inFAMOUS finally comes to the PlayStation 4 with a new protagonist, a new city and new powers. You'll have a blast with Second Son providing you can get past the flat and brief nature of the side stuff and whether or not you find Delsin's charm to your taste.
inFAMOUS: Second Son is set 7 years after inFAMOUS 2, Conduits (the superhumans of the world) are feared, so much so, the government have re-branded them "Bio-Terrorists" and created a branch known as the D.U.P (Department of Unified Protection) to collar and contain ALL Conduits of the world due to their potential destructive capabilities mainly through marshal law, you play a unaware Conduit and likeable rogue, Delsin Rowe, Delsin is a young man still looking to assert himself in life with his "Street Art" but with no success and the constant foiling of his cop brother, Reggie, doesn't help either, but thanks to a crashed D.U.P convey carrying 3 Conduits, Delsin learns of a new special talent; the ability to absorb and copy a Conduit's powers and memories. Suffice to say when the D.U.P catch up with him, he has little choice but to head to nearby Seattle and confront it's leader for the sake of his tribe, The Akomish. How you go about that main quest and how it plays out overall will change if you become a selfless, think-first-fire-smoke-later hero or the selfish, atom bomb of a raging Demi-God, this depends on the binary choices you make and the way you exercise your powers in combat, subduing enemies and precision will net you Good Karma where as balls to the walls carnage will net you Evil Karma, and all this affects your upgrades in the skill tree, one example of a Good Karma upgrade I unlocked for the Smoke power was that headshots automatically subdued opponents, Evil Karma upgrades are all about increasing your destructive capabilities to their explosive potential, oh and Delsin will get a make-over himself to reflect your alignment. I would have preferred if the Karma system wasn't so binary but what is here, is done well enough for you to create the hero/villian you want.
The story's cutscenes are extremely well done with great motion capture and voice performances from it's cast; video game character's have NEVER looked this incredible (one scene in particular I saw a character realistically chew gum and was slightly taken a back), in fact, the entire game is a treat for the eyes, smoke plumes, embers dwindle, spotlights and sunlight flare in your gaze, I could talk about how this game looks and sounds but it really is one of those things best witnessed for yourself, there's also some nifty use of motion controls, the light bar and the controller's speaker worth experiencing.
You can also tackle the D.U.P and help the city of Seattle by completing optional side tasks, and this is where Second Son could have done with more work, sure you can do more structured tasks that weaken the D.U.P such as finding hidden cameras, hunting down secret agents, finding audio logs, tagging walls and taking out communication hubs, while this does sound a lot there isn't any depth to them, they can be finished in under 5 mins a piece (apart from destroying communication hubs) and doing these things will release the hold of the D.U.P in that district unlocking a "Showdown"; which requires to fending off a pitiful wave of troops that will result in no more enemies in that area. It all becomes repetitive and a chore to do, and even non-structured karma task that I enjoyed in previous games, don't have the same satisfaction here, probably because they keep popping up over and over with no sign of abating. More challenge and better ways to utilise your abilities would have been better.
That being said inFAMOUS: Second Son looks and sounds gorgeous, it has a really well told story full of thought provoking moments, a likeable character and is so much fun to play with multiple superpowers in both mobility and combat. It may not have enough here to keep you satisfied for more than a couple of days but that doesn't make inFAMOUS: Second Son any but a solid game.
- UKSamwise