TSA’s Top 100 of 2011 – #15 inFamous 2

The first inFamous was a solid if somewhat overly repetitive affair. It had a lot going for it, with the game’s story and character development some of the strongest aspects of Sucker Punch’s inaugural PS3 title.

A tale of heroics (or villainy) set against the backdrop of a thriving metropolis, sparky protagonist Cole McGrath starts out as a normal guy, a courier just living his life in Empire City. He has a girlfriend, Trish, and a best mate, Zeke, the latter probably one of the more annoying of elements in the game. When Cole delivers a package that proceeds to detonate and take half the city with it, life takes a different turn for our everyman.

As a typical super-powered origin story inFamous works on many levels. As a morality tale it has its moments, the ability to choose actions of either good or evil alignment a core feature of the title’s karmic system. It was hardly perfect, however, with minimal attention required to espouse one or the other life-choices. If anything it meant you can play the game at least twice, each path presenting a moderately different route from bewildered greenhorn to powerful champion or malevolent despot.

With a strong premise, multifaceted characters and the ability to drop off a building and power-drop unwary opponents, things were looking pretty good for Sucker Punch’s sandbox baby. Right? It wasn’t that simple.

Unfortunately at times inFamous’ mission structure fell victim to a dull and repetitive rinse and repeat formula. “Oh, Cole! Reapers have put surveillance cameras on my building!” Even playing out the heroic arc, it’s difficult to not just zap the cow in the face and move on. Mission variety was one thing, but the game also suffered from technical and related design issues. We’re not those guys, you know, the ones that hark on about draw-distance and pop-up as if it really means anything, but it’s hard not to note inFamous’ struggle to keep things flowing on the PS3 when cars are magically appearing right in front of you. It was an audacious challenge, to create a sprawling city for Cole to traverse and interact with, but it’s obvious the engine often groaned under the weight of having to render such a large environ at any one time. Accordingly, some of the game-play choices and its execution are just as rough. Melée is really not what it should be, and Cole does look like he has incontinence issues when firing lightning off at enemies in the distance.

For their first PS3 game, however, Sucker Punch should be proud of what they achieved. Niggles aside, inFamous is a really enjoyable experience and one we would recommend to any gamer. Like comics? If you haven’t played inFamous you should probably have your likely pulsating head examined.

Much like #16 on this list, an inFamous sequel was a foregone conclusion. Most games that go Platinum do tend to get a follow up – unless the studio has mysteriously fallen down a sinkhole or something.

When Cole finally did appear (on the cover of Game Informer, as we’re sure you’ll recall) fans and people who didn’t even care for the first game were a little surprised. We’re all for reinvention, but for some reason Sucker Punch had decided to completely overhaul the look of their main protagonist. Gone was the shorn, Beckham look (well, one of them) sported by Cole in the first game, in its place a weird, hip, looks-nothing-like-the-first-Cole doppelgänger. What followed was a surreal u-turn on Sucker Punch’s behalf where old Cole returned, albeit with new Cole’s tattoos. At this point, it’s pretty safe to say that Cole has changed his appearance more times than his namesake Cheryl.

Regardless of its lead character’s appearance, it’s safe to say that inFamous 2 looks to have changed from inFamous 1 in all the right categories. The game now takes place in New Morais, a fictional version of New Orleans. From what we’ve seen of trailers and developer diaries, all of the first game’s criticisms have been taken on board. Graphically it looks sublime, with its developers claiming to have been influenced from the best, Naughty Dog and the Uncharted games, in terms of scope, immersion and cinematic flair.

It all sounds too good to be true. A good game, with an appealing premise, rebuilt using a renown template regarded as the industry’s benchmark of awesomeness. Whether inFamous 2 can completely cast off some of the first game’s noted flaws and elevate itself high up into the heady stratosphere of the Uncharteds of this world remains to be seen. We have a sneaky suspicion this one won’t be getting a 7/10, however.

17 Comments

  1. was a big fan of the first game but from what iive seen of 2 i think ill give it a miss :/

    • I totally love the first outing so much so I totally forgive it for it’s flaws. Infamous is one of my fave ps3 games and as I did with GT5 it’s a day one purchase regardless. The world and characters in infamous are really well thought out. Totally caught me by surprise as I didnt expect it to be so good. Infamous 2 will be sick now old cole is back as the frontman.

  2. Really looking forward too this game :). Anyone no if it release Q3 or Q4?

  3. from what i have seen more like 10/10

  4. I played through and finished the first one and thought the gameplay was distinctly average, though i enjoyed the storytelling.

  5. Meh couldn’t finish the first not sure if I would go for this in the future

  6. Funny how some games can be ruined by niggles and others simply don’t matter. For me, inFamous was the latter. The shortcomings and niggles were apparent very early on and simply didn’t matter. I romped through the game (twice) and it was genuinely good fun. I’m very much looking forward to the sequel, especially as they’ve now returned Cole to his former self somewhat.

    • It was one of the first games I platinumed! It was enjoyable despite all its flaws, though my blood boiled slightly when Kovacs mentioned the surveillance cameras, in retrospect there were some really annoying bits. If they manage to tighten up the superb work they did on the first and take on a more cinematic feel like UC2 then we should be in for a real treat!

  7. I respectfully disagree with the critisism here, infamous is awsome and desereves more love.

    • We appreciate your respect. There’s a LOT of love for inFamous here at TSA, just look at where its sequel has placed in the top 100. I really enjoyed playing through the first but it really does have some issues. Not enough to not play the game but enough to say “this could be improved.”

    • Same, i bought it by accident and i loved it, plus the graphics look way better than the first, and they weren’t bad.

    • i agree with the dr. loved this game but it did have a few problems. nothing to serious but it could have had a bit more polish

    • day one purchase for me loved every moment of the first one. the ending was quite shocking as well(no pun intended)

  8. Brilliant ! Muchly looking forward to this one, personally loved the first although can fully understand why people had issues with it. Worried about some of the things I’ve seen with regards to the sequel (and impressed about others), but will definately be getting it.

  9. You are right Kovac. No. More. Effing. Blast Shards.
    Looking forward to this, but not as much as Resistance, Batman or Deus Ex

  10. I found the first one ok at best. The story was brilliant but the gameplay became repetitive but not so repetitive that you were bored out of your skull whilst playing through it. I will still pick this up though as this looks awesome.

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