inFamous: Second Son is finally here, but has the wait been worth it? Sucker Punch and Sony certainly believe so, but should you believe the hype about PlayStation 4’s biggest exclusive yet? It is time to forget Knack and Killzone: Shadow Fall because inFamous is back in town and it means business
Out with the old and in with the new. Sucker Punch has finally ditched the boring and wooden Cole McGrath who starred in the first two inFamous games. In comes Delsin Rowe, a skater styled graffiti artist with a slight problem with the authorities. The authorities in this case being Reggie, Delsin’s cop brother. The banter between the brothers and other characters means that Delsin’s character shines through. With some amazing one liners and a well written storyline, Delsin’s character entertains and grows throughout the game.
Without spoiling anything, the storyline starts off with an explosive introduction to the world of powers and stays entertaining until the end. It offers a reason to replay the game as there are different scenarios you can take depending on the decisions you make.
The range of powers and abilities that Delsin has in his locker is best described as epic. Gamers will be able to have ample amounts of fun from just the powers Delsin acquires within the first hour of gameplay. However, the fun factor only increases throughout the action and destruction packed storyline. Initially, Delsin will only have ‘smoke’ abilities to transverse the game world and defeat enemies. Other types are later learnt in the form of neon and video.
The luminescent neon powers certainly brighten up the title and they bring a new wave of fun with it. Scaling buildings by wall running up them isn’t exactly an everyday occurrence, even in video games. It is the neon powers which I personally enjoyed the most, but every other power offers something new as well. When it comes to the fun factor of spells, you will have to give into the dark side to have a more destructive side. The Evil karma options just make explosions that bit easier. However, being good can be satisfying too.
Delsin is not fighting a band of merry men in inFamous: Second Son. The DUP comes at you all guns blazing – quite literally too. Despite attempting to round up and stop conduits, who they see as ‘bio-terrorists’, the DUP come armed with concrete abilities of their own. Players can be easily knocked to the floor by some of the heavier hitters and the rest will be bouncing around the environment from shards of jagged concrete.
Spread around the game world are periodic DUP checkpoints and patrols that Delsin must clear to reduce the amount of the city under his enemies control. While the armored patrol cars will present little trouble, the checkpoints are not so easy to dispatch. Often with multiple levels and plenty of enemies to take down a single checkpoint can take 10 minutes to complete resulting in an amusing free roaming. Unfortunately they are all fairly similar: with more variation in tasks at these checkpoints players would be able to enjoy them for longer.
