Infamous 2

Wow, has it really been 4 years since I completed the first Infamous game? It certainly doesn't seem that long. My lasting memory of the first game was a fun experience, but lacking in polish (which seems to be backed up by what I wrote in my review) By the time Infamous 2 came out, I was really looking forward to it. The game released during E3 of 2011, and I bought it immediately and started playing it. But then I did what I often do and I got distracted and my interest waned and I moved on. I always knew I'd come back to it, but there was no hurry. With a game like this, you can pick it up, play a mission or two and not be totally lost. When Infamous Second Son was unveiled as an early PlayStation 4 title, I knew that I'd have to make completing this game a priority. I was hoping to finish it at least a little before Second Son released so I wouldn't feel burned out when that game comes out.

Everything about this game is better than the first game. Everything. The graphics are better. The story is better. The powers are better (especially when I unlocked the electric tether, I loved sling-shotting my way through the city with that thing!), and it feels so much more polished. Not to say I never ran into a glitch, but it's not the dominating memory I'll have of this game. As soon as I jumped back into this game on Thursday, I was having a blast and I wondered how I ever put off finishing this thing for so long. By Saturday I was starting to remember why. As fun as this game is, like most sandbox games, it can start to feel repetitive. This is hardly a fair criticism, it can be argued that all games are repetitive. In The Last of Us you did the same thing the whole way through. Same with a game like Uncharted or Halo. But I suppose it's because we're selecting the missions we are choosing to play and we can see the developers are making the effort to make every mission as different as possible but not totally succeeding.  Of course, I wasn't going to let myself get burned out this time, I had a goal, and really it was never a chore to play this game, I was always having a blast every time I started a new mission, and I frequently found myself playing 'just one more mission'. 

Focusing on the story for a minute. I'm not going to spoil it, but I will say, the story begins as sort of a 'who cares' (For me, anyway) and evolves into an interesting story. It's not on Bioshock or Naughty Dog levels, but it was intriguing. And the ending I definitely did not see coming. I need to go look at some trailers for second son, because this game answered some of the questions I had about this game, but  also provided me with brand new ones to ask.  I'm especially curious to see if Second Son is going to continue the 'choose your own path, good or bad' that is found in both Infamous 1 and 2. Deciding your path was all the rage several years ago, but now it doesn't really feel like anyone does it any more. Which is fine with me. I never play as bad, and I never play through the game a second time, so that content is always locked out to me. I would like to go back to this game some day and play through the evil choices, and see those power ups, but I know I never will.

I always expected to like this game, but I expected it to feel like more of the same, maybe an expansion of the first game. If I had to say something negative about it, I'd probably pick on the generic box-art. I would never have bought this game just from the box art,  and this is coming from someone who bought Mega Man 1 on the NES from only the box art (that was way before gaming magazines or even rentals) The game though was terrific, I'd recommend it to any  PS3 owner and now I really can't wait for Second Son!

Completed: 1.5.2014