inFamous 2

InFamous 2's a prettier experience all around, in fact. Sucker Punch claims that superhero movies, rather than games, are the things pushing its team forward, and with that in mind the developer has made a handful of very basic presentational improvements to make the game more exciting to look at. The original's excellent comic book transitions will be returning, but the in-engine cut-scenes have had a bit more care and attention lavished on them, with snappier editing, lots of crash zooms and slow-mo, and a nippy, spooky, violin-heavy score.

Sony's own motion capture people have brought a touch of genuine life to the locals too, and there are dozens of smaller tweaks, like the way the camera tilts and pulls in during a particularly nasty melee move, to dovetail with big changes such as a much better draw distance and textures which aren't so fuzzy and matted.

Those were the things that probably needed fixing, but the game's more solid aspects - the combat and the traversal - have been significantly improved too. Racing through the world is better than ever: Cole can now zip automatically along power cables that run across the walls of buildings, as well as grinding down the lines running from one telegraph pole to the next, meaning you can flow through narrower urban areas quicker, while riding the rails has been given a speed boost, and gliding - unlocked too late in the first game, but now waiting for you at the start - has received a notable kick in terms of power.

Melee combat, meanwhile, has been entirely rebuilt around Cole's new weapon, the Amp. It's a kind of electrical prong that gives you a lot more reach in fights, and there's a new range of finishers with some fairly bone-crunching animations to go with it. When it comes to electricity, the shooter side of things benefits from a shift in camera, putting Cole over towards the left of the screen and giving you more room for your reticule to rove, while the latest of the series' big-name powers is an absolute winner.

Ionic Vortex is a keeper. It sees Cole spinning a discus of electricity down the street, where it quickly forms a sparking tornado that arcs lightning off any nearby walls, sucking cars, people, and anything else unlucky enough to be nearby up into the sky, before lofting it into the distance. I am unlikely to tire of doing this kind of thing any time soon.

With a year left in terms of development, plenty of the game's finer details have yet to be pinned down. There's currently upwards of 100 new powers Sucker Punch is playing with and sifting for the most promising, and the developer is cryptic about whether players will be able to import decisions they made in the first game into the second.

There are two things which are certain, however: you'll start this one with plenty of your upgrades from the original inFamous ready to go, and the series' moral choices will really make the narrative branch this time around with two very different endings.