Infamous 2 has something else to add to its ever growing list of cool stuff it does: a mission creation mode. Yes, Infamous 2 is entering the world of Play, Create, Share to become the first action adventure game on the PS3 to allow gamers to create their own missions albeit with a slightly limited toolset. Gamers won’t be able to unleash their full creative juices as the mission creation mode in Infamous 2 will solely be limited to creating mission scenarios and not altering the world itself by adding huge pieces of geometry like creating new buildings or changing the landscape.
Ok, so in Infamous 2 gamers can create several missions falling under specific game types like defending an area, holding your ground against oncoming waves of enemies or heaven forbid participating in an escort mission. Gamers will have the option of choosing from the full suite of characters in the game, choosing the patterns of NPC characters, adding a few key props and then ultimately sharing their creations for gamers across the world to appreciate. The user created levels themselves will be accessible via the game itself after the player selects mission criteria for the game to populate on the New Marais map.
Seeing as how the user created level are accessible while gamers play the main story campaign, gamers won’t be able to play a user level if it has content from a mission they haven’t played it. Such a thing may be a bit problematic if lots of users all create levels featuring a near end of game enemy, but at least gamers will have further motivation to finish Infamous 2 so they can get on to the user goodness the game offers.
Infamous 2 may not offer gamers the same level of creative freedom as a game like LBP2 or ModNation Racers, but at least we finally have a game that allows us to create small missions in an open-world game, which I think is something some gamers have been wanting since they played GTA3 back in the day. Gamers will be able to get a small taste of Infamous 2 and the Mission Creation mode as a beta is slated to hit next month. How gamers get into the beta will be revealed on March 14th, but PlayStation Plus subscribers better get into the beta otherwise I’m not going to be a happy camper.
The success of the Mission Creation mode in Infamous 2 will of course rest on the gamers who end up buying Infamous 2, but if Sucker Punch truly delivers easy to use tools and the freedom to create compelling missions, then I think we could have something big on our hands.
Now all we need now is a Mission Creation Mode in Uncharted 3 and this will officially be the best year in gaming.
