Eurogamer Expo Sessions: Sucker Punch presents inFAMOUS 2

Eurogamer: Hi Darren. What have you revealed at Eurogamer Expo 2010?

Darren Bridges: You're getting the first worldwide release of the first cut-scene, Welcome to New Morais. You're getting at least four new melee finishing moves, which completes our close-combat messaging. You're getting all the all-new FX camera and electricity effects for the inFamous 1 and inFamous 2 powers, including parkour in I1.

All these videos were shot in new neighbourhoods, so you're getting first looks at the Slums and Cemetery. All of you guys who want to play the game will be playing a new section of the game that hasn't been played before, and first hands-on with that.

Eurogamer: You're showing four new melee finishing moves. What are they and why are they better?

Darren Bridges: Because you haven't seen them. As far as presentation-wise, it focuses on our closer-combat messaging. In I1 we concentrated on our long range. I think we got it down. I think people are having fun with it. But while they were playing it we noticed a lot of people would go in for close-range combat.

In I1 we basically just had hands and feet doing kicking motions, stuff like that. Now we've got a whole new presentation level. It's all about upgrading the presentation, getting it more physical, more visceral.

If it's not physically presentable, if it's not making you feel super-powered, it's not going in there. For example, there's a jab of the amp into somebody, doing 360 spins in the air and slamming them into the ground, or climbing up on the body, going up ten feet, bringing the amp down on their head. Those are some examples of the finishing moves.

It's just very visceral, very presentation style, cinematic style. The cool factor, basically.

Eurogamer: What impact will the new melee moves have on the game?

Darren Bridges: I like to think of it as an additional area of interactivity. You have the powers you can use. But we're going to put certain situations in the game - I'm sure our game designers are good enough to put some stuff where the melee in close section would work out and make you do it.

It's more than just karate chops and kicks now. It's more presentable. It gives you the feeling. It's more experience level rather than just eye candy, if you will.

Eurogamer: You're showing off new areas. Tell me about the Cemetery.

Darren Bridges: inFamous 1 was basically Empire City. You had three islands but they were all pretty similar in nature, where you were in a very urban area.

With New Morais we're going down to, I like to say a loosely based version of New Orleans. More so than saying it's New Orleans, it's an environment that allowed us to get variety, to make sure the neighbourhoods didn't all look the same.

Previously we've released a little bit of the historic district, which looks a little bit like inFamous 1. Then we went into the swamps a little bit. Now, the slums are a very distinct look, and they're next to the swamps. So it's more of a transitional neighbourhood state.

When you're in a different neighbourhood this time, you will be in a different neighbourhood. It will feel like a different neighbourhood. It'll act like a different neighbourhood. The graveyard cemetery slash thing is exactly what you're envisioning in your head right now: a bunch of mausoleums, a bunch of crypts on top. It allows for that close combat fighting.

Eurogamer: And the slums?

Darren Bridges: The slums is a bit more wide open. Picture the slums with shacks, metal stuff. Again, it allows for a different look than what we were going for in inFamous 1. We really wanted to make sure people thought they were playing a different game.

Eurogamer: You're showing new Corrupted. Tell us about them.

Darren Bridges: The Corrupted is the swamp monsters. The elite guys. With a superhero game it's fun to talk about Cole as a superhero and all his powers. But the thing that completes a superhero game is obviously the villains and the enemies. So we wanted to make sure we had a little bit in that presentation because we're really concentrating on Cole and new camera effects and powers.

We want to say, hey, the reason we're upgrading Cole and all his weapons is because the scale of monsters and enemies in this game is going to be much bigger.

Eurogamer: What danger does the elite Corrupted pose?

Darren Bridges: The Ravager is his name. He's the first enemy type in the Corrupted that has powers himself. So his defensive power would be the tunnelling move, where he goes and gets away from you. His close-range combat is a ram move, where he just charges you. And then his long-range move is his green spore attack, which are homing missiles. I shouldn't say missiles. Homing spores!

Eurogamer: You're also showing how the parkour has changed. How has it changed?

Darren Bridges: With the parkour we're trying to integrate the environment much more so. You'll notice the environment flows together with the parkour. We're putting a lot more grind rails between buildings where you can link grind rails together.

Let's just say, the effect of putting this well-designed parkour in place is no one will ever question how to get around the city. Saying, hey, why can't I get into a car? People won't be asking that question because they'll obviously know you won't need to get into a car.

We're incorporating powers into parkour, like the vertical grind to get you up on top of a building quicker instead of climbing all the time. Horizontal building things, so if there's no grind rail in the vicinity, like rail road tracks or trolley tracks, we'll put grind rails on the side of buildings so you can move down the neighbourhood faster.

We don't want people to hiccup on the gameplay as far as parkour is concerned. Parkour should be absolutely fun. The goal is to have a big old jungle gym.

Eurogamer: You're showing off Cole's final look. We know he's had a couple of revisions...

Darren Bridges: Yeah. It's a 360. It's nothing you haven't seen. We've already released Cole. We're just showcasing him, making sure you guys know we're not changing him again. This is it. There is no more changing. He's baked!

Eurogamer: How is he different from I1 Cole?

Darren Bridges: The first thing you're going to notice is he doesn't have a jacket on. There are a couple reasons why. The logical reason is he's in New Orleans - or New Morais - a southern city, where it's hot and muggy. Are you going to wear a jacket in 80-degree muggy weather? No.

The other reason why we took off the jacket is, one of our main goals is to present this game very well, cinematically, physically and viscerally. Taking off his shirt, being able to show the physique of Cole a bit more does that.

After the redesign and redesign and redesign - whatever - the end result is we've gone back to looking like Cole with an evolved look. At the start of inFamous 2 he's going to get his ass kicked right away by The Beast. He's got to look a little more weathered. He's had his super powers now. He's going through hell right now. He's got to look more evolved and a little grittier.

Eurogamer: Has his personality changed significantly?

Darren Bridges: We were taking a look at everything. Our motto here at the company is to leave no stone unturned. However, perhaps in that exploration, as we changed Cole - so he grew some hair and all that stuff - well, you know we got a backlash from it.

After 16 pages on your own forum, you got to listen to your fans. But in the same breath, people say, okay, you listen to your fans, but does that take away from the creativity?

We took a long look at that. The bottom line is, for them to ask us to change his face doesn't affect gameplay, doesn't effect story. So it wasn't a big deal to us, really. It's one of those changes.