Maybe it was being misreported to stop widespread terror breaking out. I remember there being a report that mentioned the government being investigated over how poorly empire city was handled after being lock-down. That plus the plague spreading southward probably meant a lot of damage control and misinformation was being released to the public.
You can clearly see that the govt was taking serious steps to stop the Beast at certain parts.
As for Nix and Kuo
She had a blast core, which is why Cole fell in with her, plus I imagine he wanted to keep an eye on any other conduits in town. Maybe Kuo could be violent and such with her powers, but when it comes to being restrained and controlled she isn't quite there?
pyromaniac221this just might bean interestin YTRegistered Userregular
edited June 2011
Oh right, I forgot about the
blast core part. Although I suspect that if he really wanted to make sure she didn't go completely off the deep end and start trashing random people, he wouldn't have enabled her by joining in on her whole burn-down-this-militia-rally-while-there-are-civilians-around plan.
pyromaniac221 on
psn tooaware, friend code SW-4760-0062-3248 it me
0
CarbonFireSee youin the countryRegistered Userregular
edited June 2011
The Nix part of the story is very poorly executed. Her motivations are all over the place, and especially during the ending where
She does a total 180° because her "babies" died. Even Kuos motivations at the end are more believable than Nix's.
The problem of course is that everything about the story and the characters are there to serve the gameplay. So character arcs can only stray so far from their necessary roles, and decisions have to remain nebulous and inconsequential WRT the story until the very end. I'd say Sucker Punch didn't do the worst job in the world walking that tightrope, but masterful storytelling it is not.
Then again, the final gameplay sequence of the Evil ending is pretty heart-wrenching.
Which speaks volumes about how much better they did with Zeke this time around.
The Nix part of the story is very poorly executed. Her motivations are all over the place, and especially during the ending where
She does a total 180° because her "babies" died. Even Kuos motivations at the end are more believable than Nix's.
Having only played through the good ending. I don't see Nix as being anything more than someone who tries to protect her own interests, which means she instinctively is against anything that's a threat to her. Taking the swamp beast under her wing is pretty dispicable, but she never condones the monsters creation, more she provides a home for them. It's a more humane option than to just irradicate them outright, which is the only other option.
So to me it doesn't seem to out of character when she sides against the beast, even though at first it might seem like it's over a minor reason.
No, it doesn't as far as I remember. I remember a lot of complaints when it came out where people did the whole first island, quit, then went back to a fresh game with no saves.
It will save things like shards collected if you are running on a save game IIRC, but not actual progress.
Damn. Ah well, won't be able to play this for two or three months anyway, so no biggie.
Also, what's up with the news reports? I mean, days go by as the Beast heads down south, but for some reason no one in the country has any idea what it is. I mean, he's a giant burning man. It's not like people wouldn't see him from far off and be all "Oh shit that's not a hurricane or a natural disaster. Maybe I should tell someone."
e: I guess it's mostly the execution of the story that bothers me. I mean, the game just randomly introduces the swamp monsters and no one questions what they are or where they come from. It's just like "oh hey here's this new enemy, that's okay I guess." And Nix shows up and you're all "hell yeah I'll run around zapping mans with you even though I'm on a strict deadline."
Also when
Kuo gets her powers and lacks even the most rudimentary control over them, then you're just like "PRACTICE" and all of a sudden she can just walk into a bunch of angry men with guns and freeze them all to death and she can teleport all over the place with incredible accuracy and how do ice powers even translate to teleportation and why couldn't that have been one of the powers she gave me argggh
Anyway, just got the
ice jump thing, and combined with the improved static thrusters, I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to Infamous 1. So much fun.
It was never really spelled out in the first game, but the news reports there were just dripping in government control and supression. The same thing is totally happening here too. Of course they know it's a giant burning man, they're just going to lie through their teeth and say everything is A-OK.
Once you realize that, the news reports make much more sense, and seem a lot more sinister.
The Wolfman on
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
Also, what's up with the news reports? I mean, days go by as the Beast heads down south, but for some reason no one in the country has any idea what it is. I mean, he's a giant burning man. It's not like people wouldn't see him from far off and be all "Oh shit that's not a hurricane or a natural disaster. Maybe I should tell someone."
e: I guess it's mostly the execution of the story that bothers me. I mean, the game just randomly introduces the swamp monsters and no one questions what they are or where they come from. It's just like "oh hey here's this new enemy, that's okay I guess." And Nix shows up and you're all "hell yeah I'll run around zapping mans with you even though I'm on a strict deadline."
Also when
Kuo gets her powers and lacks even the most rudimentary control over them, then you're just like "PRACTICE" and all of a sudden she can just walk into a bunch of angry men with guns and freeze them all to death and she can teleport all over the place with incredible accuracy and how do ice powers even translate to teleportation and why couldn't that have been one of the powers she gave me argggh
Anyway, just got the
ice jump thing, and combined with the improved static thrusters, I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to Infamous 1. So much fun.
It was never really spelled out in the first game, but the news reports there were just dripping in government control and supression. The same thing is totally happening here too. Of course they know it's a giant burning man, they're just going to lie through their teeth and say everything is A-OK.
Once you realize that, the news reports make much more sense, and seem a lot more sinister.
Yeah I guess I can see that. I think I didn't realize that in the first place because I would expect government-controlled news sources to go on and on about how much the government is doing to help the situation, but they talked more about how everything is going to shit and people are starving and protesting and the president is being impeached and people hate him for not doing anything.
They even mentioned it was alive when it changed course at fFlorida.
pyromaniac221 on
psn tooaware, friend code SW-4760-0062-3248 it me
0
-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
edited June 2011
Specifically naming Florida really threw me. With the first game taking place in Empire City and the new city being called New Marais but clearly intended to be New Orleans, hearing the name of a real city in there just didn't sound right.
Specifically naming Florida really threw me. With the first game taking place in Empire City and the new city being called New Marais but clearly intended to be New Orleans, hearing the name of a real city in there just didn't sound right.
Not to mention the big world map on the pause screen makes it look like New Marais is inland, yet on the game map it's a series of islands.
Gaming-Freak on
XBL: GamingFreak5514
PSN: GamingFreak1234
0
pyromaniac221this just might bean interestin YTRegistered Userregular
edited June 2011
On reflection, I think my favorite change to this series aside from the superjump and the improved thrusters would be the fact that the enemies are no longer omniscient crack snipers. It was stunning to me at first, because there were bullets coming at me that weren't hitting me no matter what. Really disorienting.
On reflection, I think my favorite change to this series aside from the superjump and the improved thrusters would be the fact that the enemies are no longer omniscient crack snipers. It was stunning to me at first, because there were bullets coming at me that weren't hitting me no matter what. Really disorienting.
Well, snipers still exist, they just have laser sighting now, so you can see them aiming at you and dodge easier.
Gaming-Freak on
XBL: GamingFreak5514
PSN: GamingFreak1234
0
pyromaniac221this just might bean interestin YTRegistered Userregular
edited June 2011
That's true, but I'm just glad that some random mook with a pistol isn't plugging me consistently in the face from the roof of some building a hundred yards away.
-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
edited June 2011
When I got the improved static thrusters, I spent a few hours just zipping off power lines and gliding two blocks, landing on another power line, gliding... Made movement so much more enjoyable.
I just had lightning strike my brain about where they could go for inFamous 3. It's so frickin' obvious I don't understand why I never thought of it before - make it a prequel!
inFamous: Kessler
They could make Trish be not-a-bitch this time!
Chance on
'Chance, you are the best kind of whore.' -Henroid
I just had lightning strike my brain about where they could go for inFamous 3. It's so frickin' obvious I don't understand why I never thought of it before - make it a prequel!
inFamous: Kessler
They could make Trish be not-a-bitch this time!
Son of a bitch I even THOUGHT OF and passed over a prequel!
Well. after a long weekend I've finished with InFamous 2, adding it's Platinum trophy to my collection.
First things first, I had great fun with it. I certainly wouldn't have played it enough to get the Platinum trophy otherwise. That said, there were some things that I didn't like.
First and foremost was the games tendency to lob a metric ton of enemies at you at every opportunity. Add in the fact that most of them could take a ridiculous amount of damage before dying and were able to pinpoint your position if you stuck so much as a fingernail out of cover, and it quickly got annoying. It also didn't help that the rocket launcher enemies in particular had an nasty tendency to be virtually precognitive as to where you'd appear and were you were going.
Sticking to the topic of enemies, I also really didn't like the mini-bosses like the Ravagers and the Crushers. Crushers in particular never seemed inclined to give me a moment to actually target them. I was always too busy dodging their attacks.
I was also irritated that the fire powers didn't offer a decent movement skill like the ice powers did. It meant I had to wait until the lightning tether power to get really speedy travel up and running. In fact, I'd have liked the lightning tether ability made available much earlier in the game for both the good and evil runs, although I can see why it wasn't.
Other than that, everything was great and a real upgrade from the first game. Most surprisingly, I found that I actually liked Zeke in this game, In the first game I hated him with a passion. He was a prick of the highest order and I wondered why Cole would willingly hang around with the guy. Hell, it actually lowered my opinion of Cole. In Infamous 2, I could see why they were friends. There was a camaraderie between them.
I really enjoyed the story as well. It was kind of predictable on both sides, but it was well told with characters who I didn't find annoying.
All in all, InFamous 2 was well worth waiting for. It probably won't be my GOTY - I have high expectations of Batman: AC - but it'll certainly be on the short-list at the end of the year.
Woot! I got all the blast shards in Infamous 1! I got to the end (I thought) after meticulously checking off locations on a map, and was still missing two. After a bit of sleuthing, I found them! What a day!
Now I just have to do the missions and stunts and I'll have I1 platinum'd.
Just finished my evil playthrough, disappointed by the end.
Whereas you got slightly more powerful as well as black and red lightening for the final evil choice in InFamous 1, in the sequel you get nothing. The game even teases you by telling you that you get the beasts/Johns power, then the message pops up "We've reset the clock to just before the final mission". Well, other then that the game's better then the original in every way.
I kinda wished they had put in a Live Free or Die Hard trophy for taking out a chopper with a car. I did that last night and just giggled like a school girl.
Also, I played a few of the UGC missions the other day and some of them are cool while others are just "Let's spawn 1000 enemies and see you kill them all". I found one that was just an alley with about 100 NPCs for the player to spam Bad Karma from.
And I would certainly agree that the mission creator could use a little tutorial on some of the specifics to help.
Completely new to the series. Playing inFamous as part of the psn welcome back.
Have the graphics been improved in inFamous 2? Cause whilst Im loving the game so far it really does seem a bit lacking in the visual dept.
The worst UGC offense is telling me to go do something but not indicate where at all that may be.
There is kind of tutorials. If you edit a map from the templates they have included it has a little blurb of things you can try to tweak the map ( changing enemy weapons in a combat mission to increase difficulty for example ). It does not come close to a proper tutorial but loading up one with a map marked objective allowed me to reverse engineer what I needed to put in to avoid the above situation.
I played the first game for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed the gameplay, I loved the ending, and I thought the traversal was OK.
BUT.
(infamous 1 spoilers)
I hated the enemies stupidly good accuracy which didn't deteriorate over distance at all, I hated the sheer implausibility of their numbers, I hated Zeke I hated Cole's voice, I hated his ugly character design especially when he goes down the infamous route and essentially turns black and white, speaking of black and white the evil moral choices were laughable and the fact that good cole even considers them as an option lead me to question his sanity
*gasp*
I hated the terrible voice-acted and poorly lip-synced people that populated the city, I hated almost all of the characters but mostly Zeke, I hate hate hated Zeke, I hated that they not only didn't give Zeke a single redeeming moment or justification for his existence, they gave him two moments where he made completely idiotic and selfish decisions that lead to the deaths of people ten times more deserving of oxygen than he. Heck, he would have purposefully committed genocide if the ray sphere had worked properly.
Were I to review the first game, it would get 5/10.
Having said all that, I like Infamous 2 so much more. MAybe it's just because I played the two in quick succesion, but it blows my mind when I read people's comments on how it's hardly improved at all, And that it's basically the same. I also strongly disagree with anyone who opposes the change in design/voice actor. Change can be good. This guy is so much more likeable and he actually can do "funny". Whenever the previous guy attempted humour it fell completely flat, at least for me. And wow, I don't know how they did it but I actually liked Zeke by the end of this game.
I'd give it 9/10, the voice acting on Nix could be better and they really could have assigned lightning tether to a separate slot, I mean come on. Also a few glitches, although not nearly at many as the first. Man, when you fall through the floor and die three times in a playthrough, there's a problem.
Ok so here's a slew of semi-unrelated thoughts/impressions after beating the game on good:
Did anyone else find those ice fuckers that slide at you and unload a shotgun shell into you from 5 feet to be the most dangerous enemies in the game? God help you if one sneaks around and comes up behind you in a fight.
Had the most hilarious bug happen when standing right by the Ice guys who build the tower underneath them, was a little too close and got launched like 800 feet into the air as the tower was built. It insta-killed me. I also Kinetic Pulsed a box of medical supplies off the water tower in flood town and had it bounce all the way into the Gasworks without it giving me a mission fail. I tracked it down but as soon as I started maneuvering it, I got the fail. This game has the kind of bugs that I'm more than willing to put up with for their shear insanity.
The ice shield is useless, right?
The sniper ability is horribly balanced. It should not drain your power when it's time dialating, that or it should take out any non boss in one hit with a headshot, because as it stands now it's almost completely useless against the enemies you're facing by the time you get it. The targeting in this game with the regular bolts is so forgiving, and so much cheaper energy wise there's almost no reason to use the snipe. Maybe it comes in handy on the chase missions on hard, but with it's relative lack of damage I just don't see it being useful, especially compared to the bolt machine gun.
I HATE video games that don't let your ultra ability damage bosses. Seriously awful design decision and developers have been doing it for 30 years. Knock it off.
The mini missions (bomb defusing, stopping muggings, etc) are brilliant. You never feel like you've got far to go to do something. If there's an infamous 3 I hope they're even more diverse.
This part probably doesn't need to be spoiler tagged, but just in case...
Empire City was a much better local, if for the increased verticality if nothing else, but it also felt like it had more personality on the whole. I wish I could go back and play Infamous 1 with the improved mobility that 2 offers. The entire second island felt really desolate, the empire city docks were better too, though the gasworks is the best designed factory district in the entirety of the Infamous/Crackdown games (I've played all 4 of these, and the maps are starting to blend together.)
I was a bit disappointed to see the sewer levels get replaced with the Tesla missile missions. I really would have loved to see what some platforming-focused mini levels would have looked like with the new powers.
From a platforming perspective, there was nothing even close to as fun as that HUGE garbage tower you had to climb in the first game. I'd give anything to have something like that to traverse with a huge boss fight at the top with improved thrusters and the teather
The
Jarring change of personality at the end kinda sucked. I didn't want to fight Kuo at all, even though it all works out in the end. Having John be The Beast was awesome, and I didn't see it coming.
I hope the "cage" that Bertrand traps you in was a nod to just how ridiculous the "fences make enemies invincible" idea is, cause otherwise it's incredibly frustrating
Overall, I like this game slightly less than Infamous 1, but Infamous 1 was my GOTY in 2009. This will not be my GOTY, but it will be top 10 for sure.
I can see why many people prefer the ice jump over the firebird strike, but they don't take into consideration that the latter actually lets you fly! If used in rapid succession you will lose no to minimal height and the length is enough to go bridge the distance between islands! Makes for wonderful shortcuts, something the ice launch cant give you.
When Zeke and Cole are just chilling on the couch, watching a western.
Seconded. Especially the second half of that scene. Framed so well.
@Stonecutter: The ice shield isn't useless, though having SO MANY abilities tied to R2 becomes a little unwieldy, even with the hot switching. I found it most useful when you're dealing with the ice beam from those ice tower guys.
@Blackbird SR-71C: Ice Jump costs less than Firebird Strike, so it can be used more frequently. Firebird strike is also useful, especially in the last island where the vertical launch rails are plentiful. However in most of the rest of the game, the quick verticality that Ice Jump provides is just a superior mechanic during combat (IMO). I never found the explosive ending to Firebird strike to be all that useful either, and certainly not worth the added energy cost.
As to which is better getting from point A to point B? Firebird is certainly faster, but Ice Jump still feels like a more fun and engaging way to traverse the environment.
When Zeke and Cole are just chilling on the couch, watching a western.
Seconded. Especially the second half of that scene. Framed so well.
@Stonecutter: The ice shield isn't useless, though having SO MANY abilities tied to R2 becomes a little unwieldy, even with the hot switching. I found it most useful when you're dealing with the ice beam from those ice tower guys.
@Blackbird SR-71C: Ice Jump costs less than Firebird Strike, so it can be used more frequently. Firebird strike is also useful, especially in the last island where the vertical launch rails are plentiful. However in most of the rest of the game, the quick verticality that Ice Jump provides is just a superior mechanic during combat (IMO). I never found the explosive ending to Firebird strike to be all that useful either, and certainly not worth the added energy cost.
As to which is better getting from point A to point B? Firebird is certainly faster, but Ice Jump still feels like a more fun and engaging way to traverse the environment.
I agree that firebird strike isnt all that useful offensively. However, if you use the nightmare blast (stuns enemies) often then you'd better use FBS to throw them off buildings since the former doesn't knock back. Though I can certainly see why you'd see ice launch very useful in combat as well, but that only goes if you're playing more agily/defensively which good powers supplement very well. Out of combat I still think FBS wins due to being fast and allowing greater shortcuts.
Unrelated, Spikers are not that useful. The best they do is distract enemies, and they aren't reliable. If it's a purchasable power (can't remember) I'd avoid buying it since you need all the XP you get. Played through the game with bonuses (1000 XP) and I'm still about 10,000 XP short of getting every power. UCG missions give me about 100 XP, but that takes way too long so I think I'm just not gonna bother maxing everything.
Edit: If you're looking for the best scene in the game the last part of the evil final mission with Zeke is also a very good candidate imo.
I don't know how people are ending the game without all the powers maxed. I bought everything without going out of my way to kill extra enemies and I only did one UGC. Maybe I managed to get a buttload more stunts or something?
I don't know how people are ending the game without all the powers maxed. I bought everything without going out of my way to kill extra enemies and I only did one UGC. Maybe I managed to get a buttload more stunts or something?
Strange, I did all the side quests (only 4 random ones left), did about 4 UCGs and got tons of extra civilan XP points (once over 500 on one mission), yet I'm short despite all of that and the extra 1000 XP. Are you playing on hard? Because I am and I think that influences how much XP you get per action and mission.
To max out all the powers in the first game I had to grind in a side mission. Dying doesn't lose you any xp, so I had to fight a bunch of dudes and then let them kill me, rinse and repeat, for like a half an hour. And that's after I put it on easy to get more xp.
I don't know how people are ending the game without all the powers maxed. I bought everything without going out of my way to kill extra enemies and I only did one UGC. Maybe I managed to get a buttload more stunts or something?
I came up just short of maxing everything on my evil playthrough, but I skipped about 8-10 side missions at that point to get to the end. On my good playthrough, I maxed out everything with XP to spare (all areas controlled and all shards found). It's nice at least that they give you enough XP to unlock everything after your second playthrough. Ice Jump + Firebird strike? Sure, why not
Edit: Ah, so hard gives less XP, that explains a bit of it.
I really wish this game had a detailed statistics breakdown of all the stunts that you've completed during the game. Would be interesting to compare with others to get a sense of everyone's playstyle. Oh well, there's always Infamous 3! [tiny]pretty please Sucker Punch![/tiny]
Posts
You can clearly see that the govt was taking serious steps to stop the Beast at certain parts.
As for Nix and Kuo
FF14: ARR
The problem of course is that everything about the story and the characters are there to serve the gameplay. So character arcs can only stray so far from their necessary roles, and decisions have to remain nebulous and inconsequential WRT the story until the very end. I'd say Sucker Punch didn't do the worst job in the world walking that tightrope, but masterful storytelling it is not.
Then again, the final gameplay sequence of the Evil ending is pretty heart-wrenching.
So to me it doesn't seem to out of character when she sides against the beast, even though at first it might seem like it's over a minor reason.
FF14: ARR
Damn. Ah well, won't be able to play this for two or three months anyway, so no biggie.
It was never really spelled out in the first game, but the news reports there were just dripping in government control and supression. The same thing is totally happening here too. Of course they know it's a giant burning man, they're just going to lie through their teeth and say everything is A-OK.
Once you realize that, the news reports make much more sense, and seem a lot more sinister.
There's a trophy specifically to guide you there
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Yeah I guess I can see that. I think I didn't realize that in the first place because I would expect government-controlled news sources to go on and on about how much the government is doing to help the situation, but they talked more about how everything is going to shit and people are starving and protesting and the president is being impeached and people hate him for not doing anything.
They even mentioned it was alive when it changed course at fFlorida.
Not to mention the big world map on the pause screen makes it look like New Marais is inland, yet on the game map it's a series of islands.
XBL: GamingFreak5514
PSN: GamingFreak1234
Well, snipers still exist, they just have laser sighting now, so you can see them aiming at you and dodge easier.
XBL: GamingFreak5514
PSN: GamingFreak1234
Hey, I have a blog! (Actually being updated again!)
3DS: 0860-3240-2604
They could make Trish be not-a-bitch this time!
Son of a bitch I even THOUGHT OF and passed over a prequel!
They could, but tbh I always figured electrical powers was a frickin' inspired choice for an urban superhero.
First things first, I had great fun with it. I certainly wouldn't have played it enough to get the Platinum trophy otherwise. That said, there were some things that I didn't like.
First and foremost was the games tendency to lob a metric ton of enemies at you at every opportunity. Add in the fact that most of them could take a ridiculous amount of damage before dying and were able to pinpoint your position if you stuck so much as a fingernail out of cover, and it quickly got annoying. It also didn't help that the rocket launcher enemies in particular had an nasty tendency to be virtually precognitive as to where you'd appear and were you were going.
Sticking to the topic of enemies, I also really didn't like the mini-bosses like the Ravagers and the Crushers. Crushers in particular never seemed inclined to give me a moment to actually target them. I was always too busy dodging their attacks.
I was also irritated that the fire powers didn't offer a decent movement skill like the ice powers did. It meant I had to wait until the lightning tether power to get really speedy travel up and running. In fact, I'd have liked the lightning tether ability made available much earlier in the game for both the good and evil runs, although I can see why it wasn't.
Other than that, everything was great and a real upgrade from the first game. Most surprisingly, I found that I actually liked Zeke in this game, In the first game I hated him with a passion. He was a prick of the highest order and I wondered why Cole would willingly hang around with the guy. Hell, it actually lowered my opinion of Cole. In Infamous 2, I could see why they were friends. There was a camaraderie between them.
I really enjoyed the story as well. It was kind of predictable on both sides, but it was well told with characters who I didn't find annoying.
All in all, InFamous 2 was well worth waiting for. It probably won't be my GOTY - I have high expectations of Batman: AC - but it'll certainly be on the short-list at the end of the year.
Now I just have to do the missions and stunts and I'll have I1 platinum'd.
Steam ID: 76561198021298113
Origin ID: SR71C_Blackbird
Also, I played a few of the UGC missions the other day and some of them are cool while others are just "Let's spawn 1000 enemies and see you kill them all". I found one that was just an alley with about 100 NPCs for the player to spam Bad Karma from.
And I would certainly agree that the mission creator could use a little tutorial on some of the specifics to help.
Have the graphics been improved in inFamous 2? Cause whilst Im loving the game so far it really does seem a bit lacking in the visual dept.
There is kind of tutorials. If you edit a map from the templates they have included it has a little blurb of things you can try to tweak the map ( changing enemy weapons in a combat mission to increase difficulty for example ). It does not come close to a proper tutorial but loading up one with a map marked objective allowed me to reverse engineer what I needed to put in to avoid the above situation.
" kill all dudes "... WHERE????
BUT.
(infamous 1 spoilers)
*gasp*
I hated the terrible voice-acted and poorly lip-synced people that populated the city, I hated almost all of the characters but mostly Zeke, I hate hate hated Zeke, I hated that they not only didn't give Zeke a single redeeming moment or justification for his existence, they gave him two moments where he made completely idiotic and selfish decisions that lead to the deaths of people ten times more deserving of oxygen than he. Heck, he would have purposefully committed genocide if the ray sphere had worked properly.
Were I to review the first game, it would get 5/10.
Having said all that, I like Infamous 2 so much more. MAybe it's just because I played the two in quick succesion, but it blows my mind when I read people's comments on how it's hardly improved at all, And that it's basically the same. I also strongly disagree with anyone who opposes the change in design/voice actor. Change can be good. This guy is so much more likeable and he actually can do "funny". Whenever the previous guy attempted humour it fell completely flat, at least for me. And wow, I don't know how they did it but I actually liked Zeke by the end of this game.
I'd give it 9/10, the voice acting on Nix could be better and they really could have assigned lightning tether to a separate slot, I mean come on. Also a few glitches, although not nearly at many as the first. Man, when you fall through the floor and die three times in a playthrough, there's a problem.
Did anyone else find those ice fuckers that slide at you and unload a shotgun shell into you from 5 feet to be the most dangerous enemies in the game? God help you if one sneaks around and comes up behind you in a fight.
Had the most hilarious bug happen when standing right by the Ice guys who build the tower underneath them, was a little too close and got launched like 800 feet into the air as the tower was built. It insta-killed me. I also Kinetic Pulsed a box of medical supplies off the water tower in flood town and had it bounce all the way into the Gasworks without it giving me a mission fail. I tracked it down but as soon as I started maneuvering it, I got the fail. This game has the kind of bugs that I'm more than willing to put up with for their shear insanity.
The ice shield is useless, right?
The sniper ability is horribly balanced. It should not drain your power when it's time dialating, that or it should take out any non boss in one hit with a headshot, because as it stands now it's almost completely useless against the enemies you're facing by the time you get it. The targeting in this game with the regular bolts is so forgiving, and so much cheaper energy wise there's almost no reason to use the snipe. Maybe it comes in handy on the chase missions on hard, but with it's relative lack of damage I just don't see it being useful, especially compared to the bolt machine gun.
I HATE video games that don't let your ultra ability damage bosses. Seriously awful design decision and developers have been doing it for 30 years. Knock it off.
The mini missions (bomb defusing, stopping muggings, etc) are brilliant. You never feel like you've got far to go to do something. If there's an infamous 3 I hope they're even more diverse.
This part probably doesn't need to be spoiler tagged, but just in case...
I was a bit disappointed to see the sewer levels get replaced with the Tesla missile missions. I really would have loved to see what some platforming-focused mini levels would have looked like with the new powers.
From a platforming perspective, there was nothing even close to as fun as that HUGE garbage tower you had to climb in the first game. I'd give anything to have something like that to traverse with a huge boss fight at the top with improved thrusters and the teather
The
Overall, I like this game slightly less than Infamous 1, but Infamous 1 was my GOTY in 2009. This will not be my GOTY, but it will be top 10 for sure.
One of the blurbs they use during the ad to entice you to buy the game is:
I want this game-IGN
Well that sounds a lot better than
"The first one was better in every way" - Gamespot.
Steam ID: 76561198021298113
Origin ID: SR71C_Blackbird
Seconded. Especially the second half of that scene. Framed so well.
@Stonecutter: The ice shield isn't useless, though having SO MANY abilities tied to R2 becomes a little unwieldy, even with the hot switching. I found it most useful when you're dealing with the ice beam from those ice tower guys.
@Blackbird SR-71C: Ice Jump costs less than Firebird Strike, so it can be used more frequently. Firebird strike is also useful, especially in the last island where the vertical launch rails are plentiful. However in most of the rest of the game, the quick verticality that Ice Jump provides is just a superior mechanic during combat (IMO). I never found the explosive ending to Firebird strike to be all that useful either, and certainly not worth the added energy cost.
As to which is better getting from point A to point B? Firebird is certainly faster, but Ice Jump still feels like a more fun and engaging way to traverse the environment.
I agree that firebird strike isnt all that useful offensively. However, if you use the nightmare blast (stuns enemies) often then you'd better use FBS to throw them off buildings since the former doesn't knock back. Though I can certainly see why you'd see ice launch very useful in combat as well, but that only goes if you're playing more agily/defensively which good powers supplement very well. Out of combat I still think FBS wins due to being fast and allowing greater shortcuts.
Unrelated, Spikers are not that useful. The best they do is distract enemies, and they aren't reliable. If it's a purchasable power (can't remember) I'd avoid buying it since you need all the XP you get. Played through the game with bonuses (1000 XP) and I'm still about 10,000 XP short of getting every power. UCG missions give me about 100 XP, but that takes way too long so I think I'm just not gonna bother maxing everything.
Edit: If you're looking for the best scene in the game the last part of the evil final mission with Zeke is also a very good candidate imo.
Steam ID: 76561198021298113
Origin ID: SR71C_Blackbird
Steam: MightyPotatoKing
Strange, I did all the side quests (only 4 random ones left), did about 4 UCGs and got tons of extra civilan XP points (once over 500 on one mission), yet I'm short despite all of that and the extra 1000 XP. Are you playing on hard? Because I am and I think that influences how much XP you get per action and mission.
Steam ID: 76561198021298113
Origin ID: SR71C_Blackbird
To max out all the powers in the first game I had to grind in a side mission. Dying doesn't lose you any xp, so I had to fight a bunch of dudes and then let them kill me, rinse and repeat, for like a half an hour. And that's after I put it on easy to get more xp.
I came up just short of maxing everything on my evil playthrough, but I skipped about 8-10 side missions at that point to get to the end. On my good playthrough, I maxed out everything with XP to spare (all areas controlled and all shards found). It's nice at least that they give you enough XP to unlock everything after your second playthrough. Ice Jump + Firebird strike? Sure, why not
Edit: Ah, so hard gives less XP, that explains a bit of it.
I really wish this game had a detailed statistics breakdown of all the stunts that you've completed during the game. Would be interesting to compare with others to get a sense of everyone's playstyle. Oh well, there's always Infamous 3! [tiny]pretty please Sucker Punch![/tiny]