Video game review: inFamous Second Son (2014)

The game that I will be talking about today is one which I was pleasantly surprised with, it's called inFamous Second Son. inFamous Second Son is an open world/action adventure game that happens to be the third installment within the inFamous franchise. It is a non direct sequel to the first two inFamous games, telling a stand alone story with fresh, new characters.It basically gives the series a fresh start and allows people new to the series to enjoy it without any knowledge of the previous installations. The game was released back in March of 2014, and was made available for the Playstation 4 exclusively. It was developed by Sucker Punch Studios, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment.   

Now, I wasn't every super crazy about the inFamous series previously. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the previous 2 games and the Vampire DLC that was released for the second game. I just wasn't in love with them or anything like a lot of people were. I found the previous main character, Cole, to be a living piece of cardboard who couldn't emote very well. The art style wasn't really stylish in any aspect, and was quite dreary and gritty most of the time. Just something that I wasn't a fan of. The vampire DLC was a lot more entertaining and stylish, and made Cole has somewhat of a personality, making it more enjoyable than the 2 normal games. This game, however, sets itself apart quite easily by having an actual non cardboard main character and having an awesome art style with an interesting open world.  

As I briefly mentioned before, the game starts off throwing us into a brand new story that stands on its own without relying on much of anything from the previous two games, so you don't really need to have played the previous games to understand things in this one. The only thing that really is the same between this game and the others is that the world has conduits in it, people who are superpowered with various abilities who have been labeled as Bio-terrorists. Everything is easy to understand and the concept of super powered humans walking around isn't too much of a strange or unknown one these days. And, while the other games are canon, they're just never referenced within this game. 

The narrative centers around our main character, Delsin, a guy just barely out of his teens who still has a defiant and rebellious streak in his bones. This is shown early on by Delsin applying graffiti artwork over a billboard in his small town. After doing so, he is caught by his brother Reggie who also happens to be the town sheriff. Their argument gets interrupted midway by a military truck carrying several conduits crashes into their small community. Two of the conduits escape, leaving a 3rd behind in the wreckage. Delsin runs to the mans aid, pulling him out of the debris, but in doing so ends up absorbing some of the conduits powers allowing him to use smoke to hover, teleport and shoot fireballs from his hands.  

A decent portion of the story is basically just a superhero origin story, but thankfully it isn't a bland one and puts a good spin on things with a very charismatic character that you'll like right off the bat. Even with him being thrust straight into a bizarre situation right at the start of the game, you already start to care for the character due to his entertaining personality and strong familial connections to his tribe. The voice acting helps with this quite a bit, as he is voice by the ever talented Troy Baker who has voice an insane amount of great characters within the video game industry. (Seriously, I'm pretty sure almost everyone is Troy Baker at this point in time) While the game isn't telling a super new tale, it at least tells a well done, entertaining one.  

As the plot progresses, you'll also notice that the story isn't just Delsins on his own, as you get the perspectives of his cop brother Reggie, several other conduits that you have to track down as you play the game, and of course a villain organization with a leader who is one of the most dislikable characters I've seen in a video game in a long time, which is good considering that she's the villain. The narrative of Second Son has two paths you can take with one being evil and one being good, which will influence how your game goes. I won't talk about it too much more as I don't want to get into spoiler territory, but the game definitely has some twist and turns and it keeps you pretty well engaged. 

The characters aren't the only thing that are interesting or filled with style, the world around your character and his powers are even more stylish I would say. Each and every time you use your powers whether it be for combat directly, or just to get yourself around the city, you can't help but be impressed with the effects that are shown on screen each time you do it. It really aids you with feeling like you're playing with a super hero, and gives you a sense of awe. The further you play into the game the more powers and abilities you will unlock, most of which end up being cooler than the last. 

The combat within the game is pretty simple for the most part, but it is well done and works without any flaws that make it frustrating. You can either use melee attacks or ranged attacks, and there are several types of attacks that you can unlock that build upon either mode giving you several options to engage enemies. Your main choice of weapon is a chain the Delsin wears around his wrist that you use to basically whip and beat your enemies with. You get 3 different paths of power throughout the game, giving you a plethora of different abilities which you can cycle through by absorbing certain elements within the city around you.  

The story will take you somewhere between 10-15 hours to complete, which is a pretty decent sized campaign mode for a game like this. You can of course run through it for a second time to see what the other side of the moral compass is like, which I recommend you do if you have the time. While the karma system isn't super in depth and full of substance, it does impact the relationships with the characters in game and can give you very different performances by not only your own character but the side characters that surround you. The game only has a few key moments in which your choices matter, and for the most part you can just run around being a super hero and having fun. Beyond completing the story a second time, there's also a ton of side content you can do such as finding shards, freeing districts from the government rule and finding other side missions to do.  

The open world of the game is done quite well, with plenty of interesting locations to find and check out as the game takes place in Seattle. The map is quite honestly just massive with a lot of room for you to rain down destruction on your foes, or just to fly around and explore. There's plenty of parts of the game that just give you an awe inspiring moment, like climbing up the Space Needle and looking down at everything from way, way up above. I think in comparison to the older games, the world they've provided this time around has a lot more to do, and it's honestly just a more interesting world in general. It helps that it has a lot of neat things inside of it and there's a ton of style to the art direction of the game.  

The only things in the game that I thought could have been done a bit better was the spray paint sections of the game, as the controls were pretty badly done there and I just thought there was something missing there. Thankfully, that is an optional section of the game to do. I also think that the enemies within the game were a bit bland, and could have been more interesting or well done. There's really only one big baddie you have to face as a foe, and I think for a government organization that uses super powers we could have seen a few underlings of hers that had an actual personality beyond being stormtroopers basically. Other than that, there might be a few small flaws here and there but nothing that I could really complain about.  

Overall, I would definitely recommend this game to you guys. In my opinion, this is the best inFamous game that has been released so far and is a big step up from the previous two. Even if you aren't a fan of the series, you can jump right into this one and enjoy it just as much as everyone else since you don't need any previous knowledge of the past games. It has a wonderful voice acting cast that each show a good performance, awesome graphics that are very stylish and very fun combat that you never really get tired of. While it does have a few small hiccups, I would say this is one of the better action games that I have played in recent times and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  

Thanks for stopping by to check out my review. Appreciate it!