Infamous: Second Son
When I first bought my PS4 a mere 15 days ago I was beset with guilt that maybe I had jumped the gun a little too early. My initial plan was to enter the next generation with the release of Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt next year but with birthdays and what not I found myself in a situation where I was given a choice of either getting a PS4 or a new phone. My inner gamer wouldn't have it any other way. PS4 it was! The first 3-4 days I only had Fifa 14 to gawk at, and while the game looked great I wasn't particularly impressed with the visuals (although playing virtual football is ALWAYS fun!). I thought all the hoopla of next generation graphics was just hyper active fan boys running amok on the internet. And I kept on thinking that maybe I should had gone with the much maligned Wii-U (long debate which I will NOT go into, so please DON’T JUDGE ME!).
But then a really great friend of mine lends me his copy of
inFamous Second Son and everything changes! Now the inFamous games were always
good on the PS3. The games always had some great fun game play which
incorporated twitch based platforming with super hero shenanigan in a grungy
and modern setting. Sucker Punch pulled no…punches… in their endeavours when it
came to game play. Visually though both games on the PS3 were
certainly good, they weren’t exactly at the top of the food chain.
Having followed the development of Second Son I was at least
positive that I would get a good fun game to play but I didn't expected the
visuals to be the tour de force. Let’s just say the moment the game started and
I was treated with a cut-scene, all the doubts that I was harbouring simply
vanished. THIS is what next generation visuals look like! I mean the facial animations
were some of the best I have seen. The varying degree of lighting was caught
perfectly, the particle effects were spectacular and the general animations
were spot on. If this is how first generation of games will looks in the new
generation I just wonder how awesome games will look 2-3 years down the line!
Now if only the story and game play would have been up to the
standard of the visuals this would have been an amazing game. Let me just get
the story part out the way first. The story lacked the epic feel that was in
hyper drive in the first 2 games. The plot felt like an episode from a TV show
rather than a spectacular summer blockbuster movie. While the characters were
given ample reasons for their plight and fight, in the end it kinda failed to
have an impact and I just feel that Sucker Punch just missed a trick.
I guess the aspect that balanced out the weak plot were the
characters esp. the Rowe brothers. Delsin Rowe while may look like your rote
white male character we find so often in games, it’s his chip on the shoulder,
smart ass and 'snarky' attitude that made him a pretty memorable main lead. You
could tell from the moment you laid eyes on him that he is one mischievous bag
of tricks. He is definitely a much better character than Cole Mcgrath. Reggie Rowe was basically the voice of reason and comes off as a
worry wart but what would you do if you find out your kid brother was a smoke
and laser zapping demi-god? I loved the relationship that was on
show and there should be more games which explores the relationships of brothers
in my honest opinion.
Having said that the other characters just didn't get much
screen time to fully show case their person goals and vendettas. Then again I
guess that is what DLC’s are for and we already know for sure that a story DLC
is getting ready for release centred around Fetch, the crazed girl with
amazing powers. I don’t know how I feel about DLCs that could have easily been
in the game original game but I guess that is a topic for another day.
As I have alluded to earlier that the 2 inFamous games on the
PS3 had fun game play and quite a lot of variety in missions. You always knew
that the game would throw genuinely entertaining set pieces and fun sequences.
Second Son had it share of fun moments but also had in tow some repetitive
tedium to its proceeding. Any new section you would visit you had to take down
mobile command centres, then gather blast shards and do other side missions (of
same ilk) and then you would tackle main missions. It was fun at the beginning
but by the end it got a little boring. Even the skills Delsin get throughout
the game had the same problem. As the previous games were so solid I came
of a tad disappointed with Second Son. I
mean none of the flaw are a deal breaker that’s for sure but it could had been
much better.
Before I conclude my review I would like to give a mention to the voice acting in the game which was just ‘ridonkculos’!. Yes yes we have
heard these voices before. Yes you can recognize the voices of Troy Baker, Laura Bailey and
Travis Willingham which meant that the fidelity of emotions that were captured pitch
perfect by these esteemed voice actors was spot. Its funny really that
just a few years ago voice acting was always considered a foot note, mores so
on consoles, but now it’s taken on a new dimension.
OK time to wrap this up. inFamous Second Son is easily the
best AAA game on the PS4. Yes Sucker Punch could had gone all out and
produced a sterling game but they didn't and rather created a really fun game
from start till finish (clocking in 9 hours or so for yours truly) inFamous
Second Son may not be THE game to buy a PS4 for but those who did (LIKE ME!)
don’t have THAT much to complain! A solid 8.1 out of 10. Play time: 9 hours
