Infamous 1 and 2 Brief Thoughts

Infamous 1:

This was a pretty good game the more you played it but some aspects of the design is rather confusing. It feels like Sucker Punch tried to do the more linear game design of something like the first Sly Cooper game but it applied to an open world sandbox rather than a set of linear challenges like Sly Cooper.

For example you don't get thrusters and electricity line grind until later in the game while fine for a linear game is kind of nuisance in an open world game where traversal is a big aspect of it. It's also strange how other moves like electricity grenade and shockwave don't come later when they are an important part of Cole's weapons and moves. It's like a shooter where you got to unlock all the important weapons later.

The game does get better overall the more of Cole's moves you unlock, so trudge through those early hours and then you will get a pretty good game. Lightning strike is one of the few times where earning the moves by doing the missions feel earned because it's such a powerful late game move.

The story is also pretty good minus the tacked on morality system. Kessler is a pretty good villain and does a good job at challenging Cole, the other villains are good too and the Infamous tie in comic also does a good job at expanding on Kessler. So you like the game, read that comic.

In short, get through those early hours and you are in for a good game.

Infamous 2:

Overall an improvement over the first Infamous in terms of gameplay. You get all your base powers from the start this time. The movement and combat also feel much better in this one. Enemy variety and the numbers on screen is also more grand than in the first game. Traversal is also improved.

It's funny this game might've been one of the first games to introduce me to games where shooting and movement played a big role in the gameplay.