So recently
it has been that special time of my life again, the new free games of the month
for PS Plus users was revealed and I have finally been able to give some time
to one of this month’s offerings. For those of you who stupidly bought the PS4
early on before there were any actually games out for it, Infamous Second Son
is probably just a fading memory of the time before Uncharted 4 and Horizon
Zero Dawn. I however was poor at the time of release and so missed this game
along with just about every other launch title, Infamous has been on my list of
games to purchase for a while though, although I had planned to play the original
two first before this one, Sony kindly placed this game in my library this month
so here I am.
I remember
the lead up to Second Son, the visuals were incredible and the gameplay looked
fun and lots of people were pretty excited for it. It seemed like a lot of longtime
fans were a bit wary of this soft reboot thing, and those who felt burned by
Watch_dogs were disbelieving of any game looking better than Pac Man World 2 on
the PS2. So when it came out and did altogether pretty well but turned out to
be a launch title for the most part it seemed to fade out of collective memory
pretty fast as more, better developed games were announced and the Last Guardian was teased again. I do remember hearing it was a fairly average game,
and now, after several hours of the game I can kind of agree with that. But It
does something important that a lot of similar games don’t that make it one
that I’m sure to at least finish the story with before deleting it to make room
on my hard drive.
The biggest
thing I think it does super well, and what I consider its saving grace, is the way the game handles movement. The game
foregoes realistic movement speeds and jumps for a running speed that would
make Delsin an Olympian or something. I really like this, combined with the
higher than realistic jump height and super powers makes just moving around the
city a blast. It feels similarly enjoyable to the web swinging in Spiderman 2; simple,
cathartic, and just plain fun. Second Son does something Spiderman struggles
with in that all of your unique movement mechanics blend seamlessly into combat
where the best strategy is to be constantly sprinting, jumping, gliding, or
climbing around the battlefield while shooting particle effects from your hands
and dodging machinegun fire. It honestly is the closest to what I think an
X-Men game should feel like. And as Spiderman 2 proved like a decade ago, if
you have a fun and engaging movement system in your open world game, many
people will find hours of fun just doing that and it will mask any flaws.
At time of writing I have cleared out two entire districts and gained access to the Neon power-set. So far in
my play time Second Son seems fairly light on flaws however. While there are
little things that are annoying, like the climbing occasionally causing issues
or really steep frame-rate drops in combat on occasion, I have to say the whole
game feels really clean and well made. For all I know that’s because it’s just
infamous 2 with prettier graphics and a more divers protagonist (I like the
Native American angle here) but honestly it all works really well. It does have lots
of upgrades that could wind up being pointless in the long run, like most
games, but upgrade points are so easy to get that it really doesn’t matter that
much. I even enjoy most of the side missions I’ve done so far, which is
somewhat unusual for open world games. My favorites are actually the stencil
art things, partly because it works thematically, and partly because I’m an art
nerd and just think that’s cool. I think it helps that there aren’t a bojillian
different side missions, so far at least, and you don’t wind up doing them too
many times.
Another
thing I really like is the setting. I am just so happy that an open world game
isn’t based on, or in L.A. or New York. I really like the Seattle setting, in
fact I found myself thinking that if it weren’t occupied by military forces
that I’d probably move there assuming the real Seattle is anything like how it’s
represented here. It’s also just a really good looking environment, each
building has some character to it and the colors are vibrant. All-in-all it’s
probably one of my favorite open worlds to date. It’s not without its issues of
course, occasionally it doesn’t feel as alive as others I’ve experienced, and
it may get a little over large near the end (but I doubt it, the map is fairly conservative in size). I really think the
developers nailed the open world here which is no small task.
In short,
this is one of the best free games PS Plus users have gotten in a while. It
thrives in its relative simplicity, and while it is not without its problems
Infamous Second Son is definitely worth a download and a purchase for any PlayStation
4 owner. So if you missed this one, now is the time to check it out I'd say.
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