I just got done with the DLC for Second Son, and I really enjoyed it. I mean a lot. Moving around the city felt fluid and fun, and the powers were pretty cool. I was wondering since I enjoyed First Light so much, is it worth grabbing Second Son?

Yes, I think so. The main game is better than First Light imo. You get more powers, obviously, but the Neon powers were my favorite overall.

I just finished this also. I had played Second Son. It's definitely worth getting if you enjoyed this and you can find it for cheap right now.

Also damn I forgot how good this game actually looked. Too bad it really didn't get mention in the GOTY stuff. This game really looks good.

@somberowl: its the best looking game i played on my ps4 in my opinion...

and i also enjoyed both the normal game and the dlc allot, so i'd say yes!

Second Son is great and fun to platinum, so yes, get it.

Second Son is much better than First Light. Although Fetch is a lot more likeable in the DLC than the main game. First Light is full of some really poor mission design. (protect the truck, snipe these dudes, wave based bullshit.)

Yeah, Second Son is a fun game. Get it if you like First Light.

Also, I've never had the chance to say it, but holy shit the tears in that game. Crazy good looking.

i liked it as well. well enough to get the platinum trophy in it. so yeah i think you should you can even see all the different traversial movement with delsin by picking him in the arena, so you will know how he moves with smoke, neon and what not. its kinda spoiler'ish but its fine

Big fan of the inFamous series and I personally felt like Second Son was the strongest entry in the series. Delsin is no great shakes as a protagonist, but he's better than Cole. Second Son's got the most enjoyable traversal and combat. It's also not overly long and bloated. Lots of strong performances--even if the story is only mediocre.

I'm glad they put it up on PS Plus so I will definitely check it out some time. Always wanted to go back and finish the evil playthrough as well but never had enough motivation to do so.

I guess I'm one of the few people that didn't enjoy it. I played both previous Infamous games but didn't get Second Son. Nabbed First Light from PSPlus to see how the newest iteration plays out and really disliked a lot about it.

My main complaint is that in the original games you do a fair amount of regular climbing, aiding yourself along the way with your powers but no completely relying on them. There was a sense of accomplishment in scaling structures and fun in surfing powerlines, looking for a good place to jump off onto another mode of transport. In First Light the main traversal ability completely trivializes the act of getting around. I just point and go. There is no skill or fun involved, I just go and the game goes on autopilot. The series signature slow, floaty jumps are now at odds with the fast paced "sprint" and whenever you're not zipping around, simple movement feels like you're stammering drunk. Maybe I'm alone in this but I actually liked climbing things in the previous games. The slower and more precise movement gave the gameworld some character as you remembered routes up to the rooftops and shortcuts through the city. It set Infamous apart from Prototype where you ran about the place willy-nilly and as a result everything just kinda blurred together. Now Infamous has basically become Prototype in that regard.

The city felt completely dead, maybe because they can't spawn people in fast enough as I'm zipping around in my neon haze. I mean maybe thats how the city looks like in real life and it's just completely devoid of people at all times, I've never been. The map is your typical collection fest no better than what Ubisoft has been doing for ages. What I can say is that it looks pretty nice when wet I suppose.

The story also fell completely flat. Right away I dislike all these people. Fetch seems too naive and too faux hipster punk to be enjoyable. Maybe she grows as a person but so far it was a bad first impression. I watched the first 15-20 minutes if Second Son played and honestly enjoyed more of what I saw there than this side-plot.

I don't know, I played about 45 minute and had zero desire to go back to it - and I really like these sort of third person, climby, collecty, free roamy type of games.

If you liked First Light, Second Son is a no-brainer.

I really enjoyed First Light last week in a "couldn't put it down" kind of way completing all of the content bar about the last 30% of the Challenge arenas. Those arenas get really...er.. challenging especially the higher Hostage ones. This could be the first InFamous game that I don't Platinum with 100% completion.

I even found myself going back and starting a new run of Second Son.

I kinda want a PS4 just to play it, because the concept of Laura Bailey as the lead is extremely appealing.

Just beat it last night. Really awesome game. I might try for a platinum on it.

@humanity: We're gonna have to disagree here. Climbing on Infamous was always the worst part of the game and all the alternatives to it in both Second Son and First Light are my favourite thing in those games and why I enjoyed them when I couldn't get into the franchise previously.

I mean, I don't know what "skill" was involved. You just hugged a wall and mashed X until you got to the top. The only purpose there seemed to be to punish you for not being able to stick to a power line. Even the developers understood that climbing in that game was punishment for breaking a combo. Incidentally, another major improvement on Second Son? No more grind lines, just free form traversal.

Seriously, Second Son is high up there on my games of the year (third, as it turns out) and I really don't understand why it was so ignored (props to SWERY, who listed it on his personal GOTYs as well). the graphics are amazing, the story is entirely serviceable with at least an 8.0 on the Troy Baker scale, and it played better than most games of its genre and any Infamous game before it.

So yeah, go play it, OP. I happen to think it plays better than both Sunset Overdrive and Saints Row 4, for what it's worth. It's just fun to zip around the city and there's actually some weird stuff in there in terms of side missions that is worth doing. Hell, there's a whole side plot that is a weird ARG. Somehow THAT slipped under the radar of GB's GOTY debates.

I just finished the mission where you use your phone to scan cameras and I was bored out of my mind, please tell me it gets better.

@noelveiga: There is no skill involved in as much as any action in a videogame can be boiled down to basically pressing a button and watching things happen. You had to find ledges and navigate the environment in order to reach higher areas - it was sort of a puzzle. They kind of make it a point to let you know Cole is a big free running type of guy in the first game and there was a heavy emphasis on environmental navigation. If you didn't like that, or for instance don't like climbing objects in Assassins Creed or likewise game, then I can imagine those first two Infamous games must have been utter torture for you.

I mean I just don't really see what the fun in being able to zip around super fast everywhere with no restrictions. Nothing is a challenge, nothing is an obstacle.

Of course as you said we can agree to disagree on this, and most people in the thread certainly seem to love it, but personally the little I played of First Light was extremely boring from top to bottom.

@humanity: Honestly, my favourite version of the genre has generally been the Hulk UD/Prototype/SR4 kind, where you can just jump as fast as you want and run through anything you want, and they just ramp up the action to match that ability on the enemy side.

Assassin's Creed sort of lived with other types of games, where the open world was meant to be manipulated into things happening, not just for action purposes. It hasn't been a stealth game for a while, but that's the version of it I like. And even then, I always thought AC took some of Infamous' wind our of its sails because climbing in AC was all about procedural animation, whereas Infamous relied on this awkward "magnetic spot" system where you mash X to go from one grapple point to the next with very little control. It was inherited from the Sly games and it was never as smooth as what was going on in AC, which was built up from Prince of Persia and based on last gen hardware, not PS2 level hardware.

So to me the challenge in Infamous was never climbing, the game was focused on combat and on speed through the grind line/hover system. You climb when you fail to find a faster route and get stuck against a wall. Infamous 2 added upwards zips to alleviate this and that Halloween DLC outright gave you flight powers to get rid of it. Clearly Sucker Punch didn't love it, and I'm grateful that they got rid of it in Second Son. And in previous Infamous games combat was obnoxious, with AI that would snipe you across half the city and just shoot you dead while perched halfway up a wall. Second Son is far better balanced on that front, too.

But yeah, agree to disagree. I see how, if you liked that element, the franchise must seem like it's in a downwards spiral. You just... you know, happen to be dead wrong.

Incidentally, man, I really want another Hulk UD game. That game was fantastic. Volition can make one, they outright stole all the mechanics for Saints Row IV. Come on Disney, the Hulk is a big deal again, and it's not like Prototype was better than UD anyway.

@noelveiga: I will only agree to disagree if we can both agree that I am correct and you are completely wrong. Otherwise I just don't know if I can agree to disagree and will have to rescind my agreement into full disagreement.

@humanity: I agree. To rescind my agreement into full disagreement, that is.

Second Son was my second or third favorite game of the year but I never got around to First Light. I didn't like Fetch as a character in the main game at all (her and the nose piercing girl from Watch Dogs can both kick rocks) and have just been wary of spending a whole couple of hours in her shoes despite how gorgeous I know it'll be. Being stuck with just one of the four powers seems a little lame and lacking in creativity, too. Some of the most fun in Second Son is flipping between the powers as you see fit, and the progression between the four.

I'll play First Light one of these days, I paid $15 for it after all. I'm just not sure when.

Ending spoiler question:

Can you not kill the guy at the end? Is there anyway for Fetch to be like "naw, you're a bastard but I'm not a monster"?

So I got the platinum in one sitting last Saturday when I first launched the game. I loved pretty much all of it and thought it had just enough of everything. Even chases for the shards (though not shards) I thought were kinda run.

Funny thing is I started to play it because I wanted something to do before getting to bed early so I could get up to watch the games early and yet literally couldn't put it down. Though I made sure to finish the challenges before beating the story.

I don't know what it is about Infamous but I just enjoy them more than AC, gta, watch dogs , ect. I think this short burst of game was perfect and I liked it more than second son.

Second son was one of my favorite games of last year, so it was really nice returning to Seattle and having some fun with super powers.

The inclusion of the arena is a great way to go into combat (which I think is really fun and awesome in these games) and just go wild.

Also if you have Second Son, you can play as Delsin in the arenas.

Really recommend you getting Second Son, it's still one of the best looking games so far and you should find it pretty cheap by now

I enjoyed it too. Just a little annoyed that I paid for it.

Will I be missing out on anything if I play it before I play Second Son instead of after?

Not at all. I think it might even be cool.

If I got bored with the "go here, take over this checkpoint, rinse and repeat" stuff in Second Son, should I bother with First Light?

No; Fetch is a serial killer with a penchant for heroin, so she kind of is a monster by design :)

You should, I think they do a fantastic job of balancing all the missions and aside from one or two being a bit tedious they were so few that they never bothered me. The best way to describe it would be a very concentrated burst of Infamous like a mini arc/episode vs a full games but with most of the fat trimmed. The challenges and arena are not a must but since I enjoy the fighting mechanics I had a blast doing everything in one sitting.

Second son was a highly underrated game last year, probably best game on ps4 i played

Having platinumed every inFamous game the climbing is really just mash "x" at a wall until you are at the top. No thinking was really required on that front.

What it did have that Second Son seemingly didn't were ways to keep you on the rooftops. Leaving grind rails and jump boosters everywhere. Second Son kind of had some of those with the vents and satellites but they never felt as integrated as the previous games.

Dan Ryckert is a monster! My opinion on him has changed greatly since I have played this game. That is all I have to say.

Will playing this enhance or reduce my future enjoyment of Dan Ryckert?

Edit:

Luckily, nothing like this surfaced in a background check before joining GB. I hope my name never appears in a Google search followed by the words "is a creepy stalker."

So I tagged a DUP flag on top of the space needle and it looks like a jackass.

I think I love this game.

@oldirtybearon: Then play Second Son. Neon powers as awesome as they are, they are not the best powers in the game IMO.

Just finished it. As an inFamous 1 and 2 fan, my main problem with this game (and possibly with Second Son, by extension) is simply that the combat abilities are not very fun. Force field+shoot weak points ad nauseam is terrible. The whole concept of having to shoot weak points is terrible. I mean, sure, it makes sense for the DUP to be armored up or something necessitating you shoot at specific body parts but ordinary gang members? Makes no sense and serves only to make the combat more tedious. Cole had missiles, grenades, a shield, and all sorts of powers that you could employ. I went down the infamous upgrade path in the first two games: the destructive abilities were more enjoyable for me than the containment ones. In First Light, you get no such choice. You play, ostensibly, a "good" character but have no choice but to kill in the end. The game literally says Abigail has become a killer. Never mind the dozens of people you've been killing throughout the game.

I think a telling moment of this game is near the end where you have to go on a city-wide rampage to distract the police, but all you can really do is blow up some cars. Cars that, let's remember, have people inside them. Wasn't the whole point that she refused to kill? I don't know. I'm sort of ranting at this point but the game just seemed really weak to me. As a final aside, I'm getting quite tired of playing the good, naive character archetype. Why are the heroes incapable of putting together a coherent thought? Why are only the bad guys allowed to be intelligent and have actual plans in place to help them work towards their goals?

"Wait, I just want us to watch Robocop! Its the perfect date movie!"

@nasar7: I'm with you on the coherent thinking. I think it's really lazy writing to have your protagonist constantly rushing in without any thought or planning, and in the process being constantly ambushed or outwitted. The 50th time when Shane says "no worries I'll let your brother go .." I kept thinking this must be the turning point when she finally figures some stuff out. Unfortunately nothing of that kind happens.

I also thought it was a really strange choice to unlock cool new abilities AFTER you've beaten the DLC. Some of them seem pretty interesting too but I'm not about to sit in the arenas in order to save up points for them. They could have been incorporated into the storyline somehow, yet sadly they seem like an afterthought.

I didn't enjoy this DLC very much although it has sort of sparked an interest in playing the main game now. Perhaps with multiple powers the combat won't seem so lacking? Maybe there is more to it than running around and killing a bunch of guys. Probably not but from what I saw the storyline is a little better. It's a long way to March, maybe I'll check it out.

@humanity: So I haven't read the entire thread or whatever but I just recently played through Second Son and then First Light immediately after (I've also played the 2 previous inFamous games, though that is probably not that relevant). If you're looking for climbing satisfaction I think you are more likely to find it in SS than in FL. That's because each new power in that game makes getting around a bit easier, so the ramp up to just dashing across the city is a bit slower. Though I tend to do a lot of side stuff up front, so depending how quickly you move through the main missions you might find that ramp up significantly accelerated.

Light gameplay spoilers ahead: So the first power has an air dash, and later two, but that's it, you'll still be climbing a lot. The second power is the neon you have in First Light, and it's ability to run up walls is the same, but other than that there are a number of differences. You never gain the ability to air dash with it, or superjump out of it (I think, not 100% sure on this one) you can't pass through objects like you can in FL or with the Smoke power and it sinks so crossing large gabs are more of a problem. Shooting and how you eventually get slow-mo juice back is also different. Later powers generally increase your movability and further rebalances your remaining abilities.

Basically, what I didn't end up liking about Second Son is that all of the powers had one or two annoying drawbacks to make their strenghts all viable, like the slow shooting on the neon powers, or one of the later one's reliance on its slow melee. Therefore I ended up liking how First Light played a lot more, because you just eventually had almost all the strenghts without the annoying drawbacks. There's some cool shit you could do too, like running up the side of walls into air dash that made me imagine what a modern, 3D Mega Man Zero would be like. Once I finished it I actually played a bit of the survival modes because I enjoyed moving about so much and had ran out of things to do, but nothing that was in the game really challenged you to do anything super tricky with all that movement power you had, I think that was my largest disappointment.

Actually my largest disappointment with First Light was how they gave Fetch a villain which you could pile the blame of her killing her brother on. That was super weak, and a total retcon from what they said in the original game.

On the city feeling underpopulated I do think that there is a bit more going on in SS because the D.U.P are crawling all over the place when you haven't cleaned up most districts, but it has the same quietness that inFamous 2 had otherwise.

@jacksukeru: That sounds like a mixed bag really. On one hand the prospect of different powers seem pretty exciting. On the other, if as you say the powers all feel kind of lacking on their own and there is no expedient way to switch between them on the fly, then I could see that being annoying as well. What I liked about inFamous 2 was the fork halfway through the game that let you decide if you want to augment your powers with fire or ice, each having a different bonus to mobility. The ice launcher was awesome. So if it's anything like that, and it kind of doesn't sound like it, then it could be interesting.

The reason I harp so much about "climbing" is probably because after finishing First Light I had completely no feel for the city. I never checked the map once and couldn't differentiate one "zone" from another. This was all mainly due to my abilities allowing me to really not care about my surroundings. Possibly this is also because First Light is DLC after all and you don't get any slow story exposition and such as you would normally encounter in the full game. I think I'll go watch the Second Son Quick Look again and see if I'm up for it.

Incidentally I like the way our avatars are mirrored versions of each other.

@humanity: Yeah it's definetly a bit of a mixed bag.

I think the thing that makes it cumbersome is that the last power you got is always going to be the best for moving around, but then it has a change in the shooting, or melee, or heavy ammo ability, or screen clearing ability that's just not as good as what you're used to.

The story is also...weird, definetly feels rushed at parts, and I like the ideas behind some of the characters better than the executions of said ideas.