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dkirschner's Infamous 2 (PS3)
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| [November 11, 2013 07:58:30 AM]
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Infamous 2 was pretty much what I expected. Mostly the same as Infamous 1, but streamlined in about every way imaginable. Most noticeable off the bat were vastly improved visuals, actual animated cut scenes, and smoother character animations and controls. I played through again as evil Cole.
They did a better job of the good/evil thing in this game, primarily by adding characters who represented each side. Luo is "good" and Nix is "evil" and they are like the angel and devil on your shoulders when the team is planning an operation. Luo will usually want to do things cautiously and minimize innocent casualties, while Nix will want to use subterfuge or sacrifice innocents or go in guns blazing or whatever. Adding the characters makes the good/evil choices a little less obviously black and white because you see motivations and logic behind both choices. But in the end, the good/evil characters are stupidly reversed. I thought that was really really dumb and didn't make sense. Also I felt a little betrayed by the designers because I wanted to destroy the city with Nix, who I'd been wreaking havok with the entire game.
I also realize the writers suck at penning twists. The 'twist' at the end of the first game was stupid. The twist in this game was...better, but still pretty lame. Here's the thing about twists. Twists should not be where someone tells you a ton of new information that you did not know, could not have known, and otherwise had no clue about. Twists should make you go "OOOOOOH!" For a great twist, there should be subtle hints and clues throughout the narrative. You should be able to guess at the twist, or at the least reflect back and see evidence of it. The movie The Sixth Sense is an awesome example. The twist isn't just "I see dead people" and the viewers go "What?!" The viewers go "OOOOOH" and half my friends rewatched the movie and marveled at how they set up the twist throughout the entire film, but you wouldn't necessarily catch it it was so well done. Anyway, not that the Infamous writers should be master storytellers, but still. Two games, two completely fail twists.
But at least the end of the second game was fantastic! The twist in the first game actually ended the game, came right at the end. The twist in the second one is a little before, and even though it's kinda dumb, everything afterward is incredible, except Nix and Luo switching alignment. You get to cause some mega mega mega destruction, and there's a very touching moment at the end too. I dunno if it's because I played both games back to back or because the second game did a better job of character development, but I felt a tug at my heart when a certain someone passed away. There is definitely room for a sequel again. One is being developed for PS4 but I dunno how it's related yet.
What else...Gameplay is essentially the same. There's a nifty new hotkey for switching powers. Press and hold left on the d-pad to bring up all powers and which button they are assigned to, then press whichever button to cycle through unlocked powers for that button. That's a very efficient scheme for switching powers. They changed the power upgrade system a little too, but I think everything from the first game was still there with a couple additions. The coolest addition is definitely the lightning tether, which works like the grappling hook from Just Cause 2. You can sort of slingshot your way around the city using that and your flight.
There are all the same pickups and mission types. I didn't do but 1/3 or less of the extra missions, and even then only the 'evil' missions. You still go around collecting blast shards, except this time they're indicated on the minimap, which made finding them easier and more fun. I must have collected 95% of them. There are also still dead drops, but instead of satellite dishes that you have to track, they are on messenger pigeons flying around that show up on the minimap. You shoot down the pigeon then go find where it landed. Oh yeah, there are various other ways you can increase your alignment, which are pretty funny. For evil, you can break up groups of protesters and, this is the best instructions "silence street performers," because as Zeke said, "No one likes being forced to listen to that garbage." Haha. So whenever you hear some street trumpet or bongo drums or see a human statue, you can go thwack them and get some evil points.
There is a mission editor and you can play user-generated missions. I tried a few at the end, made by Sucker Punch even, but they are just not very exciting especially compared to the actual game. So no value there for me. I even filtered for highest rated.
Good times.
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dkirschner's Infamous 2 (PS3)
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Current Status: Finished playing
GameLog started on: Thursday 7 November, 2013
GameLog closed on: Sunday 10 November, 2013 |
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