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Infamous: Second Son Review Thread

I think this is it:

Eurogamer said:
Overall, it's good clean fun - so it's a shame that Second Son suffers from a consistent failure of imagination in how it's put together. There's not been much of an attempt to shake up the mission scenarios or structure of the game, leaving you with a very rote open-world adventure. Follow the waypoint marker, chase the suspect, investigate the scene, wipe out the jackboots; hunt the collectables and tick the boxes. You've been here many times before. The collectables and side missions all contribute to reclaiming districts from the DUP, which organises them into chunks and structures the reward usefully, and they've been judiciously pruned - but this is good admin rather than great game design.

As pretty and playable as it is, in no sense is inFamous: Second Son a post-Grand Theft Auto 5 open-world game. It's just a tidier, shorter and shinier one. It's easy to enjoy and has a winning personality, but it's reluctant to deviate from a stale streetmap of game city. It's no rebel, then. In fact, it's a conformist.

hehe

Shame that it follows the same tropes of open world game design.
 
I think the gameplay comments are folks wanting something more than just "more of the same with better graphics". At this point in the console's lifecycle, I think it's fine to just have prettier and more refined versions of games we played on the PS3, but we'll see more innovations as the console matures. Just having a game like this helps since the library is pretty dry, and it's nice to be distracted from all the Titanfall XB1 talk.
My question is why a cross gen game like black flag scored higher with the same mechanics, last gen gameplay design ripped from 3 and last gen graphics.
 
I am really disappointed after reading the reviews.

This was going to be the game I bought the PS4 for. The one I had waited until now for to make my purchase. I bought an XONE at launch because the games were there for me. PS4 had nothing I wanted until Infamous 2.

I don't think that's going to happen now. I'll just play it at a friends and, for me, the wait continues.

This is the 3rd inFAMOUS game.
 
The gaming media doesn't matter anymore. They pissed all over COD ghosts, 5 months later it's still top seller. They gushed over Titanfall and that game hasn't moved anything judging by press release happy Microsoft's silence. Infamous will sell a ton.

thankfully, there are plenty of outlets like playstation universe, dual shockers and the sixth axis who aren't afraid to give first party exclusives the reviews they deserve.
 
fanboy score warz.

I don't have infinite time or money, so I see nothing "sad" about taking reviews into consideration. What is really sad, however, is that everything has to be 90 or above to be considered 'good'.
1) My comment was directed at people fighting over Titanfall vs Infamous scores

2) Making a purchasing decision off of reviews is fine (and generally is the point of a review). What I find sad are responses like this:
Sounds like this is just another mediocre Infamous game with a fresh coat of paint. Sony should probably consider shelving this series for a while.
Jim Sterling for the Escapist 3 and a half stars.

Seems like it's going to be a decent but not very memorable game. PS4 still waiting for that killer app.

It's times like this where I wish Sony had been a bit faster with that digital refund policy. This game screams "sale pickup".
These are people, who have not played the game, trying to give advice to Sony/Sucker Punch about handling their property, with no frame of reference, themselves.
 
Ah infamous got a really good score from polygon, in fact I never mentioned Infamous at all. I'm talking about how certain things are a problem in one game, and completely ignored in another. Considering that reviews are edited together before being put up at Polygon, such oversight is weird.

I would agree completely if the reviews were done by the same person. But I just can't sign off on screaming bias when we're dealing with the opinions of two different people. They could value different things, or be more or less in tune with technical details.
 
I am really disappointed after reading the reviews.

This was going to be the game I bought the PS4 for. The one I had waited until now for to make my purchase. I bought an XONE at launch because the games were there for me. PS4 had nothing I wanted until Infamous 2.

I don't think that's going to happen now. I'll just play it at a friends and, for me, the wait continues.

Its only getting 8's and 9's.... better not play it and form my own opinion. I like that logic
 
I am really disappointed after reading the reviews.

This was going to be the game I bought the PS4 for. The one I had waited until now for to make my purchase. I bought an XONE at launch because the games were there for me. PS4 had nothing I wanted until Infamous 2.

I don't think that's going to happen now. I'll just play it at a friends and, for me, the wait continues.

Too bad ~35 of the 100-80% reviews disappointed you :-(
 
Are you being serious ??
There is nothing next gen about MGSV game play , it more open world and now you have some more options .
Which is evolution for MGS but there is nothing gen about it , you can play the game on PS3 and PS4 the same way .
Now if people say SP should evolve the game play more i have no problem with that.
Saying it has no next gen game play is BS statement that some using so they don't have to explain stuff .

GTAV is a last gen game, that FEELS next gen in terms of gameplay because of the wealth of things you can do, the attention to detail, and the just the overall amount of content there is in the game. To me, and many others, MGSV is the same way, it's a major step forward for the franchise and with the sheer scale and content promised for the full game, including a fully fledged online multiplayer option, it's simply gives a bigger impression of improvement and quality, which is how a next gen game should feel.
 
I don't get your point. They want to give you the option to be a hero or a villain. Which gives you 2 power sets. This is a decent design imo. Gives you a guaranteed two playthroughs if you like the mechanics, which I have for both the previous games.

How do you add nuance to the morality system in this game? I feel like it fundamentally would change what the game is trying to accomplish, in an effort to "do more" with the narrative, which I simpy don't give a shit about in this franchise. I want cool powers and a playground to use them in.

My point is, I don't like going into the game already having to decide whether I should be Lawful Good or Chaotic Evil. Having to already have that mindset going in is less interesting to me when I like to do things in accordance to how I feel about it's narrative and the characters. In a game play context as well, some power sets are straight up useless. It'd be far more interesting to have more options in regards to what powers you eventually end up getting as a whole, rather than be confined to just one set only.

Just because Infamous is a superhero game does not mean I shouldn't expect more, especially when I've come to love it's story and characters on a regular occasion, so having it's lead be confined to be on a black or white morality scale can easily take me out of the experience. I enjoy Infamous for being more than just a catharsis simulator (which I already get my fill from with games like Prototype and Saints Row), so the appeal to me in this lies in more than just super powers. It wants to do something different, and it does that mostly good, but not to a level which has reached perfection yet in my eyes.
 
game gets 80 average review so you cancel buying a system? LMAO. A systmes is an investment for 6 + years, you never buy it for 1 game.

I agree. That's why I don't need to outlay £350 now. I can wait until a system seller is released.

It's not the 80 average reviews that have stopped me, it's the content of the reviews. I have read them and they all tell me it's not the game I hoped for.

Graphics are not everything, and certainly not what I would buy a PS4 for.
 
thankfully, there are plenty of outlets like playstation universe, dual shockers and the sixth axis who aren't afraid to give first party exclusives the reviews they deserve.

I can do this too:

thankfully you're here to set us straight about ps4 with sarcastic posts because for some ridiculous reason, you're somehow insecure about it.

I'm glad it's reviewing well. I'll read the Giant Bomb review in a bit; Brad knows what's up about Infamous.

Jeff did the review and it's pretty well written.
 
Infamous metacritic: 85

Inafmous 2: 83

and SS is currently at 81, given there are apparently not many new gameplay Systems how are reviewers being inconsistent?

Series like COD ect. that have been getting stale lately have scored lower than their predescessors too.
 
Because you just can't have new and innovate gameplay without difference peripherals.

Gen after gen, all you got was the very same gameplay you always got before. Games play exactly the same as they did. They just look prettier now. They just have a narrative now. They just have a different perspective now. But they play the same.

So, when someone says "same gameplay from old gen" that person is a goddamn clown. Seriously. You review a game and knock points off it because... it plays the same?
Well that is quite wierd (especially when earlier you had no problem ignoring it on another game for a different system).
It basically reeks of an arbitrary system where you can make stuff up to justify your agenda.

I know that not all reviewers are the same... but when someone reviews a game based on their subjective view and not their objective view, they're worthless.

Saying that a game with old gen gameplay (oops forgot, not important in this game), frame rate drops, old gen graphics, lack of gameplay modes, lack of single player campaign, weapons that aren't balanced is the height of it's genre (5/5) just because you had more "fun" with it is ludicrous. Fun should count. After all what's the point of playing games if they're not fun? But it should never be enough to justify giving a game with glaring problems, a perfect score. At most, you give it a score based on what the game actually does and offers (7/10 or 8/10) and then end the review saying how fun you actually though it was and tell people if you think it's worth their time.

perfect post.
 
Lol. I enjoyed inFamous 2 more than the first one. The second one is sitting at 83 on the metacritic, two points lower than the first one. If this stays at 81, then does that mean that I will enjoy it even more?
 
I am really disappointed after reading the reviews.

This was going to be the game I bought the PS4 for. The one I had waited until now for to make my purchase. I bought an XONE at launch because the games were there for me. PS4 had nothing I wanted until Infamous 2.

I don't think that's going to happen now. I'll just play it at a friends and, for me, the wait continues.

As sometimes you say, even yourself:

"ignore my opinion
on everything ever"
 
Wow, the amount of trolling and senseless talk in this thread is unbelievable. Some people are going out of their way to spoil a good thread. 80ish metacritic and people are complaining? Infamous devs are releasing a patch with 5 hours of gameplay, tuned boss fights, graphical improvements and people are complaining? Seriously, Wow.
 
So wait, adding more players to the game is valid for not getting docked for more of the same, so why is having different powers not valid as well? Catch my drift?

I guess these new different powers don't change anything significantly. However, 40 additional players on larger maps do. That's a huge change if you've only played 24 player matches before.
 
Man. Now I'm wondering if I should get this game now or not, too. I was never really a fan of the other infamous games and really wanted this one to do something else, I guess. Bummer because I really wanted to want this game because the graphics look so damn great and I would actually like to use my ps4.

Hell. I'll probably wind up picking this up to play over the weekend still and regret it next week. I'm weak willed.
 
I'm not even sure what people are flipping out about. Isn't an 80 meta score good-great? Do you think this game deserves a 90+ or something?

Well the same thing happened in the Titanfall thread, it had plenty of comments saying it wasn't reviewing that well and made out that an 87 (86 now) metacritic score was disappointing.

I was kinda expecting scores like this for SS, as nice as it looks it's still the same game that was never averaging scores in the 90's. Reviews seem fairly positive though but I imagine a lot of people were really hoping it would take that leap forward and be something special. Not bad over all but certainly not sounding like a must have day one purchase unless you were a fan of the previous games wanting more of the same.
 
Wow, the amount of trolling and senseless talk in this thread is unbelievable. Some people are going out of their way to spoil a good thread. 80ish metacritic and people are complaining? Infamous devs are releasing a patch with 5 hours of gameplay, tuned boss fights, graphical improvements and people are complaining? Seriously, Wow.
Thank You.
 
81 is a very good score. if EVERY one of the review outlets scored it 81%, would you think differently than having 6/7's and 9/10's?
 
I never really looked at reviews as if they were a checklist. It's all subjective. And it makes intuitive sense that any game a reviewer feels is little different from last gen would get a score that most games that released at the conclusion of the last generation got. The phrase itself intimates that the reviewer felt the game should be more than what it was, considering the much superior hardware it's running on.

I don't look to reviews at all, I understand they are all subjective in nature, however the expectations some reviewers place on other games that they give passes to, is mind boggling. Infamous isn't like GTA, never ever is going to be like it. Comparing it to such a game is asinine. I could understand comparing this game to Batman or something in the same genre that is a glaring example of how to change the gameplay to something fresh, but this one isn't it. Having better hardware at the end of the day doesn't make this game any different than what it is.

I'm all for consistency, right there with you. You do realize though that we have are hypocrites about one thing or another. I think pointing this out is fine, and the people defending the criticism being talked about the most in here are bizarre.

I'm hardly defending it but pointing out the odd contradiction in the statement. I don't think the criticism is bad but just inconsistent to what we already have. Metacritics for all could be the same number, but specifically what they were docked for was not the same thing this was docked for. Some of them weren't even docked for having worst things.
 
I'm glad to hear it's a more focused and less sprawling Open World game. GTAIV put me off that type of sprawling and unfocused game forever I think.

This'll be the first Open World game I try since I gave up on Skyrim.
 
Infamous metacritic: 85

Inafmous 2: 83

and SS is currently at 81, given there are apparently not many new gameplay Systems how are reviewers being inconsistent?

Series like COD ect. that have been getting stale lately have scored lower than their predescessors too.
This seems pretty likely to be the case. For me, I've never played an Infamous game, so it will at least be a fresh experience in my case.
 
These scores are about what I expected, just going off of previous games. The overall lack of variety is what really holds these games back, but I still enjoy them for the most part.
 
I like inFAMOUS as a series itself. The only thing I don't like about SS is the movement. Del has Cole's movements. I would think coming into this gen, SP would change that type of physics.
 
That´s the evolution itself, it´s all up to you and now the game is designed to offer you that and more, a lot more. It´s a major step forward in the franchise, and the genre itself. You can´t say anything like that about ISS except, OH MY GOD THE GRAPHICS.

Don´t get me wrong, i loved both infamous games, and since the first day i saw gameplay of ISS i have this thoughs about the game. Now, after playing the game i feel exactly the same as that day and even regret having payed $60 for it.

That's my point if they say the game needs evolution i have no problem with that .
But saying it does not have next gen game play tell us nothing IMO.
I just really dislike how it's been use as a way not explain anything just because it on a new system .
 
I'm not in rush to buy a PS4, so is the game to get that I been waiting for or wait longer. Im not the biggest InFamous fan, IMO was always a mediocre series.
 
I wonder how much a developer like SP would hate to put out a game close to launch from now on with all the time constraints and unrefined tech they have to deal with, it's kind of demoralizing with all the expectations of "next gen gameplay", most developers haven't even gotten their sea legs yet.


it shouldn't make a difference.

Nextgen game play refers to doing something not possible in previous hardware that affects how you play the game.

in the case of an established franchise or genre you could make an argument that this also includes the introduction of game play elements that are not necessarily new, but new to the particular franchise/genre.
 
The refined traversal also means that there's less of an emphasis on parkour than in earlier Infamous games. While few will miss the endless windowsill-skimming from the series' PlayStation 3 days, missions that rely exclusively on parkour are now few and far between. An early mission that involves scaling the Seattle Space Needle is a standout, but climbing doesn't become a central mechanic again until much later in the game. These segments are so enjoyable that I wished there were more of them sprinkled throughout Second Son's campaign; the few that exist feel more like a tease than anything.

This is the most disappointing thing to me.
 
I am really disappointed after reading the reviews.

This was going to be the game I bought the PS4 for. The one I had waited until now for to make my purchase. I bought an XONE at launch because the games were there for me. PS4 had nothing I wanted until Infamous 2.

I don't think that's going to happen now. I'll just play it at a friends and, for me, the wait continues.

Seems like you have higher expectations for PS4 games than you do Xbone. Don't worry, lots of people think like that.

Games getting good reviews Im excited for tomorrow.
 
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