Infamous Second Son PS4 Review: "A truly exhilarating experience from start to finish."

Infamous Second Son PS4 Review

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Patch Version:  -- 1.07

Infamous Second Son begins with a short text introduction, detailing how a small group of humans seven years ago emerged called 'Conduits'.  These conduits had the power to manipulate and even weaponize unique forms of matter.  Fearing them, the Department of Unified Protection was formed to hunt them down; reclassifying the conduits as Bio-terrorists.

Today, the Department of Unified Protection is being taken over by the military.  Their first official order of business?  To relocate all prisoners to a military prison in Washington.

However, the first transport it seems will never arrive…

Infamous Second Son then cuts to scene showing said truck speeding along a country road, but then just as quickly switches to small and quiet coastal town in what I imagine is America given the topography.  It is then where we see our first human character.   The unfolding cutscene switching back and forth between the truck and this person.  You know something is going to happen.  You can feel it…

We first gain control in an odd sort of way.  The game asking you to hold your controller sideways.  (And no, I’m not joking) It then asks you to shake the controller.  This all having an in game effect; the action simulating the holding and shaking up of a spray paint canister.  It then tasks you with pressing R2 to spray the advert board in front of you.  I’m unsure at first as to what to spray, so I just coat the whole thing till the game stops and moves on to the next image.  This step being repeated each time with a different colour of paint when it dawns: I’m spraying paint over a cardboard stencil!

As you admire your work, suddenly a cop arrives.  This, instantly triggering your flight or fight sense of preservation.  An interesting start so far.  The cutscene then continues, but soon enough you are in control of your character again, this time full control.  Your first objective: to find the back door and escape.

Having done so, your next objective is to make your way to the long-house that is visible in the distance.  This portion a subtle tutorial it seems in world navigation, but it is done really well.  Queue the Music, which really sets the mood.  Instantly I am enjoying how simple and intuitive it is as I run, jump and climb my way towards my target; your character contextually interacting with the environment too.  No prompts here.  Or at least not yet.   To sum this experience up though, if you know what parkour is, Infamous Second son seems to have nailed it.

In regards to directional guidance, there is none.  Infamous Second Son seemingly giving me freedom in regards to how I approach the structure.  Emphasis on the ‘seemingly’.  This all linear, but it doesn’t feel it.

Upon reaching my goal, I’m quickly introduced to the next rarely-used feature.  Infamous Second Son requiring you to swipe on the touchpad in the direction the onscreen arrow is hinting at.

However, the second the door opens you meet your brother and an argument ensues.  The script, banter and voice acting between the pair being very well done indeed, that much clear.  I’m sold instantly on their connection in fact.

Suddenly the truck from the very start shows up, and it’s now driving erratically to say the least…

Initial Impressions:

In the first two hours you sure do experience a lot! The game taking you from its linear tutorial portion and easing you into its vast open world at a pace that felt well-constructed.  The only sour moment in that whole time was when you attain your first power:  Smoke.  Infamous Second Son doing something games should never do in my opinion:  moving your character automatically regardless of the directional input you choose.  This pulled me out of the experience and separated me from the moment because I pulled back on my analogue stick, yet my character moved forward, which was a shame because the first skill you learn, called Smoke Dash, looks awesome.

Story wise… your in game character, who is called Delsin Rowe, a member of a fictional Native American Tribe called the Akomish, is just as shocked by this newfound Smoke ability.  So in that regard you share in his confusement.

You soon reacquire full control though; the game picking up and vanquishing the before sense of distaste from my mouth with how bloody fun it is as you attain more abilities.  This being done by locating and interacting with what the game calls: core relays.  Each one unlocking each of your core abilities that link to the Smoke DNA power; these skills can also be enhanced by attaining shards.

These shards can be found in the world in three ways.  Off Command Centres that are always in protected, heavily guarded areas.  Checkpoint gates, which if you destroy you can steal one, and flying drones that you can shoot down.  Either way there is a hell-of-a-lot of these shards to attain.  And a quick glimpse of my skill tree suggests far more than I need.  So there must be far more to unlock, and this excites me!

To begin with though the base skills you attain are:

·        A Melee attack, which sees you igniting a chain you pick up and using it much like how Marvel’s Ghost Rider does.

·        A hover like ability that allows you to travel further as you fall

·        Super jump, which allows you to jump higher when standing on cars

·        Dash ability, which allows you to portal through solid objects or the air itself and appear some distance in front of you. As well as shooting up vents.

·        A Smoke Shot, which allows you to throw small fireballs

·        A charged version of Smoke Shot, which emits a strong blast in front of you

·        A rocket attack called Cinder that fires a huge missile from your hands

·        And lastly a Karma bomb called Orbital strike, which…is…bloody amazing!!

Considering how powerful you become and how quickly you become it, the game also does a good job of balancing this out by limiting your usage of said abilities by tying your offensive moves to a smoke gauge; this gauge being enhanced through the skill tree, which I will talk about later.
However, this same system does not penalise you when the bar depletes if caught of guard, because it still allows you to use your navigational abilities.  This is a nice touch and keeps the situational moments fluid.

The way you refuel your abilities is also pretty cool.  Basically, you approach any smoking object and press the touch pad.  The smoke being sucked up and replenishing you.  I really liked this.  It can be done in and out of combat, and also can be interrupted by enemies shooting at you.  So managing this smoke gauge is important.

Infamous Second Son does not inundate you either.  Your abilities are gradually introduced one-by-one; the early segments of the game giving you missions and changing the environment to cater for each ability as you acquire them.  This in effect giving you the opportunity to get used to them.

One aspect that is really frustrating me though so far, is Infamous Second Son is most certainly a game of three dimensional means.  What I mean by this is, you can approach a situation from any position, let it be from above or on the ground.  This is of course an extremely good thing, so don’t misunderstand.

The problem is, at least so far, is climbing up buildings.  Though you can pretty much climb anything, the animation for said event is very gamey.  As in, it doesn’t look like much effort went into its implementation.  It’s just one animation, no smooth transitions.  Nothing.  This is even more notable when jumping on the ground because there is no separate jump animation.  You always play the same animation regardless of how high off the ground you are. What you end up with is something akin to how Spiderman looks when taking a leap from some tall building. 

I found this very strange considering how polished everything else so far was.  The world seemed to be tailored for something more, and it felt like something was obviously lacking.

In its defence, your smoke ability does allow you to portal through vents and whoosh straight to the top of whatever the vent leads to.  This being very cool I have to admit and requiring nothing more than you performing a smoke dash near it.    You can also perform a power jump when standing on cars, but this won’t take you as high as a building.  The main problem with both though is the combat implementation,

Firstly, vents are not shown on the mini map, so finding them in the heat of battle when you need them most, or just finding them in general can be annoying.
Secondly, jumping on cars.  You seem to slip off more often than not, and there never seems to be a car when you need one.  So other than the opening bridge section of the game, I hardly used said feature.

However, considering how many shards there are in the world as previously stated, I imagine there must be more abilities that elevate this problem.  I truly hope so at least.

Another interesting aspect about Infamous Second Son is that there is a Karma system that allows you to choose how you wish to play.   Instantly I wonder what difference it makes to the story if any.  But, having quickly started a new game and chosen to play as bad having reached the same moment, I can confirm at least early on that the first key moment does seem to play out differently.  Whether this will change the story as a whole later I will have to find out.  Either way it looks like I’ll be playing through yet another game twice!

The Karma system also has other effects.  Some subtle, some not.  But the polish is high.  The feature was definitely thought about early on in the game’s conception, that much clear.   For instance, your Smoke abilities are more red when you play as bad, and blue when played as good.  The controller light on your PS4 will also glow differently matching your karma.  Your jacket will also display the emblem of your karma choice.   There could be more.  I hope there’s more.  Time will tell.

Another aspect that I really liked, and one that hits you instantly is the chatter lines.  Both spoken between you and your brother as you interact with each other and the world, but also the ambient lines that your character speaks as he does stuff for the first time.  It just feels super natural and realistic.  The result: selling the characters in a very realistic way.

However, there have been a few blemishes so far that detract slightly from said experience.  The first to mention is that ambient lines will sometimes get cut short abruptly if you trigger a cutscene while they are still playing.  The second is at times the lip syncing and facial animations can appear clunky and over exaggerated, but this only becomes obvious when the cutscenes are super close up on people’s faces.  Which is a shame, because for the most part the facial animations and lip syncing have been done very well, and if it wasn’t for these two problems I wouldn’t have a single qualm regarding said feature.  I’m probably being picky, but hey… it’s my job.

One aspect that I’m not being picky about though is the fact Infamous has no health bar.  A fact made worse because of the way Infamous instead chooses to relay your health.  What it does is simple: when taking damage, the edges of your screen will gradually darken till it becomes very dark indeed.  And when nearing death you will hear a little jingle of music.

However, it’s the darkness that offends me.  It becomes so dark that it actually diminishes your ability to navigate the world somewhat, more so when in the heat of battle.  The last place you need it to be, right?!

This is something games should never do.  You should never penalise and inconvenience the player during moments of low health.   It’s overtly punishing during a time when the player needs to be at their most aware.

In Infamous’ defence though, healing is done in two ways.  If you stop taking damage and give it a little time you’ll auto heal. This being explained early on when you get shot only to find out you have fast healing powers.   The other way to heal is by absorbing any power source.  This, instantly recovering your health unless the process is interrupted.  Still, the lack of a health bar was something I did not like and was forced to get used to.  But opinions are subjective.  Some people may like this, and I'm fine with that.

In regards to the world itself, the city portion being set in Seattle, it is split into 12 segments and in an open world sense truly gives you the freedom in relation to where I can go and I love that.  There are only two exceptions.  One:  Landing in water, which will not kill you, but will instead prohibit all action, except that is to confirm you reset to shore.   And the other is that the 99% of the world is outdoors; there does not seem to be any interiors, not counting the start.   Whether this will change as I progress through the world I will have to find out.  This being said, it doesn’t hinder or impact Infamous Second Son at all.  The world feels huge and some of the scale-able buildings are truly immense.

Selling the open world more is the vibrant life it is filled with.  Let it be the people going on with the daily lives, who will actually react to you too depending on your karma choice, or the cars driving around the streets.  There is of course plenty of optional world content that comes with an open world game too, but as yet nothing seems mandatory.

I have also been impressed with how graphically pleasing it looks too, and there is even a very subtle day / night cycle to boot.  I haven’t noticed any weather effects, but to be honest there’s enough effects coming of my character that I don’t even care.

With regards to the enemy archetypes, I have encountered four so far, but considering the main enemy in this game is a conduit too, possessing the power to manipulate stone, an interesting, yet odd fact considering she is the head of the D.U.P, I can only imagine what is to come.

Regardless of the faults I have mentioned so far, Infamous Second Son has won my full attention.  It has an engaging story and the first two hours have been exhilarating to say the least.  I not only want to continue playing because I am having a blast with all my powers, but also because something is telling me there are bigger and better powers for me to learn…

Initial Score after 2 hrs of play

Full Playthrough Score after 16.5 hrs of play

Overall Verdict.

It’s hard to know where to start.  Very few games make you feel so powerful, whilst at the same time balance that power and make combat still feel dangerous, yet Infamous Second son nails it!  The second-to-second and minute-to-minute gameplay is truly spot on.  This is a game where the core pillars were clearly defined and ironed early in development, because they jell and jell well!

I don’t know how many of you watch the TV show the ‘The Flash’, but if you ever wanted to know what it feels like to be able to run at super speeds to the point where you can literally run up the side of buildings, well… Infamous Second Son is 100% something you want to experience.

This super speed ability is absolutely amazing, and makes up just one of your many abilities.  In total there are four core DNA powers that you acquire as you progress through the campaign.  Each core power playing host to related abilities that you unlock and upgrade.

Firstly, before I address anything else, allow me to address the jumping issue that I raised during the first 2 hours.  I had said that Infamous Second Son felt like it was lacking such an ability as part of the Smoke DNA power.  But, the moment you attain the second core power, this issue ceases to be a problem, trust me!  Navigating the word becomes a dream, bordering upon effortless.   In fact, so much so that I enjoyed moving around the world more than I did fighting, and combat is actually rather good too.

Where was I?  Ah yes.  Core powers and their abilities.  The core powers, though they look completely different, are to a degree similar in design to one another, but with varying elements and different strengths.  The trick is deciding which will be more useful for any given encounter, but ultimately depends on which you prefer to use.

Switching between your core abilities can be done whenever you like by absorbing the related energy from a source point.  (For example: if you want to re-trigger your smoke abilities, find a point in the game that is emitting smoke and absorb it.)  At first I did not like this.  I wanted to be able to simply press a button and swap between the different power types.

However, as I acquired more abilities, I quickly learned that this would have totally made your character over powered and made the gameplay too easy.   So this limitation is completely understandable, but there was a slight hiccup in the manner this system was explained in the sense that it isn’t.  Making matters worse is that when you first acquire your second core power, if you approach any smoke source and try to absorb it, you are quite clearly told you cannot do this, yet are not really told as to why, and then when you eventually can swap, are not really told either.

Instead, this mechanic is extremely subtly shown to you during a campaign cutscene, but… and this being the big but, you’re still free to do open world content before reaching said moment.  During which you’re left very confused.

However, once you learn that this is the case when first acquiring a new DNA power type, then it ceases to be a problem.

These core powers and their abilities make up your skill tree.   Maxing it out is possible too because there is just so many energy shards in the game to collect if you are so inclined to hunt them all down.  The skill tree is made more complex because some will only be usable and unlockable depending on your Karma choice.

As talked about in the Initial Verdict section, I can also confirm that the two Karma paths will most certainly alter your experience from a story perspective.  Not only will this dictate which key missions you get to complete, and to a degree shape the way certain characters you encounter turn out, but it will also lead to an ending that is 100% different depending on your choice.  Not only this though, but Karma ties directly into your powers.  I already mentioned that certain abilities are unlocked depending on your Karma choice, but there’s also subtle elements too that play on Karma.

For example, one of the DNA power’s melee attack moves will see you wielding an energy-type long-sword when playing the good karma path, which feels and looks awesome.  That same attack though when played in bad Karma will see you lash out with a demon-like claw.  It’s touches like this that a majority of games lack.  A polish that gamers aren’t used to.  And Infamous Second Son should be highlighted as a game that goes that extra mile when other games either could not be bothered to, or worse, felt they did not need to.

It’s not all perfect though, which leads me to the first gripe that I have about Infamous Second son, and that’s the length of the main campaign.  I’m instantly suspicious when a game fails to make any reference to your playtime because typically it means it’s going to be short.  My first playthrough though was ten and half hours, which isn’t terribly short to be fair, but this included a fair bit of the open world content.  And having completed said playthrough, though it returned me to the world after the point allowing me to carry on with any open world content that I had left to do, which in my case was 31% remaining, I estimated that it would have taken me another 4-5 hours to complete.  Bringing the total playtime if you 100% the open world to 15.5 hours.  This of course does not include time spent trying to complete all the achievements.

But if you deduct the open world content and just factor in the main campaign, I estimated a playthrough would be around 6-7 hours.  A fact confirmed on my second playthrough, which I did in 6 hours in order to experience the other karma path.  This means, that discounting the optional world content, you have between 12-14 hours’ worth of main campaign missions over two playthroughs, which is not really much at all when you compare it to other alike open world games nowadays.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s open world games that have shorter campaigns, but still, it’s a shame in Infamous Second Son that the story does not last longer.

Why?  Because the story is actually well done.  The script and acting between the cast is very believable; especially between your character and his brother.  You can’t skip the cutscenes, but in truth you won’t want to.  They are engaging as they are entertaining, and both framed and edited well.

It’s worth stating though that Infamous Second Son could have stretched out the playtime if they linked more optional content as a requirement before main campaign missions became unlocked, and though in places they do require you to capture a nearby D.U.P. Command Centre, that’s all they do force.  And I commend them for that.  Games that are short campaign wise that force optional content on you in my opinion are always bad.  Gamers deserve choice.  Give them that choice and they will be more inclined to complete that optional content anyways.

The second gripe I have is the health bar situation, or lack of one. Another fact I raised earlier in this review.  I really didn’t like that the game would darken and limit my perspective.  And as I already stated, games should never inconvenience or hinder a player when they are in low health situations to the point where breaking from combat becomes difficult.

However, I should state that this was only really a problem when using the smoke based power type.  This being the case because your fast evade ability is limited in distance compared to the other core DNA power abilities.  The difference being that Smoke relies on you using vents to make quick get-a-ways.  PROBLEM is though, vents don’t show on the mini map, and when you’re in low health, the fact the screen darkens and your viewing perspective lessens, it makes it even harder to find one!   This isn't a problem for the other DNA power types because their fast evade ability are far more versatile.

Other than these two issues though, Infamous Second Son overall is a very polished titled as I previously stated.  Everything for the most part works well; VERY WELL.  I also encountered very little in the shape of bugs in the patched version I reviewed.  In fact, not once did I experience a crash or a hang.  And considering my total time with the game, which equalled 16.5 hours, I was impressed by how stable it was.  The only thing you are occasionally prone to witness is A.I. glitching into objects, but this seemed rare in itself.

Speaking of which, archetype wise, all the enemy types you meet, not counting drug dealer thugs and the police, who can mealy shoot at you, the D.U.P serve as the main force in which you will do battle with. For the most part they have firearms too, but there are variants who have varying Stone based abilities.  Some erect stone shields around or in front of themselves.  Others can lob smoke-type explosives, or propel themselves to some new spot in which to attack you from.  Others are like walking tanks that will charge you down.  There’s even a few types that can float on a bed of rubble and lob massive boulders at you.  All are dangerous if you don’t take them seriously though.  The mixture making each encounter feel different.
In total I countered eight different D.U.P enemy classes.   There A.I. is also pretty advanced too.  They seem to evade and make full use of the environment in conjunction with their skills and abilities well.

Level design wise, there’s not really any interiors, outside of set moments, but the open world is truly large, especially so considering how quickly you can navigate it when you unlock DNA powers beyond the first Smoke power.   There are fast travel points to make it even easier, but these really only become active if you 100% a section of the map, and even then you can only fast travel to and from one set point per section, meaning if you want to fast travel you have to reach a fast travel point first.  I unlocked a couple, but to be honest, not once did I use one.  I found it more rewarding simply speed running through the world, or gliding with my 'wings'.  (Ooooh, you're intrigued, aren't you?)

Graphically I have no complaints.  Infamous Second Son not only looks decent, but holds a steady frame-rate regardless of where you are and what you are doing.

In regards to optional content, there’s everything you would expect in an open world game, with one exception that gamers will actually find rather refreshing.  There’s no: ‘you must first scale some structure to reveal the section of the map you are in,’ mechanic.  And this is where infamous gets cleaver, because what they do instead is tie this run-of-the-mill system to the D.U.P command vehicles.  Destroying them not only reveals the optional content on your map, but also rewards you with four energy shards to spend on upgrading your abilities.  So doing them always feels worthwhile.

The missions themselves are also well done, I never really felt like I was doing the same loops over and over when reaching a new section of the map, which by the way you have full freedom for the most part to traverse the second you reach the open world portion of the game.

There is one exception to this though, and that’s when you first unlock a core DNA power.  Infamous tasking you with tracking down the core relays that unlock your abilities for that related power.  However, even these missions are different in how you approach them.  So at all times you feel like you are doing something different and new.

There is even a few boss encounters throughout the campaign, and even these are scaled and balanced, albeit a couple early ones being a little dull.  But they are challenging and not a walk in the park.

Overall, Infamous Second Son is definitely a game you want to play if you haven’t already, especially if you are a fan of the open world genre.  Though the campaign could be considered short, it won’t feel short if you participate in some of the optional content as you go, and even if you don’t, the story by itself is well told and engaging.  And for those wishing to replay through the game to experience the other Karma path, not only is it worth it, but the differences you will see makes the whole experience feel diverse.

Where Infamous Second Son shines though is the powers you attain.  You will have a blast just navigating the world let alone using them in combat.  There’s also plenty of subtle touches too, which, not only tie in with the Karma system, will give your character a distinct feel depending on how you choose to play.

I will miss playing Infamous Second Son.  And in truth, there’s very few games that make that list.

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Infamous Second Son: PS4 Gameplay

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