Game Preview: inFamous 2

By EVAN SHAMOON - Stars and Stripes

"My favorite way to talk about New Marais is [as] a jungle gym," says Joe Ishikura, game designer of the upcoming "inFamous 2."



The sequel picks up where the original left off, following hero Cole MacGrath's defeat at the hands of The Beast. When we join him, Cole is attempting to track down said Beast, which is rampaging its way down the East Coast.



"[Cole] has a huge arsenal of super powered parkour abilities, and it was really important to make sure that our brand new city was a ton of fun to just run around in," says Ishikura. Indeed, New Marais—the game’s remixed and remastered version of New Orleans—presents a rather different feel than the towering metropolis that was the original game’s Empire City. New Marais is peppered with elements of the original "inFamous"—grind wires, power lines the player can skate along and launch from—but plenty of new elements as well, like vertical electrical poles that rocket him up the sides of buildings at incredible speeds.



Getting around a city without public transportation has never been so easy.



In order to elevate the experience, the team mixed the game play up by including more dynamic areas where Cole can use his various super powers.



"Lots of things have changed, but one of the things that you’ll probably notice really early in the game is how destructible the environments are compared to Empire City," says Ishikura. With just a few grenades, players can take down entire verandas from right under an enemy’s feet, blow up gas tanks the size of water towers, or collapse an entire warehouse on top of an unsuspecting foe.



"The city’s just filled with opportunities for creative players."



Dynamic, varied game play is at the heart of "inFamous 2." The open-world sandbox has been extended and brought to life in ways the team was never able to achieve with the original. Cole’s abilities have been extended far beyond the original, and are sure to impress even the most jaded player. Ishikura points to the Kinetic Pulse, one of the first powers the team created for the game, and one of my favorites.



"Picking stuff up and heaving it across the city never gets old," he says. "You can do something as simple as pick up a crate and throw it at an enemy, or you can do trickier things like pick up a truck with a bunch of militia riding in the back and tossing that. Watching enemies tumble out of the flat bed as it arcs through the sky is incredibly satisfying." In order to wreak havoc properly, mastery of the game’s many new attacks becomes essential. The Ionic Vortex has also proved to be a fan favorite: This not-so-miniature electrical tornado swirls its way down city streets, gathering cars, people, and just about anything else in its path, eventually ejecting its contents up into the sky with a spectacular bang.



The emergent game play gets progressively more intense and creative as the player advances.



"One of my favorite moments actually happened when a game journalist stopped by to play the game," recalls Ishikura. The team had thrown him into a mission that required him to escort an ambulance through New Marais, dodging and fighting the militia and swamp monsters along the way.



"Midway through his play through, the Devourer, one of our ‘medium’ sized enemies (at 30 feet tall, it’s still dwarfed by a bunch of our even bigger enemies) stopped him in his tracks. After battling the Devourer for a few minutes, [he] figured it might just be easier to make a run for it." Things looked up, momentarily; the journalist managed to trap the Devourer behind several exploded cars, which gave him an opening through which to make a mad dash back to the ambulance. He leapt onto the top of the roof of the vehicle, and the driver dutifully started pulling away with him safely on board. Almost.



"Boom! The Devourer caught him from behind with its frog-like tongue, pulling him back into the battle," says Ishikura. "It was definitely not scripted, and it was definitely not built into the mission. But it was definitely awesome."



Beyond the mayhem of its combat, the team also made a huge push to fill its city with more citizens than in the original game, each capable of reacting both to the player and the goings-on of New Marais.



"It was important to us to make sure that [the populace] properly acknowledged the amazing things Cole does in the world," says Ishikura. "Because, let’s face it, it’s no fun being a super hero in an empty box!" Giving players their own unique journey through the narrative has become a key objective for the team.



"The ‘inFamous’ series is heavily focused on the choices the player makes, both big and small," says Ishikura. "When you’re a super hero with enough power to either save or destroy the world, everything you do matters."



This is communicated by a revamped Karma system; players will need to take a more active role in doing what they think is right (or wrong), and deciding what kind of super hero (or super villain) they want to be. These decisions often come to pass in Cole’s relationship with Kuo and Nix, two of his new companions, both of whom attempt to use their own super powers to lead Cole along a path of moral order or chaos, respectively. The protagonist himself even evolves differently depending on how he’s used.



"We’re not going to reveal everything yet, but one of the biggest examples is a pivotal decision in the storyline when you end up choosing between getting Kuo’s ice powers or Nix’s fire powers," says Ishikura.



While the original idea behind New Marais came from personal experience (see sidebar), in many ways, the city eventually developed as a result of the designers’ needs.



"It was really a perfect fit for all of the things we wanted to accomplish in the game play," says Ishikura.



"The variety of areas in New Orleans, from the above-ground graveyards to the huge cathedral, was perfect for keeping the city interesting from district to district." The city is built on swamp land ("marais" is French for marsh or swamp), and the result is a city that’s not flat. Streets dip and rise ever-so-gently and then combine with various environmental effects (think: sticky humidity and insects galore), to recreate effectively the atmosphere of the American South. Remaining swamps, cemeteries, and slums butt up against one another, along with a full-fledged red light district and its assorted indulgences.



"Aesthetically, it’s a raunchy, vibrant area filled with a ton of neon and gaudy ostentation," says Ishikura of the strip. "The art team really went all out—I think some of the coolest looking buildings are the ones in the red light district, and [in terms of] game play, it’s got a ton-of-fun back alleys to explore and huge signs to climb and ambush enemies from." He leaves us with this insider tip: "While running around and wreaking havoc, don’t forget to read all of the signs. The art team put some gems in there!"

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