In a second, he became the infamous son

Review

Played on: PlayStation 4
Released: 2014

Prior to this third release, in the Infamous series, I hadn't played them much. I recall trying a demo of the first game, on PlayStation 3, but that's about it. As such, my review may be slightly different from fans of the series, considering this being my first true experience with it. As an example, I havn't seen previous ideas or gameplay features, that may have been used prior to this release.

Second Son is one of the few games truly developed exclusively for the PS4 and from the first second it shows. Second Son is a damn good looking game! From the stunning sunsets and detailed small-town environment at the beginning, which serves as a smart little training ground for the controls, to the huge and open world of Seattle, which once again blows your mind technically.

The game looks amazing and, even more so, considering it's an open world game. It looks just as good as any linear third person release prior to it!

The story follows the protagonist, Delsin, on his travel to learn an ability that will help his own Akomish, Native American people, in his home town outside of Seattle. The game begins with him being caught doing graffiti on a billboard, by his older brother Reggie, a police officer. The setting changes dramatically when they're both witnesses to a car crash in a police escort. An escaping convict grabs Delsin and inadvertently gives him his first ability.

Abilities, basically super-hero powers, is what Second Son and the previous Infamous games are about. These abilities let you run up walls, pass through objects, glide in the air and run faster than humanly possible. The quest to level up and earn more ability points is what really makes you addicted.

In addition there's numerous smaller tasks alongside the main missions, like making graffiti art, featuring a really cool mini-game where your controller becomes a spray can, destroying surveillance cameras and pulling down equipment to the bad guys.

There's a constant feeling of becoming increasingly powerful and trying to reach the next power you can upgrade. You earn levelling points by taking over areas of Seattle that are controlled by the evil corporation, the D.U.P. This organisation have imprisoned Delsin's Akomish people and the whole city, trying to suppress anybody that harnesses special powers.

Besides simply following the main story missions, Second Son encourages you to explore and complete all the other tasks the game has on offer too. Tempting you with upgrades and leveling. I like the free structure of the game, and it really does let you do everything, besides the main story, in the order you choose yourself.

Gameplay is fantastic. Delsin moves smoothly and can traverse buildings and heights like no tomorrow. It's so fun transitioning to a cloud form, entering a ventilation shaft and popping out on top of a building and then gliding over to the next building!

You really feel like you're the main character of a superhero movie. Combat is based on melee and shooting, although the shooting isn't the traditional one with guns, instead you fire smoke or lightning shots, thus feeling far different than standard third person shooter.

I like that you can take things slowly and fight more sneaky, taking out one enemy after another, or simply going full blast into an enemy quarter and blowing the hell out of everything! The feeling of freedom in an open world title should be reflected in the gameplay, Second Son does this extremely well.

It's incredible to watch all the graphical effects, there are so many sparks, light sources and explosions going on, while engaging a fight. Combined with the detailed and incredible looking city, the result is one of the most graphically impressive releases to date.

I love the way the game changes the time of day, in conjunction with the way the story unfolds. The neon ability, which showcases some fantastic and colourful lighting effects, is introduced at night time. A perfect setting to do so!

While sharp looking at 1080p, the game runs at around 30-48 fps, an thus, frame pacing becomes an issue. It didn't bother me too much, as the gameplay doesn't require extreme precision for aiming, but it's an issue for the overall fluidity. Visually, I forgot it's an open world title, considering how great the graphics are!

There are some small issues of negativity. As mentioned, I've never played the Infamous franchise before, so originality was not an issue for me. I can understand it may be so for those who've played Infamous 1 and 2 prior to this.

I found the variation in side-missions to be a little repetitive over time and would've liked some other types of tasks to complete. The apparently, buzzing city, at least visually, could have done with some more detail too, like buildings to go inside, being able to use a car or buy clothes at a shop for instance. It serves mostly as a beautiful backdrop.

Although I enjoyed the story having two endings, with the possibility to be evil or good, I do miss the choice being more pronounced. Both feel pretty much the same and the story only differs at a few key points in the story. There's also no middle ground, and doing so seems pointless, either go for full-on good or bad when playing it. Hopefully, next time we'll see some of these issues taken care of.

I loved my playthrough of Second Son and I enjoyed playing it on hard for my second playthrough. It's a entertaining story, with colourful characters and great dialogue. The gameplay is excellent and is pure enjoyment to play. The controls are spot on and using your abilities feels powerful and varied, thanks to the various main branches on the ability tree.

This is a definite must-buy for any PlayStation 4 owner out there, it's the best exclusive for the system so far!