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Infamous: Second Son |OT| Smells Like Beanie Spirit

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Personally that was the only side mission that didn't get old for me.

I hate anything thats a fucking gimmick. Having to wave around your controller instead of also allowing for stick input = instant fail in my book. That and the whole shake the controller thing as cute as it was, turned stupid after the first tag.

At least this game didnt have any clear the building of surveillance devices. Dear god I hated that shit in the original.
 
Except that AC Bloodlines strips away most of the features that made the original Assassin's Creed feel next-gen at the time, i.e. the big open world, the big crowds, the fluid animations.

And something like the neon powers would have easily been possible on PS3; there's really nothing unique about them. It's not even that fast, the flashy effects just create an illusion of speed. The first time I got the neon powers in the game, I was disappointed at how slow the running was and that you couldn't actually run as fast as Fletch does.

Ok, I'm glad I'm not the only one calling her this.
 

Wasp

Member
Using the wikis on IGN I just quickly counted the number of story missions in each inFamous game for comparison.

inFamous 1 - 42 story missions
inFamous 2 - 35 story missions
Second Son - 16 story missions
 

rothbart

Member
Anybody else disappointed by the Space Needle and the tower not being as tall as the towers in inFamous 1/2? I didn't get that sense of "Holy sh*t this is such a long way up..."
 

Shin-Ra

Junior Member
Sucker Punch just posted this insight into how they make the graffiti cutscenes, pretty cool method actually.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=263883100460108

Don't have youtube version I'm afraid
Wow.

iqSu34TdNrrLN.gif
ibjmdcrfoUOQqw.gif


Laser scanning for taking quick, human poses?
 

Grisby

Member
Using the wikis on IGN I just quickly counted the number of story missions in each inFamous game for comparison.

inFamous 1 - 42 story missions
inFamous 2 - 35 story missions
Second Son - 16 story missions
Yeah, it's nuts. I was thinking the whole time, there can't only be two good/bad side missions in the whole game right?
 

Skilletor

Member
Except that AC Bloodlines strips away most of the features that made the original Assassin's Creed feel next-gen at the time, i.e. the big open world, the big crowds, the fluid animations.

And something like the neon powers would have easily been possible on PS3; there's really nothing unique about them. It's not even that fast, the flashy effects just create an illusion of speed. The first time I got the neon powers in the game, I was disappointed at how slow the running was and that you couldn't actually run as fast as Fletch does.

Isn't that just scaling back graphics? Gameplay was preserved. What gameplay features in the ac games of the time wasn't present in bloodlines? Could also point to the Vita ac and say the same thing.

Next gen gameplay is a buzzword. Every game would be possible on any console with enough concessions, but at some point you have to stop cutting corners.
 

Irish

Member
SP could create a much better, more focused campaign if they simply locked you into your karma choice at the very beginning of the game instead of worrying about the flip-floppers. Those people aren't playing correctly in the first place, so don't bother with them.
 

mf.luder

Member
Didn't play the first 2 but I'm giving this one a spin and enjoying it so far. Destroying two of those mobile things is as far as I've gotten.
 
We're having the next gen gameplay discussion again?

If we were just talking about more technologically advanced presentation, I think we'd just plainly talk about next gen presentation. So to me, the only logical definition of "next gen gameplay" must be a new gameplay paradigm or genre that was technologically impossible on previous hardware. Seems to me we've had fairly diminishing returns since the end of 6th gen as far as that's concerned.

Well, unless you own a Nintendo system, in which case most of us probably start to say "how could anyone call the Wii and WiiU next gen," and suddenly the reality that the shiny new graphics had more to do with our perceptions than we wanted to admit hits.

So yeah, this game mechanically probably could have existed two gens ago. It just wouldn't look anywhere near as good, probably couldn't have played as smoothly, or have a world anywhere near as large or detailed. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with being evolutionary instead of revolutionary, but let's not pretend an open world action game still deserves to be thought of as ambitiously novel from a technical standpoint.
 
SP could create a much better, more focused campaign if they simply locked you into your karma choice at the very beginning of the game instead of worrying about the flip-floppers. Those people aren't playing correctly in the first place, so don't bother with them.

This is my biggest issue! Why give us the illusion of choice when, just like mass effect, after your first choice is made you're forced to stay on that path? A basic good or evil at the beginning is more truthful than how the game is played out. If your game involves choice either make the choices matter or have me select good or bad. I wasn't bothered by this on my first playthrough, but to see how little is changed on an evil playthrough, y do I have to choose this path? Oh cause my stats & leveling is fucked if I don't. So my choice is no longer who am I siding with, but how's this gonna affect my leveling.

I really don't get all the praise for the evil ending.
Delsin throwing a temper tantrum 'cause old Betty scolded him and orbital dropping on the Akomish was so stupid.

I didn't care for the evil playthrough. I was expecting something grand, the way a few people described it


Edit: I'm so lost & confused on how to interact or know what's goin on with paper trail, I don't even wanna bother with it.
 

kanuuna

Member
I finished the game today. I liked the new cast of characters and the game looked stunning. But I really had hard time with the controls and the powers. And how those powers work. I just found having to look for a specific power source a pain in the middle of combat, and even after finishing the game I didn't feel like I got the hang of the control scheme. I also felt much weaker playing the game than I ever did with the past inFamous games - like I was out of juice after a few good shots.

By the end, I really wish they had only stuck you with one power. And maybe then have introduced another power later on, but nothing that was drastically different. And then you'd just mix and match those abilities as you saw fit with none of that scouring the 2 nearest blocks to find something you can suck power from.

Maybe I'm remembering the past games too fondly, but I just felt like I couldn't get into SS because of how it plays. And I loved those PS3 games.
 
Using the wikis on IGN I just quickly counted the number of story missions in each inFamous game for comparison.

inFamous 1 - 42 story missions
inFamous 2 - 35 story missions
Second Son - 16 story missions


This stood out for me also, vast majority of the game is doing side stuff as the SP story is quite short
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
Using the wikis on IGN I just quickly counted the number of story missions in each inFamous game for comparison.

inFamous 1 - 42 story missions
inFamous 2 - 35 story missions
Second Son - 16 story missions
Quite a few missions in this were one longer mission when they likely would have been separate in previous games.
 
In my mind, "next gen gameplay" is gameplay that would not have been possible with previous gen hardware.

A good example from the previous gen would be Assassin's Creed, which, incidentally, many people were calling the "first real next-gen" game (or something to that effect) back when it was first announced. Why? Because Assassin's Creed would have been impossible to make on PS2/XBox, not just because of the graphics, but the overall complexity of the open world, animations, crowd systems, etc.

Second Son, on the other hand, could have easily been a PS3 game if they just toned down the graphics a bit. There is simply nothing in the game, apart from the graphics, that would not have been possible to implement on PS3. Hell, GTAV is arguably a much more complex game when it comes to gameplay mechanics, and it runs fine on PS3.

If you scaled back the graphics of Assassin's Creed, why wouldn't it be able to run on PS2/Xbox? Since you made that distinction concerning SS running on PS3, the same applies with AC. Those distinguishing features that you mention, open world complexity, animations, crowd systems, can all be tweaked to run on weaker hardware, depending on how much a dev is willing to sacrifice in the graphics department, so I'm really not seeing your argument.
 

Violater

Member
The missions in SS were bad, plain and simple.
The story was short and for the most part predictable. Bottom line the game is pretty to look at and take screen shots and not much else.
I hope that SP take a long pause and come up with some new ideas for their next game while they pump out the DLC for SS.
 
I've only finished it once (on good) and I did all the side stuff plus a lot of messing around aimlessly but I thought the length was ok; i felt I put a lot of time into it. It's a lot of fun to play so I'd prefer more missions for sure though. I wish there were actual side missions, like proper ones, not just the side stuff with taking over areas and such. Tbh I liked those too, but it would've been nice if they changed a bit dynamically (for instance DUP ramping up security in different areas once they get pushed back a bit) or that there were at least different stuff to do in different areas.

Gameplay is solid, powers are fun (I particularly like the first two), I like Delsin a lot as a protagonist, and it's fucking gorgeous so overall I'm very pleased with it as a whole but there's definitely areas in which they could improve and expand to make it even more awesome.
 
In my mind, "next gen gameplay" is gameplay that would not have been possible with previous gen hardware.

A good example from the previous gen would be Assassin's Creed, which, incidentally, many people were calling the "first real next-gen" game (or something to that effect) back when it was first announced. Why? Because Assassin's Creed would have been impossible to make on PS2/XBox, not just because of the graphics, but the overall complexity of the open world, animations, crowd systems, etc.

Second Son, on the other hand, could have easily been a PS3 game if they just toned down the graphics a bit. There is simply nothing in the game, apart from the graphics, that would not have been possible to implement on PS3. Hell, GTAV is arguably a much more complex game when it comes to gameplay mechanics, and it runs fine on PS3.

way to talk out of your ass.
 
There were no real legit side stories or mission, it was all collecting, I didn't mind the collecting (audio log, spray paint...) but for those to be the "side mission" was a disappointment


Overall I enjoyed the game, really loved the gameplay, especially neon which was my main power. Graphics obviously were stunning. Great characters but the main story needed a lot more meat to it. I would have liked to also go into more nature areas like the start of the game.
 

Gurish

Member
Just got the third power and decided to clear all the remaining districts before continuing with the story, so i did them all but there is one shard that i don't seem to have access to, it seems to be located on a tall DUP building with electricity that's blocking my path, what am i missing here? Maybe i can get this shard later on in the game?
 
Just got the third power and decided to clear all the remaining districts before continuing with the story, so i did them all but there is one shard that i don't seem to have access to, it seems to be located on a tall DUP building with electricity that's blocking my path, what am i missing here? Maybe i can get this shard later on in the game?

final mission
 
Then what apart from the visuals could the ps3 not do in any way?

My beef is with his AC comparison. He holds that up as some sort of next gen revelation, that couldn't be done on the PS2 apart from scaled down visuals, but when was the last time that we have had a real game changing game design, that absolutely couldn't be done on past hardware? If you want to knock SS for last gen gameplay, fine, but 99% of the games out right now fit that same bill.
 

Mifune

Mehmber
Then what apart from the visuals could the ps3 not do in any way?

I don't understand why we need to arbitrarily remove graphics from the equation. Visuals are a really big deal! Yes you could downgrade the graphics and get it to run on PS3, I guess, but what would be the point of that?

Also, comparing this to AC doesn't do the argument any favors since that was one of the most content-starved games of last gen. Infamous SS just completely nails the core gameplay to such an extent that missions seem beside the point; I just like to run around the city and kick DUP butt. What could you do for fun in the first AC besides explore a cool-looking city?

And I'd agree that GTA5 is worlds ahead of this game in design but then it came out more than five years after the release of its host console. So the comparison isn't exactly fair.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
Then what apart from the visuals could the ps3 not do in any way?
PS3 wouldn't have been able to handle most of the effects for the powers, which has a direct link to combat feedback and the destruction of DUP structures couldn't have been done with such detail and probably wouldn't have been permanent.
 
Just finished the game today. I can't say enough about how much better the powers on this game are compared to the first 2 games. I loved all of them. This is my favorite infamous game so far. The one complaint I will echo is the lack of real side missions. I cleared every district down to 0% every time before I played the main missions of each section. I would hope in the next game they'll have more time to implement real side missions that have a lot more variety to them rather than the same thing over and over in every single district.

But overall, I really enjoyed my time with this game! So much fun just to travel around Seattle with these new powers. I liked the story as well. The folks at sucker punch are extremely talented at what they do, can't wait to see what's next.
 

VariantX

Member
@Mifune
I honestly remove visuals from the equation simply because they always get better due to better hardware that can better represent what the artists have in mind. What im playing now is probably what I wish I could have played years ago, an open world game on console with a solid framerate.

I do agree with your larger point though. Whats there is just rock solid and polished to perfection. I fucking LOVE the neon power. I love the sense of speed yet I have total control over his movements. I don't even think most sonic games control that well when he's running at full speed.
 
The gameplay in Infamous is extremely well done. I like the possibilities the powers give you and the way the open world gives mobility in almost every direction. Open world games and superhero powers go extremely well together. Sucker Punch know what this means and they use the city as a playground to the fullest.

The biggest complaint I have with Second Son is the melee, it's just to simple and to easy in execution. Give us some more combos and let the mobs defend themselves more vigorously.
Give us sime transition combos between melee and range attacks.

Melee is what seperates a superhero from a mere human.
 
What's the rule on the expert playthough trophy? Do I need to start a new game on expert or can I switch at some point. I've put two hours into my second playthrough and don't really want to start over because of that trophy.
 
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