PixlBit

In my earnestness to have games to play on the PS4, I preordered Infamous Second Son and excitedly picked it up on release. If you've followed my blogs even a short while, you know have a horrible habit of putting up games nearly unplayed.

Infamous Second Son was one of those. I played for the first couple hours, and then I went back to try out other games (mostly those on my PS3 backlog). It wasn't until about a month ago when I spurred myself to try to finish the game--namely to trade it in for some credit towards upcoming games.

Now, I have no familiarity with the Infamous franchise. I got the 2 previous games for free during various Playstation promotions, but I never got around to playing them. Part of the reason is my wariness of open-world games. Another is the aforementioned gamer ADD.

Nonetheless, I sat myself down to play Infamous: Second Son and I surprised myself with how quickly I finished it. Including a second playthrough to get the platinum trophy.

Story

Aside from using the events of the previous games as a backstory, Second Son has very little connection to the first 2 installments. I can't comment if that's a good or bad route because of my unfamiliarity with the series. Maybe there were stories they could have expanded upon from Infamous 2, or maybe characters could have appeared to spur the story forward. I don't know. Considering that Second Son took place in an actual city, rather than one made up for the previous games, the developers probably felt it would be better to break away completely. I'm sure the move to next-gen (or current-gen, I guess) was also a factor in that decision.

As hipster graffiti artist Delsin Rowe, an encounter with a superpowered criminal activates his own abilities and must use those abilities--and gain more--in order to save the Native American tribe he's a part of.

He meets other superpowered beings (known as "Conduits"), and can ultimately use their abilities in order to defeat the leader of the militaristic law enforcement agency that has put Seattle on lockdown.

It's a simple, straightforward story that serves the conceit of the world well. And while the characters are painted pretty broadly, their interactions were enjoyable and the facial animation was pretty damned astounding. Frankly, I thought that aside from Delsin, the 2 other characters I liked were also those I met right out of the gate: his older brother, Reggie and their caretaker, Betty. Reggie plays a strong supporting role as the at-first antagonistic brother with a heart of gold. Betty appears mostly as a voice during phone calls that are used as some comedic relief.

Second Son is paced well and while there are oppurtunities to run off doing side-missions, the core story ran at a good clip, never losing steam. The characters could be the weakest portion of the game, but they are in no way a detriment to the story.

Gameplay

Infamous: Second Son is nothing too amazing when it comes to gameplay innovations. It has all of the basic mechanics you'd expect. What makes the game shine are the visuals associated with the powers you are using. Each one is almost disgustingly pretty. When I first saw the neon at work, I gasped just a little. The capabilities of the PS4 to make light pop on the screen still delight me. It's not just during power use, though. This shows up throughout the day/night cycle of the game. I'm not going to linger too much on this, as really, every current-gen review could be padded with "OMG sooooo purTY!!!!"

I'd highly recommend Infamous: Second Son. Not just because it's something to play in the still paltry current-gen market, but as a fun gaming experience overall. I won't say rush out immediately, but definitely play it if you have a chance.