Still, there are many obstacles,* so I do kind of understand them. inFamous 2 keeps the controls easy and clean, and they seldom get in the way of the way you fight. Only towards the end you’ve got your fingers jostling for space on the DualShock. Mostly thought you just feel powerful. You feel in control.
The story has it’s high points and low points, but never comes close to the mystery and excitement of the first game. I had hopes that more of the story threads from the first game would carry over, since many of the more interesting mysteries were still unsolved.This time around, the story is much more dependent on the characters, and the characters aren’t always up to the job. There is simply very little subtlety in them. A trait that they share with most of the game. If the characters are righteous. the are. If they are wicked and spontaneous, they are predictably always wicked and spontaneous - and while their motivations seem clear enough I never really become convinced.
The previous game was a Video- game, with cut- scenes like a comic book. Now the influence from comic books is seen more throughout the game, from characters inspired from Watchmen, to the slightly cell- shady look of the thing. The character design is also more overstated, which goes well together with the unsubtle feel of the game, and the more colorful environments.
The environments represent the biggest change for the positive for the sequel. For the rest of the experience, the game reeks of a development team that, after obtaining success with a game with many good ideas, wanted to safely bring in game number two. Which means that many classic overused design features from other games, suddenly appear in game number two that wasn’t in game number one. Such as more powerful enemies without exception being bigger. WHY! The powers of the conduits are mental abilities, then i slightly disappointing that you can’t have some really powerful small ones - enemies that you feel are fighting on equal terms with you.
When I have gripes with the story, it is because I so so want it to shine - cause the rest of the game does. The enemies are interesting and fun to fight,the controls are good, the environments are beautiful and varied and in contrast to many other games with a good/evil play-through option, they really make you want to start that game right over again to see what would have been different.
I’d say, play this game to relax your brain, and put your feet up high. Expect lot’s of good ol’ action, but not an intriguing story.
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*
The DualShock controller can only handle so many button combinations before things get messy, a fault we often see of previous generation games. It’s only natural then that some of the slots need to be switched out in favor of other powers. But Suckerpunch just gives you the same powers back, and then with variants. Why not just start with the powers, then get more interesting variants? Even though the game tries to remedy this, the combat style doesn’t change much throughout the game, you just become more efficient at it. Suckerpunch has managed to strengthen the melee combat, but the two don’t blend well together, you are generally doing one or the other. As a minor spoiler and a minor complaint, you really never end up feeling more powerful at the end of the second game than the end of the first.
