Infamous Second Son (PS4) Review

Warning: The following review contains a spoiler near the end. If you haven't played it yet, quickly scroll down to where it says END OF SPOILER.

After almost a year, I finally caved in and bought myself a PS4, alongside Infamous Second Son. I suppose it was inevitable that I would cover this game, seeing as how I reviewed Infamous 1 and 2 last year. Anyways, what do I think about Sucker Punch's latest game and transition to a new console? Well, that's what I'm here to find out.

Story and Characters

Taking place seven years after the Good Ending of Infamous 2, the U.S. government formed the Department of Unified Protection, or D.U.P. for short, to hunt down super powered humans named Conduits, now called "Bio-Terrorists."

The game begins with our main protagonist, an Akomish Native American named Delsin Rowe (voiced by Troy Baker) getting arrested by his cop brother, Reggie (voiced by Travis Willingham), for spray-painting a billboard. However, a large truck crashes, with two out of three prisoners escaping. Delsin goes to help the third prisoner, Hank (voiced by David Stanbra), but he absorbs his smoke powers. Thanks to this, it is revealed that Delsin is a Conduit himself.

After pursuing Hank, they are cornered by the main antagonist, Brooke Augustine (voiced by Christine Dunford), the head of the D.U.P. She is revealed to also be Conduit, having the power to control Concrete. Delsin hides his powers to avoid capture and is knocked unconscious. He awakes a week later to find that the other members of the Akomish tribe have been tortured and left to die with concrete on their bodies.

Figuring out that he can absorb and copy powers from other Conduits, Delsin decides to find Augustine in Seattle in order to cure the tribe. Reggie tags along to keep an eye on him, as well as help him out on his journey. On the way, they encounter two Conduits: an ex-junkie named Abigail "Fetch" Walker (voiced by Laura Bailey), who uses her Neon abilities to kill drug dealers and Eugene Sims (voiced by Alex Walsh), a reclusive video gamer who uses his Video powers to save suspected Conduits.

The plot overall is change of pace from the first two games. Instead of all that Ray Sphere and giant monsters nonsense, this one feels a little more grounded in comparison, lacking the two things I mentioned. It also explores the themes of freedom, security, and surveillance, with the DUP installing cameras everywhere in hopes of finding Conduits, in a sort of Big Brother kind of approach.

Each character Delsin meets have some interesting backstories presented in the comic book-style cutscenes. Fetch's backstory would later be explored in the standalone expansion, Infamous First Light, that makes me care about her more. Though that's the thing: playing through the game twice, I noticed that both characters don't have as much screentime and are kind of underdeveloped. I felt that the game went by really fast before I could even get invested in them.

Augustine is a pretty interesting villain. She has a laid-back but empowering presence whenever she appears on-screen, making her a force not be reckoned with. Seriously, the sight of people with concrete on their bodies is horrifying enough. As the player progresses, they'll begin to understand her motivations as she believes what she is doing is right, but still question the decisions she makes. In a way, she actually kind of reminds me of Kuvira from The Legend of Korra now that I think about it, as they both share similar characteristics.

Lastly, Delsin himself is a great character. I think of him as a human Sly Cooper with many of his wisecracks and playful banter, and he is quite a step up from Cole who, looking back, is a little lacking in terms of depth. His interactions with Reggie are all the more enjoyable. This is probably due to the fact that both Troy Baker and Travis Willingham are both friends in real life and I can imagine they had a blast delivering great dialogue.

Presentation

Unlike the first two games, in which they took place in fictional cities resembling New York and New Orleans, Second Son takes place in a fictionalized version of Seattle, Washington, but still containing landmarks like the Space Needle which Delsin can climb. The game itself looks gorgeous, with its outstanding lighting effects and draw distances. It also runs pretty smooth; not 60 frames per second smooth, but it runs okay.

This is quite possibly the most colorful game in the Infamous series. Seeing Delsin use his powers is aesthetically pleasing, with great uses of the colors brown, red, magenta, and sky blue. For example, using Delsin's Neon powers during a rainy night is very beautiful to look at.

The motion capture for the characters are really well-done, as well as their designs. The facial animations are also nicely done and are very expressive. Many people's faces were even captured and rendered with the help of high-definition cameras. Heck, characters like Delsin, Reggie, and Fetch are modeled after their voice actors. However, the facial animations can come off as a little strange. Due the characters looking realistic, they sometimes fall into the Uncanny Valley due to some odd facial expressions, especially Augustine, who smiles very weird.

One of my favorite aspects in the game is the soundtrack by Far Cry 2 composer Marc Canham, Brick composer Nathan Johnson, and Guns N' Roses drummer, Bryan "Brain" Mantia, the latter who previously worked on Infamous 2. The tracks are filled with electric guitars, pianos, and percussion that matches the overall setting and characters.

There are exciting tracks like "Owning the Future," "Serial Tagger" and my personal favorite "Speed of Light," which gives me that same feeling as listening to "Venice Rooftops" from Assassin's Creed II that keeps my blood pumping. There are also laid-back tracks like "Freedom and Security," which is probably the most memorable. That's not to say it lacks emotional tracks, too. "Double Crossed" is a tragic-sounding one concerning what happens near the end of the game. I can easily say that this is favorite score in the series, surpassing Infamous 1 and 2.

Gameplay

Second Son follows the roots of its predecessors in which it is an open-world sandbox game. You play as Delsin as he explores Seattle to complete tasks and can get around by scaling buildings, going through smoke vents, or running against walls with the Neon power. The third-person shooting aspects have been tweaked big time. In previous games, you aim with L1 and fire with R1. Due to the improved shoulder buttons on the DualShock 4 controller, you can now just fire with the R2 button as the cross-hairs appear on the center of the screen at all times to make aiming a little more bearable.

Delsin starts out with just Smoke powers, but he can later absorb Neon and Video, and be used for firing projectiles or going up close to enemies with melee combat. All powers are nicely balanced, each having their ups and downs. Neon is much faster when performing melee combat, Smoke is a little moderate in attacks, and Video is slow with melee, as Delsin carries a huge digital sword which makes sense, but can rapidly shoot projectiles like a machine gun.

Not much of a spoiler, but Delsin will also gain the ability to control Concrete, but it takes place at the end of the game. After beating it, there is not much use to it if you cleared all the districts beforehand, making it the most underused power in the game.

[Insert Demoman Kaboom clip here]

Delsin can learn new abilities by absorbing core relays during the story missions and upgrade them by collecting Blast Shards. In the first two games, the Blast Shards were a pain to get because you have to click the left analog stick to locate nearby ones on the map. Here, they can easily be found on the map menu after clearing a D.U.P. outpost, which is a huge improvement and made searching for them a little easier.

Carried over from the first two games, there is a morality system in which the player can either choose to do good or bad things and increase Delsin's Karma in order to upgrade his powers even further. He can earn Good Karma by rescuing suspects or busting drug dealers; Evil Karma can be earned by harming citizens or killing enemies if they surrender. Increasing either Karma can unlock exclusive abilities, and slightly change his appearance.

When you want to take a break from the story, there are side missions that the player can complete. All you do is clear each district from the DUP by searching for audio files, finding spies, or spray-painting stencil art, to name a few. The stencil art is one of my favorite aspects in the game. They are quite hilarious and sometimes really twisted:

However, there really isn't much variety when it comes to side missions. The few things I mentioned are all that you really do when clearing the districts, making them slightly repetitive after a while. By my second playthrough, I got a little tired clearing the districts just so I can breeze through the story missions okay.

The developers did make a step forward with this side mission called Paper Trail, where Delsin has to investigate murders caused by a Conduit who can control paper. The cool thing about it is that you can connect your PSN account on the Paper Trail website and complete a series of steps both in-game and on the web. Playing through it is like playing L.A. Noire, but set in modern times. Some of the clue investigation and puzzles on the website, however, can result in looking up guides due to some frustration and what to do next.

But wait, what about the Cole's Legacy side mission? It's only available to those who pre-ordered the game. That means people who didn't pre-order will miss out on a bit of variety, as well as a certain call-back to the first two games. You see why I am against downloadable content in general?

My biggest gripe, though, is its morality system. There are certain moments in the game where Delsin has to make a big decision that is either good or evil. The problem, though, is that neither decision has any weight or impact to them. In previous games, I thought twice before deciding what to do and sometimes felt bad after the repercussions. For example, in the first game, remember when Trish will either forgive Cole or shun him depending on your Karma? Little to none of those actually appear in Second Son.

Proof of this flaw is in the scene...

**SPOILER**

...where Reggie dies:

As sad as that scene is, something just isn't right. One of the last things he said to Delsin was "I'm proud of you." On a good Karma playthrough, it makes sense, considering the good things Delsin has done. On Evil Karma, he will say the same thing. So after all the times that Delsin has killed cops and innocent civilians, and corrupting Fetch and Eugene, you're still proud of him? I don't buy it.

**END OF SPOILER**

On top of that, doing evil acts really clash with Delsin's personality. At least with Cole, you are convinced that he is good or evil. Delsin just comes off more as an arrogant, but heroic type throughout.  I felt like the morality system was added in because the previous installments had it and not including it would make the series lose its identity. There is just no weight to it whatsoever.

Conclusion

On top of the story needing tweaking, repetitive side missions, and the downgraded morality system, I also thought that the game felt short, clocking in at about 8 to 10 hours. I extended my playtime by doing side missions and it still felt short in my eyes. Though, maybe it's because of the side missions that I was glad that the game did not overstay its welcome. However, I will say the...

GOOD OUTWEIGH THE BAD

Despite of some of the complaints I have, Infamous Second Son is still a good game and I'm actually glad I bought a PS4 for it. It may have downgraded a couple of things that made the series great, but there are some things to praise:

1. The varied powers keep the game from getting stale, with nicely balanced melee attacks and shooting mechanics.
2. The game looks great, showing off what the PS4 can do in terms of graphics and level design.
3. Delsin is a likable protagonist and fun to play as. The rest of the cast members are great, though a little underdeveloped.
4. It has one of the best video game soundtracks that I often listen to a lot, with many standout tracks.

2014 was a disappointing year in gaming: Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes was good, but felt too much like a demo, and Platinum Games' The Legend of Korra was kind of disappointing. However, after playing Second Son, I am comfortable to say that I found a game that I can name as my favorite of the year... for now:

This is currently the best PS4 exclusive and I hope that more promising titles for the console are released in the future.