Evil Karma is the morally negative side of the Karmic system. In this state, Cole MacGrath is ruthless and egotistic, caring only about himself and how his powers will benefit him instead of the civilians of Empire City and New Marais. He also appears to be more sexually charged, openly flirting with Nix. If Cole follows his negative impulses his appearance changes and his lightning turns a dark red, becoming jet black with a red hue if the "correct" decision is made. In inFamous 2, Cole's lightning appears a reddish orange color.
Ranks
- Thug - The first rank, Cole will often hear negative side comments from civilians.
- Outlaw - The second rank, Cole will be approached and be pointed at by civilians, stating very negative side comments about his actions, stating that he should leave the city. In inFamous 1 Cole's posters are also crossed out with red X's, implying the civilian's hatred towards him.
- Infamous - The third and final rank, Cole is a public enemy, and most civilians will attempt to throw stones at him, paired with insults and negative comments.
Gaining Negative Karma
Gameplay
During combat, Cole must perform evil acts, such as purposely involving the civilians during one of his fights, using attacks with a wide area of effect (such as the Shock Grenade, the Thunder Drop and Electromagnetic Shockwave). Also, as much as possible, Cole should kill subdued and downed enemies, which will also net him extra experience points. Also, Cole should use the Bio Leech ability as much as possible, for it nets Cole negative Karma, as well as healing his wounds nearly instantly.
Evil Karmic Decisions
In some of the game's Karmic Moments, Cole must perform the morally evil act in order to gain negative
Karma.
Story Related
- Food Drop: Cole must blast one of the civilians in order to get them to back off, allowing Cole, Zeke, and Trish to keep the food for themselves.
- Escaping Empire City: Cole must blast the police force from within the crowd, thereby sparking a riot and keeping the heat off of Cole and Zeke.
- Opening the Sewer Door: Cole must blast through the door, killing Brandon Carey, but allowing him to pass through.
- Tar Valve: Cole must force the civilian to turn the valve, keeping himself clean of the tar.
- Train Rescue: Cole must maintain his Evil Karma during the mission in order to gain a negative outcome in the mission.
- Tar Kegs: Cole must repeatedly blast the tar keg in order to overwork the pumping mechanism, effectively removing the keg, but at the consequence of pumping too much of the tar inside the water tower.
- Choosing a Poster: Cole must choose the red poster of him overlooking a destroyed Empire City.
- The Golem Conduit: Cole must blast the keg while it's still floating, harming the golem at the cost of the civilians.
- Saving the Doctors: Cole must save Trish in order to gain the negative outcome.
- The Ray Sphere: Cole must activate the Ray Sphere.
Others
- Hanging: Cole must leave the civilian to die by the hands of the crowd.
- Blast Shards: In some missions, Cole is offered a single blast shard while the civilian/police force is seen keeping several more. Cole must kill the civilian/police force and steal the shards in order to gain a negative outcome.
Evil Karma Opportunities
In inFamous 2, several opportunities are presented to Cole all throughout New Marais, where he can decide whether to act or not.
- Police Officers: Several police officers are on patrol after being informed of Cole's activities around the city. Cole can subdue them, though they will not react until they are provoked, or until Cole is at the Infamous rank, where they will react as soon as they spot him.
- Silencing Street Performers: Several street acts, performers, and musicians can be seen around New Marais. To gain negative Karma, Cole must take them down.
- Stealing Blast Shards: Several pedestrians and civilians can be seen running off with a Blast Shard at their hands. Cole can take the Blast Shard after dealing with the said pedestrian.
- Dealing with Protesters: Several pro-Bertrand civilians have banded together in protest against Cole MacGrath's presence. They can be seen holding picket signs and chanting anti-Cole statements. Cole can opt to silence them.
Evil Karma Main Story Missions
Several Main Story Missions in inFamous 2 present players with a choice as to either follow the morally correct way of clearing it, or the incorrect one. After playing one of these choices, the other option will no longer be available for play, and will remain locked for the rest of the game.
- Generator-When enter New Marais through swamp Cole must choose to overcharge the bridge power, causing an explosion which will reduce the amount of Militia he will face, but also kill innocent victims.
- BOOM!-When rescuing Lucy Kuo, Cole must choose to burn the place down with the explosives-rigged train car with Nix.
- Fool The Rebels-When getting the Rebels to follow you, Cole must choose to fool them into thinking that he's saving them from a freak Militia attack (which would be led by Nix on a turret).
- Hots For Nix-When choosing between Lucy Kuo and Nix on who to transfer powers with at the Power Transfer Device, Cole must choose Nix.
- Nix's Pets-When discussing on how to take down Joseph Bertrand III, Cole must choose to build an army of the Corrupted with Nix.
- Final Decision-When deciding on whether to use the Ray Field Inhibitor or follow John White's method of saving the world, Cole must opt for the latter, and side with Kuo and John in turning the world's populace into Conduits.
Effects on Cole
inFamous
In a place with no law, the strong take what they want, and the weak are their slaves, their play things... And no one is stronger than me.
― Cole, once he has conquered Empire City.
Cole is easily angered due to his mentality.
During this mental state, Cole is shown as a selfish, ruthless and egotistic individual. He shows very little concern for anyone except himself, and mostly destroys everything around him. As he performs more evil deeds, the civilians get more and more fearful and irritated by Cole, often shouting insults and threats at him. Eventually, Cole will be thrown at with rocks or physicaly attacked by the civilians due to their immense hate over him, and several of Cole's posters will be crossed out and vandalized. Zeke notices some of the changes that happen to Cole, like he sees a "crazy look in his eyes", implying that his mentality has been severely affected.
Cole's powers are also affected by his mentality. His powers will adapt to his destructive nature, with his powers becoming more scattered. An example is his Shock Grenade attack (the single grenade scatters into several other grenades after being thrown) and also the Electromagnetic Shockwave (a single shockwave can cause a static discharge on vehicles, causing them to explode). Cole also has a very deadly touch-related power that he can use to usurp the residing neuro-electric energy within an individual, causing them to die in exchange for Cole becoming fully-healed (Bio Leech).
Cole's appearance changes drastically as he becomes more evil. His track suit turns into black and gray, and his skin turns paler and paler as his negative Karmic state goes higher. As he continues to do evil deeds, several black markings resembling a distorted electric current start to appear on his skin, as if he's being corrupted. Once he has reached the pinnacle of his Karmic state, Cole will appear as a sickly visage of his former self, with dull gray skin and gray clothes, along with the dark markings on his skin.
inFamous 2
Similar to how civilians of Empire City reacted, the people of New Marais will despise Cole and his presence in the city if he continues to act evil. Majority of them will shout and scream at them, while those who are brave enough will attack him, either by punching and kicking him, or by throwing rocks at him, however once Cole attacks a civilian, most other civilians in the area would flee in fear. Also, several civilians that are part of the Evil Karma Opportunities will start to attack him the moment he is seen.
Similar to the first instalment, Cole's appearance changes significantly as his Karmic rank rises. His skin pales and small veins begin to appear. His t-shirt's color changes from black and yellow to dark red and black, appearing tattered and ripped, and also seen wearing a red belt to go along with his pants. His tattoos transform into motifs that resemble several demonic symbols, like snakes, devil horns, and downward arrowheads. His sling bag appears a darker brown, and the Amp appears to be more rusty and dirtier, almost black. Also, his electrical energy appears a bright orange red.
Endings
inFamous
These powers are only good for one thing, letting me take what I want, when I want.
― Cole, after dealing with Kessler.
After dealing with Kessler, Cole has seen the product of the chaos he's created, with Empire City destroyed beyond all repair, and the populace living under fear. As he takes pride on his accomplishment of destroying the city, Cole remarks that Kessler was an idiot to think Cole would use his powers for the greater good, as he remarked that his powers were only good for his self benefit. As he stands over what is left of Empire City, he remarks that only strong can stand and survive, while the weak are their playthings, and that no one is stronger than him.
inFamous 2
I had been given powers to save the world from this change. But now, I stand at its center. I have become the Beast.
― Cole, after becoming the very thing he was supposed to destroy.
Cole, receiving new powers from John.
After Cole kills Nix and Zeke and destroys the RFI, John admits that he is tired and can no longer carry on, though he believes that Cole has the conviction needed to finish what they had started. John then transfers his powers to Cole, who feels a powerful surge of energy flow through him, granting him immense power. Once Cole has his powers John dies and Cole let out a powerful blast that reduced New Marais to rubble, though turned several civilians into Conduits. This was just the beginings of Cole's plan.
Gathering all the Conduits he has made, Cole, Kuo, and the others would follow him all over the world, clearing town after town as he makes new Conduits, though in the process, curing what can be left of humanity by the Ray Field Plague. Though the government made efforts to stop them, Cole's new found power was just too much for them, as he was able to destroy the government's forces within seconds.
Cole's power proves to be immense, as he has now become the Beast.
Cole and his Conduit army arrives at another city, and just as he was about to activate his powers again and turn part of humanity into Conduits, he realizes that he has become the very reason that he was given his powers. He destroys the city and kills the civilians while activating potential conduits, while coming to accept the fact that he is now "The Beast".
Trivia
- Cole's electrical energy can be turned into jet-black with a deep red hue if Cole activates the Ray Sphere in inFamous 1. The Karmic meter is then locked on Infamous for the rest of the game.
- Cole will become Infamous if he activates the Ray Sphere, regardless of his Karmic state.
- Cole is able to use the Arc Restraint to gain negative Karma, if Cole kills the restrained individual or used on civilians.
- Several Good Karma Opportunities can be turned around, and can yield Cole more negative Karma. These opportunities are:
- Defuse a Blast Shard Bomb: In this opportunity, Cole can blast at the bomb and cause the explosion, tearing its surroundings apart and killing all nearby civilians. By killing the cop trying to defuse the bomb, before draining it, Cole gains no negative Karma, but may still collect the shard.
- Stop a mugging: Before or after dealing with the enemy units, Cole can subdue the civilian and kill him/her to gain negative Karma.
- Stated by the developers, the Evil Endings are always the non-canon versions, stating that they represent the "What If..." scenarios of the series.
- In Infamous 2 Cole will stand in a different position when in the Infamous rank, standing in a more hunched or crooked posture.
- In the evil ending movie of Infamous 2, Cole, although of supposedly Infamous rank at the time, will be wearing a black and white outfit. However, he maintains his red electricity as shown when he blasts some jets that try to attack him and the conduits.
- In Infamous 2 gameplay Cole's lighting is light reddish-orange, yet in the evil ending cut scene Cole uses pure red electricity to destroy some military jets that assault him.
- A possible explanation for this is that the transfer of the Beast's power into Cole caused his lighting to evolve and turn red with power.
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