Review #550: InFamous - Second Son

  If we're gonna keep making the Good ending canon might as well call it Famous.

Now with smoke powers. Which behave pretty much exactly like electricity did.

 InFamous was one of the three big successors on the PS3, running alongside Resistance and Uncharted. Uncharted went for realism(Kinda), Resistance went after a sci-fi war setting and InFamous went with the super hero genre. The first game was alright, but it wasn't until inFamous 2 that the franchise hit it big. A new generation of consoles later and inFamous returns to hit the scene, with a new protagonist, smooth framerate and a new... nothing else, really.

 Remember Cole? Not many people do, but after his sacrifice only a few Conduits survived. Delsin Rowe, the new protagonist, soon discovers that he is a conduit too, with the power to copy other powers, which makes him a prime candidate for the DUP forces to capture him, like they do with other Conduits. Not that it matters, since Augustine, head of the DUP, and a very sadistic lass that uses Conduit powers to capture other Conduits, is trying to capture three escaped Conduits, even if she has to torture Delsin's entire tribe. So now Delsin, and his normie brother Reggie, join together to copy Augustine's powers in order to save their tribe from the effects of Augustine's powers. I actually really liked the story and the characters. Delsin is a bit of a prick, a delinquent that usually gets into trouble, a stark contrast with his cop brother Reggie, and they butt heads a lot, which makes their relationship quite endearing. It's interesting, because I think neither character would be all that interesting by themselves, but together? You want to see them interact and follow their journey. Secondary characters, like Fetch, are a bit 'safe', displaying somewhat cliched personalities you've already seen before, but they are decently written.

Enemy DUP forces are armed with with Concrete power, but they are no match for smoke.

 The game plays a lot like Infamous 2, maybe a bit too much like it. It's a big, open-world game that has you doing heroics, or villainous deeds, as you hone your powers. If you played any InFamous installment before, you'll be right at home here. Square does melee attacks, R2 can be used to shoot your weakest proyectile power, R1 is your missile equivalent, L2 aims, the touchpad is used to drain sources for energy(ammo), regenerating health, yadda yadda. Even the way you traverse the world is the same, with X doubling as a jump or a hovering power, with the added skill of being able to climb almost any surface by just mashing X button against a wall until Delsin gets to the top. It's pretty much the same game it's been since InFamous 1. The Karma system is pretty much the same, kill civilians, or surrendered enemies, to increase your bad Karma, or restrain enemies instead of killing them to earn good karma. Higher levels of Karma unlock the ability to purchase new karma-appropriate enhancements by spending collectible blast shards, same old, same old.

 That said, the game has expanded in one area. Delsin can copy powers, and unlike Cole who only got to merge a few Ice or Lava powers with his Electricity, Delsin gets entire new movesets. You start with Smoke, which you can recharge by draining any smoke source, and the power works exactly like Cole's electricity, but with Smoke. Instead of EMP grenades you get a smoke grenade, the electricity 'shotgun' is done with smoke, etc etc. Buut then you'll unlock Neon, recharged by draining Neon from sources such as Neon signs, which is a slower power but with sniping capabilities, and gives you the ability to run at lightspeed. Video can be recharged from antenas, and gives you slower, but stronger, melee attacks, better aerial traversal powers(Delsin grows wings!) and machine-gun like proyectiles. The last power, which people treat as a spoiler but is oh so obvious, is Concrete, which... sucks. You get it in the very last story mission, and if you've already done all the side content... there's no use for it and very few ways to drain it. I bet all these powers sound great, and they kinda are, but... there's no easy way to switch between powers besides finding a source and draining it. It can be a bit annoying when you want a particular power but there's no source nearby, so more often than not, you will not have the power you'd like for the appropriate situation.

 Impressive drawdistance and smooth framerate makes it a treat to explore.

 The game offers about 20 different story missions, but they go by very fast. The side content is a bit more meaty, with two islands divided in about 13 different zones that you can liberate from the DUP. Liberating a city means doing every single mission, and collecting every blast shard, in it and then doing the DUP Showdown mission. Blast Shards appear on the map as soon as you defeat the DUP SUV in the city, so they are very simple to collect. As for the side missions, they are very repetitive. You'll be doing a lot of graffiti art, using the Dual Shock 4's motion sensors, finding 'hidden Agents', destroying cameras and hidden cameras and not much else. There are about 6 different mission types that you'll be repeating over and over and over again. Then there are about 10 different Karma missions, 5 evil and 5 good, that don't help liberate the city but help you raise your Karma gauge, and this are simple things like pressing triangle to save injured civilians or killing protesters.

 When it boils down to it, InFamous Second Son is slightly disappointing. Besides the new cast of characters, might as well play inFamous 2 and you'd play pretty much the same exact game. The repetitive side content didn't bother me too much because the game itself, like Infamous 2 before it, is a blast to play, and traversing the city with all your powers is so much fun. It's a shame the game is so short, which makes the lackluster side-content stand out so much more.
 8.0 out of 10