The new console generation was a chance for new series to emerge as the go-to standards, or to at least freshen up the existing offerings with a new coat of paint. Sucker Punch opted for the latter, with a third entry in their Infamous franchise that was meant to feel like a new jumping on point, and Infamous: Second Son comes across as just that; something that does not require you to have played the previous two games, but can reward veterans of the franchise in subtle ways for doing so. By moving forward in time, and switching locations, there is a novel atmosphere to this game that separates itself enough from the other games to not feel too stale, however, what there is to offer is in a lot of ways just not enough to go on, and the experience is over before you really get to enjoy it to it's fullest.
Taking place seven years after the "Heroic" ending of Infamous 2, where former protagonist Cole McGrath sacrificed himself to destroy The Beast and rid the world of the plague that was destroying humanity - as well as killing most, but not all of the world's conduits - Second Son puts you in the shoes of Delsin Rowe, an Akomish delinquent who, along with his brother Reggie, the local sheriff, head to Seattle to try and save the tribe from the effects of fellow conduit Brooke Augustine's assault on their friends. Augustine, the head of the D.U.P (Department of Unified Protection) is trying to locate three conduits - now re-branded as "bio-terrorists" - who have recently escaped from a crashed transport vehicle, and when Delsin touched one of the escaping conduits, he absorbs his power and realizes that he too is a conduit with the ability to "sponge" other powers, and must now try and absorb Augustine's power over concrete to heal the injured Akomish.
If that sounds somewhat generic, you'd be right, and would also have a good grasp of where the plot is going to go moving forward. Augustine only ever comes across as a villain who is evil for the sake of evil without ever really giving a good justification until the literal end of the game, and by that time, it's too late. As well, Delsin is exactly the punk he is portrayed as in the first five minutes of the game for the duration, and Reggie is an anti-conduit bigot in almost all of his scenes with little growth from either party. While the performances of Troy Baker (Delsin) and Travis Willingham (Reggie) are good, with their bickering banter often sounding genuine, the lack of any decent pay-off serves only to hi-light just how corny and paint-by-numbers the story is.
There are a few other characters, specifically the three escaped conduits from whom Delsin acquires his powers, but they show up in precious few moments, and after the missions where Delsin meets them, and the mission where you go out with them to learn your new powers, they almost never show up again. One of them, Eugene, is especially unfortunate in his limited screen-time. A lonely nerd "gamer" who prefers to think of the world in terms of an MMO is the kind of caricature you would least expect to find in a video game, yet he seems to be written by an algorithm of all the most negative stereotypes of video game fans as they are portrayed in other media.
Despite the shaky characters and bland story, Infamous: Second Son is at least a joy to play. The superhero sandbox is treat to run around in due to the fluid movement and fun powers, all of which have different way of making traversing the city something you look forward to. While all four powers have roughly the same features - light projectile attack, heavy projectile attack, movement ability, grenade or tertiary ability, etc. - each feels different enough that you can find different scenarios for the different tool-sets. One complaint about the powers is that you don't get access to half of them until late in the game, including not having the Concrete power until after you have completed the game, only to be used in post-campaign clena-up. After starting with Smoke and eventually getting Neon, it is far closer to the end of the game than I would have wanted before you actually get to use Video, which ended up being my favorite by far.
In fact, even more than the writing, the greatest detriment of the game is the fact there just isn't very much of it. The main story can probably be finished in five or six hours, and even if you do play it twice - as they intend with the series trademark karma system - the mission structure is fairly repetitive and uninspired. There's something to be said for an open-world game that doesn't give you too much to do to the point of being overwhelmed, but this is way too far in the other direction. Outside of the main story, there are thirteen districts of the city that can be cleared out of D.U.P activity, and in each district you find the same side missions to do in a slightly different location. Taking out the actual D.U.P command centers is fun because each is in a different place and can have a very tactical feel to them as you clear out enough enemies to get at the central command vehicle in order to destroy it, but after that you're left with another camera mission, another audio log to find, another secret agent to uncover, and so on.
The new feel to the series comes at the cost of actual content, in the same way that the updated visuals come at the apparent cost of a compelling narrative to drive you forward. The core gameplay is potentially the best of the series so far, yet the game is over before you've even gotten to fully explore the new powers. While it's ultimately worth it to play what's there and enjoy yourself, there is a profound sense of what could have been if the game had more time to come into it's own. Perhaps this is because they had to make some arbitrary release date in the "launch window" of the PS4 (that is to say, four months after launch), or maybe there is no reason and this is simply the vision of game's creators. Either way, Infamous: Second Son feels like a game that's not quite whole, but still a fun time to be had while you're there.