inFAMOUS was a good game, exemplifying several flaws of the industry at the time (Brown Is Real and Stuffed into the Fridge most prominently) but nonetheless an engaging look at what a non-licensed superhero game could look like. inFAMOUS 2 was a massive improvement on basically every front, setting a standard for superhero stories and remaining one of my favorite games of all time while also (seemingly) definitively closing off the story at the end, a rare move in today's world of trilogies and onward. When I heard of this game, I wasn't overly enthused due to the completely new setting and cast, as well as the apparent override of the canon ending of 2, but was willing to give it a shot once I got a PS 4, which ended up being 3 years after its release - until then, it basically flew under my radar aside from my friend bringing up Yahtzee's negative review of it (and since he liked the first two games, that sounded foreboding). Now, having just completed the Bad Karma story 3 years after doing the Good Karma run for reasons that will become apparent, my verdict is...Jesus fucking Christ, I hate it.
inFAMOUS: Second Son frustrated me because it makes so many backwards steps in what seems like its attempt to form its own identity. Gone is the simple-yet-effective power system from the first two games: here, instead of being able to swap between abilities at will, you've gotta track down "sources" of each of your 4 power types if you wanna use a specific one, and they've all got variants on the same 5 moves instead of the considerably wide range of abilities used by Cole. Gone are the quirky NPC-based side missions from the first two games that helped establish the flavor and spirit of the cities you were working to save or conquer: here you instead go around destroying cameras, gathering intel, and so on without ever interacting with citizen NP Cs, which makes the endgame where the people of Seattle either praise or condemn your actions while you're on your way to the final boss fall flat since it doesn't feel like people talking. Gone are the memorable and decently fleshed-out antagonist factions from the first two games with their distinctive visual styles and memorable personality: here, you only fight one type of enemy, the DUP, a military offshoot wearing orange and using concrete power as blandly as possible. And to top it all off, the basic premise of the game does indeed override the excellent ending of 2 to the point of making Cole's story basically pointless - what a slap in the face.
inFAMOUS: Second Son exhausted me because the above changes and more made gameplay a chore rather than engaging, exciting, and compelling. I felt no sense of accomplishment from clearing the DUP out of the city and restoring all the districts as I did in the previous two games - it was quite literally checking things off the list (the legend for each district visible on the map screen). Oh, and I don't remember specifics about Normal difficulty on my Good run, but Expert difficulty as I experienced it on my Bad run is atrocious - in 1 and 2, Expert was the definition of "tough but fair" and offered an interesting challenge by making me rely more on different powers than I had on lower difficulties, but here it turns the game into a borderline Soulsborne experience at certain points (particularly the boss fights). More senseless changes from the previous two entries abound here, including your drop attacks being interruptible by enemy fire and enemies being able to lead their shots when shooting at you (the final boss is insanely guilty of this and will make you scream in rage when you die to projectiles that you could not possibly avoid for the 9th time straight), such that any fun the combat could have is sapped rapidly.
And finally, inFAMOUS: Second Son disappointed me because despite all the grievances I listed above that persist through the entire experience...I don't hate everything about it.
The diversity (physical and otherwise) of the game's cast is a breath of fresh air, even 6 years later. It's rare enough that any story stars an American Indian in a leading role (even if he's from a fictional tribe here), but the rest of the cast outside Delsin's tribe/family is comprised of a young New York woman with a *gasp* realistic body, a small geeky boy with one hell of a relatable backstory, a skinhead Southerner ex-con who dearly loves his daughter, and perhaps most impressively, a middle-aged redhead villainess who is not sexualized in the least (outside of Delsin nervously trying to flirt with her once to defuse a situation), allowing her character focus to be entirely on her fucked-up actions and self-justification - a particular favorite moment of mine is damn near LITERALLY kicking the shit out of her after Delsin loses his brother, I'm amazed such an action could feel so cathartic even in-context. It might not sound like much when written out and I do wish the cast were larger, but even I'll admit that's a step up from the first two games.
While I overall prefer the story of 1 and especially 2, Second Son's is written well enough that I actually felt like shit for choosing all the Bad Karma options when they arose (instead of just the ending choices). Even knowing what was coming due to being spoiled by this here site and not being as invested in the characters as I was in Cole's stories, the Bad Karma playthrough was pretty upsetting.
Visually, this game is real damn colorful and as far away from Real Is Brown as the series has ever gotten - special mention goes to Fetch's neon powers, which make for some crazy displays during her arc of the story. I also enjoyed the spray-painting/tagging minigames; of all the things that could make me appreciate the act, it was a superhero videogame, imagine that.
However, the disappointment comes from the fact that all those qualities could have made for a good or at least decent entry...except they're undermined by the bad pacing and length of the story. I forget where I saw it, but another review mentioned that Delsin destroying all the surveillance tech on the Space Needle and running up his own flag should've been a major moment in the story, the equivalent to Cole clearing out the first district of Empire City or defeating Bertrand for the first time - but here it takes place a few hours into the game and ends up just kinda glossed over. Meanwhile, things that ARE big and given gravitas don't feel like they have the proper buildup: for example, Delsin losing his brother is terrible and chilling with the excellent backing track, but because the two of them don't have nearly the same rapport as Cole and Zeke, it doesn't have the same weight as Cole killing Zeke or Zeke losing Cole. On top of that, the two companions whose powers you gain have their stories just rushed through compared to Kuo and Nix from 2, which is to their detriment. There's also the fact that, for all the snark and sarcasm in the dialogue, the game rarely takes time to just...let its characters goof off and be silly like the previous two games did - the only mission to do this, which also happens to be my favorite, is when Reggie pretends to be a Bio-Terrorist and runs around [[largeHam hamming it up]] about how he's going to eat children and kittens. THAT was the only point in the game where it felt like I was really playing an inFAMOUS entry, and that alone should tell you everything.
Personally, while I understand the concept of Fanon Discontinuity I generally don't practice it myself due to being pretty laid-back and accepting as far as media goes...but this is not an inFAMOUS game. It uses the same name and terminology, as well as some of the characters in a pre-order mission, but as far as I'm concerned, the story of inFAMOUS ended with Cole. Only time will tell if a proper successor ever comes along, and I'm not holding my breath.
Frustrating, Exhausting, Disappointing
inFAMOUS was a good game, exemplifying several flaws of the industry at the time (Brown Is Real and Stuffed into the Fridge most prominently) but nonetheless an engaging look at what a non-licensed superhero game could look like. inFAMOUS 2 was a massive improvement on basically every front, setting a standard for superhero stories and remaining one of my favorite games of all time while also (seemingly) definitively closing off the story at the end, a rare move in today's world of trilogies and onward. When I heard of this game, I wasn't overly enthused due to the completely new setting and cast, as well as the apparent override of the canon ending of 2, but was willing to give it a shot once I got a PS 4, which ended up being 3 years after its release - until then, it basically flew under my radar aside from my friend bringing up Yahtzee's negative review of it (and since he liked the first two games, that sounded foreboding). Now, having just completed the Bad Karma story 3 years after doing the Good Karma run for reasons that will become apparent, my verdict is...Jesus fucking Christ, I hate it.
inFAMOUS: Second Son frustrated me because it makes so many backwards steps in what seems like its attempt to form its own identity. Gone is the simple-yet-effective power system from the first two games: here, instead of being able to swap between abilities at will, you've gotta track down "sources" of each of your 4 power types if you wanna use a specific one, and they've all got variants on the same 5 moves instead of the considerably wide range of abilities used by Cole. Gone are the quirky NPC-based side missions from the first two games that helped establish the flavor and spirit of the cities you were working to save or conquer: here you instead go around destroying cameras, gathering intel, and so on without ever interacting with citizen NP Cs, which makes the endgame where the people of Seattle either praise or condemn your actions while you're on your way to the final boss fall flat since it doesn't feel like people talking. Gone are the memorable and decently fleshed-out antagonist factions from the first two games with their distinctive visual styles and memorable personality: here, you only fight one type of enemy, the DUP, a military offshoot wearing orange and using concrete power as blandly as possible. And to top it all off, the basic premise of the game does indeed override the excellent ending of 2 to the point of making Cole's story basically pointless - what a slap in the face.
inFAMOUS: Second Son exhausted me because the above changes and more made gameplay a chore rather than engaging, exciting, and compelling. I felt no sense of accomplishment from clearing the DUP out of the city and restoring all the districts as I did in the previous two games - it was quite literally checking things off the list (the legend for each district visible on the map screen). Oh, and I don't remember specifics about Normal difficulty on my Good run, but Expert difficulty as I experienced it on my Bad run is atrocious - in 1 and 2, Expert was the definition of "tough but fair" and offered an interesting challenge by making me rely more on different powers than I had on lower difficulties, but here it turns the game into a borderline Soulsborne experience at certain points (particularly the boss fights). More senseless changes from the previous two entries abound here, including your drop attacks being interruptible by enemy fire and enemies being able to lead their shots when shooting at you (the final boss is insanely guilty of this and will make you scream in rage when you die to projectiles that you could not possibly avoid for the 9th time straight), such that any fun the combat could have is sapped rapidly.
And finally, inFAMOUS: Second Son disappointed me because despite all the grievances I listed above that persist through the entire experience...I don't hate everything about it.
However, the disappointment comes from the fact that all those qualities could have made for a good or at least decent entry...except they're undermined by the bad pacing and length of the story. I forget where I saw it, but another review mentioned that Delsin destroying all the surveillance tech on the Space Needle and running up his own flag should've been a major moment in the story, the equivalent to Cole clearing out the first district of Empire City or defeating Bertrand for the first time - but here it takes place a few hours into the game and ends up just kinda glossed over. Meanwhile, things that ARE big and given gravitas don't feel like they have the proper buildup: for example, Delsin losing his brother is terrible and chilling with the excellent backing track, but because the two of them don't have nearly the same rapport as Cole and Zeke, it doesn't have the same weight as Cole killing Zeke or Zeke losing Cole. On top of that, the two companions whose powers you gain have their stories just rushed through compared to Kuo and Nix from 2, which is to their detriment. There's also the fact that, for all the snark and sarcasm in the dialogue, the game rarely takes time to just...let its characters goof off and be silly like the previous two games did - the only mission to do this, which also happens to be my favorite, is when Reggie pretends to be a Bio-Terrorist and runs around [[largeHam hamming it up]] about how he's going to eat children and kittens. THAT was the only point in the game where it felt like I was really playing an inFAMOUS entry, and that alone should tell you everything.
Personally, while I understand the concept of Fanon Discontinuity I generally don't practice it myself due to being pretty laid-back and accepting as far as media goes...but this is not an inFAMOUS game. It uses the same name and terminology, as well as some of the characters in a pre-order mission, but as far as I'm concerned, the story of inFAMOUS ended with Cole. Only time will tell if a proper successor ever comes along, and I'm not holding my breath.