| Originally Posted by Scott Sharkey Infamous 2's presentation starts, oddly enough, with the game's director, Nate Fox, practically apologizing for its protagonist's new look, which hasn't been particularly well received by fans. "We read the blogs," he says, before reminding us that the game is, "at the midpoint on a two year journey." It's a statement that doesn't actually commit to anything, but we can infer from it that there's a good chance Cole will be getting his appearance retweaked a bit before the game hits.
Moving on, we got a summary of what happens in the sequel's opening moments. At the end of the original Infamous, Cole is ready to confront "The Beast." That showdown doesn't work out so well; he gets his ass handed to him. The setting now moves from Empire City to New Marais, a creepy, crumbling Louisiana town pretty clearly inspired by New Orleans, and where, "there's a surprise around every corner, most of which will try to kill you." One of those surprises is the New Militia, an angry, human purity obsessed mob, who are, "kind of like the KKK meets Batman." Cole is about as far from human as it gets, so he's none too popular with those guys.
The leader of this rabble is Bertrand, an old Southern type who wears a Confederate-inspired outfit, complete with cavalry saber and cravat; says Fox of the character, "He speaks with an accent, so that's sinister. For Americans." In the scene I see, he's busy riling them up about Cole, waving his sword in the air as he gives a, "The devil walks among us!" speech. Of course, Cole is walking among them, and nobody seems to notice the double pronged electric club now strapped to his back. Before long the rally is attacked by grotesque metahumans with scythe arms and mawman-like vertical mouths, and a fight ensues. The tesla prong Cole's carrying is unexpected, but adds definite oomph to his melee attacks. He goes to work on the mutants before chasing down Bertrand who flees the scene in a limo. Cole still has the ability to grind on electrical cables, so it doesn't take long to catch up. A lot of mayhem happens on the way, however, which showcases the game's extensively destructible environments. This isn't just a case of the occasional wall breaking along pre-cut lines, or maybe applying a damage decal. Much of the city looks like it can be completely pounded, cut, and blasted apart.
After catching up to the bad guy, Cole briefly flees from a rocket launching helicopter, which he dispatches with his new ability to hurl an enormous lightning tornado (which incidentally picked up a lot of debris and a pedestrian or two on the way.) The bad guy walks away into the shadows in that usual "you're beneath my notice" bad guy way, before a mysterious, building-sized monstrosity hidden in blackness emerges to confront the protagonist. Smash cut to title.
Actually, that last thing is the only part that doesn't impress me about the demo. Can we please stop doing the "building sized stomping monster followed by a smash cut to title" thing so often? Rage and a couple other games did that exact same thing this year, and it's getting to the point where I can look at my watch and anticipate almost to the second when I'll start hearing the BOOM BOOM of a cliché coming around the corner to tell us what the game is called.
Otherwise, yeah, Infamous 2 looks beyond fantastic.
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02-10-2011, 10:02 AM 
