions, and yes, even cosmetic changes to experience.  There are also 2 distinctly different endings to unlock.

Controls are intuitive, and game play is very responsive.  Only once did I find myself stuck in a mission, unable to continue because I had somehow been squashed through the ground by a massive boss character, but not killed.  I also enjoyed that the various missions were significantly different from the game play of the first title.  Kudos to the development team for adding such an array of interesting powers, all easily swappable using the left button on the d-pad.

At a guess, I would say it took me roughly 35 hours to complete the story mode twice in order to see both endings, and unlock the platinum trophy for 100% completion.

As an added perk, there is also a forum for User Generated Content, so there are untold more hours of game play waiting should you be thus inclined.

While this is certainly not my favourite series on the PS3, it was a solid offering, and I'd happily reccomend it to anyone looking for an engaging story, and decent visuals.

And if you happen to have a PSN account, feel free to add me: DeaDPaN79 and we'll swap stories on favourite DLC.