Eurogamer Expo 2010: inFamous 2 Hands-On Impressions

inFamous was a title for PS3 that many people felt was a brilliant game. It was released at the same time as Prototype and many people found inFamous to be the better title.  With its awesome super powers, gripping storyline and great soundtrack (I ended up buying the song from the ending credits), I was looking forward to getting my first hands on with the sequel at Eurogamer Expo 2010 before its release next year.

After searching high and low, I found it right in the corner of the show floor (seriously!), with only two stations dedicated to it. This struck me as odd as the first game was very popular and many people were excited to see and experience Cole’s next adventure. Despite simply being the same section shown in previous videos (E3, for example)  it was nice to finally get hands-on with the game myself.

The demo starts off with Cole (in need of a good dinner inside him!) laying the smackdown on some enemies that looked suspiciously like they had been ripped out of Dead Space, but using some serious new hardware in the form of an electric cattle-prod to bang them out of the park.  After dealing with these enemies, you see a weird old guy jumping into a limo and driving off.  As you chase after him, dealing with numerous enemies along the way, you are instructed to start using the wires to catch him, which (just like the first game) is a joy do.  This time though, when you come across a building (as you may have seen in previous videos) you can ride the pipes on the side of it, making the chases a whole lot faster and more enjoyable. Once you catch up with the limo, and after a little chatting, you end up being attacked by a helicopter.

At first you have to run away from a hail of gunfire and rockets, but then you bust out an awesome new power called the “Ionic Vortex”. This creates a massive electromagnetic tornado which wipes out the chopper and damn near the entire street. After taking that pesky chopper out you are then told to wreck the street some more and this is where the demo ends.

I was very impressed with the graphics and frame rate of the game, especially in the chase scene and during the Ionic Vortex deployment; the game ran extremely smoothy. The fighting system has also been improved, it feels a lot smoother and fluid compared to the original game.

However, as nice as everything looked, the games hero/villan still didn’t look right to my eyes and, for some reason, Cole seemed to be very aggressive towards civilians in this particular scene. However, this could have just been the setup for the demo and it may not actually reflect the final game.

The demo genuinely impressed me, making me ache for the game to be released, but all anyone seems to know is that it is due to come out some next year. I really do hope that the “TBA 2011” becomes “ASAP” as I can’t wait to get my hands on it!