Infamous: Second Son Review

Ever since man could dream, they always desired powers beyond their being.  Abilities like flight, x-ray vision and supersonic hearing would all make our hard and sometimes trying lives more manageable and relaxing.  As long as humans have dreamed of these superpowers, ironically the only realm where they can truly become reality is in fiction.  From comic books to television shows to movies, superpowers and superheroes have captured the hearts and minds of people the world over.  Unlike those types of media where you view these unbelievable powers and iconic heroes from a distance, video games immerse one in the world of superpowers and spandex like no other.  In direct control of all the action, you are the one soaring over Gotham's streets, catching bad guys in your webbing or thwarting a villain's plans to rule the world.  The latest game to give you direct control of these wondrous superpowers is Sucker Punch's Infamous: Second Son.

Infamous: Second Son takes place seven years after the events of Infamous 2.  In that time, super-powered humans known as Conduits have been vilified by the government.  Known as Bio-terrorists, they are hunted down and captured by the government's special DUP unit.  Second Son's story begins when protagonist Delsin Rowe comes in contact with three escaped Conduits.  From this meeting, Delsin awakens his dormant Conduit powers which allow him to absorb any power he comes in contact with.  Delsin's new powers get him in trouble with the DUP head Brooke Augustine which leads to Augustine unleashing her concrete powers on the innocent people of Salmon Bay.  Due to Augustine's actions, Delsin and his brother Reggie travel to DUP-occupied Seattle to absorb her concrete powers in order to heal the people of Salmon Bay.  While the narrative hits certain pre-determined points, the player has full control of how Delsin presents himself.  Delsin can either be the goody two-shoes superhero or the revenge-driven supervillain.  This decision directly affects Delsin's actions, appearance, ultimate attacks and abilities available to customize and upgrade.

The story and karma system may provide initial motivation for the player to combat the overwhelming forces of the DUP and customize Delsin's large set of powers, but both are far from Second Son's best features.  The success or failure of every superhero game depends whether the game truly makes the player feel like a superhero or not.  With four powers to play with and tons of ways to enhance and upgrade those base powers, Infamous: Second Son succeeds at putting you in the shoes of a superhero.  The powers easily take centre stage in Second Son as they are your primary tools for combat and exploration.  Each power is suited for different play styles.  For example, neon is best suited for long range sniping and video is perfectly designed for stealthy approaches to combat.  Each power is fleshed out and fun to play, but each person will find a favourite among the four powers available.  This writer's personal favourite is neon because of the incredible speed, the ability to slow down time during combat and the precision sniping.

The powers would not be as fun as they are without a fully realized world to use them in.  The virtual sights and sounds of Seattle are Delsin's playground in Second Son.  Compared to current more grandiose open world sandboxes like those found in Grand Theft Auto V or the Batman games, Seattle can feel a little lifeless and bland at times.  While you are not overloaded with tons of optional missions to tackle or additional attractions to experience all at once, Seattle offers enough side missions, collectables and random enemy encounters to keep players engaged.  Although the lack of variety among side missions can can cause things to get repetitive from time to time, one can easily lose themselves in the ebb and flow of destroying surveillance cameras, collecting blast shards, spray painting buildings and busting drug dealers.  A key reason why the Seattle setting is so engrossing comes from Second Son's superb graphics.  From the stunningly captured faces of all the main characters to the dazzling particle effects to beautifully rendered cityscape during day or night and rain or shine, the game uses the power of the PS4 to make the world of Infamous more believable and photorealistic.  The graphics of Second Son truly shows off the incredible horsepower of Sony's PS4 and brings the city of Seattle to life in a way no game has ever captured before.  Seattle may have its drawbacks, but ultimately it is a well made playground that keeps players moving forward in progressing the narrative and the advancement of Delsin's powers.

Infamous: Second Son may have some great features and content, but there are a few areas where this game falls short.  The tedious nature of the side mission, which sees the same six missions repeated over and over again throughout all of Second Son's world, really holds back Seattle from being held in the same regard as classic open world sandboxes such as Batman's Arkham City, Grand Theft Auto's Liberty City or Spider Man 2's New York.  This repetition limits the replay value of Second Son as all but true completionists will have their fill finishing only the side missions they run into during their first playthrough.  Some may be inclined to play Second Son again to experience the differences between playing as a superhero or supervillain though the story does not excite even the first time around.  Sadly after the opening hours, the story falls into a pattern of introducing a new Conduit with a desired power,  gaining said power and searching for core relays to unlock new abilities.  Along with the repetitive story structure, none of the other major characters are fleshed out to the point of caring about them or downright hating them outside of Delsin and Reggie.  Even Augustine, the antagonist of Second Son, has barely any character development until the final moments of the game.  The lack of character development and repetitive story points makes the plot feel like it is going through the motions to move the player from one objective to the next.  The karma system is no better as it forces the player to one path rather than experimenting between being good or evil.  One action that is opposite of your current path, even if it is an accident, will completely derail the karma combo needed to use ultimate karma bomb attacks.  Also the major choices of the game lack weight as they are always between two extremes instead of multiple shades of grey.

Although Infamous: Second Son may have some flaws in terms of narrative, variety and choice, Sucker Punch's open world adventure succeeds where it counts.  Second Son truly makes the player feel like a superhero or supervillain as they are in full control Delsin's powers and evolution throughout the game.  It also succeeds as a technical powerhouse that perfectly shows off the power of the PS4's graphics processors in the most crucial early stages of this new console cycle.  Overall, Infamous: Second Son is one of the best games currently available on the PS4 and a worthy addition to anyone's library.

Looking Past the Surface: The Pros & Cons of CG Trailers

The biggest news to come out of this past week was the announcement of Batman: Arkham Knight.  As the final Batman game in Rocksteady's trilogy, Arkham Knight is being hyped to be more expansive and epic than the previous two entries in the series (one of them being easily the best superhero game of all-time).  Scheduled to release this October, WB Games decided to release a trailer for the game.  Considering the game is less than year away, it would have been nice to see how exactly Arkham Knight would run on the next generation systems with a gameplay trailer.  What we got was a computer-generated (CG) trailer that did a decent job of showing what the game would be about, but did little to impress this writer.  In fact, this trailer got me thinking about the video game industry's love of pre-rendered CG trailers.  There are pros and cons to CG trailers which I would like to discuss in this article.  Personally, I lean more towards the con side of this debate, but I can see the pluses of CG trailers as well.

As the video game industry has evolved, trailers have been given much more prominence than in the past.  Video game trailers are so prominent nowadays that websites dedicate obscene amounts of time dissecting each frame and highlight every big trailers on the front page.  There is even a website which focuses solely on highlighting game trailers in GameTrailers.  With a lot more importance put on game trailers nowadays, game publishers want their trailers to be the best even if the game is not ready to be shown yet.  These publishers employ animation houses to make a trailer that best captures the ideas of the game.  When the game is early development, a CG trailer works as an appetizing teaser for gamers.  It gets gamers excited for the upcoming game as they see all the grand possibilities which they can eventually play.  These trailers work as a great way of eliciting gamers to pre-order the game well in advance.   As a money making machine, CG trailers serve their purpose well.  Another pro of CG trailers is the quality as most of them can easily rival that of Hollywood's best.  The quality of these trailers can produce great amount of hype no matter the actually quality of the game.  The CG trailer for Dead Island is an excellent example of this type of situation.  It easily produced enough hype to put Dead Island as one of the most sought after games of 2011.  CG trailers are a very profitable business for game developers and serve as a form of entertainment for gamers.  They will definitely be the norm of the video game industry well into the future.

While there are plenty of pluses to the use of CG trailers, they are not all that they seem to be.  With CG trailers, the quality can serve as a double-edged sword which many a game have fallen to.  Sometimes, the CG trailer is too good that it overshadows the quality of the game when it finally releases.  Dead Island fell into that trap as the game was marred with numerous glitches, some that even halted gamer's progress indefinitely.  Another example is Killzone 2.  The infamous trailer shown at E3 2005 had such amazing graphical fidelity that Guerilla's game could never achieve those great heights.  The expectations brought on from Killzone 2's first trailer caused many gamers to feel betrayed by Sony and Guerilla Games.  As these CG trailers are created by animation houses outside of the actual developers, it is easy for these trailers to include certain aspects such as supposed mechanics or weapons that are not even in the main game.  This mixed messaging can deceive gamers into believing that exactly what they see in the CG trailer will be in the actual game and most of the time that is not true.  As much as CG trailers can help boost the hype and possibly sales of the game, they can be just as damaging if games rely too much on them.  As game graphics continue to advance, an argument can be made that in-engine graphics can be used without hurting the quality of video game trailers.  Already there have been many games that use in-engine graphics for their trailers to great success.  Every trailer for Grand Theft Auto V including the very first one from 2011 was produced with in-engine graphics.  Mass Effect 2 and 3 used in-game graphics for both of their launch trailers and produced some of the best video game trailers in years.  The Mass Effect 2 launch trailer was the sole reason I hunted down a Collector's Edition of the game the weekend after launch.  Using in-engine graphics for trailers might not always be a possibility especially earlier in development, but they can alleviate some of the trappings of relying on CG trailers to convey the concept of the game.

 Although this writer would love to see in-engine gameplay trailers become the norm, CG trailers are not going anywhere.  In the early years of this new console generation, CG trailers will become more prominent as publishers build hype for games that are years away from completion.  As CG trailers become more prominent, gamers need to become more critical of these trailers rather than taking them at surface value.  Gamers need to stop blindly getting excited for a game because it had a great CG trailer.  Instead, they need to start taking them as they are, just proofs of concept, and waiting on gameplay footage, previews and possibly demos before making a definitive decision on how these CG trailers represent the game they are promoting.

Launch Station: Rayman Legends

The time has come.  After close to a year of waiting, Rayman Legends is finally on store shelves.  It has been a long and tumultuous road of delays, loss of exclusivity and many other crazy circumstances.  While this writer is baffled about how horrible Ubisoft handles one of their premier franchises, it is relieving to finally get our hands on a game that should have been out six months ago.  Rayman may not be a sales powerhouse like Assassin's Creed; this limbless hero is easily taking the platforming world by storm thanks to polished gameplay, excellent controls and beautiful hand-drawn graphics.

After sleeping for a century, Rayman and friends are awoken to world far less pleasant than they left it at the end of Rayman Origins.  The Bubble Dreamer's nightmares along with the dark teensies have grown in strength and kidnapped the princesses of the land and the peaceful teensie people.  It is up to Rayman and friends to stop the nightmares and dark teensies from corrupting the Glade of Dreams.  Rayman Legends improves on the platforming gameplay of Rayman Origins as running, jumping, collecting lums and saving teensies are the name of the game.  Just like its predecessor, Legends allows up to four players to participate in these levels.  Note that this co-operative multiplayer is only available locally.  Apart from the standard platforming fair, Legends offers brand new levels where you take control of Murfy the fairy.  As Murfy, players interact with the environment to assist Rayman and friends such as cutting ropes, activating switches or distracting enemies.  On the Vita and Wii U, players control Murfy with the touch controls on the Wii U's Gamepad or the Vita's touch screen.  While on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, Murfy is controlled by a button press.  Rayman Legends includes 80 brand new levels and 40 remastered levels from Rayman Origins along with remixed versions of each level available upon completion of the game.  While Rayman Legends offers a ton of content for its single-player component, it offers a robust online component as well.  The online Challenge mode offers challenges for players to complete in order to earn trophies and rise through the leaderboards.  There are new challenges offered everyday to keep gamers coming back each day to post their best times and distances.

Rayman Legends has been a high anticipated game for yours truly.  It was the game this writer bought a Wii U just to play.  While the delays and other obstacles Ubisoft threw at us were disheartening, those actions will not deter my enjoyment of Rayman Legends.  The men and women at Ubisoft's Montpellier studio put their hearts and souls into this game and for them this writer puts down his money in support.  While Diablo III and Grand Theft Auto V may suck up a ton of money this September, let us show Ubisoft that Rayman and Ubsioft Montpellier deserve a lot more respect than they give them.  The only way to make this change is to talk with your money and pick up Rayman Legends for your console or handheld of choice.

Favourite Games of 2013 So Far

The first half of any year has a good amount of new releases to play.  Not as many as what will be releasing this holiday season, but a good amount nonetheless.  With June in the rearview mirror, we enter the second half of 2013.  Before we look ahead to all of the games releasing during the summer and holiday seasons, it is time to look back on the past six months and all the great games that are already available to play.  The games will be listed by order of release and only the games that this writer has beaten or played a considerable amount of before the writing of this article will be included.

Fire Emblem Awakening
What has this writer not already said about Fire Emblem Awakening?  Easily the greatest game to grace the 3DS, Awakening packs well over 100 hours of content into such a small 3DS cartridge.  There is even more hours of content to download through the 3DS' SpotPass functionality or DLC for the game.  The amount of content does not matter if the gameplay does not entice you to play for all those hours.  Awakening has the already superb tactical gameplay of the Fire Emblem series, but with a couple key improvements to the support system.  For Awakening, the support system is brought to the forefront as it allows the player to strengthen bonds, improve stats in battle and even have characters marry, which allows you to recruit their children later in the game.  Fire Emblem Awakening is easily the frontrunner for this writer's Game of the Year.

Bit.Trip Presents Runner 2:  Future Legend of Rhythm Alien
Do not overlook Runner 2 for its incredibly odd title because you would missing out on one of the most enjoyable downloadable games of the year.  The Bit.Trip games were retro-inspired rhythm games that made a name for themselves on Nintendo's WiiWare service.  Runner 2 is a sequel to the gruelling Bit.Trip Runner.  The difficulty may be scaled back for gamers of all ages to enjoy, but that does not mean Runner 2 is a walk in the park.  Runner 2 will put any gamer's hand-eye coordination to the test in trying to rack up the most points, collect all the secrets and Perfect+ every stage while listening to the incredible ever evolving soundtrack.  Odd name or not, Runner 2 is pure unadulterated fun.

Tomb Raider
It was a long wait for Crystal Dynamics' new direction for Lara Croft to reach store shelves, but it was well worth it.  Tomb Raider takes the iconic and pristine image of Lara Croft and throws it in the mud.  The mature tone of this new Tomb Raider is a breath of fresh air for a game series that seemed a little dated this generation especially competing with Sony's action-adventure giant, Uncharted.  Tomb Raider does an excellent job of placing gamers in Lara's shoes, which makes her much more relatable than in past entries.  Apart from the story, the gameplay is phenomenal as the interplay between the gunplay and stealth is well balanced, the puzzles are always engaging and the optional tombs and collectables offer a lot of opportunities to traverse the interconnected island of Yamatai.  The multiplayer may not be the greatest, but it is still a fun diversion for those who cannot get enough of Tomb Raider's combat.  Since Tomb Raider's release, the game has not gotten as much attention as it deserves.  Hands down, Tomb Raider is one of the best games of this year and should not be overshadowed by some games in this writer's honest opinion are extremely overhyped like BioShock Infinite and The Last of Us.

Lego City Undercover
On the surface, Traveller's Tales first original Lego game may look like just another clone of Rockstar's immensely popular Grand Theft Auto games, but it is a fun and charming experience that gamers of all ages can enjoy.  The gameplay is the tried and true Lego formula of breaking and building Lego objects to collect studs and open up new objects to interact with that many gamers are well too familiar with.  Even with this tried and true formula, Traveller's Tales has added on a simple combat system similar to that of the Batman Arkham games, various disguises to switch between in order to reach different areas or interact with certain objects and the freedom of an open world to explore at will that all keep this Lego game fun and engaging.  The gameplay may be great, but it is the personality and charm that exudes from Lego City Undercover that make it a standout.  Hilarious dialogue, amazing pop culture references and one wacky story keep a smile on your face at all times even through the excruciatingly long load times.  Young or old, Lego City Undercover is a game that everybody can enjoy.

Luigi's Mansion:  Dark Moon
The first Luigi's Mansion was a launch title for the Nintendo Gamecube.  Being a huge Nintendo fan, yours truly was very eager to play Luigi's first big adventure.  After breezing through Luigi's Mansion in a week, this writer was very disappointed with the end result.  While length does not determine the quality of the game, Luigi's Mansion felt a more like a tech demo than a full-fledged game.  The mechanics were never fleshed out enough to feel rewarding in the mid to late hours of the game and there was not much to do in the mansion after capturing all the ghosts other than collect more money.  After revisiting Luigi's Mansion about a year ago, I enjoy the game a little more than my initial reaction, but it still was not a home run.  Well Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon is that home run.  It improves on everything the first game lacked.  The bite-sized mission structure sets an excellent pace for the game, the multiple mansions offer more places to explore, the length of Dark Moon is two to three times the length of the original and the Poltergust 5000 is so fun to use with the upgradable suction, stunning white light and secret-finding dark light.  Also there are tons of secrets to find and Boos to capture and there is a full-on multiplayer mode to boot.  This writer can go on and on about everything great about Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, but this article will run far too long.  In summation, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon is one of the premier experiences on the 3DS and definitely worth owning a 3DS just to play.  Do not miss out on the greatest ghost-busting game on the market.

The Rayman Legends Debacle

This past Thursday was not a fun day for Wii U owners including yours truly.  Just under three weeks before the release of easily the most anticipated third-party game for the Wii U, Ubisoft decided to announce two big changes to the latest instalment in the Rayman series.  Rayman Legends is now going to be multi-platform and has been delayed until September.  Ubisoft's reasoning for the delay was that it was for the fans.  One of the biggest loads of crap I have heard in a while.  It is just like Activision saying that the newest Call of Duty is not exactly the same as previous entries, it is a lie!  If Ubisoft remotely cared about their fans, they would not have waited until the eleventh hour to pull this bait-and-switch with Rayman Legends.  

Going multi-platform is best for business and personally I am totally fine with Rayman Legends going multi-platform because it allows more gamers to experience this masterful platforming game and it will help support Ubisoft Montpellier in creating new games such as Beyond Good & Evil 2.  While a multi-platform release is good for business, delaying Rayman Legends only 19 days before the game was set to release for the Wii U is definitely not good for business.  The delay alienates fans who have been promoting Rayman Legends through social media and other forums on the internet and supporting the game through pre-orders.  It serves as a slap to the face of every Wii U owner who Ubisoft promised would support their new system with quality games. Also a slap in the face to all the developers at Ubisoft Montipellier who have been in crunch since last summer in order to get Rayman Legends complete for its February release date only to have it delayed right when it goes gold.

Apart from all the people Ubisoft upset with this delay, nobody seems to notice how stupid delaying Legends until this September.  What HUGE game releases just got announced to release this coming September?  It is Rockstar's newest entry in their open-world behemoth known as Grand Theft Auto V.  Yes, there will be other games that will most likely release in September other than GTA V, but sales-wise most gamers will be buying GTA over any other game released in September.  Since this delay was most likely made to maximize profits on a simultaneous multi-platform release, releasing Legends in the same month as the biggest game of 2013 is just asking for history to repeat itself.  For those who do not know or remember, Ubisoft made a similar decision when they released Rayman Origins back in  2011.  They released Rayman Origins on the same day as Assassin's Creed Revelations and Saint's Row The Third.  Long story short, Origins got lost in the shuffle of the holiday season and the game did not come close to Ubisoft's sales expectations.  How is putting Rayman Legends in the same exact situation going to help sales especially since Ubisoft easily hurt sales by alienating their entire Wii U audience?  If Ubisoft wanted Rayman Legends to succeed, they would release the game in the summer when gamers are starving for new games instead of feeding it to the cannibalistic holiday season.  I love Rayman, but it cannot compete with the Grand Theft Autos, the Assassin's Creeds and the Call of Dutys.

As much as it hurts to have Ubisoft delay one of the games I bought my Wii U to play, there is nothing I can do alone to change this delay.  All I can do is talk about here, but it comes down to all of us Wii U owners to make our voices heard.  Do not stop at a measly exclusive demo, we want the entire game.  If we can convince Ubisoft to release Rayman Legends for Wii U before September, it will be amazing.  If not, at least we tried.  There are other ways of making our voices heard such as boycotting Ubisoft games or buying Rayman Legends used, but we should not unintentionally hurt the excellent developers at Ubisoft's many studios who sacrifice a lot to make the games we love including Rayman Legends because some idiot in a suit thought more about the money lining his pocket than the customers he ultimately serves.  No matter what happens, I will still buy Rayman Legends on the first day it releases.  Now I will definitely think twice before pre-ordering another Ubisoft game.  Sorry Ubisoft, us gamers do not like to be treated like trash.

For those interested in making your voice heard about this situation, please sign the petition I provide in this link, http://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/ubisoft-entertainment-s-a-keep-to-the-original-rayman-legends-release-date-for-the-wii-u?utm_campaign=new_signature&utm_medium=email&utm_source=signature_receipt#.  The more people sign this petition, the more Ubisoft will take notice and hopefully release Rayman Legends when it was originally scheduled to release.  Like Ubisoft says, they listen to their fans.