Is USTV acting as the Government's propaganda mouthpiece, or are they perfectly innocent reporters who are being duped just like the rest of the outside world on the condition of Empire City?
Kessler stating that he's been there with Cole for "every step of [his] life". Did he mean this physically? As in he knew about Cole since he was born and has been manipulating him ever since? Or did he mean it metaphorically? As in he was with Cole because he's a future version of him?
Annoying Video Game Helper: The civilians when playing with Good Karma. They attack your enemies, sure, but they have a nasty habit of standing in your way, preventing you from fighting effectively. The Hero Grenade upgrade is pretty much useless when you cannot use it without accidentally restraining a few civilians.
By Amon Tobin, the whole soundtrack gives a distinct avaunt-garde urban jungle feel, but "Rabble Rouser" and "Meet The Reapers" stands out amongst them all.
So much in-fact, that both Rabble Rouser and Meet The Reapers are heard in 2014's inFAMOUS: First Light.
"Silent Melody" by Working For A Nuclear Free City certainly counts too.
Cry for the Devil: The ending reveals Kessler was a loving husband and father before the Beast destroyed the world and killed his family.
First Sons hunter conduits. They tend to go invisible and hit you with shotguns while laying mines all over the place.
Turrets in general. Better be quick with those grenades.
Flaming trash scorpions. Even though they die in one hit from anything, they're almost guaranteed to land a hit before they go.
Fandom Rivalry: InFAMOUS had quite a rivalry with the [PROTOTYPE] series, mainly because both series feature more morally bleak and complex takes on the superhero genre and utilize open world sandbox action driven game-play. The fact that both came out in the same year only a month apart from each other on the same console also contributed to the rivalry.
Game-Breaker: One of the abilities you get later in the game allows you to grind upon rails and wires, which also refills your electricity and health. And the rails and wires are numerous, meaning you're fairly set. The developers probably noticed this, hence why the sequel severely depowers the grinding and railing, no longer allowing them to recharge your health and electricity, save using the poles they're attached to.
This extends to a minor exploit relating to the basic Bolt power (L1 + R1) not costing electricity. You can shoot a few Bolts at any metal object and, if you're fast enough, drain the electricity out and thus get free juice. In Infamous 2, Bolt costs electricity same as all other powers, so this little trick no longer works (well, it does, but you can't get out more than you put in).
The fully upgraded Shock Grenade on the Good Path automatically restrain enemies that are knocked down. Since it's inherently able to knock enemies flat on their own, all you need is a good source of electricity (or just the infinite energy exploit from above) and defeating enemies is a piece of cake. Just be careful about using it near civilians, or you'll get negative karma for restraining them by accident.
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.
They're extremely annoying when you're doing something else, too - walking around, minding your own business, then BAM! A bullet to your back. The gunfire often draws in nearby mooks, too, and with Dust Men or First Sons, they'll call squads of six or more flying at you like some sort of annoyance squad.
Hell, the enemies in general are this. You could barely take a few steps without getting shot at. This annoyance makes side missions mandatory if you want to clear the area. This was thankfully fixed in the sequels where enemies didn't attack as often the player unless they were provoked.
If you're playing Evil Cole, the rock-throwing civilian mobs can be like this, since it's difficult to tell where the rocks are coming from, the throwers don't show up on your radar as hostiles and apparently the city is stocked with dozens of people who could've made a career in the Major Leagues, hitting Cole from the better part of a block away. And to make it worse, in what seems to be a kind of glitch, if you get too close to the mob, some of the members will attack you with their fists, which has the same effect as being attacked by the civilians infected by Sasha's tar, meaning that you can't fight back or do anything other than run for several seconds.
And then there's the grenade-launching flying drones that the First Sons use, which also are able to turn invisible. It can be incredibly frustrating to destroy these as they fly about rather quickly, meaning Precision is the only reliable method of killing them, despite how much energy it uses.
Harsher in Hindsight: A city being completely locked down, quarantined economically and physically, falling into a depressive and borderline apocalyptic sense of disrepair, a plague that spreads easily with no cure, everyone wearing masks, and government conspiracies abound? After 2020, for many people, this plot might hit really close to home...
Magnificent Bastard: Kessler is a version of Cole MacGrath from the future where he lost his entire family from The Beast's rampage. Traveling back in time he forcibly took control of the First Sons where he had them create the Ray Sphere and then giving it to Cole MacGrath, resulting in the latter getting his powers, as well as causing massive collateral damage to Empire City and its eventual quarantine. Setting himself as Cole's nemesis, he tricks Cole into believing he had cause the grim future, manipulates Cole's best friend Zeke into joining his side, and giving Cole a series of Sadistic Choices leading to the death of Cole's girlfriend Trish. Successfully causing Cole to seek vengeance on Kessler, he gives Cole the Ray Sphere to use, before fighting him head on. Upon being defeated, Kessler then reveals to Cole his true identity, as well the existence of The Beast and the destruction he'll bring, admitting that his actions against Cole was to make him stronger so that he'll be able to succeed at stopping The Beast where Kessler himself failed.
If you choose to activate the Ray Sphere a second time when given the chance, you become more powerful. However, you kill a lot of people in the process, and your Karma Meter is set to "Infamous" permanently.
Kessler rigging Cole's chances of saving Trish to fail no matter what he does. It becomes even worse when you consider Kessler is Cole, and was married to Trish in his timeline.
Trish because of her misplaced hostility and undeserved blaming of Cole for the explosion. Yes her sister died in the explosion but that's still no excuse. She's a bit more tolerable later on in the hero route if only because she complains less, but she is nigh-insufferable in the evil route. It doesn't help that her apology in the good route feels very back-handed and she never considers how Cole might feel during the events of the game or, y'know, get the full story and consider he may have been framed?
Moya. It becomes more clear throughout that game that she does not care about Cole's life or safety and is only using him to get the Ray Sphere. She manipulates Cole the whole game constantly sidetracking him to do her dirty work, lying about being John's wife, and eventually resorting to blackmailing and threats all the while painting herself as The Woobie. In-universe, Cole himself gets noticeably frustrated with her constant secrets and deflection.
"Secrets Revealed". For God's sake, Moya, why did you ask a man on foot to chase down a goddamn helicopter?!?
"Anything For Trish", essentially an escort mission where you're escorting a gigantic target that can't dodge. Unless you jump off to handle each enemy group as it appears, you can get overwhelmed very fast. Making matters worse, while Cole would do anything for Trish, the player is unlikely to feel the same at this point, especially with her constantly scolding Cole whenever said target is damaged.
The Satellite Uplink missions are usually not too bad, but the third one you do in The Warren is damn-near Unwinnable by Design because of a huge gap in between Uplinks that aren't connected.
Collecting the Blast Shards. The player has to constantly click the thumbstick in order for one to show up on the mini-map. In Infamous 2, this gets rectified by giving the player an upgrade that can lead them to the nearest Blast Shard, no matter how far away it is, and inFAMOUS: Second Son rectified it even further by just having them show up on the map from the get-go.
, the whole soundtrack gives a distinct avaunt-garde urban jungle feel, but "Rabble Rouser