History YMMV / Infamous

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Compared to the later games, the original is much darker, grim and less saturated due to the Quarantine, with a boat-load of government conspiracies and shady actions, including a possible shift in the way the United States are being run. Cole himself is also much more cynical compared to in the sequel.

* AcceptableTargets:
** The Dust Men are riddled with UnfortunateImplications. Making an entire city's homeless population a group of faceless mooks who murder and destroy ForTheEvulz feels more than a little uncomfortable. That, and their standard uniforms are garbage bags. [[WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys While still having access to turrets, riot shields, and RPGS by the truckload.]] The First Sons were [[spoiler: a secret society led by a WellIntentionedExtremist,]] and at least [[DrugsAreBad The Reapers]] get the FreudianExcuse of [[spoiler: being manipulated by Sasha]]. The Dust Men are just... bad?
** The cinematics actually do a good job of explaining this: Empire City wasn't treating its homeless well before the blast, and Alden, with his lifelong rage, tapped into something. There's still a lot of bad implications, though, especially since that basically makes Alden Hitler.
** The US government, already not very well portrayed in the first game by having bombastic, outright propaganda lie to the rest of the world about the state of the city - ''eventually bombing its own citizens'' - graduates into full-on villain in ''Second Son'', doing things like trying to monitor all superheroes. If that wasn't blatant enough, BenjaminFranklin's oft-quoted comment on security and privacy is the game's main quote.

* GoodBadBug:
** You can fry any conductive item in the game with your standard bolt a couple dozen times, then drain it for way more juice than you'd receive from a power box or light post. Since the bolt doesn't drain any energy, you're basically creating your own electricity. Very useful in tunnels or Alden's tower.
** Sometimes easier to come by, you can also do that with corpses. Or ''enemies.''
** For the most part, this cannot be done if you haven't restored power to that area of the city. Only a couple of certain structures will let you recycle electricity.
** Ladies and gentlemen, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P72giAyv4MM Schizo-tin-foil man]].

* SelfishEvil: Evil choices on the karmic path are typically framed in terms of "let/make others suffer for your personal benefit" rather than "let/make others suffer for fun," e.g. forcing a bystander to expose himself to dangerous chemicals so you don't have to deal with those chemicals yourself. The game won't stop you if you choose to [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential electrocute random civilians]].

** [[spoiler: If Cole chooses to side with The Beast you will have to face Zeke as a Final Boss. He is a ZeroEffortBoss, but you really don't want to hit the button that makes you zap him.]]

* ScrappyLevel: "Secrets Revealed". For God's sake, Moya, why did you ask ''a man on foot'' to chase down a goddamn ''helicopter''?!?
* SelfishEvil: Evil choices on the karmic path are typically framed in terms of "let/make others suffer for your personal benefit" rather than "let/make others suffer for fun," e.g. forcing a bystander to expose himself to dangerous chemicals so you don't have to deal with those chemicals yourself. The game won't stop you if you choose to [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential electrocute random civilians]].

* AcceptableTargets: The Dust Men are riddled with UnfortunateImplications. Making an entire city's homeless population a group of faceless mooks who murder and destroy ForTheEvulz feels more than a little uncomfortable. That, and their standard uniforms are garbage bags. [[WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys While still having access to turrets, riot shields, and RPGS by the truckload.]] The First Sons were [[spoiler: a secret society led by a WellIntentionedExtremist,]] and at least [[DrugsAreBad The Reapers]] get the FreudianExcuse of [[spoiler: being manipulated by Sasha]]. The Dust Men are just... bad?

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: By [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amon_tobin Amon Tobin]], the whole soundtrack gives a distinct avaunt-garde urban jungle feel, but [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki71pm8yDKI Rabble Rouser]] stands out amongst them all.

* DemonicSpiders: First Sons hunter conduits. They tend to go invisible and hit you with shotguns while laying mines all over the place.

* GoddamnBats: Snipers. You'll often find yourself peppered with gunfire from above when you're exploring an area on the ground (yet another reason to take to the rooftops) and their attacks can whittle away your health while you're trying to focus on guys with rocket launchers or Conduits.

* GoodBadBug: You can fry any conductive item in the game with your standard bolt a couple dozen times, then drain it for way more juice than you'd receive from a power box or light post. Since the bolt doesn't drain any energy, you're basically creating your own electricity. Very useful in tunnels or Alden's tower.

* MostAnnoyingSound: The bizarre screams the Reapers' Mad Bombers make.

* PlayerPunch: [[spoiler: Zeke's MoralEventHorizon, when he tries to claim the Ray Sphere.]]

* TheScrappy: The Voice of Survival makes himself very easy to hate. It's hard to feel bad when [[spoiler:the First Sons shoot him]].
** Trish. She never misses an opportunity to remind Cole that the Raysphere blast was his fault, makes sure to remind him at several times that it's his fault her sister died, and leads you on [[ThatOneLevel an infuriatingly annoying]] EscortMission atop a bus.
** Zeke is probably even worse. He is a useless, stupid mooch... in addition to being [[spoiler: a traitor]]. He is apparently Cole's best friend but we are never given any real reason to like or even tolerate him.

* TheScrappy: The Voice of Survival makes himself very easy to hate. It's hard to feel bad when [[spoiler:the First Sons shoot him]].
** Trish. She never misses an opportunity to remind Cole that the Raysphere blast was his fault, makes sure to remind him at several times that it's his fault her sister died, and leads you on [[ThatOneLevel an infuriatingly annoying]] EscortMission atop a bus. Also, if you go down the evil path after said EscortMission, despite doing exactly what she asked and ''saving her life'' [[WhatTheHellHero she calls out Cole]] and ''[[UngratefulBitch breaks up with him]]''. And even after the break up, she ''still'' calls Cole and gives him hell.
* ScrappyLevel: "Secrets Revealed". For God's sake, Maya, why did you ask ''a man on foot'' to chase down a goddamn ''helicopter''?!?

* TheScrappy: Trish. She never misses an opportunity to remind Cole that the Raysphere blast was his fault, makes sure to remind him at several times that it's his fault her sister died, and leads you on [[ThatOneLevel an infuriatingly annoying]] EscortMission atop a bus. Also, if you go down the evil path after said EscortMission, despite doing exactly what she asked and ''saving her life'' [[WhatTheHellHero she calls out Cole]] and ''[[UngratefulBitch breaks up with him]]''. And even after the break up, she ''still'' calls Cole and gives him hell.

* SelfishEvil: Evil choices on the karmic path are typically framed in terms of "let/make others suffer for your personal benefit" rather than "let/make others suffer for fun," e.g. forcing a bystander to expose himself to dangerous chemicals so you don't have to deal with those chemicals yourself. Of course, the game won't stop you if you choose to [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential electrocute random civilians]].
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Alden, to some degree. One has to wonder what exactly Kessler did to turn a scared little orphan into ''this''.
** Also, [[JerkassWoobie Nix]]. She [[spoiler: watched her mother get vaporized right in front of her eyes when Bertrand used her as fuel for the raysphere, and befriended a corrupted only to have it die protecting her escape from the bayou]]. It's a little understandable she's a PyroManiac BloodKnight when it comes to the militia.

** Turrets in general. Better be quick with those grenades.
** Flaming trash scorpions.

* TheScrappy: Trish. She never misses an opportunity to remind Cole that the Raysphere blast was his fault, makes sure to remind him at several times that it's his fault her sister died, and leads you on [[ThatOneLevel an infuriatingly annoying]] EscortMission atop a bus. Also, if you go down the evil path after said EscortMission, despite doing exactly what she asked and ''saving her life'' [[WhatTheHellHero she calls out Cole]] and ''[[UngratefulBitch breaks up with him]]''. And even after the break up, she ''still'' calls Cole and gives him hell.

** Also, [[JerkassWoobie Nix]]. She [[spoiler: watched her mother get vaporized right in front of her eyes when Bertrand used her as fuel for the raysphere, and befriended a corrupted only to have it die protecting her escape from the bayou]]. It's a little understandable she's a PyroManiac BloodKnight when it comes to the militia.
* XanatosRoulette: Kessler's plan is complex to say the least.
** Kessler's plan actually fails if it works out the way he expects: He expects Cole to [[spoiler:try to use the Ray Sphere to boost his powers. But the kind of Cole who does that won't fight the Beast.]]

* TheScrappy: Trish. She never misses an opportunity to remind Cole that the Raysphere blast was his fault, makes sure to remind him at several times that it's his fault her sister died, and leads you on [[ThatOneLevel an infuriatingly annoying]] EscortMission atop a bus. Also, if you go down the evil path after said EscortMission, despite doing exactly what she asked and ''saving her life'' [[WhatTheHellHero she calls out Cole]] and ''[[UngrategfulBitch breaks up with him]]''. And even after the break up, she ''still'' calls Cole and gives him hell.

* TheScrappy: Trish. She never misses an opportunity to remind Cole that the Raysphere blast was his fault, makes sure to remind him at several times that it's his fault her sister died, and leads you on [[ThatOneLevel an infuriatingly annoying]] EscortMission atop a bus. Also, if you go down the evil path after said EscortMission, despite having broken up with Cole, she'll still constantly call and keep blaming him for everything. Keep in mind that she breaks up with him after ''[[UngratefulBitch saving her life]]''.

* TheScrappy: Trish. She never misses an opportunity to remind Cole that the Raysphere blast was his fault, makes sure to remind him at several times that it's his fault her sister died, and leads you on [[ThatOneLevel an infuriatingly annoying]] EscortMission atop a bus.

* AcceptableTargets: The second game apparently considers street performers who pose as statues this trope. You get a trophy for beating one up, and one mission has you fight a whole crowd of [[{{Mooks}} Militia members]] disguised as them.
** And in the first game, the Dust Men are riddled with UnfortunateImplications. Making an entire city's homeless population a group of faceless mooks who murder and destroy ForTheEvulz feels more than a little uncomfortable. That, and their standard uniforms are garbage bags. [[WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys While still having access to turrets, riot shields, and RPGS by the truckload.]] The First Sons were [[spoiler: a secret society led by a WellIntentionedExtremist,]] and at least [[DrugsAreBad The Reapers]] get the FreudianExcuse of [[spoiler: being manipulated by Sasha]]. The Dust Men are just... bad?
*** The cinematics actually do a good job of explaining this: Empire City wasn't treating its homeless well before the blast, and Alden, with his lifelong rage, tapped into something. There's still a lot of bad implications, though, especially since that basically makes Alden Hitler.
* ContestedSequel: While still mostly positive, reviews for the second game were a bit more mixed.
* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler:Bertrand as he deliberately rounded up "undesirables" to sacrifice for his own superpowers, and, once he found they were loathsome, plans on committing Conduit Genocide]].
** Bloody Mary is a very obvious FullyEmbracedFiend, as you can find from her memories, almost all of which have her gleefully talk about the people she killed, turning families against one another, and forcefully converting cleregymen.
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: By [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amon_tobin Amon Tobin]], the whole soundtrack gives a distinct avaunt-garde urban jungle feel, but [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8zGaokZdy8 Rabble Rouser]] stands out amongst them all.
** "Silent Melody" by Working For A Nuclear Free City certainly counts too.
** "Fade Away", the end credits theme of the sequel, especially if you got the good ending.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: The Reapers seem to be the most popular gang from the first game. Cole even gets a Reaper based costume in Infamous 2.
* EvenBetterSequel
* EvilIsSexy: Sasha, Nix, and Bloody Mary.
* HellIsThatNoise: The first encounter with a Ravager, a Devourer, the Behemoth, the exploding Corrupted you first see after [[spoiler:Kuo is kidnapped]], and random fights that break out in the streets.
** Also during the mission where you are traveling through the swamp with Nix, there comes a point where you hear a loud stomping and growling sound in the distance, but Nix tells you to ignore it. [[spoiler: You hear the exact same sound later when you fight [[FridgeBrilliance Bertrand]]]]

** Shotgunners in the second game, who will use their powers to get right up in your face and hit you point blank with a shotgun blast.
*** Don't forget the Spikers, which are quick, numerous, and have long range attacks on a par with any mook running around with an automatic. On the other hand, this does make Cole's melee animation for killing them, a punt, incredibly satisfying.
** ''Festival of Blood'' being about vampires contains these by default but special mention goes to the Harpies who bounce around just out of reach hanging from improbable locations shooting you with dual Uzis also the zombie civilians who swarm you during certain missions and can deal more damage with a single melee swing than the minibosses can.

** In the sequel its possible to use User Generated Content to bypass a BrokenBridge to enter the second half of the city before you're supposed to. Depending on the content there can be no enemies whatsoever, and with the power out only the blast shards will show up on the radar. Makes it very easy to find them in that area.Just remember to die before aborting the mission, or [[UnwinnableByMistake you might get stuck]].
*** You can also do this without UGC, by lowering the bridge during the "power up Flood Town" mission then crossing it without launching a Tesla Missile at the next transformer.

** Large bosses such as Devourers can sometimes actually get ''stuck inside scenery'', forcing you to restart the mission, but skipping the boss.
* JerkassWoobie: Nix.

** No matter your Karma rank in iF2, at one point you are given a choice that will end the pseudo-teamwork you have going on between two other Conduits. If you pick say, the Evil person, because you want their power, and you have maxed the Hero side, the game considers it equivalent to denouncing law and order and choosing to revel in chaos. ''You are instantly ranked as a Thug(lowest evil), lose all Good benefits, all Good powers, and now have hard to get rid of bad Karma''. The opposite holds true if you pick the Good person. Note that this happens long into the game, and this fact is never made clear. If you don't like their element, there is no option to mix. Luckily, if you knew about this and hard saved through the menu beforehand or at the choice, it will only take a replay of the mission you just did in order to get the choice again. If you didn't, hope you enjoyed your first playthrough of inFamous 2 because you get to replay from the last time you made a hard save, and if you didn't do that new game.
* MostAnnoyingSound: THE ICE MEN. For some, that muffled, high-pitched tone they speak in with FAR too much reverb is a BerserkButton and may have you frantically launching rockets at them or reaching for the mute button just to shut them up.
** The bizarre screams the Reapers' Mad Bombers make.

* NightmareFuel: : The Beast. Just the idea of a MagmaMan who can turn into a [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever giant]] is pretty damn intimidating.
** [[spoiler: Bertrand's beast form is also quite freaky. Heck, even in his human form, he comes off as scary.]]

** In the sequel, [[spoiler:the Evil Ending requires Cole to personally kill Zeke. He takes multiple hits, and just keeps raising his gun.]]
* UncannyValley: Most characters are fairly standard modern CGI. Nix, though, looks disturbingly not-human.

* UnfortunateImplications: There are only two major black characters: Nix, who's Cole's "evil" influence for most of the second game; and John White, who [[spoiler: becomes the Beast]].

** Also Bertrand's plan to [[spoiler: convince the world to hate and fear conduits by mass-producing them and selling them to various countries and military powers as weapons]] is up there in complexity as well

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: By [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amon_tobin Amon Tobin]], the whole soundtrack gives a distinct avant-garde urban jungle feel, but [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8zGaokZdy8 Rabble Rouser]] stands out amongst them all.

** Kessler's plan actually fails if it works out the way he wants: He expects Cole to [[spoiler:try to use the Ray Sphere to boost his powers. But the kind of Cole who does that won't fight the Beast.]]

** Also Bertrand's plan to [[spoiler: convince the world to hate and fear conduits by mass-producing them and selling them to various countries and military powers as weapons]] is up there in complexity as well