How Does Infamous: Second Son Hold Up Today?
With the Playstation 4 seemingly reaching its twilight years and the shiny new PS5 on the horizon, I think it’s interesting to take a look back at an early console exclusive such as Infamous: Second Son.
Before the megahits we’ve come to expect from Sony in the following years, the PS4 had very little to offer in its initial game lineup.
Most launch titles were simply ports of older games or cross-gen products, and the few new releases weren’t exactly system sellers. Knack, anyone?
Fast forward to 2014, Sucker Punch Productions comes out of the woodwork with a sequel to one of their beloved IPs in Infamous: Second Son, a next-gen open world title set in the familiar Infamous universe.
Plenty of high-profile and successful PS4 exclusives have come out since then, how does the game that more or less started it all stack up?
Firstly, with the jump to better hardware come more detailed and slick visuals, and in that regard Second Son holds up incredibly well.
The dynamic lighting and particle effects are noticeably impressive even by today’s standards, and it’s hard not to sometimes gawk in awe at the view of digitized New York that Sucker Punch managed to breath life into. The facial animations are more on the awkward side though, as they often waver between looking fairly realistic to just a bit off and uncanny.
The performance on a base PS4 is also a tad inconsistent, generally running at a stable 30 FPS but occasionally dipping during big fights.
None of the rough edges are deal breakers though, the game still looks as great as it did back in 2014.
The gameplay is pretty good as well, each of the unique powers you acquire throughout the course of the story have their own distinct properties and special uses, with the ability to swap between them via the corresponding power source, which leaves it up to the player to choose and utilize whichever skillset suits their needs at the time the best.
My favorite by far is Neon, slowing down time and carefully picking out the enemy’s weakpoints like a super-powered sniper never got old.
These powers make traversal across the city a breeze as well, as you don’t have to walk along like a lame normal person, you can just glide on over, fly or run across buildings to get to your destination. Similarly to Marvel’s Spider-Man, fast travel never feels needed as your own movement options are that much more fun and convenient, making the trek between objectives and side-missions a none issue.
Speaking of the open world, that is one major aspect of this game that I think is handled decently well while also being underutilized.
This was back when the term “open-world” still seemed legitimately exciting and innovative. How times have changed.
Looking back on it now, especially with how formulaic and soulless this pretend sub-genre has gotten, Second Son serves as this humble precursor for the evolution (or devolution) of the next-gen open world blueprint we’ve come to expect.
As such, it’s not nearly as bloated as its successors, which I appreciate.
You have certain optional objectives scattered all throughout the map which consist of completing very quick and simple tasks, providing this stop-and-go pace to the exploration on your way to the story missions.
It helps that these rudimentary optional tasks are actually directly intertwined with your main goal.
As protagonist Delsin Rowe, you are determined to bring down Augustine, the head of the D.U.P, a military organization that holds a firm grasp of the city and rules it with an iron fist. On the way there, you encounter a bunch of D.U.P units, bases, checkpoints and holding cells they use to oppress possible conduits and rebels, maintaining their tyrannical rule.
The end goal is getting Augustine, but naturally you’d want to disperse her troops as well. This makes the somewhat unremarkable side objectives mean something in the grand scheme of things, more than just a casual distraction or basic extra content.
With every innocent you heal, captives you save, cameras you destroy, bases you take over, and D.U.Ps you take out, you are actively contributing to the city’s safety and helping regain its freedom.
I do however wish it had actual side-missions to go alongside that, as the activities themselves are rather shallow. Including mini-stories about some of the regular people could lend further insight into their day to day lives under D.U.P supervision, adding onto the worldbuilding and forging a personal connection with those you vow to protect.
Beating the big bad is one thing, but it takes selflessly assisting those in need to become a true hero.
Unless.. you wish to go down the other path.
The karma system is hardly anything new for series veterans, as it was a core staple in each Infamous installment.
Having different good and evil paths in of itself is also not unheard of in the medium, with choice heavy titles like Mass Effect and Dragon Age making extensive use of such a mechanic to enhance their interactive storytelling.
In this game it’s a tad different, as it’s a lot more extreme and clear cut.
Throughout key moments in the story you are presented with a choice between two options, the goody-two-shoes blue one or the asshole red one.
These choices affect your karma in either direction, changing some of the cutscenes and dialogue you get, but not really altering the plot besides the ending.
There’s no gray area, you’re either a good guy or a douche, a hero or a villain. This applies to the general gameplay as well, as certain actions you take in the world can count towards either your good or evil karma, such as neutralizing or killing enemies and healing or killing civilians.
I’d wager some people might be put off by the lack of nuance and prefer more open ended and complex morality systems from other titles, but I believe that for a superhero game, this kind of simple good and evil distinction fits right in. You can live out your fantasy of being a benevolent superhero or a dastardly supervillain, it’s not meant to present you with a serious moral dilemma, it’s just a way of doubling the fun and adding replay value.
There’s one last matter I have yet to address, a quite important one, the story.
While the open world isn’t perfect and the karma system may be simplistic, it’s the main story I take issue with the most in this game.
Why? Because it ends way too soon.
I don’t mind short games, if anything they’re more likely to have tighter pacing and focus than longer titles, so I tend to even prefer them.
But in this case, with how large the scale is, a serious threat on all conduits and the people of New York, I expected a lot more than what I got.
It start off well enough, with Delsin coming to terms with his new powers, seeing how harmful and oppressive the D.U.P’s “protection” really is, and encountering others of his kind that he convinces to join him for the fight.
And then one of these conduits betray Delsin, a major side-character dies, he gets into an angry showdown with Augustine before being forced to evacuate the crumbling island, deals with the backstabber and then makes preparations for the final battle.
If you think I skimmed past any important events, I didn’t.
Delsin meets two fellow conduits, cooperates with them on one mission, and then you’ve got the betrayal, death, and kickoff for the climax.
It feels like there’s a good chunk of story in the middle that just went missing.
With the way it was going, I figured Delsin was going to form a group of conduits to band together against Augustine and her D.U.Ps in a grand city wide conflict. Instead, he meets two allies, goes with them on one mission each, then proceeds to do the rest on his own before they decide to drop in at the last minute before the confrontation with Augustine.
Yes, I know we were told they were captured beforehand, but regardless, their presence hardly effects anything. Besides Eugene dropping off new core relays for you in the fight with Augustine, Delsin might as well have done it all by himself. And most of it, he did.
Their only real use was sharing their powers with Delsin, which is a shame, since the little we got of those two I genuinely enjoyed.
It’s like they get their introductory arcs, then are forgotten about until their final contribution. Even after they get captured by the D.U.P and the whole island they were on is destroyed, Delsin doesn’t even bother checking up on them. They just end up appearing out of blue completely unscathed like nothing had happened.
The ending is meant to resolve everything, but instead left me with a bunch of questions. Where are Fetch and Eugene now? Do they just go on with their normal lives or do they continue hanging with Delsin for some vigilante work?
What happens to Augustine? In the good ending she was meant to be exposed, but what’s the public reaction to that and where do they end up taking her?
Is everyone suddenly okay with conduits living among them?
If Augustine’s true character was outed, wouldn’t the hatred for conduits be fueled even further, considering her motives were with their favor in mind? Or was that part kept from public knowledge, if anyone besides Delsin was even made aware of it?
You may say I’m nitpicking, but these are legit plot points that the story doesn’t even bother touching upon. Really, it just felt rushed. Like the studio was running out of time and decided to wrap things up quickly to get the game out the door.
It’s not necessarily a bad story, but an incredibly lackluster one.
It’s safe to assume that Infamous: Second Son isn’t going to blow anyone’s mind. Its side content is shallow, its story underwhelming, and the gameplay is nothing that hasn’t been done before.
But if you’re not a total cynic and looking to just have a leisurely fun time with some superhero action, this title is a solid use of your time.
It may not be the best Playstation exclusive around, but it’s sure as hell far from the worst.