Yeah, I've seen cool stuff. The "after a while" part is what made me quit.
But I don't want to derail because I think this game is really good.
You get improved Static Thrusters a few hours into the game, and that improves traversal significantly, even before you get the ice launch. The improved Static Thrusters increases Cole's speed while grinding on power lines, and hovering, and also gives him increased height when hovering, so you can go further and faster when moving across the city. It may not seem like a lot, but it's a huge improvement, and you really get a satisfying sense of speed afterwards.
Both i1 and i2 rewarded the player with more powers as they progressed. It never just handed everything out to the player from the start. inFAMOUS 2 keeps giving you new abilities all the way up until pretty much the end of the game. It's a shame that so many people in this thread kept writing it off after a short time (some guy stopped playing 30 minutes in!). It's a slow burn series, but SS looks like it speeds up the pace in comparison.