With the close of summer and the start of fall just a couple of weeks away, I have a found myself with a lack of games to play before the bombardment of quality that is September to November. Therfore I decided that I would pick up Infamous 2 again before I’m fully finished with it.

Infamous 2 sees the return of Cole MacGrath and his friend Zeke in an action packed superhero fest where being good is not always an option.  The game opens as Cole is fighting the beast that was mentioned at the end of first, however after the fight ends in the beasts favour, Empire City is destroyed and Cole, Zeke and one of the new cast members NSA agent Lucy Kuo flee to New Marais in order for Cole to re-discoverer his powers and add new ones. While also adding a couple of friends and enemies to his acquaintance. And finally defeat the beast.

Fans of the original Infamous will feel right at home, as the main control system is identical to the first and the majority of HUD displays are similar if not the same as before, in fact the game makes you feel like you never stopped playing between it and the first. Cole has the usual over the shoulder camera angle while shooting and 3rd person perspective while climbing on buildings and jumping across rooftops.

Blast Shards are back and like before collecting them will make Cole more powerful and allow you to take more hits. Side missions also return however unlike the first game the side missions feel a lot more useful and not completing them will make your life just that little bit harder. And of course the karma system returns, allowing you to be evil or good which unlocks different paths for you to take, different powers and different allies and enemies. If you truly want to experience everything this game has to offer you will need to play it at least twice.

However as solid as the first game was, there was always room for improvement and thankfully Sucker Punch has delivered, the graphics have had a nice little touch up  and all though they were good in the first, the developers seem to have made New Marais even more lovable and vibrant than Empire City. The streets bustle with life and the population reacts to the choices you make. The City is a wash with multi races and different styles of suburbs. Ranging from the vibrant down-town with shops, clubs, landmarks to the more poverty stricken, flooded areas and the industrial harbour and train docks. New Marais is seriously a sight to behold and is certainly up there as one of the most memorable gaming settings to date.

Sucker Punch have also added new features such as muggings to stop, bombs to de-arm and civilians to save in order to boost your good karma. On the other hand there is protesters to silence, police to kill and stealing blast shards of people to boost your evil karma. There is certainly more to see and do in Infamous 2 than there ever was in Infamous.

Sucker Punch have also upgraded the cutscenes with motion capture which allows for a more cinematic experience, and the cartoon style  cutsceens have been retained although only for the biggest parts in the game.

Cole has also been given a new melee weapon and the melee game play is far more useful, smooth, rewarding and all round more fun than the previous game, although I still found myself using Cole’s lightning strikes and other powers more than the melee.

Along with a more smooth and sleek melee, Cole has new ice powers at his disposal, which makes for more fun and unique ways of dealing with his adversaries, combine the two types of powers and you will see some powers that you can only dream of. For example the ice vortex is simply a brilliant way to deal with hundreds of enemies at a time and is a sight to behold. The karma decisions that Cole makes during the game will also affect the different powers he will receive, with more evil fire based attacks at his disposal should he choose the dark side.

These powers can then be used to take down the range in new enemies awaiting Cole and his companions, these range from the typical militia to ice soldiers and rather strange alien like creatures which look like something out of War of The Worlds rather than Infamous, and of course with each enemy comes different ways to take them down.

However the biggest new feature happens to be the games biggest weakness. The new user generated content allows players to create missions and upload them for others to play, much like the level designer in LBP. However its clumsy, annoying to use, complicated and rather limited in choice. Add that to the fact that most missions are boring to play and don’t affect the story in any way. They feel a little tagged on and  rushed which is a shame because the idea has so much potential.

Infamous 2 is a great improvement over the first and is just another brilliant exclusive that Playstation 3 owners have, yes its more of the same, but Sucker Punch have stuck by the if it isn’t broken don’t fix it motto and I am thankful for that. The assets that were a little rusty in the first have been polished up and the game at about 10-12 hours is a decent length. It has a wonderful story and whatever path you choose it will keep you in suspense for the majority of the game. The only feature that I feel lets it down is the user generated content which feels tagged on and unnecessary. Bar that the game is a blast and should be in any Playstation 3 owners collection.

[xrr rating= 9/10 label=”Game Rating:”]