Infamous Second Son

Infamous Second Son is an action-adventure video game developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4 on March 21, 2014. It's the follow up to 2011's Infamous 2 and the third game in the Infamous series. There was also a DLC for Infamous Second Son called Infamous First Light released on August 26, 2014. First Light later got a physical release as well. So far it's the last game in the Infamous series.

Plot
Infamous Second Son takes place seven years after Infamous 2. While Cole used the RFI to kill all conduits in the world, somehow the conduit gene managed to survive, and eventually many more were born. The story revolves around Delsin Rowe, a Native American from the Akomish tribe who lives on a Native American reserve with his brother. By this point, all Conduits, dubbed Bio-Terrorists, have been outlawed and imprisoned should they be found. Delsin's journey is to discover why and stop the inhumane experiments done on them, and to do that he has to stop the person who is leading this, Brooke Augustine. Along the way he meets several other Conduits and absorbs their powers using his Power Absorption power.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Despite being released in 2014, the graphics still look excellent. It used motion capture, same as Infamous 2, but took it a step further.
 * 2) Good soundtrack.
 * 3) An impressively accurate recreation of the city Seattle, Washington.
 * 4) Good voice acting especially Troy Baker as Delsin whose clearly having fun.
 * 5) It has a decent story which includes subtle references to racism, law & order, and political corruption, and not so subtle references to vengeance, good, and evil.
 * 6) The characters are passable, especially Delsin Rowe and Fetch, who were the driving force of the story.
 * 7) The powers are more in depth in some ways because Delsin is able to use five powers total, as opposed to Cole's three powers in Infamous 2. The powers include a power Absorbing ability, Smoke abilities, Neon abilities, Video abilities, and Concrete abilities.
 * 8) Because Delsin can acquire the powers of other conduits, Delsin has four different powers that differ from each other.
 * 9) *Smoke: The first of the abilities that is all-rounded. It can fire rapid shots, can traverses though bares and/or vents and avoid damage if dashed and can create a smoke bomb that will stun enemies.
 * 10) *Neon: Obtained after defeating Fetch. It can fire very accurate shots, can fire at enemies' weak points to earn bad/good Karma and its dash can make Delsin go super fast if dashed.
 * 11) *Video: Obtained after defeating Eugene. It can fire rapid shots, similar to Smoke expect stronger, can make Delsin turn invisible, its dash lets Delsin fly and it can fire strong homing swords.
 * 12) *Concrete: Obtained during the final boss fight against Brooke Augustine, its a mixer of the previous abilities, though its dash makes Delsin immune to damage.
 * 13) The Paper Trail free DLC offers a lot of details on the setting and characters. Some of the important details revealed include:
 * 14) * The existence of active groups of Conduit Rights activists.
 * 15) * The fact that Fetch's parents are apparently trying to track her down and reconcile with her.
 * 16) * The fact that Augustine arranged for Hank, Fetch, and Eugene to escape while under military custody so she could reinvigorate public support in the D.U.P.
 * 17) * An explanation for why Conduits are still a thing. The Hero ending of the previous game made it seem like Cole sacrificed himself and the Conduits of the world in order to save the majority of the human population. However, playing through Paper Trail reveals that only 90% of conduits were killed.
 * 18) The boss fights are incredible.
 * 19) Tons of side-missions with good variety, enough to keep you busy.
 * 20) The spray paint mini-games are a good use of motion controls and actually feels like you're holding a spray paint can.
 * 21) Great endings, with the bad ending being pretty sad and the good ending being heartwarming.
 * 22) It got a nice stand-alone game Infamous First Light where it goes into more depth of Fetch's backstory and how she got captured.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The karma system isn't nearly as in depth as in Infamous 2.
 * 2) *This can especially be seen when you compare how the overall narrative of the game loosely connects to its Evil Path portion. While Fetch and Eugene clearly go through darker character development, (and Augustine makes snide comments) Reggie, Betty, and even Seattle at-large barely bother reacting to shifts in Karma or Karmic Actions. No TV Reports. No calls from major characters congratulating or expressing concern for your mental state. You'd think Reggie would respond more poorly to being physically threatened by Delsin or Fetch/Eugene responding to a shift in positive Karma. Much of the game's outerlying narrative seems designed primarily for a Good Path playthrough, making an Evil run rather weightless until the Evil Ending.
 * 3) While they are decent, most of the characters aren't all that fleshed out.
 * 4) *Hank's whole role in nothing more then to be a plot device for Delsin to get his powers and to lead to the scene where Reggie dies. After the player chooses to spare him, he just disappears from the remainder of the story. It would have been interesting to see him partake in the final battle to atone for his crimes in the Good Karma path.
 * 5) *While the most likable, Eugene portrays that of a stereotypical gamer, whose a loner and got bullied a lot.
 * 6) *Despite him being the main protagonist, Delsin is never given any proper backstory and feels more like a generic cocky, wise-cracking character because of it. He also doesn't really go through any kind of character development on the Good Karma route.
 * 7) The main villain of the game, Brooke Augustine, also suffers mainly because the player hardly ever sees her and by the time you get to know her it's the end of the game. This is especially egregious when you consider the fact that the only reason she's been kidnapping and imprisoning conduits is to protect them. In other words, she's pretty much the Viktor (from Knack) of the Infamous series.
 * 8) *She's also an idiot and a jerk for torturing and slowly killing the Akomish tribe and thus gave Delsin a good reason to go after her. It's also ridiculous that she doesn't believe Delsin when he admits to being a conduit in the Good Karma choice.
 * 9) Retcon: In Infamous 1 and 2 it seemed to be heavily implied that the vast majority of Conduits exhibit various types of powers (most commonly telekinesis, judging by the amount of them who could do it to some degree), but by the time of Second Son it would seem like they've all got various types of (loosely defined) elemental powers. Furthermore, only Cole actually had to "drain" his "element" in order to use his powers in the first two games (which was explained as his powers literally relying on the electricity his body stores), whereas in Second Son having to drain elemental power from the environment appears to be the standard, and elemental shapeshifting seems to be an innate ability now that's useable by all conduits, while in 1 and 2 only Nix was shown to be able to do so to that extent.
 * 10) Ass Pull: Considering the ending of Infamous 2 showed that even unactivated conduits as far from New Marais as East Africa and Asia were killed, it's strange to see that conduits are still common in the United States. It also proves that Cole seemingly died for nothing.
 * 11) Some issues with the DLCs:
 * 12) *Paper Trail: Each mission, except for the first, is unlocked by logging onto an external website, where the player is required to navigate through a series of complicated clues, without many hints as to what you're looking for. And on top of that, sometimes the vital clue you need to input to progress will refuse to work.
 * 13) *Cole's Legacy: It was a pre-order bonus. Players who got into it late will be missing out.
 * 14) Instead of having multiple factions of enemies like in previous games, you only fight the D.U.P., which seems to be your generic military soldiers akin to Stormtroopers from Star Wars.
 * 15) When you use the smoke Karma Strike, there can be some screen tearing.
 * 16) You can't go up the Space Nettle after completing Mission 7 where you have to, which is counter-productive because it restricts the sandbox part of the game.
 * 17) Despite being aesthetically pleasing, Seattle doesn't have much personality compared to the previous games.
 * 18) *Empire City was (originally) a busy city turned into a shadow of its former self with it being all grimy, dirty, and riddled with crime due to being cut off from the rest of the United States due to a sickness caused from the Blast that gave Cole his powers. New Marais was a town with no law turned into a town of rebellion when talking to NPCs expressing their hate for the invading factions. Seattle feels like a generic town to just run around in and in a way that's kind of true given the power up, "Neon run", where you run past literally everything to the point to where you don't even acknowledge it.
 * 19) Missed Opportunities:
 * 20) * It's easy to wonder why the game goes for such a black and white good vs. evil karma and story system when the matters unfolding in it are so relatable to real life. Then you realize that it's exactly because of that that it probably wasn't a good idea to, say, portray a frustrated rebel against an unjust system using violent methods as the "Evil" route.
 * 21) * Some people believe the biggest detriment to the story was that it follows the Good Ending to Infamous 2. If it followed the Evil Ending, not only would the revival of the Conduits be seen as less of an Ass Pull, but Beast Cole could be the game's final boss.
 * 22) * The overall narrative of the game only loosely connects to its Evil Path portion. While Fetch and Eugene clearly go through darker character development, (and Augustine makes snide comments) Reggie, Betty, and even Seattle at-large barely bother reacting to shifts in Karma or Karmic Actions. No TV Reports. No calls from major characters congratulating or expressing concern for your mental state. You'd think Reggie would respond more poorly to being physically threatened by Delsin or Fetch/Eugene responding to a shift in positive Karma. Much of the game's outerlying narrative seems designed primarily for a Good Path playthrough, making an Evil run rather weightless until the Evil Ending.

Reception
Infamous Second Son received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.

IGN 's Vince Ingenito recalled being left "staring slack-jawed" at the visuals and praised the impressive lighting effects in the "beautifully and diversely realized" open world. GameSpot 's Tom Mc Shea called the visuals "incredible". Eurogamer 's Oli Welsh praised Seattle's art direction and consistent draw distances and frame rates. Though impressed with the high-definition graphics, PlayStation Official Magazine (OPM)'s David Meikleham cited occasional frame rate dips during intense combat. He enjoyed roaming Seattle and levelling its destructible environments. Computer and Video Games (CVG)'s Tamoor Hussain praised graphical details like the particle and lighting systems. He said the game is "colorful, rich in detail and has some of the best effects we've seen on console".

GameSpot 's Mc Shea noted the combat's balance between Infamous 's slower pace and Infamous 2 's frenetic action. Destructoid 's Chris Carter considered the combat's simplicity its strength and found Delsin easy to control during play. Underwhelmed with the opening chapter's "skittish" parkour, Edge noted the game became more fun when Delsin gained powers and reached Seattle. They felt enemies were clever enough to make combat challenging and that missions were "for the most part well designed and generously proportioned". IGN 's Ingenito found each power set enjoyable and "strong enough to hang an entire game on". He felt the power upgrades kept combat fresh and made for good replay value. Polygon 's Phillip Kollar favored neon, but noted the balance and variety between all sets made combat "a hell of a lot of fun". Eurogamer 's Welsh found the combat imperfect yet fun and thought the skill upgrades made minimal difference to gameplay.

Destructoid 's Carter was invested in the story as Delsin's charm succeeded "wooden" Cole's listlessness. IGN 's Ingenito thought the chemistry between Delsin and Reggie helped pique player interest. He found Troy Baker's performance "imbued with a charm and youthful abandon that keeps it from feeling tropey sic or overwrought", but thought supporting characters like Fetch were underdeveloped and the narrative too straightforward. Although calling the characters clichéd, Edge felt they were written and acted well. GameSpot 's Mc Shea found Delsin annoying and immature, and that the gameplay bettered its "tired" story. Eurogamer 's Welsh considered that "inconsequential MacGuffins" drove the plot to a rushed ending but praised its concise scope. Polygon 's Kollar felt the lackluster examination of surveillance and security-over-freedom diminished the story's impact. He was disappointed with the narrative despite the better character writing over previous series entries. OPM 's Meikleham was put off by Delsin's arrogance and lamented the story, but praised the quality of the motion capture performances.

Edge and Eurogamer 's Welsh faulted the morality system's lack of story influence. IGN 's Ingenito called it "woefully outdated" as evil choices jarred with Delsin's character. He found the system redundant because Delsin's power peaked when he strictly adhered to good or evil play-styles, rather than crossing in-between. GameSpot 's Mc Shea felt the binary system lacked a "moral gray area" between good and evil. Polygon 's Kollar struggled to connect to his choices as they were polar opposites on a moral compass. OPM 's Meikleham found the system had "little to no impact on gameplay".

GameSpot 's Mc Shea found Second Son 's open world beholden to a dated formula. He described Seattle as "a playground for you to go nuts in" instead of "a living, breathing world", with its citizens existing merely as player fodder. CVG 's Hussain said the "hauntingly empty" Seattle's sparse NPCs behaved inanimately. He felt the open world's lifelessness was its biggest detractor, a dichotomy against Grand Theft Auto V, Sleeping Dogs and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag 's superior worlds. Eurogamer 's Welsh felt Second Son did not innovate the genre as well as it could have as it leaned too heavily on tropes. Polygon 's Kollar felt missions and activities lacked variety, as "virtually all culminate in the goal of beating up more soldiers or thugs". Edge saw little merit in a second play-through as the scarce content was repetitive. Destructoid 's Carter found the amount of content ample, and enjoyed liberating the city and collecting Blast Shards.

Sales
The game sold over one million copies in nine days after its launch, making it one of the best-selling PlayStation 4 games as well as the fastest-selling installment in the series. As of June 2019, the game has sold an estimated 6 million copies.