Infamous 2 Review

Welcome to the review of Infamous 2 which was originally released in 2011. I’ll go over many elements of the game and why it’s one of those timeless classic titles that doesn’t get enough credit. Before continuing any further, I do want to mention that this review does not contain any spoilers but it does contain spoilers for Infamous 1 because you have to beat that game to understand what’s happening in Infamous 2.

The only way to play this game is on a PS3 or through the PS Now Service. That service allows you to stream this game including hundreds of other PS2, PS3, and PS4 games on PS4, PS5, and even Windows PC. I have a review of the PS Now service, a link to that is here.

The game starts off immediately after the events of Infamous 1. Cole MacGrath is on a mission to kill The Beast, the conduit that will bring about mass death. With Cole at the beginning of the game is a new government agent named Kuo and your former best friend Zeke. Wait, what? Why is Zeke with Cole? The idiot Zeke betrays Cole in Infamous 1 so he can try to get powers for himself, even knowing that it could have potentially killed Cole and thousands of other people. Why are Zeke and Cole acting all buddy as if nothing happened? It’s mentioned briefly in the game and forgotten about like yesterday’s celebrity news. So immediately at this point in the game, Cole is partnered with his 3rd government agent if you include the other two from the first game and his former best friend. Even though Cole’s experiences with government agents have been a disaster up until this point and his friend betrayed him. The writers kind of let Cole look pretty stupid due to these elements. The rest of the story is great apart from one point in the game where characters do a 180 in personality trait which made no sense.

Cole still retains his great wall climbing abilities and awesome powers that you’ll be able to upgrade. These mechanics worked amazingly in the first game and they do also in this game. Like the first game, there’s also the option to upgrade powers. Some of these powers require you to progress throughout the game or reach certain karma levels. The karma system is basically a morality system. For instance, the more good deeds Cole does, the more people cheer him on. The karma path you choose also impacts the game such as the story so it’s worth playing once as evil and again as a good guy.

Regarding combat mechanics, the developers made one huge improvement from Infamous 1 and that’s with melee combat. In the first game, melee combat was near useless, and trying to use it could end up having Cole die. In Infamous 2 melee is actually a crucial combat skill worth upgrading as you’ll use it a lot for certain enemies.

New Marais is a fairly large city with plenty of areas for you to unlock and explore. It also has its fair share of side quests worth checking, many of them being rather unique. In fact, one quest just had me meet the quest giver so she could thank me for saving her mother in the first game. Depending on the quests completed, it can lower enemy presence in an area or affect your karma level. Enemies are tougher in this game vs Infamous 1 as this time around you’ll fight enemies with guns, melee types, some with abilities, and plenty of mini-bosses. There are plenty of random things throughout the game too such as collecting shards to upgrade Cole’s powers and events that can affect your karma level.

Graphics have been greatly improved since the first game. I can say this pushes the PS3 to its limit and to be honest, sometimes the chaos is so intense you’ll think this game was designed on a console more powerful than PS3.

Sound effects sound great, whether it be from Cole’s powers, explosions, enemy attacks, or voices from side characters. The exception to all this is Cole’s voice. There’s nothing wrong with it but as I mentioned earlier it’s very different from the one in Infamous 1, it’s like Sucker Punch studios didn’t even try to match it from the first game.

I said this about Infamous 1 and I’ll say it again, the biggest complaint I have about this game is nothing against the game itself, I’m just disappointed that the developer studio Sucker Punch and Sony haven’t remastered this game. It deserves to be remastered. Currently, the only way to play this game is on a Playstation 3 or Playstation Now (PS Now) streaming service.