Platform Played On: PS4
Rating: 8/10
Verdict: While it "tweaks" more than it "innovates," the Infamous series is solid and Second Son is an improvement in some ways while being a step-down in others. I don't feel that the story is as good as the first Infamous, but the characters are an improvement and the fact you can use different types of powers instead of just electricity is appealing to me.
When the first Infamous came out, I bought it over Prototype originally, though I ended up getting Prototype eventually anyway. My reasoning for this was because Infamous looked like a less flashy game with better pacing. Prototype seemed like it would be fun for a shorter period of time. I was correct in this assessment, as Infamous was just a better game in the long run. Though a person could criticize Cole, I felt the story in the first game was pretty awesome, with a great plot twist. Infamous 2 improved the series gameplay-wise, but I felt the story was lacking.
Now there's Infamous: Second Son, the third entry in a really solid Playstation exclusive series.
In Second Son, you play as Delsin Rowe, a rebellious graffiti artist who wears a beanie that has a tendency to annoy his straight-faced cop brother Reggie. He does this by constantly being up to little petty crimes (such as tagging) where Reggie has to arrest him... again. Delsin is a member of a tribe, and of course before you know it, things take a turn for the worst when Augustine shows up. Brooke Augustine is the main villain of the game and is a member of the Department of Unified Protection -- a group that is out to imprison all "Conduits" (or Bioterrorists) because they have powers and normal people obviously do not.
So far, so X-Men, basically. Can humans and
Where Infamous had a bigger story, Second Son strips it down and tries to focus on the characters. Because of this, the characters are more developed and interesting but I felt the game lacked the sense of intrigue that the original game did. Some people have praised this move because they disliked Cole so much, but I felt that Infamous felt different because of the direction they went. By the time the end came I was in awe of how the story turned out, but Second Son lacks that for me. It's not that Second Son has a bad story, but it's more predictable and despite their best efforts to create interesting characters, they're basically all just cliches. Delsin is carefree, with his pins and his damn beanie, whereas there's a character who is a typical punk rocker chick, and there's a nerdy gamer. Oh, and of course Delsin's cop brother who only wants what's best for him. You can learn their backstories when you gain their abilities (more on that in a bit), and that helps flesh them out a little in regards to their motivations.
The interactions between the characters are fine, but it doesn't inspire to be anything more than a lot of games. I had a hard time getting invested in any of the characters, but Delsin is an improvement over Cole... and even helps present a few genuinely funny moments throughout the game that made me chuckle a bit. Augustine had an understandable motive, but I feel like I've seen it a million times before. It wasn't told badly, it was just pretty average.
What I do like though is that the game is paced well. This applies to every aspect of the game, whether it's gaining abilities or the plot. The game never overstays its welcome, and this has been something that Sucker Punch has done really well throughout the entire series. Sucker Punch gives you new abilities at a good pace, so you're always getting something. You start with Smoke powers, but before you know it you have Neon, and the game goes on from there. It doesn't flood you with abilities like Prototype does, so it's hard to get bored of it.
I figure a point of contention with people would be how long the game is. You can complete it quite fast, especially if you don't 100% it. The story goes by quickly, but to be fair, there's a "good and bad" morality system -- like in the previous games -- so you can always go through and play the game differently. As far as I know, people react differently to you but the overall game doesn't change much outside of the ending.
The moral system isn't anything special, and I can't help but think of a game like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic that seems ancient at this point but does this kind of thing exceptionally well. I know, I know, they're two different genres but why can't we expect a little more at this point? Is the moral system a good addition to a game? Almost always that's a yes, but Infamous: Second Son -- like its predecessors -- doesn't do anything memorable with it. It works, but I would have liked to see them do more, especially since this is the third game.
If you choose to 100% the game, you will get more hours out of it, obviously, but it's still not very long. I don't care because there are tons of games I want to play and I don't need every game to be a hundred hours, but this seems to bother some people. Let me repeat: it's not a short game, but it's not as long as a lot of sandbox games are. None of the Infamous games have been long though, and I think it's a blessing because a) Sucker Punch doesn't just milk the game to the point of boredom and b) the side-missions and whatnot are repetitive (hell, by default in the genre they usually are).
I'm not a huge fan of what I call "fluff gameplay." What I mean by that is I don't really think making you walk long distances over and over again (looking at you MMOs) and doing the same repetitive tasks over and over again (looking at you most sandbox games) is necessarily a good trait for a game to have. The side-missions are decent, allowing you to tag walls (by making you turn your controller on its side and press R2 to spray paint the holes of your stencil), find a secret agent in a crowd, and a few other different things, but the game doesn't overload you with them. I actually think this is a strength, because I end up skipping most side-missions after a certain point anyway because they get exhausting. In Second Son, I don't feel like I'm missing as much. I don't generally take points off of games for sandbox games having repetitive side-missions because I am aware it's what makes the genre what it is, though there are some games that are terrible in this regard.
The most interesting side-mission though is the Paper Trail. It is a mixture of typical Second Son side-missions and actually going on the internet to solve a crime. There are going to be six episodes, updated each week (for free), so I can't say how it all ends, but it's a novel idea and stands out.
The game looks good and shows off the power of the PS4. I'll be honest... since I'm not really a graphics whore, I generally have nothing terrible to say about graphics, but I can still appreciate when a game does them well. The character models are detailed to the point that they actually have some real emotion on their faces, and the city looks great too when you're looking down over it.
Seattle is also designed well. Gone are the days of having to grab ledges and slowly jump up buildings (thank God), because now there are ways to get up quickly and efficiently. For example, with the beginning Smoke power, there are vents that send you shooting up. These vents are frequent and welcomed. The other abilities allow you to run up, or fly up, and I can't stress enough how fluid this makes the game feel.
As a whole, from a gameplay perspective, Second Son is the best in the series, but like most of the game, it also feels incredibly familiar. Sucker Punch merely tweaked certain aspects of the game rather than innovate them. This is fine, but it's hard not to feel it all becomes a little "been there, done that" at this point.
However, it's still fun and the enemies are intelligent and dangerous so you're never just going through the motions. They present a challenge, even if there are only a couple of them shooting you. You can die if you're not careful, but if you're smart you can do a lot of damage quick.
The different powers you get are still basically like the powers that Cole gets, which is kind of a disappointment, but there are a few different ones. Still, it seems like each type of power follows a similar template to one another. Neon doesn't feel a whole lot different than Smoke, but there are little changes here and there. They vary slightly, but you will always have a movement ability, a missile ability and a normal shooting ability.
You can make these abilities more powerful by collecting shards. Shards, like most things, show up on the map -- which streamlines the experience as a whole and makes it better since you aren't just wandering around aimlessly trying to find things -- and they act as points. You've done this before... get so many points, put them into whatever power you like most, or unlock upgrades to them. The only thing that holds you back is karma, which is the moral system. If you aren't a certain karma level, you won't be able to progress your skills. That's why it pays to go all-in, whichever side you choose.
This isn't a spoiler unless for some reason knowing what song plays in the credits is a spoiler to you, but I thought it was a nice touch to have a cover for Heart-Shaped Box by Nirvana. It's not as good as the original, but how often do you hear a Nirvana song in games?
If I sounded so negative that you're questioning the score I gave it, let me explain. I enjoyed my time with Infamous: Second Son. Even though it's more of the same, it's a good more of the same because the series is great. I'd probably give the first Infamous a 9 because I loved the story, and I knocked Second Son down a point because despite the story being more personal, I didn't get emotionally invested in it. I also think at this point the developers should consider going a different route with the series. Don't completely change anything and keep the core gameplay, but add more to the experience.
Definitely agree with everything you said! Loved this game, but it definitely had its flaws.
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