Game Review: Infamous Second Son

The image above belongs to its respective owner, not me

Hello Enthusiasts,

Today I will be reviewing the third game in the Playstation exclusive series, Infamous. This third title, Infamous Second Son, was released for the PS4 in 2014, and is the most recent game in the series (outside of the stand-alone DLC for the title). Per the norm, there will be some Spoilers Below. 

So in the first two game you play as a guy named Cole, who receives his powers from an explosion of energy that he was exposed to while working as a courier. Cole gains the power to absorb, control, and shoot electricity in the first game, and a few additional elemental powers in the second game. By controlling electricity, Cole is also able to traverse the city by sliding on railroad tracks and electrical wires. Cole, and others who gain super powers from the energy explosions and shards from the explosions, are referred to as conduits. It is then up to Cole to decide if he is going to use his powers for good (which involves completing side quests to help people and try to detain enemies rather than killing them) or evil (side missions can include killing people and enemies indiscriminately. Also, randomly killing civilians will wing the meter in this direction). Both paths lead to the same fights in the story, but slightly different abilities are given for each power. In the end, Cole is trying to stop a world-ending event that is systematically destroying city after city, his motivations are just different depending on the path that you choose. Spoiler, he sacrifices himself to stop the Beast. They were fun games, though I preferred the first over the second, and they took a lot of cues from comic books, which I enjoyed.

This third title that's up for review changes a number of things right away. The main character is no longer Cole like in the last two games, as can be expected after the end of the second title, but is now Delsin. Delsin is a graffiti artist on a Native American reservation outside of Seattle. He's considered a delinquent by many, including his brother Reggie, who is a local police officer. When some local conduit criminals (since all conduits are criminals, considered to be "Bio-Terrorists" by the government) come through their town, Delsin tries to apprehend them. He is able to catch one, Hank, only to learn that he is able to take a conduit's power and use it as his own. This leads to him getting the power to control smoke like Hank, who Delsin has to chase down for answer. This brings in the game's main antagonist, Augustine, who works for the government, but is a conduit with the power to control concrete. She captures Hank, knocks Delsin out, and tortures most of his village, leaving pieces of concrete in their bodies that will slowly kill them. This leads to Delsin and Reggie heading to Seattle so Delsin can absorb Augustine's power and heal the people of his city. During the course of flushing out and finding Augustine, Delsin can tear down the government agency in Seattle that is responsible for hunting conduits, earning good or evil karma along the way, as well as meet and absorb a few other powers. These powers include Neon and Video (which is like a materialization of digital...stuff), along with eventually absorbing concrete from Augustine.

Okay, so, is the game any good? Well, there are certainly some positive aspects to it. It, of course, has a big graphical upgrade since it's on the PS4 unlike the other games. The game does look nice, though they did drop some of the comic book feel from it. The controls are smooth and are, for the most part, similar to the previous titles in the series. Some of the new abilities are pretty clever as well, like being able to travel through pipes when using the smoke ability, or covering yourself in concrete and becoming a fully-armored fighter with Augustine's concrete. Overall, the powers are a lot of fun, even if I feel nostalgia for the electric powers of Cole. These ideas took some creativity, and it shows. The audio for the game, both music and voice acting, is right at par; it's not great, but not bad either. The climbing in the game is mostly the same as previous titles, which is not an insult, as is it very much similar to the Assassin Creed games, so it is essential to the enjoyment of the game. The dialogue in the game is good in its execution, though I didn't like it as much as the previous titles. Delsin is younger than Cole, so his conversations end up being less mature, and it fits him, but I liked Cole's demeanor more overall. Still, for it being accurate to the character, it is something I consider a positive.

As good as the positives can be, the game is far from flawless. I didn't enjoy the landscape as much as the first two games, it's like it was trying to include the urban environment from the first and the open environment from the second, but it doesn't pull it off as well as the first two did by having them separate.  The story itself has some issues as well, primarily because the stakes are never as high as they were in previous titles. It's a revenge plot at its core, even if you choose the path of good karma. That's not to say that revenge stories can't be good, there are plenty of example of well done stories of vengeance, but this one doesn't really sell it. Delsin will be mad at some points, only to be joking around like nothing is going on at others. There is an inconsistent attitude throughout a lot of the game, and it can be distracting enough to pull you out of the experience. I was also surprised by some of the activities that could earn certain karma. The first example that comes to mind is the graffiti locations, which Delsin can choose to draw either good or evil graffiti and get karma for the choice. Outside of the problem with it still being graffiti (aka vandalism, which is a crime) the "evil" graffiti isn't noticeably more evil than the good graffiti. It's reflective of a lot of the game's side missions, just inconsequential. Also, if you're looking for a challenge, this is not the game for you. I beat the story of this game, without rushing through, in probably 8 or 9 hours, and then hit all of the additional spots and collectibles in my next 2 hour session. So to 100% complete this game (not all trophies) will likely take you around 10 or 11 hours on the medium difficulty. That is much shorter than the previous titles, which took at least that long just to complete the story.

Overall, this is a slightly above average game that takes some serious missteps. Now that it seems to be running for about $20-$25, it would be a good time to pick up and play through, but don't pay more than $30 from anyone you find. It is definitely passable and playable, and I didn't run into major bugs, but you could do a lot better with a full priced game. It may seem unfair to base so much of my review on comparing it to the other games, but if the game wants to be in the same series, it needs to be ready for that.

I give Infamous Second Son a 7 out of 10.

Sincerely,

The Bored Enthusiast