The Sequel That Fixed New Marais but Broke Its Own Morality System

Infamous 2 arrived in 2011, the second game in the Infamous series and the sequel to 2009’s Infamous. Sucker Punch Productions developed it and Sony Computer Entertainment published it for the PlayStation 3. Fifteen years on, it is remembered as a sequel that was generally well received, praised for its city design, traversal and graphics, and criticized for its Karma system and camera.

Trailer, via IGN.

Cole MacGrath and the Beast

Cole MacGrath returns as the protagonist, voiced this time by Eric Ladin. The story opens with him carrying the blame for what happened to Empire City and still troubled by his own past. He heads south to New Marais, a historic city, hoping to find out how far his powers can actually go.

The threat he is preparing for is the Beast. Cole knows about it because his future self, Kessler, told him: a powerful Conduit will rise and destroy the world, and Cole is the only one who can stop it. Conduits are people with superhuman abilities. Cole was the first, and the spread of others like him has left human society uneasy.

Cole travels with his friend Zeke, played by Caleb Moody. The two meet NSA agent Lucy Kuo, voiced by Dawn Olivieri, who brings news about Dr. Sebastian Wolfe. Wolfe created the Ray Sphere, the device that gave Cole his powers, and he has since built a stronger version. That version, Kuo says, would give Cole enough strength to take on the Beast.

The plan falls apart before it starts. The Beast attacks Empire City, and Cole’s best shot at fighting it off does nothing. The group runs as the city is destroyed outright.

Joseph Bertrand III and the Militia

New Marais turns out to be occupied. Energy magnate Joseph Bertrand III, played by Graham McTavish, has taken control of the city and built his politics around opposing Conduits. He knows what Wolfe is working on, so he sends his private army, the Militia, to wreck the doctor’s lab.

Cole gets Wolfe out alive. Wolfe has built the Ray Field Inhibitor, a device that can strip Conduits of their powers. He is killed by the Militia before he can help Cole find the energy cores the RFI needs, and the Militia also take Kuo prisoner.

Roscoe Laroche and Nix

Cole and Zeke set about freeing Kuo, and pick up two allies along the way. Roscoe Laroche is a Vietnam veteran who leads a resistance movement against Bertrand. Nix, voiced by Nika Futterman, is a Conduit who can manipulate and ignite a black, napalm-like substance, and she has been fighting the Militia on her own.

Zeke gathers intelligence that points to a secret lab. Cole and Nix go there and find Kuo, who is revealed to be a Conduit. Bertrand’s people have forced her to transfer her ice-generating powers to an army of human mercenaries he controls. Cole and Nix free her, and in doing so let the mentally unstable mercenaries loose on the city.

The Amp, the Energy Meter, and Karma

Infamous 2 is an action-adventure game set in an open world environment and played from a third-person perspective. Cole’s electricity-based powers serve movement, offense and defense in combat, and they can be used either for better or worse in dealing with the citizens of New Marais. He can climb buildings and other structures, grind along power cables and powered train rails, and hover for a short time. Melee combat uses a weapon called the Amp.

The game features many different powers, ranging from simple electric bolts to large electric rockets. To use them, Cole must have stored electrical power, represented by an energy meter on the player’s heads-up display. He recharges by draining electricity from powered sources, which also restores his health, though health can regenerate over time without recharging. Many powers are acquired over the course of the game.

Experience points increase powers’ effectiveness or unlock new ones. They are awarded for actions including defeating enemies, healing citizens and completing missions. Powers can also destroy environmental scenery such as towers and stone columns. Depending on the player’s choices, Cole can gain ice or fire powers from Kuo and Nix. Passive abilities based on Karma level, called Karmic Boosts, can be unlocked.

Karma starts neutral and can reach Hero on the Good side or Infamous on the Evil side. Actions such as stopping to help injured citizens or killing them to restore Cole’s health affect the level in either direction. Karma affects which powers become available, how the city’s populace reacts to Cole, and the story itself.

New Orleans, James Dooley, and a New Cole

Development on Infamous 2 began immediately after Sucker Punch finished the first Infamous, led by returning game director Nate Fox. The music was composed by James Dooley, Bryan Mantia, the band Galactic, and Jonathan Mayer. Both the score and the fictional city were inspired by New Orleans.

Jason Cottle, the original voice actor for Cole, was replaced by Eric Ladin. Sucker Punch wanted somebody who could perform Cole’s physical reactions with motion capture, a new addition to the series.

What the Game Contains

A standalone expansion, Infamous: Festival of Blood, was released after launch.

What Holds Up

The reception at release is the clearest signal here. Gaming media generally received the game well, with praise aimed at the city design, traversal and graphics, and criticism aimed at the Karma system and the camera. Those two complaints are the ones worth taking seriously, because they touch the parts of a player cannot avoid.

The Karma system is the weaker half of that pair. It governs which powers become available, how New Marais reacts to Cole, and how the story unfolds, so it carries real structural weight. But the moral choice it offers is narrow: help a citizen or kill one, and the meter moves. The criticism lands on the system itself, not on how players use it.

The camera criticism is the more practical problem. It was flagged at release, and it concerns the moment-to-moment work of fighting, which is most of what the game asks a player to do.

What matters most is the city. New Marais is inspired by New Orleans, and the traversal — climbing, grinding rails, hovering — is built around it. That combination is what earned the praise, and it is what a player spends the hours inside.

The sequel’s job was to be bigger than the first Infamous without losing what worked. On the evidence of the reception, Sucker Punch got the city and the movement right, and left the moral machinery as the part that never matched them.

Cole MacGrath · Game Retrospective · Infamous 2 · Open World Games · PlayStation 3 · Sucker Punch Productions