I thought I Finished Infamous: Second Son. Turns out there’s plenty left.
Infamous: Second Son came out recently. If you picked it up before the weekend, it might be the case that you’ve blown through the main storyline already, soaked up all those tasty powers and are purging the Department of Unified Protection out of Seattle. Seems like all that Conduit drama’s all done, right? No more superpeople to chase down, no more mysteries to suss out. Wrong. There’s another metahuman that Delsin Rowe needs to reckon with. And the way her story’s being presented is one of the coolest things about Second Son.
WARNING: Mild spoilers follow for parts of Infamous: Second Son and the Paper Trail missions.
The fifth super-powered person in Second Son‘s story shows up in Infamous Paper Trail, a cross-platform offering that sends players from the PS4 gamepad to the computer keyboard and back again. To get things started, you create a profile on the dedicated website and link your PSN account. Once that’s done, you head to the origami icon on the in-game map to begin the Paper Trail missions. This add-on starts off with Delsin coming to a set location, looking over mysterious clues and then giving chase to a new conduit, who’s somehow wielding paper-based powers. (You can laugh but the effects around her ability are pretty cool.)
The missions that follow are fairly typical Second Son sidequests: fight a group of enemies, investigate an area, follow a person/thing. But it’s how they link up to a series of fake internet destinations that mark an interesting divergence from the rest of the game. Paper Trail exists somewhere in the notional space between a companion app and an ARG; it’s a trail of breadcrumbs that basically has you going from playing a few sequences in the game to piecing together clues, which in some cases appear on various fake websites.
Some of these sites get linked on the Paper Trail profile pages and tie into Second Son’s fiction in obvious ways: a research center specializing in the science of Conduitism or an advocacy group preaching the message that Conduits are people, too.
There are tests you can take to find out if you’re a Conduit or how much you know about the gameworld’s species of superhuman:
Doing those things earns you in-game Karma and help you progress through the first mission. But as you complete subsequent parts of Paper Trail, you get sent back to the sites to do more detective work. One task has you going through a deceased PI’s wallet:
One weird thing that happened to me while on the Paper Trail site was that I saw different pictures in different browsers while examining the wallet of that murder victim:
When the pop-up investigative view wouldn’t launch for the dog and Aloha pictures in Chrome, I tried it in Safari, chalking it up to a quirk of the browser or code. I wasn’t expecting different images altogether.
Maybe it’s just a speed bump. But it could be intentional. You never know with these brain-teaser/ARG-styled experiences. I’m only two chapters into Paper Trail, but I’m already appreciating how deep this rabbit hole seems to be. One of the puzzles already stumped me for a good long while. It’s also turning what would otherwise be a less-exciting post-campaign piece of time into an intriguing investigation of an experiment. It’s meatier than the little flyer in the Second Son game case would have you believe. On one hand, it’s not new at all. In fact, it’s kind of retro. But Paper Trail gives this new Infamous game a flavour I didn’t I’d be sampling. So, whether you’ve finished the story or not, don’t ignore this one; it could take you places that surprise you.
Comments
13 responses to “One Of Infamous: Second Son’s Best Parts Doesn’t Happen On The PS4”
I found it to be a rushed addition that showcases just how empty and rushed the main game is.
The promised 5 hours of extra gameplay is mostly done outside of the game and amounts to 3 missions so far, 2 of which involve the already overused, chase style mission.
I found Paper Trail to be amusing, but would have liked the game itself to have recieved much more attention.
I brought the game on Fri, finished the good play through by Sat, completed the evil play through and platinum by Sun and completed the Paper Trail missions in about 20 minutes.
A pretty start to the next generation, but lacking in personality.
Are you really surprised but?
Do you sleep?
I admit I prob over did it Fri night, sat up till 4am Sat morning. But the rest of the weekend was normal and envolved a number of other activities. It’s just that short, 15 missions short. And this was my first ever platinum too!! (I tend to get bored of games before I complete the requirements for platinum) I didn’t even try to get it, felt like I got ribbon for taking part.
I also admit that I did the meat of the side missions the first time through and just played for the bad story the second time.
Cool as. It took me 3 days of on off playing, not wanting to play because didnt want to finish it and sharing with my sons and and that was 100% good playthrough. Taking my time now with the evil playthrough and also Paper trail missions as well. What made it feel longer was travelling to various locations and the amount of soldiers you had to beat to progress. Wish it was longer but i’m pretty sure they’ll address that with any future DLC
Same here, two days each on expert to 100% both Good and then Bad play through’s, Guess I loved it that much I spent all weekend playing only Second Son.
Well if that is the case give up on games now and stick with books. You will never find anything of value in games. Rushing through it like that ruins it for you and puts a biased spin on the actual content. I got a life to and bought it at midnight and still haven’t finished. Course I don’t play til I am exhausted.
I think the origins of your complaint was that it was fantastic for you but once you hit the end it was total disappointment. I fear most games that is entirely repetitious (fighting and pvp games) will be that way for you.
I could never find any joy just blowing through something and this game seems to be the first game since achievements/trophies started that I’ve finished 100%
Didn’t rush it buddy, I just played for an extended period one night. I completed side missions and chased out the DUP before I did the main missions. By the time I reached the final mission I only needed one shard found on the tower that can be accessed through the mission.
Explain to me, with all content completed including side missions by the time I reached the end of the game, what exactly did I miss out on? I can’t drag out a game with wishful thinking and unicorn dreams. The only way I could have made the game longer was to run around aimlessly doing the same 30 second karma events over and over.
Maybe, just maybe, games aren’t made for those with no lives willing to waste away in front of a TV for hours on end anymore. Maybe games are targetting a wider audience of people looking for good games that don’t require the same level of commitment.
For instance, I loved Black Flag. But it got the point where I was haldf way through the game, realised I probably had another 40 hours to go….and gave up.
That’s a fair call.
However in the case of Second Son, that’s not the case. The story was short, character development was lacking (I went from chasing a stranger to having a relationship with them in the space of two missions through implied speech, only to never see or hear from them again till the end of the game) It just seemed lazy that so much plot happened off screen and was summed up in short phone conversations.
Side missions take 30 seconds at most and are basically handed to you without effort.
Sure, it makes a great game for those with little time, but even then you will still feel like it brushed over a lot and lacked substance.
It doesn’t matter how long you have to play a game if the effort to engage you just isn’t there.
Can’t wait until they release part 2 of the papertrail missions this week. I’m gonna call it and say we’ll get to use paper power at the end.
I actually want to see it through too despite my issues with the game. I may have to start a new game to properly experience the power set though, I have cleared everything and using them on the odd APC or random enemy force pop up won’t do it for me.
It’d be awesome if this was a teaser for a Read or Die video game…
Games are made for people that like games. Made BY people who like games.
It is short. Whether you take your time and extend it is your business, but last time i checked, games were being made for gamers, and gamers play games that they like. They play games they like A LOT. telling this guy that he played too fast is idiotic, and borderline retarded.
If someone says your playing the game too fast because you like it too much, that person should be ignored due to their ignorance.