Tagging My Way Back Into Your Heart - An Infamous: Second Son Review

Written By: Tyler
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 mutants Conduits co-exist?

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.

On The Gamely Episode 4 - EA, Kingdom of Amalur, Falskaar Skyrim Mod and More

Hello peeps. Here is Episode 4 of On The Gamely! We talk video games!

http://youtu.be/DiIlgCKmZPk

PS4 Launch Party - Oh Man This Is A Long Killzone: Shadow Fall Review

Written By: Tyler Selig

               

Rating: 9.5

Verdict: Killzone: Shadow Fall will not do anything to encourage non-Killzone fans to sign up, but there are certain aspects of it that are refreshing in a crowded genre.

            You’re going to look at this review and think, “Wow, a 9.5? Seriously?” It probably won’t help that I’m really considering giving it a 10 because while I know it has its flaws, I’m so willing to overlook them because they aren’t huge and I have such a good time playing. While I won’t apologize for that, I will explain a few things that will hopefully clarify how I approached this game.

                Firstly, I am a Killzone guy. If anybody actually watches On The Gamely, I think I’ve mentioned it in every video so far. I believe that a lot of gamers have a shooter or two that they gravitate towards, and Killzone is mine. There’s where my bias is. Some will close this review right now because of that, but games in a series are made for fans of the series, with hopes that they’ll bring in new fans. It’s why I can’t criticize an open Call of Duty fanboy for thinking a Call of Duty is a 10. They like the mechanics of the series just like I like the mechanics of Killzone. I believe reviewers should be honest about their biases but with that said I will try to do a good job in making this review appeal to both Killzone fans and people who aren’t familiar with it.

                I also put more emphasis on the multiplayer aspect of Shadow Fall than the campaign. Some people would give equal weight to both, while some would give campaign more. To me, Killzone is my multiplayer shooter so while this review does take the campaign into consideration, the final score is more dependent on the multiplayer. I would do the same thing for Battlefield 4 if I were reviewing it because to me, that’s a series that focuses more on multiplayer. I would say even Call of Duty should be approached like that. But I know other people have different opinions on what I’ve said in this paragraph. A solid single player experience can only help, but a solid multiplayer experience matters more to me.

                So let’s move on now. I’m breaking the review up into a few different sections, which is something I rarely do but it makes it easier for me to gather my thoughts this time around.

Single Player

                Killzone: Shadow Fall puts you in events that are largely influenced by the Cold War. You have your two rival groups, like always, but there is a wall separating them. I’m a huge fan of this kind of thing, so right from the get-go, I was intrigued by what they’d do with this. How would they handle potential social commentary? Would they nail a dystopian-type vibe? Would it be fun to shoot the Helghast once again?

                Killzone has never had real interesting characters that you could truly feel for. But a lot of shooters don’t. This game isn’t like The Darkness, where I was so invested in the characters that I actually felt sad. Killzone has always offered a more general look at things – less about the individuals (though certainly there are individuals), and more about the war between two sides. That doesn’t forgive not having characters you can cheer for, but it does put it in context. I will say that Shadow Fall is the closest I’ve gotten to really caring about the individuals. So that’s a plus.

                The series has also always had an extremely interesting story but wasn’t told well in the game. Seriously, if you read about the story, it’s got depth and intrigue, but the games don’t go into a lot of detail. It’s not as simple as “Good vs Evil,” but the games haven’t really done a great job showing that. Shadow Fall also did a better job of immersing me in the world, offering some really great audio logs, comic book pages and just better story telling in general. It’s a step up from the other games in the series in this regard as well.

                There are a couple major changes to the campaign this time around. It’s less of a corridor shooter (which really isn’t a bad thing… not all games have to be open) this time around, as Guerrilla Games went a more Crysis route. Now you can approach a lot of the situations more freely, whether that be stealth or guns blazing. I think the game tries to get you to focus on only taking on a few enemies at a time, because things get hectic when they know you’re there. Offering more choice to the player is a welcome change for the series, and makes the campaign better. It also gives us a few different things to do besides shoot, like free fall which gets intense or float around in areas with zero gravity.

                The other major change is the OWL. It’s a little drone that changes up the strategy in the game. You can drop a shield in front of you, use it to stun enemies, order it to attack enemies or use it to zip line to areas. You use it by selecting what option you want with the touchpad and then press L2 to deploy it. I’m not really convinced on the touchpad in general, but they didn’t complicate the matter which is nice.

                The AI is a bit of a problem. Sometimes the Helghast do stupid things like duck into cover right in front of me, or just run around like idiots. It’s not terrible, as most of the time they are smart enough to flank me, drop a turret, teleport or get into proper cover, but I can get behind people saying the AI is an issue. Small, because consistent AI in games seems to be a problem in the industry overall, but it’s there.

                The campaign has a good length, being over 10 hours. Some people complain about this, but this is where we are for the genre. Unless you’re playing an open-world game or an RPG, these are the type of lengths you get. So you get no complaint from me there, especially since there is a robust multiplayer mode packed in.

Multiplayer

                Here we are, the multiplayer – the thing I mainly come to Killzone for. Even in the first one me and a friend played that first and spent hours playing it that day. So does it live up to the standards set in the previous games? For the most part, yeah.

                I want to get the negatives out of the way so I can gush. I don’t know why Guerrilla Games made such a crappy post-match UI. It boggles my mind why they wouldn’t include your deaths. It has your kills and assists, but no deaths? Kill/death ratio has always matter more than how many kills you get, at least to me. They had a good UI for Killzone 3, and they over-complicated it for this sequel.

                This may only bother me, but I like it showed you where your party members were in Killzone 3. It allowed me and my older brother to find each other more easily.

                I also don’t understand why there is no chat in-game. It doesn’t matter to me because I have no desire to talk to most people and a lot of people just act like knobs, but at this point, how can you make an online game that doesn’t include this feature?

                Am I the only one who hates the base camp suicides? I know, only an idiot would run into their base, but I’m an idiot. I just wish they would have done it differently, like put up a wall that you can’t go through instead of giving you insta-death. Sometimes you just run up by mistake. If you’re going to have this kind of system and not one that changes the spawn points, just do it differently.

                I am hoping that Guerrilla Games hears the complaints regarding some of these and release a patch that changes this. These three things add up and dampen my experience a bit.

                Killzone: Shadow Fall offsets these issues by doing things a little bit differently than most shooters that it’s competing against. I have this issue where I don’t know if I like the multiplayer in Killzone 2/3 better than this, and it’s because of these changes. I appreciate them, I just am not sure which I would prefer. With that said, I like both and I respect what was done here immensely.

                Instead of a typical experience system where you level up after matches, this operates on a challenge system, meaning you do certain things like kill 25 people with a certain grenade or gun, or stun so many enemies, etc, in order to advance, unlock things or improve your abilities. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this before the game came out because I felt like it could make me do stuff I didn’t want to do just so I could “level up.” Luckily, they handled this really well. The challenges make logical sense and it hasn’t really affected me that much. It does make me think a little bit more about how I want to approach my loadouts, and that’s a nice change. I can now say that my fears about that are cooled down, and like I said, I respect Guerrilla Games for driving down a different road for this one.

                They also overhauled the classes. From Killzone 2 and 3, they changed them up, but Killzone: Shadow Fall is a lot different. Sure, you still have abilities that you know and love/hate from previous games like Snipers going invisible, or air-support drones, but they give you three classes that are really customizable this time around. The classes are Support, Assault and Scout. This was another aspect I was unsure of. I don’t like every change they made, but there are some that I do.

                I enjoy the shield, for example. A lot. It changes up the gameplay severely, and I don’t think I have really mastered it by any means. It’s a blast seeing two opposing sides in a small room with shields all over the place. It just adds to everything. I don’t know if I’d say it makes it more “tactical” but it offers you something different to worry about.

                I was unsure of abilities like the Scout being able to teleport to a random spot, especially since the Scout is basically the sniper class and those bastards can already go invisible. But I feel like they handled it well by giving each class an ability they have to use and then a second one that they can choose.

                I miss certain abilities like being able to camouflage yourself as an enemy, and I don’t know why they took that out, but they did a good job of balancing the classes. All three are viable options, and all three have certain advantages and disadvantages. There are nit-picky issues for each like why certain guns don’t have a silencer, but maybe that’s only my problem and nobody else cares. I still think I’d prefer the class system that they gave in 2 and 3 more, but I do really enjoy this too. Like I’ve said before… Shadow Fall is a lot different. I respect both ways, and I’m unsure most of the time of which I’d prefer.

                The maps may be the best of the series. Only Killzone 2 can rival them. I’ve enjoyed pretty much every map to some extent, with some I love. They even sort-of brought back my favourite from Killzone 3 (the Boulevard), but changed things and named it The Remains. Levels like The Park, The Slums, The Remains and The Forest rival the best maps in the series, and even the weaker ones are good. There is variety in all of the maps, and there are a good amount of them (10 total, but not everyone is available in Deathmatch, which is a choice I’ve never understood).

                If I were a different type of player, I would lament the fact that Killzone games have never offered much in the way of multiplayer game types. I’m generally only a guy who plays one or two game types anyway so it doesn’t really bother me, though I wish they had “Capture The Flag.”

                With Shadow Fall, they changed it up though and this is a vast improvement. The classic Warzone mode shows up again, only this time you can customize the experience. So maybe you only want to play one of the different types that the Warzone offers… well now you can. Not only that but you can change what abilities are allowed, guns, etc. Whatever you want, it’s there. Warzone is still fun and chaotic, but now it’s nice to have those choices.

                So as you can see, multiplayer wasn’t just a fine-tuning this time around: it was an attempt to rearrange Killzone and give us a different experience while maintaining just enough elements to keep the franchise familiar.    

           

                               

General Things

                To end the review I’m just going to touch on a few things that are more general in nature.

                The game is beautiful. Obviously it’s a launch title so games will come out with better graphics, but damn it’s impressive. There was a moment late in the campaign that I just looked on in awe. Everything is fluid, the animation is solid, and it’s just a brilliant piece of technical wizardry. Some have said that this is all the game offers, but I obviously disagree. The game is a wonder to look at.

                The game still feels like Killzone. I can’t quite remember just how heavy Killzone 1 and 2 felt, but I think that those may have been a little heavier. The feel of real weight is what appeals to me, and it’s nice that they didn’t entirely get rid of that.

                The last thing I’m going to touch on is the music. They do a great job of making everything atmospheric, or foreboding. When the action kicks it up a notch, the music does it accordingly. It’s a pleasure to listen to the sounds during the campaign. I think this will go on to be an underrated soundtrack.

                In closing, Killzone: Shadow Fall is a shooter that tries to do things a little bit differently than most games in the genre and especially other games in the series. It has flaws, and maybe I just respect when people try to do something different more than others, but I don’t find any of the flaws to be that glaring. Or maybe I’m just a fanboy.

               So let me know what you think about this review or the game. I really feel like I could have said more to justify my stance, but I always look forward to the views of other people. 

PS4 Launch Party - I Don't Have A Clever Title, So Here's A Knack Review

Written By: Tyler Selig

               

Rating: 5.5/10

Verdict: Knack suffers from a lack of real innovation, but if you’re a fan of the genre, it’s also not a terrible game. It’s average in almost every way, but average does not mean bad. Still, there was a great premise here that should have been explored with more depth.

            Knack isn’t a game I would normally be keen on playing. It only looked like a decent platformer, mostly forgettable but not boring, yet I was a little eager to play it only because it is an exclusive PS4 launch title. My original prediction of what the game would offer ended up being correct, and I don’t think it’s an unpopular opinion. Knack is fun, and due to it being one of the only exclusives on a new console, it’s a “Should-Play.” Years down the road I can’t see anybody playing it. I don’t even think it’ll go down as an underrated game, or overlooked, but you never know I suppose.

                You play as Knack, a monster-thing created by a doctor by using relics. Because you are awesome, you can grow or shrink, depending on how many relics you have. It’s a cool idea, and at its core Knack is a neat concept done unimpressively. It’s a shame because there are some interesting things they could do with the character Knack that they refused to do. Instead of crafting a memorable game, they didn’t reach the potential of the idea, and instead gave us an average character platformer.

                The main problem is that the levels just aren’t that fun. They aren’t boring, but you just kind of go through the motions the entire time. The levels are linear, and the platforming – outside of a few sections – is wholly unimpressive and predictable. You run, stop, hit a couple enemies, move on, jump a little, beat up a few people, move on. That’s the entire game.

                That wouldn’t even be a bad thing if the mechanics were solid. While actually hitting enemies is satisfying enough (the slow-mo on final punches adds some oomph), it’s just very limited it what you can do. You can do a jumping attack, or punch. You just punch with the same combo over and over and over and over. There really isn’t much in the way of variety. There are power-ups that you can get, but it’s such a long, drawn out process that you may find yourself completing your first one (as each power-up has multiple things you have to find in order to get it) farther into the game than you would like.
            Even when they attempt to mix things up a bit, by giving you different Knacks like "Stealth Knack," it's just not enough. For example, Stealth Knack is only used to get past beams, and all you do is press a button to activate him. You can't actually sneak past the enemies, so what's the point? Splint Cell this section is not.

The developers wanted it to be simplistic and accessible, which I get, yet the game is actually pretty difficult. I hate to admit it but I died quite often while playing. Aside from the fact that making a challenging game sort-of shits in the face of making a game accessible, it’s not how hard the game is that makes it a tough slug sometimes. If you die, there just isn’t much incentive to play through the same mediocre parts again and again, since the checkpoints usually will put you back a fair amount (though the checkpoints are by no means in terrible positions). It’s for that reason that Knack sometimes feels like a tough slog.

So by now you may be wondering, why is this a 5.5 if most of it is average? Well that’s the thing… so many people view a 5 as a bad rating, but I literally view it as average. Mediocre. Decent. Okay. Whatever you want to say. I give it a .5 because even though the attempts at humour don’t really work, and the game adds nothing new to the action-platformer canon, the visual style is pretty.

It doesn’t show you the technical brilliance of the PS4, because the art-style chosen doesn’t really require that. It’s not photo-realistic, it’s not attempting to be. I liken the visuals to a Pixar movie. In fact I often wondered what it would be like if you just gave Knack to Pixar to begin with and made it a movie instead, because there is a charming story that you could tell here that they didn’t in the game. It’s cute, the visuals are fitting, it’s colourful and the environments aren’t fantastic by any means, but they’re done well.

This game doesn’t just remind me of Pixar. If you spend any time at all with it, you’ll see similarities with Ratchet & Clank and Crash Bandicoot. At first I felt it was a bit of a rip-off, but then after actually researching the developers, I was shown that the lead designer worked on those games, among others, and has a wonderful legacy, especially within this genre. Knowing that disappoints me a little.

I read a comment on either Gamespot or IGN (you’ll notice I often mention them because they are two of the four game sites I check out on a regular basis), where someone said that this game is unfairly crapped on. This person went on to say that if this was released during the Playstation 1 days, it would get an 8 or higher. Good point. I agree a little.

If we weren’t so familiar with this genre, Knack would seem more innovative and wonderful than it does now. I can’t really argue that because someone who has played games for twenty-plus years is harder to impress than someone who just started.

However, often nostalgia gets in the way of quality. There are way too many games that I go back and play and they just aren’t as fun as they used to be. Not because games have moved on, but because the game design just wasn’t all there. There’s a reason old Mario games are still fun today despite how far we’ve come. There’s a reason a game like Spyro or Crash Bandicoot remains fun… it’s because the mechanics are strong. It’s because the level design is interesting. Knack lacks any degree of importance when it comes to these things, and instead offers an all right experience.

So if you’re looking for a game for your PS4, by all means, go ahead and play this. It offers a 10 hour or so campaign, and though I never played the co-op, I’m sure that would be enjoyable as well. But this will not stand the test of time, and it will not go down as anything other than a decent launch title, the type of game you expect when a system first comes out.  That’s my opinion, at least. It’s also my blog!