Preview: inFamous 2

Two years ago inFamous invaded the homes of PS3 owners, delighting players and earning near-universal praise from critics. Imbued with stunning electrical powers from a massive explosion at the heart of Empire City, Cole MacGrath got wrapped up in a plot to acquire the device that caused the explosion: the Ray Sphere.

Along the way, players could opt to perform good deeds or bad deeds to tackle many missions, earning access to different powers and love or scorn from the populace, depending on which path they chose. In the end, Cole learned a terrible truth about his nemesis, Kessler, and that a fearful creature called The Beast would be a future threat to the world.

Cole and his friend, Zeke, have now moved on to New Marais (think New Orleans) following an initial encounter with The Beast. Here Cole hopes to hone and expand his powers to make himself more of a match for their next meeting, as well as try to learn more about the Ray Sphere and Kessler. He’ll now have to deal with the Militia, who try to keep mutations at bay, and the Corrupted, this city’s version of Empire City’s Reapers. New Marais is more varied than Empire City was, taking advantage of better graphics to make more lifelike environments, as well as including larger non-urban areas like swamps and cemeteries.

Morality, in the form of a karma system, again plays a major role in your progress. Once again, choosing more benevolent actions versus harsher actions will dictate what powers you are granted, though either will be sufficient to win the game. But instead of simply choosing to take an action, you’ll be counseled by Nix and Kuo, new female companions who are almost the proverbial angels on your shoulders: red-clothed, fire-using Nix will offer up "evil" choices; blue-clothed, ice-using Kuo will try to steer you towards "good" choices. Your appearance will also change more dramatically in concert with your choices than it did before.

A key difference in this sequel will be a branching story path, depending how you play. While inFamous merely offered good and evil ways to play some of the missions, inFamous 2 will offer completely different missions, depending on your karma, as well as multiple endings. This was done to create replay value by giving a real reason to play twice — once as good, once as evil.

Sucker Punch is also making sure the fun lasts even longer. They’re including a mission generator that will allow everyone to design their own missions and share them with the community over PSN. The hope is that the fun never really ends, even long after the story mode has been completed.

Another part of the increased fun are the new powers at Cole’s disposal, including a weapon called an AMP, to help defeat the Militia in New Marais. The AMP was designed by his friend, Zeke, as a sort of super-powered cattle prod. New powers include a kinetic pulse, which will allow Cole to lift and hurl large objects, and an ionic vortex, essentially a tornado made of raw electricity that Cole summons and controls. Players of the original will recognize these as logical upgrades/extensions of the electromagnetic shockwave and lightning storm powers, respectively.

Like many other games of late, pre-ordering will grant extra goodies to start the game, and will differ depending on where you shop: Amazon gives a gold-plated version of the AMP, Best Buy grants a Kessler skin, GameStop offers a lightning hook weapon, and Walmart has an electrocution grenade. In addition to the $60 regular game, there’s also a $100 Hero Edition that includes a statuette of Cole, a sling pack, a comic, the soundtrack and all four pre-order bonuses.

As an added bonus, inFamous 2 purchasers will get access to the Uncharted 3 multiplayer beta that starts July 5 a week early, on June 28. This is, of course, dependent on PSN being back by then.

inFamous 2 is scheduled for release from SCEA and Sucker Punch on June 7 exclusively for PS3. Rated T for Teen (Blood, Drug Reference, Language, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence). The original inFamous is an official PS3 Greatest Hit, available for $30, new.

Jeff is currently playing L.A. Noire and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters; follow him on Twitter at JKLugar.