So I actually did manage to switch off Dark Souls II long enough to play inFamous: Second Son, albeit for a very brief amount of time. So I have some short, pretty superficial impressions — but I’m more interested in what you thought of the game?
My first impression, and I’m guessing most of your first impressions, were pretty good. The game looks about as spectacular as any released on next-gen platforms so far, and it’s pretty telling that the game is one of the first in seemingly ages that’s exclusive to one next gen platform. This is a game that truly takes advantage of the extra juice of the PlayStation 4.
So it looks great. Obviously. How does it play?
Well, I’ve always been a fan of inFamous as a series. I’ve always felt like I was fighting against its all-too-loose controls, but I’m a big fan of the way Sucker Punch designs cities tailored to the powers of the protagonist. I haven’t played enough of inFamous to decide if the team has done as good a job this time round, but I see no reason why they haven’t so far.
What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.
Comments
32 responses to “Community Review: inFamous: Second Son”
I’m loving it! It looks bloody fantastic – really a showcase for the power of the PS4 so early on in its life cycle. I’m really enjoying the game too. Its only fault is that it is probably a bit on the short side for an infamous game. But it is definitely worth playing twice to experience the difference between good and evil karma.
I got the game Friday and played it non-stop for 3 days. Didn’t even think about playing Dark Souls II, so that’s something in itself! It’s the first game in a long time that after finishing it I have immediately wanted to go back and play it again. I’m now 50% through my second play through (evil karma – expert difficulty) and liking it even more. I’ve cleaned up most of the random trophies and will have the platinum once I’m finished the story for the 2nd time.
Amazing. Must play.
you say amazing… but is it “Buy a PS4” amazing? i never played an infamous game, and this is right up my alley, but i am yet to find a reason to buy a next gen console…
I’d still wait until you have more games before getting a PS4 if you’re not convinced yet.
No idea why someone would downvote this.
Thoroughly enjoying it at about 70% completion.
Took me a little while to warm to the combat system but now I really like it. It’s super satisfying finishing off a crowd of DUP with the super smash move at the end. The graphics.. Just.. Wow.. Really impressive with great lighting and image quality.
100% on Sunday really great game bit short and the story was really nothing special very bare bones, but the gameplay is top notch and graphics are one of the best looking next gen games.
Heartily enjoyed it but it didn’t have enough storyline missions. It needed roughly double the missions to flesh out: (dont click the first spoiler tag unless you want a major spoiler)
Your connection to your brother Reggie. He just seemed annoying after a while. There was a little bit of bonding but not a lot. More missions would’ve been better. But his final mission where he dies was a REAL kicker!Eugene and Abigail were decent. Abigail got a lot of good character exposition thankfully, however
Eugene was left out in the cold a bit until his final triumphant return in the end which kicked all sorts of ass.And the thing that impressed me most? The big boss, was BADASS.
But that being said I’m really looking forward to playing through as Bad Delsin now to see how the game plays out…
Everyone I know seems to be playing Good first. At least that’s what all the pictures I’ve seen from people on my Instagram are telling me… I’m the same. I want to see how it plays out when I’m good before I run around unleashing hell on the people of Seattle 😛
Before last year, I have always played the ‘Good’ side first, but lately I have taken to the evil options in games. I struggle to stick to it, but absolutely love it at the same time. Been loving Second Son as an infamous bastard.
I do too lmao. I just think its the nice guy in me. But then, once I play evil its oh so much more fun… lol
Honestly.. I have no illusions – I am fully aware that the characters have no real emotions or feelings, but I struggle to be bad to them because it makes me feel terrible, haha. Slowly getting over it though, just forcing myself. As you said, sooo much more fun =P
There’s a power that turns crowds of civilians into bombs lol. Cant wait to try it 😀
Thats one thing, there’s no massive crowds in this, very surprising.
The shotgun-like blast from the ‘Smoke’ arsenal when you hold R2 is pretty funny when you’re in a crowd of civvies, instant mass obliteration.
Haven’t played very far through the story yet, but I have been absolutely blown away by the ways in which Sucker Punch have used all the features the PS4 has to offer. (So much so in fact that I wrote an article of my own about why inFamous has set a new benchmark http://guesswhosaninja.tumblr.com/post/80523453340 )
It’s an absolutely fantastically fun game, and I highly recommend it.
Hopefully it’s not just another pretty picture like killzone.
Almost got Platinum, just need to finish off the story on Evil, currently at around 60%. Thoroughly impressed with the gameplay and graphics are absolutely amazing, a real testament to the power of the PS4. Storyline was alright, significantly less epic scale than the previous two games (comparing saving the world to saving your tribe). However the game just gets too easy towards the end. The game is stretched out long enough that it begins to get fairly repetitive by the end as well.
Final boss fight as a lot better compared to last game (which was probably the most disappointing boss fight ever). Characters don’t really develop much beyond your initial decision to be good or bad, which is a bummer.
All in all though I love the game, looking forward to getting my first Platinum ever!
I hope I don’t come over as stupid but how do you restart the game to play the evil side
I really enjoyed it. I finished the evil version of the campaign in around 12 hours, I mostly focused on the main story and left the side quests for later. I still managed to finish it with the INFAMOUS (maximum) rating. I am going to go back through now as a Hero.
The Neon power is my preference.
SPOILER
The Video power is really unusual.
Absolutely loving it. I’ve only had a chance to put in 2-3 hours, but I’m hooked. The original Infamous was the reason behind me purchasing a PS3 and I loved Infamous 2, so I had high hopes for this one.
So far it’s delivered, it looks gorgeous and the controls are nice and tight. I only have smoke at the moment, so I can’t comment on the rest of the powers, but it’s been fun darting around the city.
I do like Delsin as the main character, even though I do kind of miss Cole, but it’s still Infamous without him.
The game isn’t perfect, but it’s easily my favorite next-gen game so far and the most impressive visually.
You only have Smoke? Wait until you get Neon!
I can’t wait. From the screenshots I’ve seen, it looks amazing.
Went out and bought a PS4 just for it yesterday. Played about an hour and a half, thoroughly enjoyed it. Went to play it again a couple of hours later, and my PS4 has died – Blue Light Of Death. Devastating. So I’ll hopefully be replacing it tonight. Just hoping JB can either get my inFamous disc out of the machine, or trust me enough to replace the disc as well…
You can manually eject discs by taking off the top plate and using a screwdriver to manually release.
The good:
The world is beautiful and reacts to the weather and time of day with such varied results. The powers are visually stunning and have a few aspects that really stand out, like the different movement powers.
The bad:
The characters are interesting, but lack any development and often have much of their related plot learnt through quick conversation. Far too short at 15 missions which makes the plot skip too quickly.
Troy Baker is great, but they seemed to have got him for his name, not his voice. His normal speaking voice stands out and makes Delsin less unique, not to mention is also used for the audio tapes which was a strange choice.
The powers tend to replace the last ones and don’t have very many differences between good and bad karma like the other games.
Side missions take 30 seconds each at best and seemed like a late addition to try and flesh out an already empty game.
The city seems very small and minor areas look and feel the same.
Overall this game seemed like a first attempt from a new studio, which sadly, it isn’t.
I finished the game twice over in one weekend and was left wanting more.
I am let down that the first real next gen title makes the same mistakes as the last and prides looks over story.
Holy shit only 15 missions??? I Knew it felt short!!!
I managed to 100% the game with Good Karma in under 20 hours of play. It’s a shame because past the gorgeous visuals and exciting gameplay there simply isn’t enough content for an open-world sandbox game. I’ve since restarted, this time playing with Evil Karma and I hope to get a little more out of it. It’s an exciting look at what’s to come from the PlayStation 4 however there are definitely last generation elements still clinging on.
Neutral: No ‘next-gen’ advances in gameplay or mechanics. Understandable. Delsin’s jump animation is so PS2-era it’s laughable, although my friend watching was like “wow look at that jump!”, which confuses me as a human being.
Good: It does look pretty though. As expected and i’m glad they didn’t stuff it up.
Neg: That fucking sound engine. So bad. It’s actually impacting my gameplay, and I’m missing story dialogue.
Its still a work in progress for me. I originally had no plans on getting this game but thought I would give it a try due to the good things I was hearing about it. I didn’t enjoy the first Infamous at all partly because I didn’t like Cole and didn’t particularly want him to win despite playing as him. I’m finding that I like Delsin. He’s flawed but in a good way, not just some moody dude.
I like Seattle, haven’t seen a lot of it yet and I like the Banksy style graffiti. Sucker Punch, if you are reading, please send me the stencils! I want to paint them up in my house!
Call me stupid and then tar and feather me alive, but for a while I thought this was Prototype 3 for ages when I first saw the screens/gameplay. Something about the character reminds me of the Prototype dude and the way some of the abilities look too.
It’s visually spectacular, as you would expect from the new console generation. From a pure-gaming perspective, the gameplay is a lot of fun, and you certainly feel ‘powerful’ as a superhero from very early in the game when you start developing powers. My girlfriend and I bought it clocked the game on Sunday evening after buying it Saturday night – only took about 12-14 hours – and finished main quest at aobut 75% total game completion. It’s a tremendous amount of fun and you won’t regret playing it or buying it.
The down-sides, I think, are:
– the characters are pretty darn black-and-white; not as interesting from a plot-perspective as previous games
– there seems to be little narrative cohesion or justification for playing the game as evil – I can’t think of how it fits with the core bits of Delsin’s back-story
– I think the female characters are really boring and it’s very much a ‘boys’ type of game
– The writing for dialogue is much more naff than previous Infamous games
– The plot isn’t as compelling (it’s all fairly plodding and predictable) versus previous games
So the weaknesses largely about narrative, and the strengths largely about the great game play – which I suppose given it’s a video game is not so bad! Nor surprising. I’d give it a 7.5-8 outta 10 if pressed.
Hope that helps. Happy conduit-ing!
main character is a douchebag… AI run around too much like total retards (enemies i’m referring too mainly)… jumping mechanics and climbing stuff is painful… its pretty though…
i guess you can polish a turd… not enjoying… 6/10 – another polished turd of a ps4 exclusive :\
I thought it was awesome! The game play improvements are so fun and being able to get to the top of a skyscraper without having to spam ‘X’ all the time felt really nice and smooth.
After getting my platinum on this, the only thing that really sticks out as a disappointment is the length. It’s way too short to completely enjoy the whole thing and say “I’m completely satisfied”. From that, I also thought that it should have included more of those comic-styled cut scenes.
I’m just hoping the “Paper Trail” adds more to it.
Overall, I’m completely happy I bought a PS4 for it. I’m just wondering when’s a good time to start my 3rd play through….