Infamous Second Son is a sequel to the first two PS3 games and stars a new protagonist. The story isn’t a direct sequel so it is newcomers friendly. It was released exclusively for the PS4 and was one of the first big PS4 exclusives at its time of release. It was released early in the PS4’s lifecycle and so while it is definitely a step up from Infamous 2 in terms of graphics, it is not mindblowing. The character models seem a bit light on detail but that is made up by the environmental detail.
The new protagonist is Delsin. Instead of electric powers, he now has smoke based powers. Unfortunately, the early game, and to be frank, for all of the game really, he has very similar abilities to Cole from the original Infamous and so smoke doesn’t feel that much different to electricity. Delsin can still launch high up into the air, hover and shoot projectiles. Second Son is a third person action adventure game with third person shooter elements. It is a run and gun type of game since Delsin cannot use cover. It can be somewhat overwhelming and rage inducing when you have heaps of enemies shooting at you and you cannot go behind cover to help alleviate some of the damage you are receiving.
The enemies are constantly moving. Since you are fighting against other humanoid enemies, this can make the aiming quite difficult if you are not used to it. There’s no aim assist and it can get frustrating with the faster enemies. The focus on run and gunning, when you can’t even get a breather in between boss’s attacks to aim is frustrating and annoying. The game also has weird lighting where a lot of the time, it is somewhat too dark to see enemies properly.
Upgrades to Delsin’s powers are tied to the collectibles, so you’re kind of forced to do at least a portion of them. Upgrades give you more useful powers and whilst not compulsory, it makes the game easier and gives it a lot more variety. The climbing mechanics definitely feel worse than previous games or compared to other games. Delsin seemingly gets stuck whenever there is a slight protrusion and cannot get a grip. It’s quite annoying when you just want to scale the buildings to quickly travel across he map and Delsin takes ages to get up to the roof of a building.
During the story, Delsin is portrayed to be immediately unlikeable. He is supposed to be a petty criminal, just on the wrong side of the law for graffiti. However, he is shown to be unreasonable and at times, idiotic. He argues against reason and does illogical things. The story feels too story and as a result, truncated. Nothing interesting happens; it’s just Delsin finding other conduits to absorb their powers before tackling the villain. It’s straightforward and a lot of the supporting characters shows up for limited amounts of time before disappearing again, so there’s almost no character development. The game takes less than ten hours to complete a playthrough and this is inclusive of spending time tackling mundane side activities.
There are a lot of little things about the game that makes it annoying to play. From the dragging out of the graffiti collectibles, to frequently respawning enemies that disrupt your exploration of the city of Seattle. Additional abilities and powers come in batches. You’ll get one, and then there’ll be a mission to get additional moves before you move on. The game tries nothing new and everything has been done before, so it becomes predictable and repetitive.
There are limited boss battles but all the bosses have at least one terrible element. Bosses can drag on because they are bullet sponges. They can be gimmicky and can stunlock Delsin since he stumbles whenever he is even slightly hit. This means that he’ll get hit with a chain of attacks before you even recover and gain control back. The game encourages a second playthrough due to its Good and Evil routes. The routes have little difference in terms of story since they share most of the same missions, including nearly all of the same cutscenes. It feels like a cheap way to encourage the player to play the game twice to see each side… when so little effort to put into differentiating them.
Overall, Infamous Second Son is a game that doesn’t try anything new or experiment too much. The various powers sounds great on paper but the way they are executed means that there are a lot of similarities between them. The game feels rushed but it is still enough fun to deserve a playthrough if you are a fan of the series.
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