First Infamous was rough to get in to. Cole's running animations and climbing animations aren't the best but adequate. You take too long to get travel powers for sure and the graphics are a bit rough though ambitious. Having finally beat it a couple days ago I think it's a great game overall. The game really opens up once you get more of your powers and the story is fun enough, the main missions are also varied enough to be interesting. I did a good play through and am moving on to Infamous 2 which will let you pick up from your game of Infamous. (cool) I can see doing an evil play through at a later date.
Infamous 2 has taken my complaints from the first game and almost entirely corrected them. The graphics are a huge step up, the animations are better, you get travel powers right off the bat. I'm having a great time with this game so far but I'm not that far in yet.
I'm definitely excited for Infamous Second Son seeing the progress they made just from 1 to 2. I'd say if you had problems getting in to the first Infamous give it another shot or maybe try the second. I know I never got to even trying to second game because I wanted to finish the first and honestly I'm a little blown away so far at how improved it is. The first is still a great game IMO and worth spending the time to get to the meat.