Sunset Overdrive, the inFamous sequel Second Son should’ve been

The problem with Second Son and all the inFamous games is there is nothing to do outside the main story, It suffers from the same mistake as Mafia 2. It should include the Sub-Stories and mini games system from the Yakuza series. I think Sunset Overdrive suffers from this aswell although it does have some side missions.
 
It was fun and I haven't finished it yet. Loved the artstyle and the game play too.

I haven't started infamous ss yet but I have played a couple of parts. Imo, they are different games and totally not the same to even compare but glad you had fun with one OP.
 
i liked second son much better than sunset overdrive.


It seems the rest of the world agreed by buying 5 times more copies of infamous SS than SunSet OO. sunset overdrive is CHEESY AS FUCK. Shite humour.
 
Angel_DvA said:
It definitely depends of how you played the game, for the time it last, I enjoyed more switching powers on infamous than changing weapon in SO

I'm not saying that I dislike the game, I kinda enjoyed it, 1 hour or two at Best.
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Then it probably didn't click. The grinding alone made it more fun to me than the slow gliding in SS.

Let's be honest, traversing in SS was real bad until you got the neon power.
 
Gez said:
The problem with Second Son and all the inFamous games is there is nothing to do outside the main story, It suffers from the same mistake as Mafia 2. It should include the Sub-Stories and mini games system from the Yakuza series. I think Sunset Overdrive suffers from this aswell although it does have some side missions.
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Sunset and Infamous fall into the same trappings of having really boring ass collectibles as the endgame and not New Game+.

The level design of Sunset alleviates the sterility of getting collectibles, though. Collecting in Little Tokyo and Downtown are genuinely fun." Considering the layouts of those levels.

julzillamilitia said:
i liked second son much better than sunset overdrive.


It seems the rest of the world agreed by buying 5 times more copies of infamous SS than SunSet OO. sunset overdrive is CHEESY AS FUCK. Shite humour.
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Holy shit, this is a discusson about GAMEPLAY. Not fucking sales. Why can't you keep this to yourself when the topic is actually about sales.
 
julzillamilitia said:
i liked second son much better than sunset overdrive.


It seems the rest of the world agreed by buying 5 times more copies of infamous SS than SunSet OO. sunset overdrive is CHEESY AS FUCK. Shite humour.
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Established IP sells more on best selling console. Who would have thunk it?

Also, SO embraced the cheesyness and was better off for it.
 
DOWN said:
Delsin is the effin worst character design I've seen in my life. So fugly it is incredible. They try to turn Troy Baker into a Seattle Native American angst hell and we get this bird-postured, bad-skinned, snarling caricature, topped with a shitty no-haircut-lately haircut and unflattering tight punk garments that make his lanky screwball posture even more hideous. Looks like horrendous plastic surgery to Troy Baker.
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what
 
Second Son was my first go at the series, and I loved it. Only real complaint is that each skill tree was too similar to the others.

I was so hyped for Sunset Overdrive. It's the reason I bought an XB1. It had terrible humor and some of the most annoying characters I've ever experienced in a game. I hated the TD parts. Traversal was fun but the enemies were so bullet spongie that I would end up grinding back and forth on the same ~20 feet of power lines as I shoot, because s standing still gets you killed really quick. I hated almost everything about SO until I had to race across the city for the final boss, and suddenly I was challenged to move quickly and skillfully instead of being asked to grind in circles to shoot things repeatedly. The only positive thing I can say about SO is the art/graphics are great.

So yeah, I disagree with OP.
 
Speaking on level design and inFamous:

Empire City and New Marais are genuinely fun to explore. The bayou/New Orelans aesthetic mixed with some of the apocalyptic-themed buildings makes inFamous 2 ...interesting to explore. I don't want to call Marais unique because it isn't , but it's genuinely fun to poke around.

Seattle is boring though.

Azriell said:
Second Son was my first go at the series, and I loved it. Only real complaint is that each skill tree was too similar to the others.

I was so hyped for Sunset Overdrive. It's the reason I bought an XB1. It had terrible humor and some of the most annoying characters I've ever experienced in a game. I hated the TD parts. Traversal was fun but the enemies were so bullet spongie that I would end up grinding back and forth on the same ~20 feet of power lines as I shoot, because s standing still gets you killed really quick. I hated almost everything about SO until I had to race across the city for the final boss, and suddenly I was challenged to move quickly and skillfully instead of being asked to grind in circles to shoot things repeatedly. The only positive thing I can say about SO is the art/graphics are great.

So yeah, I disagree with OP.
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Hey what about those other fifteen missions you had to play through the entire game that does the same thing as the final boss fight.

Did you play the same game? I'm pretty sure the Little Tokyo - Waterfront missions had a multitude of those types of missions.
 
say what you will Sunset Overdrive got extremely tedious with its repetitive nature in my opinion, it also made me cringe so hard with its awful humour i had to put the controller down to recover.
 
Once you get passed the first 5/6 hours of Sunset and you unlock all of your abilities and traversal upgrades, the game is an absolute joy to play, an absolute joy.

I still fire it up and just see how far I can get without touching the ground for 30 minutes or so.

Would love to see a sequel reveal at E3.

Edit: Don't have a PS4 so can't say how good inFamous is but my pals who do have PS4's think it's pretty great.
 
Yeah Sunset Overdirve isn't really anything like Infamous. It's far far better.

Hell, First Light is far better than Second Son.
 
Yeah I think SO should've had all of the traversal unlocks (Grind Dash, Air Dash, Water Dash, Water Shoryuken i believe) to be there at the start of the game.
 
Inuhanyou said:
Second son is a good game though
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Yeah, kinda sucks comparing a good game like SS to a great one like Sunset Overdrive.

After reading the OP, I am inclined to agree. Big fan of infamous 2 and its dlc festival of blood, and the traversal in sunset reminded me of that and the Tony Hawk games.
 
EartinOlives said:
First is the traversal options. This is the BIG one. Despite being a massive fan of the inFamous series, I actually felt like the traversal options in Second Son were not that great. “What are you talking about??” I’m sure people will say, “Neon was SO COOL!”. Well yeah, it was cool in paper, but in execution it was actually a pretty detrimental thing to the game as a whole. You see, inFamous cut its teeth in “parkour”-esque traversal. You unlocked powers that not only made you powerful, but gave you abilities to travel across the city farther and faster. At first you unlocked grinding across power lines and train rails, but then later you also were able to gently float downward while you kept your horizontal speed. This combined with other powers (like the ice launch jump in inFamous 2) let you move faster and more gracefully. The longer you played the more you FELT like a badass superhero zipping across a metropolis.

With Neon you...pressed O. Forever. No longer did you have to jump off a huge building and immediately start looking for the next powerline you can zip across. No longer did you quickly scan your surroundings to ensure you jumped across buildings without falling to the ground. No longer did you go around a building because it was far taller and climbing it would’ve slowed you down. No longer did you need to pay attention your surroundings to figure out the best way to traverse the city while keeping your momentum. With Neon you ran up walls, across the air, in the ground, in the rooftops, ANYWHERE, and you never had to worry about slowing down.
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Did we play the same game?

Everything here that you said the game doesn't incentivise in traversal, is exactly the sort of stuff it does. With Neon, you don't just hold circle, you have the boost jump too which can launch you high, and allow you to hop over buildings. Similarly with Smoke, you can chain ventilation shaft boosting together to essentially always stay airborne. You also have the floating ability which you mentioned. Add to that, the last power you get gives you exponentially more ground coverage, essentially allowing you to fly, especially if you keep an eye out for satellite dishes and chain them together.

In Second Son, not only are you constantly looking around for things to better enable your mobility, but your mobility does actually improve with each new power, especially the last, which allows for massive ground coverage in shorter times.
 
Madness said:
Do you even know why Insomniac developed Sunset Overdrive or why the game came on Xbox One? It was because Insomniac was fed up of not being in control of their IP's. They finally wanted to make a game where they would get to keep what they created with the studio and not be forced to make sequel after sequel if they didn't want to.

Additionally, Microsoft was the only company willing to pay Insomniac to not only develop this new IP but let them keep all rights to it. They also paid for the development. So no, Insomniac didn't abandon Sony, nor should they be damned for going Xbox One. Blame the other console manufacturers or publishers for not giving Insomniac what they wanted to make the game.
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Your reasoning is how I understood the situation too, except the bolded, which is a big "huh"?

Sony FORCED Insomniac to make sequel after sequel? Unless you're privy to some contract I'm not aware of, Insomniac would pitch each Ratchet/Resistance game to Sony (or I suppose Sony would come to them asking to make another one, though that seems unlikely) which would either be greenlighted or not. At no point were Insomniac ever owned by Sony so how would they "force" them to make games they didn't want to?

Whatever agreement was in place between Insomniac and Sony was beneficial to both parties. Insomniac were free to walk away and do other stuff at any point, which they did eventually.

OT: First Light was the game Second Son should've been, in my opinion.
 
Sunset has a Psycho reference in one of the side quests where when you complete it the PC said "*It's a shame that the demographic playing this game would not get this reference."
 
sunset is awesome. would love a sequel with a more challenging ramp up and great end game cause the mechanics are alot of fun. i think some weight/physics added to the movement would add alot as well, after a few hours its too easy to get where u want. a skill ceiling where u got better as u went would add alot imo. same goes for guns your just a god too quick and it makes it too easy. also change up the style a bit and drop the self aware "cornball" cutscenes/chars that shit falls flat on its face for me. havent played second son no comment.
 
Still haven't beaten Sunset Overdrive whereas I loved Infamous...
Don't really see the comparison to be honest. Once game gives you a bunch of powers to play with and makes you feel like a fugitive and the other makes you hop and grind like crazy while shooting frantically at hordes of mobs.
 
Sunset Overdrive is fantastic and fluid while still feeling engaging.

Traversal is second son was either poorly segmented and disjointed with smoke powers or horribly overpowered with light or video.

I want more of both. SO for more of the same and Infamous hoping it returns to what made Infamous 2 so good.
 
Sorry. first light is what second son should of been.

Infamous shooting is shit and will always be shit.

The only thing that feels like shooting a gun is....shooting a gun.

First light, with increased focus on melee allowed the whole premise to shine.

Also neon dash>>>>>>Every cole and deslin traversal mechanic combined.
 
I've played neither of these games, but the OP's write-up on the mechanics is extremely interesting. I love games where you could say there are multiple levels of mastery of their core gameplay; it's really what makes games satisfying for me. If and when I get an Xbox One, I'll have to check this game out. It always looked interesting to me anyway. Thanks for writing this, I'll always eat up nuanced essays on game design elements.

this is a thread where you can really tell who has read the OP and who hasn't
 
Madness said:
Do you even know why Insomniac developed Sunset Overdrive or why the game came on Xbox One? It was because Insomniac was fed up of not being in control of their IP's. They finally wanted to make a game where they would get to keep what they created with the studio and not be forced to make sequel after sequel if they didn't want to.

Additionally, Microsoft was the only company willing to pay Insomniac to not only develop this new IP but let them keep all rights to it. They also paid for the development. So no, Insomniac didn't abandon Sony, nor should they be damned for going Xbox One. Blame the other console manufacturers or publishers for not giving Insomniac what they wanted to make the game.
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Hates being forced to make Ratchet and Clank series
Stops making Ratchet and Clank games to make games they want to make
Makes Sunset Overdrive for Microsoft
Goes on to create another Ratchet and Clank game.

Yeah, I wish Sony would stop forcing their hand alright.
 
Both are great games and can stand on their own. They don't need to imitate each other in terms of design, though inherently they might as traversal is one of the core elements in both franchises, irrespective of how deep or streamlined they are mechanically.

My impression is that Insomniac came up with this project's proto/vertical slice (after SONY who probably wanted the IP as well) to MSFT who saw this being closer to inFamous and wrapped this up as an opportunity to go up against Second Son (albeit months later) in their portfolio, by making the game exclusive and letting Insomniac keep the IP, like they usually try to do with third parties as opposed to expanding their in-house studios and their properties. This was a perfect opportunity as they're going this route since RYSE was turned to an adventure game from a first person kinect title (to have a god of war'ish adventure title), securing timed exclusivity for the new tomb raider sequel to go up against Uncharted (for the then targeted holiday 2015 release window) etc.

statham said:
Really hope them putting Sunset Overdrive in Rocket League and Tony Hawk is a sign of a sequel happening.
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While MSFT does like to tease a bit of their future projects like Battletoads Xbox One (Spencer wearing the Btoads T-shirt, Rash in KI etc), but I think in cases like Rocket League and Shovel Knight, it was just the parity clause being implemented.

This probably doesn't mean anything (mostly) but sometime after the release of SO, there was this survey on the XBL rewards program that asked "What you'd like to see in a Sunset Overdrive sequel?" Hopefully, there is one. Then again, these surveys happen all the time. Even Konami did this recently...
 
SO was the main reason i bought an xbox alongside future tites like crackdown and quantum break, and idon't know if i oversold it to myself, but i found it dissapointing :(

it starts off well, but it becomes quite tedious and feels very surface level.... Its art struck a chord with me more then the game itself, wheras infamous was probably the opposite.

I don't really see them as comparable though.
 
The only similarity they share is an open world sandbox structure and grinding on things with just your feet.

I like Infamous as a serious game with a tinge of humor. Sunset Overdrive was fun but the writing and dialogue got old very quick and a lot of the missions seemed to blur together.

Second Son wasn't great with its empty feeling world and poor villain/writing, but after playing SO, I never thought that the sequel to Infamous 2 should have been a campy, hyper colorful game.
 
They are two different types of games, one trying to be more serious and somewhat grounded, the other slapstick humour and insanity. Let each have their own identity.

I wouldn't change anything from second son
 
Madness said:
No I said comments like this. You won't believe how many I've read, even acting like it was some betrayal for Insomniac to make a game on Xbox One, ignoring the fact that no one else took the risk of making an all new unproven IP, not only giving them the money for the development but promising them full rights and control of it. But if that's all you cherry picked out of the comment, jenniferlawrenceok back at you.

Insomniac wanted to be in control of their IP's, to not have to relinquish control like they did Ratchet and Clank, Resistance etc. Microsoft was the only one willing to give that to them.
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What are you even talking about "comments like this"? How many "comments like this" were even in this thread? Are you telling me you don't see "comments like this" in the other direction, made by Xbox fans? Do people seeing random comments like that suddenly think neoGAF is Xbox biased now?

Get out of here with that crap.
 
Shenmue said:
What are you even talking about "comments like this"? How many "comments like this" were even in this thread? Are you telling me you don't see "comments like this" in the other direction, made by Xbox fans? Do people seeing random comments like that suddenly think neoGAF is Xbox biased now?

Get out of here with that crap.
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There are a lot more ps4/pc fans than xbo fans on the internet. This forum is no different. The extremely boisterous vocal minority of ps4 fans on this forum simply out number the extremely boisterous vocal minority of xbox fans. The fact is that there is more xbox (and microsoft on a whole) bashing than ps4 bashing and xbox fans aren't really happy about that. This is where the whole "persecution complex" thing comes in. (Also, "comments like this" are in a good number of xbox threads. Some people REALLY don't like ms and their console)
 
SO is my very favorite game this gen so far but I haven't played I:SS yet. To me, they look very different and I personally would not compare them. Might change my view on it when I actually play the game though.
 
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