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Right or wrong, it's my life and I choose how to use it.
― Cole MacGrath
Karmic Moments are moments in the game where the game stops and Cole thinks of the possibilities and outcomes of his choices. They are indicated by a red and blue lightning symbol divided by a question mark (?) as seen in picture at right. Each moment will have an outcome that will lower or raise your Karma level.
inFamous
Food drop
Once Cole defeats the Reapers attacking Archer Square, he looks over the dropped provisions. Afterwards, Cole has to choose between:
- Good: Letting the crowd take the food.
- Bad: Zapping the crowd to make them flee.
The end result is either Trish thanking Cole or scolding him.
Trivia: Discharging your electricity at all will result in an Evil Karma, even if you do not hit anyone.
Riot
After Cole and Zeke make it to Stampton Bridge, they find a mob of people protesting to be let out of the quarantine. There are several armed riot police. From here you can:
- Good: Face the riot police yourself. This will lead to less innocent lives being lost.
- Bad: Zap a policeman from inside the crowd. This will cause a mass riot with loss of life from the crowd.
Open The Door
On the story mission, Blood Trail, when Cole finds Brandon in the sewer after chasing the echo of him, he asks him to open the door to access the generator of the sewers, but is too afraid and refuses to do it. Cole's choices are:
- Good: Tell Brandon that his wife is dead, and that Cole promises to take out every reaper on the Neon. That then convinces him to open the door.
- Bad: Shock the door apart which also kills Brandon in the process of opening the door.
The Rescue
This is automatically unlocked after completion of "The Rescue" mission. There is no choice here, rather it plays a different clip depending on your Karma.
- Good: If the player's Karma is good, the crowd will cheer Cole and thank him for rescuing the people. He describes the crowd as hypocrites, however, he admits it is nice to finally feel accepted instead of being called off.
- Bad: If the player's Karma is bad, the crowd will boo and attempt to attack Cole. He zaps and kills a person, causing the rest to flee.
Tar kegs
During missions such as Dark Water, Cole can destroy or overload the tar kegs. Destroying them causes him to temporarily hallucinate. Overloading them leaks excess tar into the water main, poisoning more people.
- Good: The player can destroy the Kegs using a Electromagnetic Shockwave at close range Splashing the tar onto himself causing temporary hallucinations.
- Evil: The Player can overload the Kegs from a distance using lightning bolts but in the process causing them to dump their payload into the water supply.
Exposure
When Cole is chasing the ghost of the Dust Man Conduit in "Zeke's Request" you will run into a man making posters of Cole. He will ask you which you like to which you can respond:
- Good: Pick the good picture of Cole, which is him in a clean, crime free city. Cole is holding a lightning bolt (like the Greek god Zeus, who also controlled electricity) with people cheering him.
- Bad: Pick the bad picture of Cole, which is a giant picture of him with half his face as a skull overlooking a destroyed Empire City.
Them Or Me?
At the end of the mission Secrets Revealed, a Golem Conduit is going to throw the gas tank of a helicopter at Cole. The catch is that a bunch of wounded pedestrians are in range of the detonation, at the Golem's feet. You can:
- Good: Let the Golem sling the tank at you. This saves the wounded people, but will harm you and your speed.
- Evil: Shoot the tank. This will rip off the Golem's arm, and make the fight easier for you. But it will also kill the pedestrians.
Trivia: If the player has the rank of hero, the golem will throw the tank as soon as the player regains control, making it impossible to destroy the tank.
If the player has the rank of Infamous, the golem will take approximately 2.5 seconds longer to throw the tank.
Intentions
When Kessler tells Cole that Trish has been kidnapped he tells him that he has to make a choice. One roof holds Trish, another roof holds six doctors. The doctors could save countless lives, while Trish is what Cole cherishes most.
- Good: Thinking for the greater good, Cole rescues the doctors. Trish then falls to her death.
- Bad: Thinking only of himself, Cole attempts to rescue Trish. What Cole doesn't know is that Kessler actually disguised her as one of the six doctors. She then falls to her death.
Either way, Trish dies. If the player's Karma is good, Trish tells Cole how proud she was that he was using his powers for good. If the player's Karma is bad, she tells how much she hates Cole, and says that "God gave you these powers, and you squandered them."
The Sphere
Once Cole and John make it to the dock where the Ray Sphere is being kept, Cole has the choice to activate it or destroy it. This is one of the few options where being bad has a better reward.
- Good: Destroy the Sphere, causing a vortex that sucks John in.
- Bad: Activate it, which still causes John to get sucked into the Sphere. You then are granted 1500 XP, stronger attacks, four extra battery cores, and your attacks are now black and red. This choice causes you to be permanently stuck at Infamous rank regardless of what your rank was previously.
Other Karma choices
There are also other choices that do not affect the story line. These include:
- Public Hanging: Angry citizens have tied another person to a street light for stealing food. You can cut the person down (Good), or leave him to die (Evil).
- Blast Shard Payment: Several side missions revolve around pedestrians that have Blast Shards they will give to Cole if he does something for them. You can do their bidding and earn the shards peacefully (Good), or kill the pedestrian (or in some cases, police officers) and steal the shards (Evil).
inFamous 2
The Karma system returns in inFamous 2, with a tweaked system to remove 'the hammer-blow' Karma moments, so there's a much more subtler version.
Swamp village
At the beginning of the game Cole comes to a villiage in the swamp that the Militia are using as a base. You have to lower a bridge by powering up the transformer. Kuo says that if you overcharge it you can blow up the villiage. Cole sees it would also kill all the Militia in the villiage too. You can choose to just power it up and fight the Militia or overcharge it and kill all the Militia, but also killing all the citizens in the villiage.
Infiltrate the base
Somewhere in the game, Cole has to enter a Militia base to rescue Kuo. Zeke suggests that Cole frees the cops that are being held prisoner by the Militia and use them as backup on a assault on the base, this option gives more fire power and more Militia to be dealt with. Nix suggest that Cole rides a streetcar loaded with explosives, overloading the engine to make it go faster. When it reaches enough speed, the streetcar will fly off it's tracks, slams into the bases' front gates and explodes. This is an easier entrance and less Miltia will be dealt with, but innocent people will be hurt.
Power Transfer Machine
Some point in the game, the player finds a device used to transfer powers from one Conduit to another. This is how Cole gains his Pyrokinesis from Nix or Cryokinesis from Kuo. It acts similar to the Ray Sphere Karmic momment in inFAMOUS, and the there's no going back for this change.
The Final Decision
In the final mission of the game, Cole, Nix, Zeke, and Kuo meet up to discuss what to do regarding defeating the Beast and curing the plague. Kuo agrees with John White's (the Beast) plan to activate as many Conduits as possible before the plague kills them, while Nix and Zeke go with the plan to activate the RFI, which will cure the plague, but kill every Conduit on the planet, including Cole himself. Depending on Cole's Karmic alignment, he can fulfill his destiny and either sacrifice himself to save Humanity or betray Humanity in order to save himself.