Infamous Second Son: Puff Puff Smoke That Neon | Review

Infamous Second Son PS4 Review

March 22nd, 2014, by Maya Mayfield





Cole MacGrath's heroic exploits opened the door for humans and conduits to co-exist in harmony at the end of inFAMOUS 2. Unfortunately that vision was short lived when Cole MacGrath died in New Marais. In the years that followed mass panic fell upon the entire world, causing the Department of United Protection to round up and imprison all conduits, marking those still on the run as bio-terrorists.  With most of the conduits held against their will, their only hope of  survival and freedom lies with Delsin Rowe, a  twenty-four year old rebellious street artist with a slick mouth.

Delsin is quickly recognized as a rebel and somewhat foul mouthed lead that uses his skill as a street graffiti artists to tease and humiliate the Department of United Protection (D.U.P.) Delsin uses satire to calm heated confrontations, he often talks to himself humorously as he runs jumps and flies around Seattle as well as those he comes in contact with. Although his brash outward demeanor and quick witted mouth may not be to every ones taste, especially the D.U.P. Delsin does have a sensitive side which we experienced through the well written storyline between him and his brother. Deslin is the kind of guy you could love to hate, but when push comes to shove, he will always have your back even if he may have a few wise cracks to say along the way.

We are initially confronted with an emotional decision early into the game as Delsin has to deal with a huge choice regarding those people in his life that he cares deeply for.  The director of the D.U.P. has sent out a surveillance team to track an escaped conduit, which happens to find themselves at Delsin's location. Rounding up those in the vicinity, the director demands information of the escape conduit's location.

This opening sequence marks the road in which path you will take Delsin as the fate of dozens of peoples lives hang in the balance of his response. Will you be heroic or ruthless as the choice you make right here will form the overall backbone and plot of the entire story, with Sucker Punch delivering a solid direction in the games storyline, powers and level progression for both  the good and bad paths. I felt like this decision alone was worth the money for inFAMOUS Second Son as I instantly had a reason to replay the game all over again from the beginning, choosing a different path next time round.

Most of Delsin's story unravels in Seattle, WA - the first real world based environment in the entire inFAMOUS franchise. Taking control of Seattle the Department of United Protection has created security checks points through out the entire city as a way of blocking escaped conduits from freely moving around Seattle, WA, or trying to escape for good. As Delsin its your mission to break down these barriers and take back Seattle from the D.U.P.

Sucker punch have cleverly woven Delsin's story in inFAMOUS Second Son to coincide with events and missions that help to not only upgrade his power but to also weaken the deathly grip the D.U.P. has on the citizens of Seattle and the conduits. This perfect mix of storyline, combined with power upgrades works very well in driving the mission forward as you don't feel like you are just completing needless tasks just to increase Delsin's skills as in the previous inFAMOUS games.

You will quickly realize that Delsin's source of  gathering power isn't like most conduits that manipulate matter to create their skills. Unlike most conduits, Delsin's power can be compared to that of Rogue from Marvels popular X-men series. Having the unique ability to absorb and permanently keep the powers of those conduits he comes into direct physical contact with, you can say Deslin is like a power sucking sponge.

This unique ability opens up a ton of super powers and upgradable options to consider, as Delsin takes on different powers of conduits he touches. This is rather genius as Delsin isn't just stuck with a bunch of pre-programmed powers from start to finish, but can have his powers modified as he comes in contact with other conduits. Although Delsin does however come in contact with a handful-of conduits, each power skill does carry a large amount of upgradable weapon choices and various skills, giving us plenty of options and directions to which power tree and skills we wanted to invest and develop.

There is a nice variety of Power types for you to discover and play with that I will kindly not spoil for you guys in the review, beyond the obvious Neon and Smoke abilities which Sucker Punch has already revealed. Each of these power types does however present various interchangeable options creating a brand new Super heroic experience we have ever had the pleasure of seeing in a video game.

With the power of Smoke, Delsin can morph into a puff of smoke, sucked from under ground vents that can take you on a one way trip to most rooftops. At this height advantage point, Delsin can shoot fire cinder shots at D.U.P. soldiers, or drain the power of neon lights from shops signs nearby, sending an incredible charge of energy beams down on his enemies. When ever Delsin is cornered by D.U.P. under a storm of bullets, he can simply use the power of Neon to dash out of harms way in a flash of lightning or absorb another source of power to use as a clacking devices.

Once you master Deslin's ability to attack, defend, dash and counter, you really can begin to pull of some pretty cool combo's against enemy D.U.P. troops, which when stringed properly together can be a very satisfying experience indeed. Seattle is a City that burns with the fire of destruction as heated battles against Deslin and the D.U.P. will result in buildings crumbling, cars exploding and bodies being thrown here and there with rag-dollish effect. It’s a beautiful mix of mayhem, handled quite well with only the slightest framerate dips.

inFAMOUS Second Son does have a very engaging story line, but the biggest highlight for me was the incredible amount of detail I discovered while exploring the City of Seattle. Pack full of fun places to explore, I found myself at times going off the beaten path just to see what I could find.

There are wide options of architectural differences and locations of interests to discover, all created with a high level of realism that spares no detail even to something as small as a drop of rain or the puddle gathered on the street that reflects the sign of Neon lights from shop windows.

Most of the games side missions are relatively easy and simple to complete with Delsin doing little more than locating undercover targets, destroying D.U.P. equipment's, knocking out hidden cameras, taking down tracker drones and tagging the streets with graffiti. All of these tasks are clearly labeled on the map, and can be completed fairly quickly.

I quickly sped through these easy side missions, just to get them out of the way but did feel like they were sort of  there as side fillers that didn't add much of a challenge to my overall experience in the game. The Bonus however of completing these side missions is that Delsin is rewarded with power shards used to increase his powers. By getting these side tasks out of the way first  meant I had more power at my disposal to mess around with faster, at the cost of time out from the main mission to get through these mundane tasks.

The combative scenarios did also get a little receptive after a while as we faced off a handful of D.U.P. troops at a time, a few unsavory gangster types and some police officers. There really wasn't much of a twist thrown into these encounters that could really cause us too much concern, however the battles we faced during the missions story did present a new type of enemy to figure out and deal with, all under various conditions that at times meant limited amounts of power or other types of restrictions. Each enemy did give their best and on those occasion did result in some very hair raising moments.

Verdict

inFAMOUS Second Son takes on a brand new direction in the series and we think Sucker Punch made the right decision to go this way. Delsin's ability certainly opens up a ton of possibilities in the gameplay mechanics. The choices I made during my run through also created a sense of unexpected expectation as I really had no idea what would happen next. Apart from the repetitive side quest. We really couldn't fault Sucker Punch's effort for creating one of the most enjoyable games we have played on the Playstation 4, since its November 15th 2013 debut.

Score

4/5