Surely you've heard that Stan Lee classic:"With great power comes great responsibility." That moral lesson has been focused on, deconstructed and returned to over and over in superhero comics since the 1960s. Meanwhile, superhero games have always leaned a little harder on just letting players have fun — all power, very little responsibility.
The first two Infamous games triedwith mixed success to introduce more ramifications to their virtual superhero stories, and if anything,Second Sonhas even nobler goalsin mind. While this semi-reboot still plays with the origin story trope of a hero coming to terms with the impact of his new abilities, it also toys with darker issues: the overwhelming nature of surveillance in modern society, trading freedom for security, society-widefear of the unknown.These themes form an undercurrent toInfamous: Second Sonthat has strong potential, but they're underdeveloped in the main narrative. Bythe time credits roll, the game has undeniably chosen power over responsibility yet again. Because it backs down from its grand vision,Second Sonmay not hit as hard as it should have. But I was having so much fun blowing shit up that I almost didn't notice.Set seven years after the universe-altering events ofInfamous 2,Second Sonfollows new protagonist Delsin Rowe.
As a rebellious graffiti artist, Delsin lives to annoy his brother Reggie, a cop on the Pacific Northwest reservation where thetwo live as part of the fictional Okomish tribe.This relatively peaceful existence is brought to an end when Delsin is put in contact with a conduit — the Infamous universe's name for people with superpowers — and discovers he can siphon their abilities. This gift sets Delsin apart from previous protagonist Cole in animportant way: Delsingains entirely new powers as the game progresses, beyond the regular upgrade paths afforded by the game's leveling structure.While you'll use your powers to navigate the city, float through the air and search for hidden blast shards (which can be cashedin to upgrade powers), combat takes up the vast majority of time inInfamous: Second Son.
There are some side missions, and the handful of boss battles often have a small gimmick to figure out, but all primary progress comes back to blasting bad guys. And it's a hell of a lot of fun to do so.Each power set inSecond Sonis kept small — so as to not overextend the control scheme — butwith enough options to never feel constrained by your current choice of powers. And they all feel suitably different as well. Both smoke and neon have regular shots, but smoke shots hit harder, while neon rewards you for carefully aiming at specific body parts. Both sets have more powerful, limited-ammo shots, but smoke's is a rocket that causes massive area-of-effect damage, while neon's is a more directed sniper shot that has asizable charge-up time to take into account.While I eventually settled on neon as mypersonal favorite of the game's options, I appreciated the variety and how well the game encouragedmixing things up frommission to mission.
Between blast shard upgrades and narrative progression,I always felt like I was unlocking something new to mess around with.
A big part of the draw of these powers comes from your ability to cause lasting destruction inSecond Son's playground of virtual Seattle. You won't be taking down actual buildings or legitimate landmarks in the game, but Delsin finds himself up against the DUP (Department of Unified Protection), a government agency in charge of rounding up and jailing conduits. As part of locking down Seattle for their search, the DUP has built militarized checkpoints, makeshift headquarters and other imposing structures — blights on the beautifully rendered cityscape that are just begging to be knocked down.Let's say you approach an intersection with a checkpoint where DUP soldiers are checking civilians for the conduit gene with a special scanner. Two watchtowers stand on either side of the checkpoint, with a small bridge extending above it. A few feet ahead, there's a giant cage where "suspicious" individuals are being held.
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