inFAMOUS 3: The Story Writes Itself

I don’t think there’s a protagonist in videogames I think about more than Cole McGrath. Not because he’s particularly well-written. He’s got as much personality as a wooden board, especially in the first game. I’d even argue that the majority of his appeal comes from his cool design, the way Sucker Punch syncs his vast array of powers to the environments of Empire City or New Marais, and the very fact that he’s a nobody. He starts off the first game as an unmotivated bike messenger. It’s easier to slip into a nobody’s shoes and walk your way to greatness. Or in this case, infamy. And this was true enough in the first inFAMOUS, but in inFAMOUS 2 (now near a decade old) the developers put some serious effort in elevating Cole’s character. He became an actual person you partner with to play the game, instead of just driving him around to see the sights. But then, because of the very nature of the series, Cole’s journey leads us down two very different, contradictory fates: either become the Beast, a god amongst supers, or sacrifice yourself to save the world, your body drifting away at sea, into the unknown. I think about both these Coles a lot. And how Sucker Punch failed to make inFAMOUS 3.

Going forward with this I’m going to assume you’ve played both inFAMOUS 1 and 2. I don’t care if you’ve played Second Son because that game doesn’t matter. Which I’ll get more into later. But for those who need a quick-ish refresher, here’s a summary full of all the spoilers because duh: inFAMOUS is about Cole McGrath, a slacker bike messenger who gets hired to deliver a package but surprise! It’s actually a magic-tech bomb called the Ray Sphere that kills thousands of normies and activates a gene in people called Conduits, giving them powers. Cole’s a conduit who’s got lightning powers. You got a friend named Zeke. You’ve got a girlfriend named Trish-Oh, wait, no you don’t because no matter what you do she hates you until maybe she doesn’t but that doesn’t matter anymore because she fell off a building. Bummer.

Turns out all this was orchestrated by the First Sons, specifically a man named Kessler but surprise again! He’s actually you from the future. He jumped back in time because he realized Trish sucks and that bitch gots to die. Kidding! There’s actually a super powerful conduit in the future called the Beast who killed everybody, including Cole-Kessler’s family. Cole-Kessler came back in time to create the Ray Sphere and activate his past self’s powers earlier so he’d be ready to face off against the Beast. There’s also a guy named John. He might be important.  

…Deeeeeeeep breath…

Okay, inFAMOUS 2 starts off with the Beast showing up, kicking Cole’s ass, forcing him and Zeke to run away to New Marais. Cole teams up with two super ladies, Kuo (who has ice powers) and Nix (who has…magma-gasoline powers?). Cole and one of the girls climb into a machine, they get shaken, not stirred, and tada! Cole can either fill up your tank or make snow cones. Meanwhile there’s an evil, Conduitphobic preacher guy named Bertrand who can turn people into bugs, turn into a giant, fugly bug, and that’s all about it for him story-wise.

The Beast arrives and surprise! It’s our good friend John (see I told you he’d be important!) who tells Cole that there’s a plague ravaging the world. You’re given two options. Either take the mantle of the Beast from John and heal all the Conduits in the world while screwing over the human normies, or use a reassembled Ray Sphere to cure the plaque, but at the cost of every conduit’s life. This leads to either Cole becoming the Beast or sacrificing himself.

Sigh…….

See what I mean? Wait, what? You don’t? Okay, I guess I did gloss over a few things, like how Cole (at least a version of him) can canonically time travel! And how Sucker Punch had the Good Karma ending be all ambiguous, with the last shot being Zeke sailing away with Cole’s body, only for the boat to be struck by a question mark-shaped lightning bolt. In game, Kessler explains to Cole that the power to time travel was one of the last powers he gained, and by that point there was literally nowhere for him to run except back in time. But instead of going back and altering his own past, it seems to operate more on alternative timeline-rules. So this is my big hook for my version of inFAMOUS 3: that lightning strike didn’t just revive good Cole, but knocked him sideways into an alternate timeline. Beast Cole’s timeline.

Now you see where I’m going with this (I hope). But first, before we get into story, let’s face reality. The reason why the Good and Evil Karma paths are so similar in both games (barring a few unique side mission) except for the ending of 2, is because doing otherwise would mean having to basically create two different games based entirely on what alignment Cole is. It’s ambitious but unrealistic. So-as much as people might want to play as Beast Cole-I’m going to make the only playable Cole be Good Cole. BUT the game itself will be taking place entirely in Beast Cole’s timeline, maybe a few months or even year after he’s taken over, so all of surviving Conduit characters like Kuo, Nix, Alden, and Sasha (because why not) will show up. But all versions of these characters will be based on the Evil Cole route from both games. I’ll also be ignoring the comic set between the two games because I’d rather have characters like Moya and Sasha continuing the character arcs on screen.

A few more story notes to mention before we begin proper:

• Zeke gets teleported along with Cole into the Evil timeline ‘cause you can’t have an inFAMOUS game without the Dunbar. Also in this timeline, normal humans aren’t extinct but their numbers are down to thousands, if not mere hundreds. Zeke’s character arc throughout games was him coming to terms with being the team normal. Now he’s literally part of the minority and has to face the discrimination that comes with that.
• Good Cole will retain some of Kuo’s ice powers but they’ll prove to be so last season, proving ineffective against the Conduits who’ve risen since the new Beast took over. This’ll force Cole to try to look for an upgrade.
• As much as I liked New Marais, we’re bringing everything back to where it all began. Empire City. Having rebuilt it after John’s rampage, it is now the nexus of Beast Cole’s new empire (heh).
• And yeah, since Second Son canonically takes place after inFAMOUS 2, in the Good Karma timeline, the fans of that game can still consider it canon if they want. Even though Conduits existing in that timeline at all…bugs me. But I digress.
• And lastly, this is very much fan fiction. I’m sure that the people at Sucker Punch could create a far superior pitch that blows mine out of the water. I’m doing this because of how sad it was to see our established hero just tossed to the wayside in favor of a new face (also talking to you Prototype 2, don’t worry you’ll get your turn) and just wanna try and give Cole McGrath (both of them) a proper, unified conclusion.
• ALSO also I’m focusing on the actual story, not so much the gameplay. Though I will mention it from time to time.

So let’s go ahead and get this show rolling:

• We-the viewers-are suddenly tearing through the sky, straight down, towards a small object in the sea. We’re the lightning bolt that struck the boat at the end of InFAMOUS 2. We catch a quick glimpse of Zeke on the boat by Cole’s coffin, looking up on a alarm. We strike the coffin and then we’re suddenly inside of it. Webs of electricity spasm along Cole’s corpse until his eyes finally burst open, pure white. And then BOOM! Everything-him, Zeke, the entire boat-just explodes, with the blast being near identical to the initial Ray Sphere blast in the first game.
• Cut to title screen: inFAMOUS 3
• We then transition into one of those comic book-like cut scenes, with this one catching us up with the Demon of Empire City back home. Using John’s powers, he’s restricted the city and unified the remnants of the Reapers and Vermaak 88 (a private military company whose soldiers possess varying degrees of Kuo’s ice powers), along with any burgeoning Conduits he and Kuo found across the world.
• A large crowd of citizens (all showing varying signs of powers or mutations) surround what used to be Memorial Park. It’s been remodeled with a monument decorated with flags brandishing a repurposed First Sons emblem. The monument is basically a series of steps leading up to a white throne. Beast-Cole sits back in the throne, wearing a pure white version of his suit from inFAMOUS 1. Dark red veins run up along his neck and face, with his eyes constantly bleeding crimson fumes. He says nothing, though his posture makes it clear that he doesn’t think much of the whole show.
• Sasha is alive and healthier than the last time we saw her. She’s wearing a red Reaper outfit modified into a hooded red dress. She watches on with a knowing smile, all while sitting atop one of the throne’s arms.
• In front of them, standing at a podium so as to address the crowd is Kuo, back in a dark suit. A platoon of Vermaak 88 soldiers, all now as fully evolved into hulking ice monsters, flank her on both sides. She encourages the Conduits to celebrate the anniversary of “The Evolution” and that it was only a matter of time before outliers were brought to heel and made to see, “Cole’s Light.”
• We then cut through the cheering crowd, to a lonely figure in a hooded dark-yellow coat with a scarf wrapped around the bottom half of their face. His eyes flicker with blue-white energy as he glowers at the Beast. Beast Cole seems to perk up, as if sensing the figure. Yet by the time he looks over, they’ve disappeared into the crowd.
• We follow Good Cole, because of course that’s who is, through the city. We get a bit of platforming and exploration (climbing and zooming across buildings, talking to NPCs, maybe buy a hotdog, etc.) though the player won’t have access to any of Cole’s electricity-based powers. He’ll be traversing using the ice-powers, with the locals assuming he’s just a member of Vermaak 88. And life’s…actually not that bad. Empire City’s basically become My Hero Academia, with super powered kids running around, playing.
• Good Cole climbs to the top of a skyscraper overlooking the monument. He finds a few unconscious reapers and then Zeke standing near the edge, a sniper rifle in hand. Good Cole pulls down the scarf and tells him, “You know that’s not gonna do crap to him.”
• “It’ll make me feel better,” Zeke grunts. “No offense, pal, but I fucking hate your face. Can’t go ten damn feet in this hellhole without seeing it on a wall or something.” He sets the rifle aside and sits on the building’s edge, looking Cole over. “So what’s your read on…you?”
• “Him calling himself the Beast doesn’t feel like bullshit,” Cole replies. “He definitely feels the way John did in New Marais, but…more.” When Zeke raises an eyebrow, Cole will shrug. “Wish I could explain it.”
• “And I wish you knew how to summon that magic lightning to get us back home,” Zeke mutters without thinking. Cole looks away, looking guilty. Zeke realizes what he said but before he can apologize a woman’s voice says, her voice tinged with sarcasm, “I’m proud, boys. Proper reconnaissance. Will wonders never cease.”
• “Shove it up your ass, Moya,” Cole will growl into his com. Through dialogue between them and Zeke-or maybe another quick montage-, it’ll be established that Cole and Zeke have been residing in this timeline for only a few months, with them and the boat reappearing in the exact same spot off the coast of New Marais. Zeke turned the boat right around and took him the nearest hospital. The hospital’s staff practically bent over backwards to serve him, even asking for his autograph. “You’re lucky I never lost track of you,” Moya will say. “If the Beast had tracked you down to that hospital-”
• “If you’re looking for a thank you you’re talking to the wrong McGrath,” Cole will growl. He’ll then say under his breath, “I’m not Kessler.”
• “What’s Kessler got to do with anything?” Moya will ask suspiciously only to get cut off by an explosion off in the distance. Cole shoots himself into the air using an ice spire, towards the explosion. By this point there are more ice upgrades, showing how experienced he is using them. He’ll land in an alleyway near a gunfight happening between a gang of Reapers and a male conduit zipping back and forth in bursts of ashy brimstone.
• “Don’t get involved,” Moya will bark at him over the com, and this is where we’ll get the first real karma choice (there won’t be a lot so that each one feels special and also ‘cause I’m lazy): he can either go in, shield the conduit using ice pillars and struggle to get out of there together or in one piece, or he can go in guns blazing, freezing reapers left and right.
• “I’ve got this covered,” the conduit will declare in a Troy Baker-type voice, just as a giant ice golem appears. “Yeah, right,” Cole will say sarcastically. With no other choice and his ice powers proving ineffective against the golem, Cole has no choice but to reach deep inside and call down a lightning bolt from the sky. It strikes the golem, shattering it and sending debris into the air. Zeke is calling out his name over the com as Cole sways and then collapses, the last thing he sees being the conduit’s angry and confused face.
• Cole wakes up hovering above a pool of water. His hands are bound in mishmash of random trash, yet it’s not connected to anything. Cole looks around and sees that he’s surrounded by Trash Men, with their leader, Alden Tate sitting in a wheelchair amongst them. He hold one closed fist out, using his telekinesis to keep Cole suspended above the water. Half his face and body is ravaged by scar tissue, with one of his eyes being gone. “You convinced the whole world you’re a god, McGrath,” he’ll snarl. “But since when can you be in two places at once?”
• Cole tries to keep quiet only for Alden to lower him. His feet enter the water, making him scream out in agony. Looking pleased with himself, Alden pulls him out again, says, “Give me a reason, Beast.”
• “…I’m…not…the Beast,” Cole wheezes.
• “Don’t be too hasty there, Boss.” The conduit Cole saved, Delsin Rowe, steps out from among the Trash Men. Your karma will dictate what he says next to Alden. If you went all murder hobo and killed all the Reapers, he’ll say, “He’s got power, that’s for sure. Took out the hoods by the dozen. Don’t have to trust him, but we can use him. Aim him at his brother or whatever.”
• If you instead focused on shielding him and trying to get to cover, he’ll instead say, “Beast talks big but in the end he don’t give two damns about nobody but himself. This guy…He saved me, Boss. And then he took down one of those overgrown snow cones like it was…Well, not nothing. But this guy can brawl.” He gestures to himself and the rest of Alden’s men. “We need somebody like him.”
• Either way, Alden will hesitate before bringing Cole over onto solid ground. Cole coats the metal bondages in ice and then tears through them. “Could’ve done that that…at…any time,” he says through gritted teeth.
• “Then why didn’t you?” Alden asks skeptically.
• “Because I’m not your enemy.”
• He then fills Zeke and Moya in on Alden and the Trash Men. They’ll be the main source of the side missions from this point out. Zeke’s focus on aiding the human minorities that live in the city’s slums, like getting medical supplies for them from the Reapers. Moya’s focus on directly sabotaging the Empire (blowing up bases, killing top members of the Reapers or Vermaak 88).
• This leads into an exploration, with Alden having assigned Delsin as Cole’s babysitter. He fills in as your assist character the same way Kuo and Nix did in specific side missions in the second game. Depending on what karma missions you complete, he’ll either grow to trust Cole-forming a bit of camaraderie with Cole and even letting him know that his big brother Reggie and the members of the Akomish tribe they were a part of all died from the plague. On Cole’s end, he’ll be tempted to tell Delsin about the whole dying-and-then-jumping-into-an-alternate-timeline-thing, but he ultimately keeps it to himself.
• Or, on the evil karma route, Delsin will become increasingly wary of Cole’s escalating hatred for the Beast, with them snapping and even getting into a super powered standoff at one point. Their evolving (or degrading) relationship will be the major moral center of the game.
• We eventually enter a neutral mission where Cole and Delsin infiltrate a factory/prison that’s manufacturing a streamlined version of Sasha’s tar. The tar is being used on captured rebel Conduits to brainwash them and switch them over to the Empire’s side. Delsin is particularly on edge during this mission but he brushes off any of Cole’s questions regardless of the latter’s alignment.
• They reach the tar-manufacturing section of the prison and suddenly get blindsided and knocked against a wall by a blast of neon-pink energy. Clutching at his head, Delsin looks up and says, his voice cracking, “Fetch?”
• In answer, a woman with dyed pink hair and dressed in Reaper clothes blasts at him and Cole again. Black veins wriggle up along her face and neck like worms as she does so. This triggers a boss fight where both Cole and Delsin try to take Fetch down, with Delsin desperately screaming at her to snap out of it throughout the whole fight.  
• After doing enough damage, Fetch will try to Kamehameha Delsin. A blast of neon energy fills the room, but as Cole watches on, he’ll see that it’s coming from Fetch and Delsin. He’s absorbed her powers and is throwing it right back at her. Delsin screams at Cole to get the hell out of there, but too late. There’s an explosion of neon and it sends Cole flying backwards and into a tank full of the tar. Cut to black.
• Cole finds himself floating in a black void, with a woman’s distorted voice echoing all around him. He then floats past cut scene versions of the most important moments of his life (activating the Ray Sphere, Trish dying, learning the truth about Kessler, the destruction of Empire city, rejecting John’s offer of power, and sacrificing himself to stop the plague) until he finally floats over into Sasha’s embrace.
• All the images start to distort and warp as she whispers tenderly to Cole, “You’re so tired, my love. As tired as he is bored…I can feel your pain. So much of it…So many sacrifices…And death. Your death. Was it worth it? You’ve now seen where you could have been, what you are. It’s not too late to take the throne…Just remember, you are what you eat….”
• Cole wakes up in a glass cell, with Moya sitting in a chair on the other side. This’ll be the first time we’ve really seen her in person in any of the games. Cole asks where they are and she’ll answer that they’re in the remnants of First Sons headquarters. She gestures to the room behind Cole. There’s a metal chair with leather straps and some random medical equipment. “This is where Kessler tested the Ray Sphere,” she’ll tell Cole. “Person after person after person. None of them were ever quite right. Because none of them of them were you.” She raises an eyebrow at Cole. “But what is it about you, McGrath, that makes you so special?”
• “This is freaking hilarious, Moya,” Cole says dryly, stumbling to his feet. “Now let me out before I bust out.”
• “You can try,” Moya replies.
• Cole raises his hands to blast out. Wisps of frost form around them before dispersing. Confused, he tries to use a bolt. Energy crackles around his fingertips but that also quickly fizzles out. “What…what did you do to me?”
• “Made you just like everybody else,” Moya answers with a knowing smile. “You know what they say about riding a bike? You could try and get your old job down. That is, if the real Cole McGrath hasn’t ripped you apart first-”
• “I AM THE REAL COLE MCGRATH!” Cole screams, tackling the glass wall. He makes the slightest crack but the wall itself holds. He punches the wall again before declaring through clenched teeth, “I died beating the Beast back home, and I’ll…I’ll do it again, here, if I have to…”
• Moya smiles and says, “That’s all we needed to know.” The crack Cole had made sudden ripples outward and the wall, along with all of reality, fractures. Cole is left standing on the roof of a tall building under a stormy sky. Hundreds of Reapers and Vermaak 88 members are perched on all of the surrounding buildings. Moya’s form distorts before turning into Sasha. She presses a finger to her lips before turning to face the two approaching figures: Beast Cole and Kuo.
• “This…this is impossible,” Kuo declares while looing between the two Coles. “How is this even happening?”
• The Beast will cock his head to the side, sizing Cole up, before chuckling darkly and saying, “You pulled a Kessler, didn’t you?” He starts to circle Cole, smoky energy crackling from his eyes and around his fingertips. “What? Couldn’t get the job done in your lifetime, so you had to crawl over into mine?”
• “What are you talking about?” Kuo will ask but Sasha shushes her down. Kuo pushes her off and asks the Beast, “What’s Kessler have to do with this?”
• “Bastard’s got everything to do with this,” Cole and the Beast will say in unison. Cole will sneer at him while the Beast looks amused. “Alright then, ‘McGrath’, I’ll play. Come on.” He offers Cole his hand. “Let’s go.”
• Cole scowls at him. “What the hell are you talking about?”
• The Beast speaks to him as one might to a small child, “I’ll help you. So just jump us back in time.”
• While Kuo stumbles back as if she’s been hit, Cole stares at him for a moment before realization dawns. “You can’t do it. You can do everything Nix and John could…but you can’t do what Kessler did. What I can do-”
• The Beast firebird strike’s Cole (his arms and legs spontaneously burst into flames and propel him forward), slamming into him and grinding him across the rooftop. Reapers and ice men yell out and raise their weapons in alarm but none move to intervene. The Beast drags Cole over to the edge of the rooftop, with Cole’s head hanging over the side. The Beast grabs ahold of his face and slowly starts energy draining the life out of him. “If you won’t do it, I’ll just take the power and do it myself,” the Beast snarls. “Amounts to the same thing, really.”
• As the edges of Cole’s vision darken he suddenly recalls Sasha’s words, “You are what you eat,” and grabs at the Beast’s neck. With no other choice, he tries to energy drain him, taking back the energy that the Beast stole. The two Coles are locked in a standoff, each trying desperately to steal the other’s power, to kill the other…
• Only for a bullet to strike the Beast in the back of the head, knocking him off Cole and over the side of the building. Reapers and ice men immediately start screaming and shooting in the shooter’s direction. It’s Zeke, riding atop a hunk of Metal, with Alden and the Trash Men backing him up. The Trash Men go to war with Reapers and Ice Men, with giant metal golems going up against ice titans, slamming each other into buildings and it. IS. EPIC. “Hang on, Cole!” Zeke calls down to his best friend.
• Coughing and massaging his throat, Cole tries to sit up, only to get flanked on both sides by Sasha and Kuo. He instinctively raises his hands and releases an Ionic Freeze that covers the entire surface of the rooftop. It freezes Sasha solid, but Kuo manages to easily walk through it. “How’d you…?’ she begin to ask but then says, “The machine. Back in New Marais. The one you used with Nix…Except…with us?”
• Cole struggles to his feet. “I don’t wanna hurt you, Kuo. Don’t make me. Move.”
• “Y’know, I’m getting really tired of McGrath’s ordering me around!” she declares, forcing Cole to fight her. None of his ice powers work on her, forcing him (for the first time in the game) to rely solely on his electricity-based one. And after eating some of the Beast’s juice, he’ll be back to near full strength, with access to more powerful shockwaves, grenades and rockets. Ice men will jump down to assist Kuo mid-fight, with the building on verge of collapse. After Cole takes them out, he and Kuo throw their last attack: Kuo releases an ionic freeze and Cole calls down a bolt of lightning. The lightning bolt tears through the ice, kills Kuo, and causes the building’s upper stories to explode, knocking Cole into the air.
• We get two flashes of pink and suddenly both Delsin and Fetch are there, both exuding neon light. They each grab ahold of one of Cole’s arms and manage to get some distance between them and the battle still raging. Fetch, now in clothing similar to the ones she wears in Second Son, lets go of Cole and asks, “Did we seriously just save the bad guy?”
• If Delsin and Cole have a good relationship, he’ll respond, “He’s not as bad as he looks.” If not, he’ll instead say, “Yeah, but we’ve both seen worse.”
• “I thought you were dead,” Cole tells him. “And since when can you…glow?”
• “Oh I can do way more than that,” Delsin says smugly. He’ll hold up his hands and circuits of electricity will dance around his fingertips. “The guy who said a copy can’t be better than the original never met me.”
• Fetch rolls her eyes. “Yeah, right.” She glances back at the battle. “So now what?”
• “The Beast is weak,” Cole will tell them. “We need to find him and take him down for good.”
• Delsin looks at him skeptically. “Okay, yeah, but how? Where’d you-he go?”
• “I’ve got a hunch,” Cole growls, leading them into the city. He’ll catch up with Zeke over com to make sure he’s okay and to thank him for the save. Zeke’s still fighting with the Trash Men, yet he laughs over the com, “Not like I never wanted to shoot you, pal.”
• “Where’s Moya?” Cole asks.
• “No clue. She gave us the coordinates of where they were holding you but-”
• “Dipped out before she had to get her hands dirty. Typical. I’m tracking the Beast down now, Zeke. Time to end this.”
• “Kill the bastard, but you better not die on me again, brother,…As contradictory as that sound,” Zeke replies.
• By this point the entire city has erupted into chaos. The usual gangs are duking it out, yet there are random Conduits joining the fray…And they’re aiding the Trash Men. After fighting their way through the city, taking down a few mini-bosses, they get out in the open, with the Beast’s throne in sight. Cole’s intuition was right; the Beast crawled his way here, and forty feet above him, Alden floats in a suit of scraps. He lobs metal projectile after metal projectile at him. “You stole my life!” the old man screams. “You stole my destiny!”
• The Beast catches the projectiles with a kinetic pulse, causing them all to float in the air for a second, screams, “GET OVER IT!” and sends them all hurdling back at Alden. They strike the old man. Near simultaneously the Beast calls down a black-scarlet bolt of lightning, destroying both Alden Tate and his own throne. The Beast then kneels, breathing hard and touching at his throat. His eyes stop emanating energy, leaving him looking very tired and in great pain.
• “MCGRATH!” Cole screams as he, Delsin, and Fetch surround the Beast. “It’s over. Give up.”
• The Beast takes a deep breath before straightening up, fixing on Cole with pure, unconditional hate. He gives Cole a “come at me” and the battle begins. Both Delsin and Fetch will act as support, with Cole being able to do combo attacks with them. At some point, Delsin will grab ahold of the Beast and both he and Cole will shoot rocket blasts at him. The options are limitless, but the number one priority should be: fun. The last few boss fights in inFAMOUS 2…weren’t. Especially the one with John/the Beast. This is the chance to fix that.
• Beast Cole-his body now falling apart, making him resemble the original Beast-in one last effort, blasts Delsin and Fetch away and tackles Cole. They both scream and the surrounding area is engulfed in a blast of red-black and blue-white energy. The two colors fight for dominance before…
• Good Karma Ending: The blast’s light turns blue and then shrinks inward, revealing Good Cole. He looks like the Beast except that the color scheme is blue and white as opposed to red and black. Instead of going back home, we cut to a montage of Cole becoming the true savior of this world. Memorials are set up for Kuo, Alden, and Nix. A new government is established, calling for equal rights for both Conduits and humans, with Delsin and Zeke acting as ambassadors for either group. Though Moya is still out there, plotting against them. The last shot is of Cole, Zeke, and Delsin up on a familiar rooftop, sharing a cooler of beers while watching the sunset.
• Evil Karma Ending: The Beast absorbs good Cole into himself, finally gaining the power to time travel. To finally get his revenge on Kessler. We then cut to the same vision from the end of the first game, the vision that Kessler showed Cole; of the Beast taking over the world and finally hunting down Kessler and his family. Except we now know that this Beast wasn’t John, but evil Cole coming to take away everything his future self holds dear. The last shot is of Kessler staring at his wedding photo before then traveling back in time to make sure his younger self is ready to face the Beast…

And there you go. There’s some stuff or characters I wish I could give more screen time. Like Kuo and how she’s actually trying to create a better world for Conduits. Or Delsin and Fetch’s relationship, along with Alden’s first fight against the Beast, or what happened to Moya, but this is already long enough as it is. I also don’t hate Second Son. I particularly like the characters of Delsin and Fetch, so I figured they’d be a good fit for a world of Conduits, even if I couldn’t give Fetch a lot of screen time.

As you can see, I focused on making the Kessler twist from the first game relevant again. It was barely even mentioned in the second game outside of dead drops. And I kind of wanted to bring everything together full circle. I considered not making dual endings but the karma systems a big part of the inFAMOUS games, so instead I tried to make both endings impactful to the overall story.

Whether or not this story would work as a game is something I’ll never know, but I think I did alright. This just leaves me with one last thing to do.

Bye, Cole. Rest well, Electric Man.   

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”

            -Theodore Roosevelt