This Son Has Set
It is easy to imagine the chaos of a zombie apocalypse. Gamers and moviegoers alike have devoured plenty of media related to the shambling hordes. The aftermath of an explosion gifting certain people superhuman abilities, however, is an entirely different type of chaos. Combine human morality with incredible powers and the results can be much more disastrous.
Sucker Punch embraced this devastation with the 2009 release of Infamous. Introducing us to conduits - human beings possessing superhuman abilities - the game asked players to use their powers to make moral or immoral decisions, leaving the future of Empire City in their hands.
Infamous 2 continued its predecessor's story, but managed to lose some of its charm. It certainly felt more refined and polished, but it began the push towards a direction overly-traveled by comics like X-Men and Spiderman.
With the arrival of Infamous: Second Son, I had hopes that Sucker Punch could pull me back into the series. Unfortunately, after experiencing both karmic paths and all of the available content, it is hard not to feel disappointed. Second Son takes place seven years after the events of the "good" ending of Infamous 2 and the formation of the Department of Unified Protection, or the DUP. Led by Brooke Augustine, a conduit with the power of concrete, the DUP has been capturing "bio-terrorists" and relocating them to a specially-designed prison to protect civilians from the so-called "danger" they pose.
Second Son opens with Delsin Rowe, the game's protagonist, spray painting over a billboard in the Akomish reservation he and his sheriff brother, Reggie, are a part of. Reggie catches him and the two comically argue about the merits of arresting one's own brother.
As they talk, a DUP caravan crashes nearby. Three bio-terrorists escape from the wreckage, leading to a confrontation between Delsin and Hank, a smoke conduit. Unknown to the brothers, Delsin is a conduit with the ability to absorb others' powers and take them on as his own. After he gains smoke and chases Hank through a burning warehouse (the first of many such chases), Delsin finds himself surrounded by Augustine and her DUP agents, who have been questioning his friends and fellow Akomish.
Quickly establishing herself as the antagonist, Augustine attacks the Akomish, encasing some in concrete and firing spikes through others' legs. Unaware of Delsin's new abilities, she leaves to hunt down the fugitive bio-terrorists. Convinced he can absorb Augustine's power to save the Akomish, Delsin sets off with a reluctant Reggie to find her.
Despite a strong introduction, Second Son's story quickly falls into mediocrity. Whereas Infamous offered the player a mystery in the character of Kessler and Infamous 2 added tension in the impending arrival of the Beast, Second Son plays a little too safely in the confines of its genre and sticks to the well-worn and unimaginative "evil" government in the humans versus mutants debate.
While treading down the evil side does allow for more interesting results, it ultimately feels disjointed due to cut-scenes viewed regardless of karmic path not jiving with Delsin's despicable actions. The "light" path offers a superhero story full of the typical fare, though it does flow much more consistently than the evil alternative.
Morality in games has a long way to go before it feels organic, and Second Son's karmic system faces the same problems others do. Choosing a path is a min-max situation in which a player must invest completely in good or in evil to achieve Delsin's most powerful abilities, regardless of what actions he would realistically take.
These karmic decisions trivialize otherwise emotionally-charged moments by forcing the player's hand. In doing this, the game ends up exposing its mechanics rather than presenting a believable world and story. With some of the more "gray area" decisions of previous games, it was disappointing to see Sucker Punch stick to the antiquated dichotomy of good and evil rather than push for a more organic experience.
Despite its generic story and unimaginative morality system, Second Son does really shine in one area: presentation.
With the best facial animation I have seen in a game to date, every character's emotions are easily read and prominently displayed. Subtle eyebrow movements and half-smiles abound, and they look great. Combined with fantastic voice-acting, Second Son's cast really shines despite a mediocre story.
Seattle is lovingly rendered, and it shows anywhere a player looks. Occasionally I would stop playing just to admire Sucker Punch's incredible lighting and reflection work. Neon signs, smoke billowing out of rooftops, and reflections in puddles all show an immense attention to detail.
Visuals are a nice bonus, but pretty graphics alone do not make a good game. Second Son's combat, while generally passable, does not always hold up and tends to stray into violent hide-and-seek matches thanks to Delsin's low - as far as games go - tolerance for pain.
Players must learn to pull Delsin out of battle to recharge his health or risk frequent deaths. Thanks to traversal mechanics designed for more open areas, this can become problematic when in a tight space, as Delsin easily gets stuck on world geometry. With most story-based fights taking place in wider spaces, this frustration is limited, but when tackling side missions it does rear its awkward head.
When getting close to DUP troops, Delsin can engage in hand-to-hand combat. Melee attacks come in the form of three-hit combos occasionally resulting in a dead baddie, but more frequently devolving into Delsin swinging at the air opposite of the enemy. Using ranged powers is the better option for battle, but a flighty, loose crosshair and quick-moving soldiers make aiming a difficult process.
I often found myself frustrated rather than excited when enemy reinforcements arrived. With every encounter either resulting in a frustrating chase sequence or a massive firefight, unsatisfying combat and awkward aiming are not ideal allies to have.
Sucker Punch has created a large sandbox for players to explore, removing some of the stagnation of Second Son's combat. A handful of side activities are present, including driving the DUP out of districts, breaking up anti-conduit activists, and tagging locations with stencil art.
These distractions are generally enjoyable, but even the most intriguing, like the clever implementation of the PS4's motion sensor for graffiti - you turn the controller on its side, shake it, and proceed to "spray" the screen - begin to lose their charm by the fifth or sixth time. A focus on deeper side missions could have really set Second Son apart as a solid addition to the genre, especially in a post-GTA V landscape.
Despite my criticisms, Second Son is not a bad game. Like a frustrated parent, I find myself disappointed, not mad. With a stronger story and refined combat, this title could have easily been worth picking up, hardcore Infamous fan or not. Instead, Second Son is hard to recommend to those without prior series experience, in fear of tainting this previously strong franchise. I hate to play favorites, but it feels like this is one son best left in his room.
