Banner Man to the rescue!
I’ve always been a fan of the infamous games, the level of freedom you get and the choices you make made it some of the most memorable moments on the PS3. inFamous: Second Son takes the series in a new direction with a new protagonist called Delsin Rowe who after an accident is able to absorb powers from Conduits or as the Department of Unified Protection (DUP) call them “Bio-Terrorists” and is labelled one as a result. Delsin and his brother travel to Seattle to try and bring the DUP to their knees.
It’s a good enough story, although Delsin is a character that is sure to divide players. He’s cheeky and sarcastic, but can also be annoying. I personally enjoyed him as a protagonist and hope it’s not the last we see of him in the series. If you’ve played an inFamous game before, you’ll have a fair idea of what to expect here…but Second Son steps it up a notch with a beautiful version of Seattle under DUP law and as Delsin pushes them out district by district by completing side missions and a final showdown with the forces of that area to take it over.
Side activities are always a big thing in open world games and Second Son is no different. These can include searching for blast shards and audio files to looking through a crowd of civilians to find a special DUP agent that is trying to blend in and my personal favourite, turning the Dualshock4 on its side and using it as a spray can to tag the town with great graffiti. The downside is that after a while, the side missions become repetitive and there isn’t a lot of variety between them, so they wear thin after a while.
Delsin acquires powers like being able to teleport through vents onto rooftops and glide across buildings with smoke or walk up walls with a neon power and even be able to encase your foes in concrete. These can all be upgraded with Blast Shards that float around the city, but you’ll need to have a certain level of good/evil Karma to access some abilities and that’s earned through performing good deeds like stopping drug deals and evil ones like attacking activists’ and musicians on the streets of Seattle.
To get the most out of the game, you’ll need to beat it with both good and evil Karma and it is rewarding for it. It’s far from perfect though, the climbing controls are clunky and haven’t come close to even Assassin’s Creed level and the combat is a mixed bag of luck and skill, but it shouldn’t prove too much of a challenge if you know how to exploit the situation well enough.
Visually, the game is great to look at in action. Seattle looks beautiful and the powers look great, facial animation is a bit hit and miss though and it’s far from perfect when you try and climb, it doesn’t look nearly as polished as you would hope. Voice-acting is good, although Delsin will divide opinion on that one…but at least the soundtrack is decent.
The Verdict
Despite some flaws with combat, climbing and repetition, inFamous: Second Son is a worthy successor to the series and one that looks great on PS4. The open world of Seattle is great to explore and the choices between good and evil open up the game for at least a second playthrough. If you’ve enjoyed the past games you’re bound to enjoy this and if it’s your first entry into the series, it’s a good enough place as any to begin.
