by Snakebeast » Mar 23rd, '14, 20:22
Finished the story and liberated most of the city (in summary, about 85% of the game done).
Story is great, but way too short. They should've fleshed out Eugene and Fetch more, but I absolutely loved both Delsin and Reggie. The two have fantastic chemistry, and are perfectly believable as brothers. I went for a "good karma" run first so I'll go through the evil one and see how it compares.
Graphics are fucking beautiful, but they're not just there for show. They're used to create ambience and show just how awesome powers can be. Speaking of powers, you get four types of abilities:
Smoke: Fire and smoke abilities. Powerful as fuck and explosive projectiles, has a really nice dash move that can be used for anything from running away to regenerate your health (playing on normal, you really need to do this sometimes. The enemies do not fuck around.) to flashing between enemies as you melee. What I really like about the dash move is that since you essentially turn into a wisp of smoke, you can phase through objects like fences. The bomb attack disorients soldiers, allowing you to quickly knock them out or kill them, depending on your karma.
The rocket attack acts pretty much the same as the megawatt hammer did in previous games. Good for taking out clusters of enemies or fast enemies that you simply can't be bothered to aim at.
Neon: Flashy laser type abilities. The chain used for melee turns into a sword, and I found it a tiny bit more efficient. The explosions resulting from attacks aren't quite as widespread and the projectile attacks in general are much slower, but are also more powerful and much more precise, making it perfect for sniping. The dash move is fantastic for moving around. One of the first upgrades I recommend you get if you can is the upgrade for the dash that lets you use the dash infinitely. Makes getting around the city fun as FUCK. The bomb attack throws enemies into stasis for you to blast them out of the air. When you zoom in for the normal attack, you can either aim at the enemies' heads for evil karma (obliterate) or aim at their legs to restrain them. Like I said before, the projectile attacks are slower but more precise, and one should note that the missile attack, while powerful, requires more precise aiming and about a second of load time.
Video: I'm not sure what the fuck to class this as, but it's fucking awesome. The chain used for melee turns into a giant two handed sword that's slower but much more powerful than smoke and neon melee. The normal attack (r1) is basically a machine gun that fires in bursts, which is incredibly useful for taking out enemies quickly. The bomb attack is replaced by this weird ability that makes you temporarily invisible, putting a fake doppleganger (or, if you get the upgrade, a laser firing cyber angel) in your place. Useful when trying to gain karma to use the karma bomb or if you're running low on health and need to take out enemies without risk of dying. The dash move is a strange combination of Neon and Smoke. You basically get blue or red wings and you can glide quickly. It's hard to explain, but you'll understand when you get to the part. The rocket attack fires a green blast that hits the target and acts as a homing device for about 3 giant sword shaped missiles to launch at. Fantastic for taking out vehicles or particularly powerful enemies.
Concrete: The last ability you get, and probably the most disappointing. Your normal attack is a burst of concrete bullets which doesn't last as long as the video type does but slightly more powerful. The rocket attack is pretty much like the scythe blast from the second infamous game. The dash covers you in concrete armor and makes you run forward, bashing things out of the way, but it doesn't really protect you from anything, and the other dashes are better because with smoke you can go up vents and dash through certain objects, neon can run up walls and basically turn you into the Flash, and video can practically make you fly for a limited time. The bomb attack is replaced by a stupid fucking launch move that shoots you about 10 feet in the air. Overall, I feel like Sucker Punch just rushed this. They definitely cannot say that they ran out of ideas because all of the army enemies have concrete powers and those are awesome.
Each type of ability has a karma bomb....except for concrete (See what I said about rushing it?) which is basically the "fuck you" final attack that obliterates everything in the immediate area.
Note: You can only use one type of ability at once. To keep the game challenging (I actually found this mechanic fantastic) the only way to switch to another type of ability is to find a place to absorb another type of ability. These show up on the map. Smoke coming from chimneys can be seen as an orange dot, a neon sign is seen as a purple dot, TV screens show up as blue dots, and defeated DUP troopers show up as white dots. However, my problem with this is that once you free the city from the army DUP troopers, they no longer show up, meaning you have no access to concrete powers. Once again, more evidence that they just fucking rushed with that power.
Enemy types vary, and the boss fights....man, the fucking boss fights. They're AWESOME, and legitimately difficult, which was a pleasant surprise, especially the fight with the flying laser knight and the final battle with the supersized concrete spider.
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