A week ago I reviewed a game called Ghost of Tsushima, an open world samurai game developed by Sucker Punch Productions. I really enjoyed my time with the game, more than I originally thought I would. The story took me by surprise, the combat felt delightful to master, the world was brimming with detail, and there were a lot of smart design choices. Ghost of Tsushima is a masterpiece, many of you may not agree with me, but I believe this game defines what it means to be an open world game alongside other Horizon Zero Dawn. After beating Ghost of Tsushima I decided to look into one of Sucker Punch Porductions' previous games. Specifically I wanted to look into Infamous.
The first Infamous came out in 2009 and was developed by a team of up to sixty people. Sucker Punch originally planned to ask for more funding and workers from Sony, so they could increase the development process. However, lead producer of Infamous, Brian Fleming, realized development for the game was much better with a smaller team. Fleming encouraged the team to work as hard they could, wanting the game to be made from their sweat and tears. I respect it when developers decide to take their time to develop a game, that way they can make sure each element works and the game as a whole is complete. It’s like Shigeru Miyamoto said, “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad”. Some of my favorite games spent quite a bit of time in development. Persona 5, Prey, Horizon Zero Dawn, and even a few indie titles like Outer Wilds and Owlboy. So after three years of development Infamous was finally released and public reception for the game wasn’t that bad. Critics praised the game for it’s world design, story, and unique twist on the superhero genre. A few individuals even called it Game of The Year for 2009, alongside other Playstation hits like Uncharted 2 and Demon’s Souls. Sucker Punch immediately began development on the sequel Infamous 2 which came out in 2011, and while it wasn’t as significant as the first game it too was a solidly designed game. Improving on some of the problems the first game had and being considered one of the best games of 2011.
After that Sucker Punch Productions began to discuss what to do for the third and final entry. They thought one step ahead and decided the third game would be ready for the next generation of consoles and showcase what Sony’s next console could do. They asked Sony how powerful the Playstation 4 would be and with the help of a few lead system architects Sucker Punch Productions showed off the technical capabilities of the Playstation 4 with their next game. At E3 2013, Sucker Punch showed off Infamous: Second Son, which would be released a few months after the launch of the Playstation 4. Later in 2014, Infamous: Second Son finally came out and people loved it. It wasn’t as good as the previous two games, but it was a welcoming hug to a new generation of consoles. It was truly a game that made use of next generation technology and processed set pieces the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 couldn’t handle.
It’s been six years since Infamous: Second Son released and during that time we received exclusives that pushed the Playstation 4’s hardware limitations even further. Bloodborne, Uncharted 4, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, and Death Stranding. Six years later and does Infamous: Second Son still hold up? Yeah, kind of. It has quite a couple crippling flaws that prevent me from saying it’s excellent, but in some way it’s an ambitious game. This would also be the game that led Sucker Punch Productions to make Ghost of Tsushima, so today we’ll be talking about why Infamous: Second Son is likable enough, and what areas it performs well in. So light up your smoke and prepare to power bomb straight into the streets of Seattle, Washington. Apparently they choose Seattle of all places, because that’s where all hipster games aimed towards teens these days take place. Also don’t forget a heavy usage of orange, pink, and blue. Nothing screams hipster more than a high usage of orange, pink, and motherf*cking blue……. Well this review is off to a good start as it 's already going to offend people.
Story
The game takes place seven years after the events of Infamous 2. Where Cole MacGrath defeated a gigantic being known as The Beast and rid mankind of a treacherous plague. This came at the cost of several Conduit lives including himself. Conduits are people who somehow gained superhero abilities, whether it’s controlling a natural element like electricity or controlling something odd like glass. The U.S Government creates a group known as the D.U.P to hunt down any Conduits who are still alive, labeling them as “Bioterrorists” who may one day take over the world.
We play as Delsin Rowe, a young-adult who is inspired to become a graffiti artist and is a member of the Akomish reservation. Delsin is busy one day vandalizing a billboard and he is caught yet again by his older brother Reggie, who happens to be a police officer. Reggie and Delsin get into a fight, but they are interrupted when a D.U.P vehicle crashes nearby. Three Conduits escape from the vehicle with one of them being lifted out of the rubble by Delsin before the vehicle can explode. The Conduit, Frank, threatens to attack Reggie and Delsin using his scorching smoke powers, but Delsin tries to fight back and surprisingly absorbs his powers and receives a flashback of Frank’s memories. The memory shows the torture Frank went through and that several innocent Conduits are being held against their within an unknown prison where lawed officials punish them even further. Frank escapes towards the Akomish reservation, and Delsin realizes that he is a Conduit able to copy the powers of other Conduits. Reggie tries to keep Delsin calm, stating that if the D.U.P finds out that he is a Conduit then they will try to capture Delsin and take him to a high security prison.
Delsin makes his way back to the Akomish reservation, getting used to his newly absorbed smoke powers, and confronts Frank within the burning lodge. Frank states the D.U.P is corrupt, that they’ve been kidnapping Conduits, and now they have taken over Seattle where they are stationed. Delsin chases Frank outside and is confronted by the D.U.P. They are led by a woman named Augustine, who turns out to be a Conduit who can control concrete. Augustine encases Frank within concrete and begins to question Delsin about what happened when Frank escaped from the vehicle. Augustine threatens to harm the Akomish, but Delsin submits to being a Conduit. Rather than take him in, Augustine knocks him out and leaves concrete shards in the Akomish.
Delsin wakes up one week later to find the Akomish suffering from the concrete shards and if the shards aren’t removed they may die from blood clot or worse. Delsin figures out that if he can absorb Augstine’s concrete powers he may be able to save the Akomish. So Reggie and him make way for Seattle. Delsin will have to absorb new powers and chase the D.U.P out of Seattle if he wants to confront Augustine. He’ll even make allies along the way and learn what it means to be a hero or villain.
Gameplay
Infamous: Second Son plays out like your stereotypical open world game at first, but if you take the time to pull it apart you might find well thought out design choices here and there. You explore the world fighting the D.U.P, engaging in fun side activities, collecting items, and helping citizens when they're in trouble. Each part of Seattle is taken over by the D.U.P and you can lower the overall control by doing specific actions. Spray painting walls with stencil art that protest against the D.U.P, destroying surveillance cameras, hunting down secret agents, or taking out small blocks on the street heavily infested with the D.U.P. Once you get the D.U.P control of an area below 30% you can engage in a showdown. You spray paint a D.U.P billboard and face a small wave of enemies. Once you complete a showdown you unlock a fast travel point on the map. I like this idea, how fast travel is something you have to earn. Reminds me how in Horizon Zero Dawn you need a pack to fast travel and they were one use items, or how in Dark Souls you can’t fast travel until you unlocked the Lord Vessel and you unlock it at a point where the wolrd splits into multiple paths and becomes big to explore.
Combat seems fairly simple in this game, you press the square button to attack and you occasionally evade enemy attacks. What makes the combat unique are your powers. Remember how Delsin got smoke powers earlier? He can use that to his advantage. Shooting a burning projectile from his hands, explosive shots, and stunning enemies with thick clouds of smoke. Your powers aren’t only useful just for combat, you can also use them to get around the world. Those smoke powers allow you to enter vents and zoom quickly to building rooftops, and that dash ability can help you reach long distances. Be wary that your powers run low, and you can replenish them by interacting with objects related to said power. I keep saying “powers’ yet I only mentioned smoke. Throughout the game you encounter other Conduits and you can take their powers to use them yourself out in the field. For example, okay I’m gonna spoil the story a bit. One of your first allies is a young woman named Fetch, a Conduit who has neon powers. Neon projectiles are much faster than smoke, you can run up walls easily, and with good aim you can instantly tie up enemies.
Infamous also has a morality system, mainly called Karma. You can gain Good Karma or Bad Karma depending on your actions. Good Karma is gained by sparing enemies, busting drug dealers, and freeing people from cages. Bad Karma is gained by simply attacking innocent people...so yeah. Gain enough Karma and your reputation will increase, either towards being a true hero or an infamous villain. I know what you're going to say, ”moral choice systems in games are bad, because they're poorly designed”. Well Infamous is one of the few games I think it works kinda. You're trying to be a hero after all, you want the public to be able to trust you and believe you can do good things. It’s like Dishonored’s chaos system. You have been dishonored for an act you haven’t done, I don’t believe the thing you should do is kill more people and make yourself look like a villain. There is even a bonus for doing good deeds. You can charge up a special attack which has the ability to incapacitate every enemy around you. If you kill someone then the meter empties immediately back to zero.
You upgrade your powers using shards, and shards can be obtained by destroying drones and other pieces of D.U.P equipment. Getting shards is fairly easy, because they are scattered around the world like candy. Some upgrades give you new abilities or stat boosts, but others have to be obtained with certain levels of Karma. Besides that I can’t really think of anything else to say about Second Son. At the end of the day you're trying to be a hero and do what it takes to defeat Augustine and rid Seatlle of the D.U.P.
Thoughts
Infamous: Second Son is a decent open world game. It’s not perfect, but it kept me playing. I spent a lot of time exploring the open world, doing side activities, and liberating Seattle of the D.U.P. For a game from 2014 it still looks decent today, and the lighting shows the bright environments the Playstation 4 could handle. However, the lighting and colors of the Playstation 4 would improve with time as games like Bloodborne one year later would showcase dark settings which made use of the hardware's shadowing and what it could process all at once. Plus there's this weird problem where if you angle the camera in a certain way the entire world either goes dark or it glares into the camera. It's easily noticeable and can get annoying at times.
Combat is a little awkward. Your melee attack is janky, attacks feel really delayed, and your ranged attacks don't really pack a punch. It feels like hitting a block of clay with a metal rod. Okay, time for some real critiques I have with this game. The main context was decent and I like the general idea of the Infamous universe. Evolving around a world where human beings with superpowers are feared by many and how strict government control is the only way to keep things intact. I didn’t really care about the main story though and the writing was somewhat cringey. Like very cringey. An ungodly amount of cringeworthy writing. It’s not the type of writing that will make your eyes roll. It’s the type of writing that will make your eyes turn so far back that you’ll be looking at your brain. Part of the bad writing could be how the writers were trying to relate to a millennial audience, but forgot they are adults who grew up in a different era and trying to appeal to teens now is basically a death sentence of humiliation. The story was just not good in my mind and got really predictable later on.
One thing I’m glad Sucker Punch improved around Ghost of Tsushima was the mission variety and how they played out, because Second Son’s missions lacked any of that. The objective is either to go to an icon on your map, follow a certain NPC or moving object, or fight a few waves of enemies. Basic stuff that Ghost of Tsushima did. However, Ghost of Tsushima actually did it right while Second Son struggles to make it interesting or memorable to me. All the actors in the game did a great job playing each character. Delsin Rowe being played by the iconic Troy Baker who played Booker Dewitt, Higgs, Sam Drake, and Joel Miller. However, I didn’t really care about the characters like most of the minor NPCs I encounter in other open worlds which says a lot. Your brother is there to remind you what you have to do and is the typical cop bro who eventually gets killed seventy five percent through the game. The main villain of the game I didn’t really find that compelling and was comically evil for the sake of being evil. Fetch was okay and later on you encounter a gamer kid who is your stereotypical introvert. Which sucks because I’m an introvert and I’m sitting in a white walled room right now typing this review of a game that fails to appease to my kind of people. Not saying that the characters are bad, but they're just something that is there. There to shout at you, give the occasional conversation, crack a bad joke or two, and bug off.
Finally from what I’ve seen online the previous Infamous games had more traversal options. You could grind on rails and use the environment to your advantage. Here traversal kinda sucks. In smoke you glide around slowly and can only dash two times in midair. In neon form you run fairly quick which is good, but when using it in midair you plummet towards the ground and the streets are filled with random junk that will slow you down. Then there’s the video form which has similar traits to the neon form.
Some elements of Infamous: Second Son didn’t really age well, but as a video game there is still a good amount of enjoyment to be had. It didn’t stand up against other fantastic open worlds I've experienced like Horizon Zero Dawn or Ghost of Tsushima, but it isn’t a bland open world to explore like Watch Dogs: Legion or Ghost Recon. I don’t know if I can recommend this game even to today’s standards, but there is an audience for this game. A generation who grew up with this type of setting and writing. The modern generation and how they go against society norms. Personally I view it as really cringeworthy, but I can understand where they are coming from. We were all at that point. This is my first Infamous game since the other two are previous gen and the Playstation 4 isn’t backwards compatible with PS3 games. Hopefully they can do modern ports of the previous two, because from what I heard they are some of the best games to come out during the Playstation 3 era. Infamous: Second Son is good enough in my book, and in the end I'm giving it a 7/10 for being okay.
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