inFAMOUS is generally a series I found got worse over time, which unfortunately puts Second Son at the unenviable bottom of the set. I don't think it's that bad of a game, though; truth be told, most of the inFAMOUS series is pretty close, and all are games I at least consider "good". But Second Son is generally the title I'm least interested in revisiting.
I think what it is is how unnecessary the morality system feels? Morality was never really one of inFAMOUS's strong suits; the game does a lot to flavor itself with its morality system, trying to act like the choices posed have real consequences, but it's very rarely something more than a binary "be nice/be a jerk" sort of thing. That one Penny Arcade always comes to mind, and yeah, stuff's largely like that. This isn't to say that I'm opposed to the simple binary, as it's certainly a way to add replayability, and that's clearly what the main thrust of it is. But it's never been enough to entice that second playthrough out of me. Same with the first BioShock: much-lauded for its moral choice, always felt like "...that's it?" to me. Blockbuster games can do moral choice compellingly, but this isn't it. With Second Son in particular, there's one choice that feels like it carries the right amount of weight (if you've played the game, you know the one). Everything else is just... there, I guess. Or is the inFAMOUS Evil ending, which... is probably why this game uses a fictional Native American people rather than any real-world tribes.
But the draw to inFAMOUS's morality system isn't its narrative application, but rather its mechanical implementation. The first two inFAMOUSes were good about this, but I kinda think Second Son drops the ball here, too? There was a decent amount of variety with how you played Cole vs Evil Cole in the first two games, but I feel like a lot of the variance in Deslin's moveset is more aesthetic or minor. This is especially pronounced with Deslin's Concrete ability, which has no real variation (though the game also gives you Concrete late, so maybe there wasn't much point in the extra bit of flavor).
For that matter, while I think this game's choice of elements is SOOOOO COOOOOOL, I found the movesets to be kinda limited? Deslin can only change affinities by re-absorbing from a power source, so each element represents a commitment on the player's part until they find something better. That's fair, I guess, but a consequence of this design is that if the game wants to tease out a specific function from the player, either the game must provide a source for that element, or it must be a function that the player will always have ready access to. Every element has standard shots, shotgun-like energy blasts, Melee-enhancers, grenades, rockets, and finishers. Elements have unique elements, but I would have rather had these as the core of the moveset rather than a splash of flavor. By way of comparison, Fetch has just enough flavor in First Light to make her feel different from Deslin's take on Neon, while Deslin's Neon powers feel comparable in broad strokes to his Smoke or Video powers. I guess it's fair of the game to homogenize its powers a bit, but it's still kinda a bummer.
But since I mentioned it - the idea of the power suite is such a cool take. How inspired, to theme elements not from traditional Lightning/Fire/Ice like we've seen done endlessly, but rather from the "elements" of an urban landscape. Smoke, Neon, Video, and Concrete, with the implied presence of Paper, Wire, and Glass existing elsewhere in this world. I don't love how all of these are executed - in particular, Deslin directly copying Eugene's manifestation of Video, where all iconography is lifted from Eugene's Heaven's Hellfire video game, feels like an extreme limitation on a theoretically infinite power and a missed opportunity to examine the kind of virtual imagery that would be relevant to Deslin. But I feel like I'm nitpicking there.
It's definitely nitpicking to comment on how strange it is for the game to take place in Seattle rather than some fictional stand-in for Seattle. I guess it doesn't really matter, but after playing around with stand-in New York City and stand-in New Orleans, it's a little distracting to be in Seattle-Seattle. Ah, well.
It's also a pretty short game? Definitely shorter than But it was a launch window game for the PS4, so honestly I'll give it a bit of leeway there.
I've mostly been grumbling, but it is a good game overall. "More inFAMOUS" is always a good time for me, so I had a good time with this. As always, Sucker Punch is great at writing characters, and a lot of the major players are super interesting. Deslin's pretty fun to move around as, and tagging, while a minor thing, is a fun little mechanic. The moment-to-moment experience of the game is a good time, and it was fun while it lasted. At this point, I dunno that we'll ever see another one of these, but this was a nice title all the same.
I think what it is is how unnecessary the morality system feels? Morality was never really one of inFAMOUS's strong suits; the game does a lot to flavor itself with its morality system, trying to act like the choices posed have real consequences, but it's very rarely something more than a binary "be nice/be a jerk" sort of thing. That one Penny Arcade always comes to mind, and yeah, stuff's largely like that. This isn't to say that I'm opposed to the simple binary, as it's certainly a way to add replayability, and that's clearly what the main thrust of it is. But it's never been enough to entice that second playthrough out of me. Same with the first BioShock: much-lauded for its moral choice, always felt like "...that's it?" to me. Blockbuster games can do moral choice compellingly, but this isn't it. With Second Son in particular, there's one choice that feels like it carries the right amount of weight (if you've played the game, you know the one). Everything else is just... there, I guess. Or is the inFAMOUS Evil ending, which... is probably why this game uses a fictional Native American people rather than any real-world tribes.
But the draw to inFAMOUS's morality system isn't its narrative application, but rather its mechanical implementation. The first two inFAMOUSes were good about this, but I kinda think Second Son drops the ball here, too? There was a decent amount of variety with how you played Cole vs Evil Cole in the first two games, but I feel like a lot of the variance in Deslin's moveset is more aesthetic or minor. This is especially pronounced with Deslin's Concrete ability, which has no real variation (though the game also gives you Concrete late, so maybe there wasn't much point in the extra bit of flavor).
For that matter, while I think this game's choice of elements is SOOOOO COOOOOOL, I found the movesets to be kinda limited? Deslin can only change affinities by re-absorbing from a power source, so each element represents a commitment on the player's part until they find something better. That's fair, I guess, but a consequence of this design is that if the game wants to tease out a specific function from the player, either the game must provide a source for that element, or it must be a function that the player will always have ready access to. Every element has standard shots, shotgun-like energy blasts, Melee-enhancers, grenades, rockets, and finishers. Elements have unique elements, but I would have rather had these as the core of the moveset rather than a splash of flavor. By way of comparison, Fetch has just enough flavor in First Light to make her feel different from Deslin's take on Neon, while Deslin's Neon powers feel comparable in broad strokes to his Smoke or Video powers. I guess it's fair of the game to homogenize its powers a bit, but it's still kinda a bummer.
But since I mentioned it - the idea of the power suite is such a cool take. How inspired, to theme elements not from traditional Lightning/Fire/Ice like we've seen done endlessly, but rather from the "elements" of an urban landscape. Smoke, Neon, Video, and Concrete, with the implied presence of Paper, Wire, and Glass existing elsewhere in this world. I don't love how all of these are executed - in particular, Deslin directly copying Eugene's manifestation of Video, where all iconography is lifted from Eugene's Heaven's Hellfire video game, feels like an extreme limitation on a theoretically infinite power and a missed opportunity to examine the kind of virtual imagery that would be relevant to Deslin. But I feel like I'm nitpicking there.
It's definitely nitpicking to comment on how strange it is for the game to take place in Seattle rather than some fictional stand-in for Seattle. I guess it doesn't really matter, but after playing around with stand-in New York City and stand-in New Orleans, it's a little distracting to be in Seattle-Seattle. Ah, well.
It's also a pretty short game? Definitely shorter than But it was a launch window game for the PS4, so honestly I'll give it a bit of leeway there.
I've mostly been grumbling, but it is a good game overall. "More inFAMOUS" is always a good time for me, so I had a good time with this. As always, Sucker Punch is great at writing characters, and a lot of the major players are super interesting. Deslin's pretty fun to move around as, and tagging, while a minor thing, is a fun little mechanic. The moment-to-moment experience of the game is a good time, and it was fun while it lasted. At this point, I dunno that we'll ever see another one of these, but this was a nice title all the same.