The inFAMOUS games on PlayStation 3 are undoubtedly my favorite games of all time. The first installment grabbed me and I was in for the whole ride. Loved almost every moment of its story, gameplay and open world. InFAMOUS 2 took this a step further with a more polished presentation, a more dramatic and emotional story, an incredible open world, as well as some good additional content. Basically, I'm a huge fan of this series and I was aching to see what would come next. Second Son was exciting when it came out, as we got to see a new protagonist with an interesting set of brand new powers on the next-gen tech of PlayStation 4. As a standalone game, Second Son is a pretty good time. Gameplay is impressive, visuals are even better, and it works well as a launch title. But once you start to dig deeper into what this game is and what it has to offer, the more cracks start to unfortunately appear.
Starting off positive, the game excels in its gameplay, visuals, mission design, as well as the cinematic/cutscene direction and the soundtrack. The strongest aspect of this game is its visuals. The graphical fidelity, art direction, animations, and VFX still look AMAZING to this day as it did back then. Gameplay is faster and more seamless than the previous games - though some of the depth within movesets is lacking. Playing through the campaign is a blast, as the main/story missions are diverse and take advantage of every gameplay element. When it comes to cinematics/cutscenes, Second Son absolutely nails it with great scene direction, lively performances, good cinematography, as well as stellar animations and motion capture. Lastly, the soundtrack also proves to be quite strong. It really taps into the culture of Seattle and Indigenous Americans, mixing grunge rock and vocals that are akin to Native American folk music.
Now for the bad. While I wasn't expecting Second Son to be better than the first two games in terms of storytelling, I was expecting an interesting and fleshed out standalone narrative. On a surface level, Second Son does have a really cool story. Even in execution, the game has a fairly strong first act, with entertaining dialogue and compelling plot points. But the rest of the story falls a bit flat. Characters are often very shallow and inconsistent. The karma system becomes even more of a burden to the consistency of the overarching narrative. The worldbuilding also comes off as a bit lazy, as the open world itself feels static and lacks the soul that previous settings had, and the lore is not presented in a very consistent or compelling way. What sucks even more is that one of the more serious themes of the game doesn't get much focus outside of one great scene near the beginning of the game. Then there's the side content. While inFAMOUS 1 & 2 didn't have the greatest side content, what was there was fleshed out enough to be worthwhile and interesting. Side missions and collectibles may have been a bit repetitive, but there were gameplay benefits, valuable mini-stories, and some good worldbuilding that came with them. Those side missions, while short, were lengthy enough to feel like proper missions with multiple objectives (with the average side mission being around 4-10 minutes). Second Son completely downgrades all of this. Side missions are turned into quick and repetitive activities that can be done in seconds - offering almost nothing of value in terms of additional narrative or gameplay benefits. The only "side missions" in Second Son are the DLC missions: "Cole's Legacy" and "Paper Trails." These feel a lot more akin to the side missions of the previous games, with multiple objectives that can be done in 4-7 minutes. These missions offer some decent worldbuilding and try to answer some questions that may come up in the main story, while also rewarding you with some cool cosmetics.
When Second Son gets good, it gets REALLY good. It's a fun superpowered sandbox game with some great visuals and main missions to tie it all together. But when Second Son feels lackluster, it feels like a downgrade. Lack of quality side content and an inconsistent story do hurt the experience for me. Is it a bad game? Absolutely not. In fact, it was quite close to becoming a really stellar entry in this overlooked franchise. And those that haven't played the inFAMOUS games on PS3 have a lot to like here. My biggest problem with this game is that it feels rushed. There are so many great ideas that needed more time to develop - plus the watered down side content is appalling. But if you can sandbox your way throughout the fun and replayable campaign, then Second Son almost makes up for its shortcomings.
Almost.
