For me, Infamous 1 and 2 were games on the cusp of greatness, that suffered from key flaws that held them back. Infamous: Second Son also, unfortunately, suffers from many of these problems. In this game though, the amount of fun you have with your powers is exponentially higher. SS constantly had me coming back for more, and even when I had to complete awfully boring sidequests, or died from ultra accurate AI, I still didn't want to put down my controller.
Second Son does away with the traditional electric powers of the first games, and this is honestly a great relief. Electricity was cool, but you never felt fast, or powerful with it. It took ages to traverse around the first two games respective cities, and doing so was not all that fun. Clearly Sucker Punch realized this, because traversal is the games biggest strength. Infinitely running as a bolt of neon energy up buildings, smoke dashing from vent to vent, flying through the sky with digital wings, it all feels absolutely amazing. Even after beating the game twice, I still turn it on just to zip around the dazzling city.
Speaking of the city, it's dizzyingly beautiful. Infamous 1 suffered from an ultraboring faux New York that lacked personality. Infamous 2's New Marais had tons of personality, but was a little on the glum side. Seattle is better than both of these by a country mile. Each area is quite distinct, and very interesting to explore. I enjoyed just looking at the hip coffee shops, seaside restaurants, huge arcades, and the plethora of bars. All of this is populated generously by Seatleites. This makes for a very lovely, ecclectic, and damn right awesome open world.
Another bright spot here are the characters of Second Son. The first two games suffered from extremely one dimensional characters that never interested me in the slightest. Second Son is the antithesis of that statement. Delsin, whether you play him good or evil, is a pretty likeable protagonist. Sure some of his jokes are cheesy, but he boasts much more personality than Cole had, and I found myself generally liking him. Augustine, the main antagonist of the game, is truly evil villain, who demands your loathing. And Reggie, Delsin's Brother, is a great sidekick who quickly became my favorite.
Despite all that it does well, Second Son does make mistakes. These don't prevent you from having a terrific time, but they certainly do hamper the game a bit.
Combat is a pretty fun experience in Second Son, but it's still feels like it's on the cusp of greatness, but not quite there. You never feel all that powerful, and you have to play pretty conservatively if you want to beat larger groups of enemies. This was my biggest complaint of the first two games, and unfortunately I don't think Sucker Punch has nailed it yet. It's much improved from the originals to be sure, but it's still not quite as enjoyable as I would like it to be.
The side quests in this game feel like they were thrown in at the last second. Shooting hidden cameras and finding the DUP agent in a crowd is not that engaging the first time, and unfortunately, these missions are spread across the city. It was a huge chore to 100% the game because of monotonous missions like this.
Sucker Punch did a lot right with this game. It's easily the best looking game I've ever played, patrolling the gorgeous Emerald City is an absolute blast, and they managed to come up with four new superpowers that are all ecstacy to play with. They made a few mistakes, but these minor quips don't stop the game from being the best PS4 game to date, the best Infamous game ever, and the best superhero game I've ever played.
