78/100
Players519 ratings: 79/100
Critics15 reviews

Where to get it

PlayStation Store

2014 · Sucker Punch Productions · Shooter · Platformer

Infamous Second Son

PlayStation exclusive

Infamous: Second Son, a PlayStation 4 exclusive , brings you an action adventure game where surrounded by a society that fears them, superhumans are ruthlessly hunted down and caged by the Department of Unified Protection. Step into a locked-down Seattle as Delsin Rowe, who has recently discovered his superhuman power and is now capable of fighting back against the oppressive DUP. Enjoy your power as you choose how you will push your awesome abilities to the limit and witness the consequences of your actions as they affect the city and people around you.

Released: 21 March 2014
Platforms: PlayStation 4
Genres: Shooter Platformer Adventure
Developers: Sucker Punch Productions
Publishers: Sony Computer Entertainment
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Third person
Themes: Action Sandbox Open world

About

Infamous Second Son is a 2014 action-adventure video game developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. The third installment in the Infamous series, it serves as a standalone sequel to 2011's Infamous 2. The player-controlled protagonist possesses superpower abilities that players use in combat and when traveling across the city. P.)

in a fictionalized Seattle. Over the course of the game, Delsin acquires new powers and becomes either good or evil as player choices influence his morality.

›Story

Second Son takes place in 2016, seven years after Infamous 2's Conduit protagonist Cole MacGrath sacrifices himself to cure humanity of a plague and destroy The Beast. Cole uses the powerful Ray Field Inhibitor weapon, which kills him and most of the other Conduits. S. P.

to hunt down and capture the world's remaining Conduits, dubbing Conduits with the pejorative "Bioterrorists ". The protagonist is Delsin Rowe (Troy Baker), a 24 year old graffiti artist and the local delinquent of the Akomish reservation. Delsin has the unique Conduit ability of Power Mimicry, allowing him to copy the powers of any Conduit he comes into contact with. His brother, Reggie (Travis Willingham), is the local sheriff, and often arrests Delsin for his acts of vandalism.

Both are Akomish Native Americans, whose territory lies at the shore of Salmon Bay, Washington. P. and a Conduit with power over Concrete. P.

forces. P.

after Reggie catches Delsin vandalizing a billboard, their subsequent argument is interrupted when a military truck carrying three Conduit prisoners crashes on the Akomish reservation. Two of the Conduits escape, but Delsin manages to pull the third one, Hank, out of the wreckage, inadvertently absorbing his smoke powers in the process. Shocked and frightened, Delsin pursues Hank in an effort to figure out what has happened and how to control his powers. However, they are both cornered by Brooke Augustine.

She encases Hank in concrete and questions Delsin, suspecting him of hiding something. Delsin can choose to either tell Augustine the truth about his powers or say nothing. Regardless of Delsin's choice, Augustine knocks him out before moving on to the other tribe members.

Delsin awakens a week later and discovers that Augustine has tortured the rest of the tribe in an unsuccessful bid to gain information. However, she has left them to gradually die from concrete shards buried into their bodies, including their leader Betty (Karen Austin). Reggie, who was spared from the torture, learns that the only way to remove the shards is to use Augustine's power on them. Delsin realizes that he can absorb Conduit powers and resolves to go to Seattle to take Augustine's powers and save the tribe.

Reggie reluctantly accompanies Delsin to keep an eye on him. P. in order to find the other escaped Conduits. P.

forces and tracks down core fragments to develop his powers. He eventually encounters the other two escaped Conduits, Fetch and Eugene, and absorbs their powers. After both confrontations, Delsin defends the Conduits from Reggie, who initially views them as "freaks", and can choose to either redeem or corrupt them.

Keywords

helicopter
military
action-adventure
building
over the shoulder
sequel
good vs evil
superhero
playstation network
comic book
single-player only
platform exclusive

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Infamous Second Son is an action-adventure game set in an open world environment and played from a third-person perspective. Players control the main character Delsin Rowe, who can parkour-style climb vertical surfaces like high-rise buildings. Delsin is a Conduit, which allows him to use superpowers by manipulating materials such as smoke, neon, video, and concrete. These materials can be weaponized (such that Delsin can perform melee attacks or fire projectiles from his fingertips) or used to deftly navigate the game world (such as using neon to dash up buildings).

Using powers depletes a meter in the head-up display (HUD), which can be replenished by drawing from power sources such as smoke from exploded vehicles. P.) during missions. P.

Story

Second Son takes place seven years after the end of Infamous 2, specifically the canonical "Good Ending". In that ending, Conduit protagonist Cole MacGrath sacrificed himself to cure humanity of a plague and destroy the Beast, inadvertently killing a majority of the world's Conduits while awakening the powers of some others. The U.S. government, recognizing the possibility that a Conduit could use their powers to overthrow the global establishment, establishes the D.U.P. (Department of Unified Protection) to hunt down and capture the remaining Conduits, while also spreading propaganda labeling them as "Bioterrorists".

As opposed to the previous two games, Second Son takes place in the real-life city of Seattle, Washington and uses many actual locations and neighborhoods.

Development

Sucker Punch Productions began to develop Second Son while the PlayStation 4 was still being designed. Having finished work on Infamous: Festival of Blood, they began to plan a new entry in the Infamous series under the working title Infamous 3. As early as 2010, they discussed with Sony their desire to bring Infamous to a new PlayStation platform.

Sucker Punch were in close connection with the PS4's lead system architect Mark Cerny, who visited the studio several times. They gave Cerny feedback about how much power a new PlayStation system would require to render their ideal open world, how fast it would be capable of doing so and to what degree of texture detail. "We had some experience there that was useful for that team when they were planning some aspects of the hardware design", producer Brian Fleming explained. He found that during the PS4's development, there was a great level of interactivity between the system's designers and game developers such as Sucker Punch.

Reception

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