My Negative Initial Impressions Of Infamous: Second Son

I’ve always thought of Infamous as a middling and largely generic series. Part of this feeling is rooted in the displeasure I continue to feel at series developer Sucker Punch, who took the colourful and acrobatic antics of the Sly Cooper series and buried its mechanics under a drab superhero motif.

Infamous 1 may have been occasionally fun to play, but its identity couldn’t have been more of an antithesis to Sly’s legacy if it tried. Its focus on often underwhelming combat (Sly’s combat was its weakest aspect and was thankfully underplayed in favour of platforming), but the story and its characters were lifeless and unworthy of meaningful consideration.

Thankfully, Infamous 2 was a much stronger entry, and largely renewed my faith in the series. Therefore, I was initially quite excited by Infamous: Second Son’s reveal, and remember thinking that it could very well be the reason I went out to purchase a PS4. But reviews were weaker than they had been with Infamous and Infamous 2 (in what other industry does an aggregated 80% equate with mediocrity?! Madness), and my enthusiasm waned to the point where I almost forgot about it.

A couple of weeks back, I decided to try my luck with the series again. Brandon did a good job providing a review of Infamous: Second Son and Adam did an impressive job dissecting its trophies, so I figured I would approach my time with the game slightly differently. Accordingly, I’ve decided to present an initial impressions blog of my time with Infamous: SS. My intention is to contrast these early feelings about the game with a later impression piece at some point in the future. Last week, I covered what I liked about my Infamous: SS; this week, I’ll be covering what I disliked in my early goings with the game.

A man, a plan, an aerosol can

Honestly, I’m sure that I can devote an entire essay to the things which I feel most video games get wrong. And really, what’s the value added to doing something like that with Infamous: SS? As I mentioned last week, I find the game to be quite fun. Besides, focusing on a laundry list of minor quibbles would simply detract from the single biggest issue I have with the game: that being that the side quests are disgustingly uninventive.

The overall feeling I get when playing Infamous: SS is that it’s a product of compromise. Rather than focus efforts exclusively on what it does right (its story, characterization and powers-centric gameplay), much of the side content is devoid of life and dynamism. Each activity is dreadfully dull to complete, and requires very little in the way of forcing the player to utilize Delsin’s powers in different and exciting ways.

Take for instance tracking down secret agents. It’s scary stuff. Once the side quest is activated, Delsin is tasked with tracking an agent who’s camouflaged him/herself in a small crowd of people. This agent tries to act innocuous, walking around or sitting about. Once s/he sees you, this agent runs away from you. A chase sequence then. This could be a good opportunity for the player to manoeuvre around the environment with his smoke, neon or video powers. Neat. But nothing of the sort happens. The agent sort of teleports around, and shooting him/her once knocks this agent down. The end.

Imagine doing this more than once. Imagine coming to the realization that this is probably the second most exciting side activity in Infamous: SS. I know, I know, this game is the reason why I also originally wanted a PS4. I wanted to experience the next generation of video games, and thought that Infamous: SS (a ho-hum PS3 series with creative powers and terrible bosses) could serve as an excellent contrast between what the game managed to accomplish on the PS3 and what it could offer on the PS4.

I guess that “next-generation” means using the PS4’s (admittedly spectacular) middle button to tear open fence doors and engaging in lazy, borderline offensive side content that may have taken a three year old child all of five minutes to design.

Anyways, Infamous: SS is a beautiful game which can often be fun if you ignore a large majority of the content on offer. The resulting feeling, at least about halfway through the game now, is that I will likely not remember much about my time with Infamous: SS. It is a game doomed to be forgotten. Still, it is damn fine looking (the game’s lighting, facial animation and powers in particular are wonderful). But it’s also clearly a relic of a bygone era known as the previous generation. I’m still waiting for my next-generation game.