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Finished the game, final thoughts on the Normal / Good path:
The story, from start to finish, was pretty bad and nonsensical. There were so many small, in a vacuum possibly negligible plot points that were ignored - many of them involving the beginning and end of the story - that I was never very tuned into what people were saying. I did have an interesting thought during the game though, something that video games seem to be striving for but I'm not sure they know it yet: the well-acted B-movie. The facial animations were great, the voice acting was great, but the dialogue and plot line itself were often meandering at best, non sequitur at worst. At no point did I feel like I could point to something and say "that was great acting", but at no point could I say the characters were unbelievable either. I think this is a Sucker Punch problem, which is...
Not to confine this conversation to the open world too much (*ahem*) but this company seems to have a problem writing characters/stories that live from scene to scene. There were emotional moments in this game that could have sparred with The Last of Us given the right choreography, but I think this game is modern-gaming Case One (Grand Theft Auto V, I'd argue, is Case Zero) for how difficult it is to factor player agency into an engrossing narrative. I had at least five cutscenes end my taking of security checkpoint blast shards or disrupting a drug deal (speaking of which, what a preachy aside in the game) early because of some other objective I'd completed nearby that I hadn't been frozen in place to wait for, and too often this game's cutscene's seem to assume months have passed for the player between them rather than 10-30 minutes. Like I said a few hours ago, these characters take such hard swings; case in point is the boss, whose storyline only ever exists because Second Son needs a story to tell. She is very reminiscent of Uncharted 3's villain in that way, only her circumstances frame her slightly differently and in the process Brooke loses most of Catherine's appeal.
All that said, I beat this in less than two days for a reason, and that's because it's not just another inFamous game, it's a great inFamous game. Some of that may have to do with the "newness" of it - Second Son doesn't stand a prayer of impressing the same way the original did, both by design and due to the proliferation of super hero and open world games done competently this generation - but I really feel like the powers get a disservice here. While at times it can be a bummer not having all two/three/four available to you at any time that's not actually a negative for the gameplay. Finding a source of Neon when you really need it is so gratifying, as is the constant building of Concrete power if you saved enough side objectives for the post-game. Those who dismiss Concrete don't understand why it was saved for the end - every heavy fire (R1) is a one-hit kill, essentially, and the source of Concrete energy is dead enemies. By default every enemy therefore provides more one-hit kill ammo, and you get three per charge, so...Concrete is perfect for end game completionists, and as a result this is the first game I've gotten a 100% save file on since...I don't know, Xenogears or Final Fantasy VIII. It's easy to hit that mark and that's fair warning to folks who demand a challenge (complaints about the double Big Bad boss? I don't hear 'em. Simple stuff) but it's super fun, and to me that's the point.
Anyone that has issues with the core values of inFamous probably wouldn't be swayed by this game, but the graphics are beautiful and the powers are all exceptional. It's a shame Sucker Punch seems to be so determined to mine a serious story out of this mess they've created because all the narrative fun in these games has resulted from characters being terribly awkward or emotionally socially, rarely finding time to process their thoughts beyond what the current mission objective requires of them. Delsin's brother never made sense as a human being, and the emphasis on his profession as a cop was about as entertaining as a riff in Rush Hour 3. The other characters suffered similar fates with less screen time to enhance them in bold face. From the beginning of inFamous 2 this was a franchise that refused to make sense, and I revel in it. It'd really make my day if Sucker Punch would as well, but as long as they keep making games like this as tight and focused as this I feel naughty complaining about the bonus material. I can't wait to start my Expert run on bad (I feel like I should have gone bad/good, not good/bad), in fact I am right now.
P.S. love, love, love Seattle. Have family there and haven't been in over 12 years but man. I love how they've represented that city. The Sub Pop block is awesome. And I think sound complaints are semi-legit most of the time, but I had my Klipsch Image X-10s plugged into the Dualshock 4 for roughly half the game and loooooved the sound while I was doing that. Anyone complaining that this game sounds as barren as the past two sometimes/often would need to pay more attention to the area-specific sounds like cars with belly lights driving by or shops with a real specific aesthetic to them. The sound f the different powers navigating the air is enough for me sometimes.
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"This is the streets, and I am the trap." © Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz
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