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Story
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This game takes place seven years after inFAMOUS 2's Good Ending. Conduits are now labelled as Bio-Terrorists, and are hunted down by a government body called D.U.P., lead by Augustine, a powerful Conduit herself. Delsin Rowe himself become an active Conduit involuntary, and has to go to Seattle to settle some business with Augustine, with the help of Delsin's brother Reggie.
The story is rather simple, but not extremely interesting on its own compared to previous two inFAMOUS games' stories. It has some good and interesting moments such as Conduits's flashbacks, but not much. Not much plot twists and very underdeveloped characters for two certain escaped Conduits. The main characters such as Delsin and Reggie however, are well-developed themselves. I however, do not like Delsin much as a superhero compared to Cole MacGrath from the first two inFAMOUS games. Also, I actually prefer to see Reggie himself to be a Conduit himself rather than Delsin, since his job as a police conflicts with his own Conduit powers, which makes a rather more interesting storyline of accepting his powers as well as serving justice to the public. As much as I like all of the characters in this game, many of them do not feel developed much in terms of their story and character exposures.
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Gameplay
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This game plays like previous inFAMOUS games. This game is a superhero open-world and action game, where you can explore in a vast city of Seattle. Like the first two inFAMOUS games, you can climb buildings using parkour, use your superpowers to take down enemies, and do Side Missions.
Like the previous two games, you will progress in the game's story by completing the Story Missions. Some Story Missions can only be done if you are in a particular Karma alignment. Some of the Story Missions can also only be done if you have cleared out a D.U.P. mobile command centre at certain districts.
This game's map is separated by two islands, with different districts with their own Side Missions. Each distrcit in the game has a percentage of D.U.P. control, which can be lowered by destroying their command centres, destroy checkpoints, and complete the district's Side Missions. If you are able to reduce the D.U.P. control of a district to a certain percentage, you can initiate a showdown with the D.U.P. to get rid of D.U.P. enemies from that district permanently. Not only that, you will also unlock Fast Travel location for you to quickly travel between different districts. Keep in mind that you can only use the Fast Travel feature if you have eliminated D.U.P. control from two districts permanently.
Delsin Rowe has access to several powers, which include Smoke and Neon powers. As you progress in the game's Story Missions, you will unlock new powers such as Smoke Dash, Smoke Shots, and other powers. Unlike the first two games' experience points system, you may upgrade your existing powers by spending Blast Shards, which can be found by destroying certain drones and destroying D.U.P. checkpoints. Some of the upgrades however, may require you to have certain Karma rank to purchase them. You may also use melee moves to defeat enemies close by.
Karma system is back in this game. You may choose to align in Good Karma rank, or Evil Karma rank by doing certain actions. Doing good deeds such as healing injured people and capture enemies alive will net you Good Karma points, while doing evil deeds such as killing civilians or killing enemies that have surrendered will net you Evil Karma points. Certain Karma choices in the game's Story Missions will also net you the appropriate Good or Evil Karma points. Mini-events also return in this game with icons in the game's minimap, where you can opt to do if you want to get either Good or Evil Karma points, such as busting drug deals, save captive civilians, save bullied Conduits, and others.
Using a certain offensive move of a power type will consume your energy stock, which can be refilled by draining from different energy sources, such as smoke vents or neon lights. However, you cannot switch between your powers freely, as you can only use one type of power at one time. If you want to switch to a different type of power, simply drain from a different energy source to change your currently used power to suit in different situations. A new offensive move that you can use is Karmic Streak, which is a powerful huge area attack that can defeat lots of enemies and cause huge destruction to an area. To use it, you need to fill up the gauge by performing either Good or Evil Karma deeds depending on your current Karma Rank. After filling it up, you can use it to defeat lots of enemies. Be careful that this move will most likely injure civilians, and the Karmic Streak gauge will be reset if you do the opposite Karma deed than your current Karma alignment.
Enemies consist of D.U.P. enemies, where they will use firearms and concrete powers against you. Regular D.U.P. soldiers may pose little threat against you, but the more powerful D.U.P. soldiers may use their concrete powers to overwhelm you and for their own protection. There are also boss fights in this game, and frankly they are more varied than inFAMOUS 2's boss fights. You can die and restart the checkpoint if Delsin's health is depleted, and his health will recover naturally if you stat out of combat for certain period of time.
Overall, the gameplay is solid, but has not much improvement and has many downgrades compared to inFAMOUS 2's gameplay. Less enemy variety, shorter story mode, more repetitive both Story and Side Missions, less collectibles, less impactful Karma decisions, and no civilians interaction with your current Karma rank. This game has less enemy variety with no factions than first two games, where it feels repetitive when fighting them through the game's Missions and when exploring the Seattle islands. Story mode feels much shorter than first two inFAMOUS games, with less Story Missions. Story and Side Missions feel very repetitive in this game, with less variety than previous inFAMOUS games. Karma decisions also do not feel impactful to the game's Story much, and the civilians do not react properly to your current Karma rank, such as helping you to fight off enemies in the game when you are in high Good Karma rank.
On the plus side, boss fights are improved compared to inFAMOUS 2, but still pales in comparison against inFAMOUS boss fights. Variety of powers also offer you different fighting strategy, such as one of your Neon powers allow you to freerun buildings and run extremely fast to escape or to chase your target. Also, different variety of powers are fun to use and the combat is extremely fun when you are using different powers from one battle to another, or during different situations., This game is also extremely user friendly when it comes to give you helpful hints and displays on the game's Side Missions and Blast Shard collectibles. Fast Travel is a welcome addition for fast travelling from one district to another. Overall, solid gameplay, but not much improvement.
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Graphics
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The graphics are amazing. Great looking characters, detailed looking environments, and amazing visual effects. Game performs admirably smooth, with only minor bugs and glitches in the game. The comic-book style cutscenes in this game look great as well, as they capture the spirit of a superhero game greatly.
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Sound
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The soundtrack is rather good, fitting in different contexts of the game scenes. I like the game's soundtrack a lot, and I have downloaded the free soundtrack from the PlayStation Store for my pleasure listening.
The voice acting is great, with great contributions from a number of veteran voice actors like Troy Baker, Travis Willingham, and Laura Bailey. All of the voice actors did good job on voicing their characters in this game.
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Replay Value
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This game has good replay value. You can opt to clear all districts from D.U.P. control, play the game second time on a different Karma alignment, play the game on Expert mode, or collect all Trophies. However, repetition is strong in this game when it comes to repetitiveness of the Side Missions and Story Missions progression, so be aware of that.
You may also opt to complete an optional series of Missions called Paper Trails. Playing this series of Missions, however, is different than progressing normally in this game. Many of the Paper Trails clues and puzzles must be solved in the Paper Trails website (using a computer to browse and solve the puzzles are highly recommended), where you can sync your progress with your PSN ID. After you have cleared a set of puzzles and clues, you can start the next Paper Trails mission. There are six parts of Paper Trails, with more than 10 missions in it. Personally, I feel that the process to solve Paper Trials clues and puzzles via their website is more cumbersome than unique, as it would have been better if they included the clues and puzzles within the game itself.
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Conclusion
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Personally, I think this game is good, but not as good as inFAMOUS 2 in terms of overall experience, except more variety of boss fights. It is very difficult for me to rate this game, as I prefer this game than inFAMOUS 1 in certain areas, and vice versa. The main issues I have with the game is the mediocre story and questionable game designs. This game however, has more accessible soundtrack, good voice cast and great graphics. Any PS4 players should try out this game regardless, as it is one of the best looking PS4 games so far. However, inFAMOUS fans should not expect much from this game to be extremely much better than the first two games, because I personally believe Sucker Punch make some backsteps on this game compared to previous games in many ways.
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Score
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Story: 7/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 9/10
Final Score: 8.25/10.0 or 33/40
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Pros and Cons
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Pros
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- Likable characters.
- Fun combat with variety of powers to be used.
- Easy to learn controls.
- Solid gameplay, with some issues.
- More mobility powers to be used, such as dashing through vents.
- More unique boss fights than inFAMOUS 2's boss fights.
- Astounding graphics.
- Good soundtrack.
- Great voice acting.
- Good replay value.
Cons
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- Story feels too short and not as interesting as first two inFAMOUS games' stories.
- Fewer and repetitive Story Missions.
- Repetitive Side Missions.
- Less collectibles than first two inFAMOUS games.
- Less enemy variety.
- No civilians interaction depending on your Karma rank.
- Karma choices feel less impactful.
- Paper Trails missions feel more tedious to complete rather than being fun and unique.
inFAMOUS Second Son was one of PS4's best exclusives, but does it hold up a decade later?
100%, locked 60fps and still look great all these years later, same with the expansion, definitely worth a look if people haven't played it yet, not the best games ever made but a good experience, hopefully a new infamous gets released
Never was my favorite infamous, but it was definitely a graphics showcase early on PS4. Still plays well with the unlocked frame rate.
Still remember getting hyped about this game nearing release. Funny because I never even got a PS4. Jumped from PS3 to PC so I never played it ahahaha
Its a good game. But thats it. Congratulations you made the best choice. I dream to have a great PC one day.
Graphically It's a absolutely stunning game that still holds up today.
Didn't have all that much depth to it forcing you to play though twice for a platinum trophy a good and bad run it was a little disappointing how similar those were Delsin would be like I'm not doing that for you in a cutscene but the cutscene would play out and force you to do it anyway just as you would of in a good run
I did like the story however it got a lot of complaints back in the day people hated playing as Delsin instead of cole despite Coles story being wrapped up.
Overall though the map wasn't overly saturated with useless points of interest there was some collectibles and things to find but nothing compared to a Ubisoft game.
I think it was a good game if a little hollow I've played it through around 4 times now since it's so short.
Also it's DLC was great a full story expansion
GB: "With this feature, we run down 15 of the most underrated games on the PS4 that never received the love and appreciation they truly deserve."
I've played 15, and I wouldn't consider any of those underrated TBH. Some of them are pretty high rated.
I. Not seeing anything on that list underrated. I never played concrete genie, the ASTRO vr,and one other but I forgot the name already. Nothing on there was underrated at all imo.
There’s only 4 of those games I never played, and no most of those aren’t underrated.
GB: "There's just something special about the games that could be, and this feature gushes about 15 games that we would love to see on the PS5."
Nice to see some appreciation for one of my favorite gaming series of all time. Don't forget the DLC for Second Son!