InFamous: Second Son

Infamous: Second Son is a third-person open-world adventure game. The player controls Delsyn Row, who with the help of his abilities and parkour can climb vertical surfaces, such as tall buildings. Delsin is a conductor and can use four abilities: smoke, neon, video and concrete. With the help of these forces, Delsin in combat can perform melee attacks and shoot projectiles from his fingers ^{[2] [3]} . From time to time the energy of the ability may end. In order to replenish energy, it is necessary to find an object associated with the ability — for example, if the “smoke” force has ended, you need to find a burning object, like an exploded transport ^[4] . Delsin gets a new job as he proceeds with the plot of the game in which he fights against DEZ (Department of Unified Protection, Eng. DUP, Department of Unified Protection ). Every time Delsin gets the job, he must destroy the Deux. In the game there are special boxes with cores, with which the player improves his ability. Special flying splinters, which are also needed to improve the player’s abilities, are scattered throughout the city. Expanding the set of forces Delsin, players become more powerful and strong in battle ^[5] .

Depending on the decisions of the player, Delsin can become either a hero or a villain. Delsin’s good deeds include healing civilians, neutralizing drug dealers and stopping suspicion by the police , and neutralizing opponents instead of murder. Violent acts are murders of citizens and policemen and murders instead of neutralization. Several times throughout the story, Delsin will find himself in moments in which a good or bad act must be done. For example, you need to motivate the conductor Abigail "Weasel" Walker to stop killing drug dealers, or to train her to become a more evil killer. The choice of player affects the mission, plot and ending ^[6] . In combat, Delsin can use his forces to neutralize enemies, or kill them with headshots. The player can also open fire on the citizens. Karma Delsin is visible in the logo displayed on his jacket, which shows a blue (good) or red (evil) bird, and in super-strong color. When performing evil actions, the logo gradually changes, in which the “red” bird dominates the “blue” one, and while performing the heroic ones: the “blue” dominates the “red” one. This is a visual representation of the level of karma Delsin, which increases as evil or good depending on the choice. The color of his jacket also changes - if the player played for the hero - the jacket turns white, if the player passes for the villain - red ^[7] . From the level of karma, Delsin can acquire special improvements that match his style. A series of good or evil deeds fills the scale of superpowers, which opens a special final blow in battle ^[7] .

After going through the storyline, players can explore Seattle and perform tasks such as drawing graffiti or neutralizing (or killing if the player plays the villain) DEZA secret agents disguised as citizens. The city is divided into districts controlled by Dezo, but Delsin can gradually liberate each district. When the control of Deze over the county falls below 30%, Delsin enters the regional battle with Deze, in which it is necessary to eliminate the wave of Deze soldiers ^[5] .

Setting and Characters

The game takes place in 2018, seven years after Infamous 2 . In that part, the main character was Cole McGrath . The previous part ended with Cole sacrificing himself to cure humanity from the Ray of the Plague and destroy the Beast. Cole used the Inhibitor beam, which kills him and other Guides ^{[8] [9]} . After those events, the US Government creates a DES (Department of Unified Protection) to track down and capture the remaining guides in the world, who are called "bioterrorists" ^[10] . The main character this time is Delsin Rowe ( Troy Baker ), a 24-year-old graffiti artist and a member of the Indian Akomish tribe. Delsin has Explorer's unique ability that allows him to absorb the strength of other Explorers. His brother, Reggie ( Travis Willingham ), is the local sheriff and often arrests Delsin for his acts of vandalism ^[11] . Both are akomishi, whose territory is located on the shores of Salmon Bay, Washington . The main antagonist of the game was Augustine Brooke ( Christine Dunford ), director of the United Defense Department and the Conductor, using concrete as her strength. Her actions on the Akomish reservation forced Delsin and Reggie to go to Seattle , which is currently under the control of Deas. In the future, Delsin will meet with three other Guides: Henry "Hank" Dotry ( David Steinbor ), who owns the smoke ability, Abigail "Weasel" Walker ( Laura Bailey ), a former drug addict and who killed her brother under the drugs with neon, and Eugene Sims ( Alex Walsh ), gamer , who owns the "video" ability.

History

In 2018, after Reggie Rowe catches Delsin, who painted a billboard , their conversation is interrupted when a military truck carrying three prisoners gets into an accident near the Akomish reservation ^[11] . Two of the guides escape, and Delsin manages to pull out and rescue the third, Hank, from under the debris of the car. But when Delsin rescues him, he grabs Hank by the hand and absorbs his strength. Shocked and frightened, Delsin pursues the Conductor, trying to figure out what happened and how to control the forces ^[12] . However, both heroes are caught by Augustine Brooke. She puts Hank into concrete and begins to interrogate Delsin, suspecting that he is hiding something from her. The player can choose two options for completing the interrogation: either tell the truth (that Delsin Explorer), or say nothing, and donate other members of the Akomish tribe. Despite this, player Augustine’s choice is ignored, and she stuns Delsin and all the other players ^[10] .

Delsin wakes up a week later and discovers that Augustine tortured all members of the tribe to get at least some information about him. In the end, she left them to die from concrete fragments, firmly fixed in their bodies. Betty ( Karen Austen ), the leader of the tribe ^{[13] [14],} got the most. Reggie, who remained unscathed, finds out that the only way to heal a tribe and remove concrete is to get a “concrete” ability ^[15] . Delsin understands that he can absorb the forces of other Conductors, and he goes to Seattle to absorb the forces of Augustine and save the akomishs ^[16] . Reggie will accompany, assist and watch him. When they arrive in Seattle, it turns out that the city is completely controlled by DEZ to find other escaped Guides. With the help of his brother and his abilities, Delsin fights with the forces of Deze and absorbs special shrapnel containers in order to develop and improve his forces. Later, he meets the two other escaped Conductors, the Weasel and Eugene, and absorbs their strength. After battles with them, Delsin saved them from the arrest of Reggie, who at first considered them "freaks" and also inclined them to good, or to evil, depending on the decision of the player ^[10] .

Possessing three abilities, Delsin confronts Hank, who again escaped from Augustine (originally Delsin thought she had killed Hank). Hank tells him that the Weasel and Eugene captured Augustine and holds them in concrete on Puget Sound . However, the situation turns out to be a trap, and she catches Delsin, but Reggie rescues him with a grenade launcher . During the rescue of Eugene and the "Weasel", Augustine binds Reggie into concrete and throws him off the platform ^[17] . Despite Delsin’s attempts to save his brother, Reggie realizes that he cannot save him and asks Delsin to let him go. As a result, Delsin lets him go, and Reggie falls, saying that he is proud of his brother ^[18] . Angry and distraught, Delsin climbs onto the platform and battles Augustine, thus destroying the entire island ^[10] .

After the battle, Augustine fled to her headquarters Deza. Meanwhile, Delsin tracks down Hank in the port, where he escapes from the Deze forces. Hank apologizes to Delsin, also saying that he worked with Augustine because she could harm his daughter ^[19] . After the dialogue, the player is given a choice: either to release Hank and allow him to escape from Seattle with his daughter, or kill him. After this choice, Delsin, along with the "Weasel" and Eugene, attacks the DEZ headquarters. As soon as Delsin breaks through the roof, he meets Augustine and enters the fight. After the battle with her, Delsin absorbs her abilities and finds out that it was she who organized the escape of the Guides, and in order to find them, she created DEZ ^[20] . As a result, Delsin defeats Augustine with the help of her own abilities ^[21] .

If Delsin was a hero throughout the game, he does not kill Augustine, but reveals all her crimes to the world. She is arrested, and Deux is dissolved ^[22] . Delsin, Eugene and "Weasel" convince people that they will be peaceful. All Conductors released. After the battle, Delsin returns home and heals the members of his tribe ^[23] , and then walks up to the billboard from which the game started, and draws his brother Reggie on it ^[24] .

If Delsin was a villain, he kills Augustine and takes control of Seattle , along with Eugene and Weirdo. He frees all the Guides and absorbs their powers. When Delsin returns home, he is met by Betty, who is wheelchair bound, who expels him from the tribe for murder, bad deeds committed in Seattle, and for the dishonored honor of their loved ones, including ancestors and Reggie. Shocked and angry, Delsin destroys a house with a tribe, thereby killing the whole tribe, including Betty ^[25] .

Idea and participation in the creation of the PlayStation 4

Sucker Punch Productions started developing inFamous: Second Son at the time when the PlayStation 4 was still in development ^[26] . After completing work on the inFamous: Festival of Blood supplement, the studio immediately began to develop a new part in the inFamous series, the working title of which was inFamous 3 ^{[27] [28]} . Back in 2010, Sucker Punch and Sony began to discuss the idea of ​​continuing the series on a new platform ^[27] .

Sucker Punch was closely associated with the leading PlayStation 4 system architect, Mark Cerni , who visited the studio several times. They often discussed how much memory and time the new PlayStation system would need to visualize their open world and how quickly it could do it. "We had some experience that was useful for our team when we planned some aspects of hardware design," explained producer Brian Fleming. ^[28] He noted that during the development of the PlayStation 4 there was a large level of interactivity between system designers and game developers ^[27] .

Sucker Punch offered improvements that they would like to see on the DualShock 4 gamepad. The game's designer, Jamie Grizemer, went to Sony headquarters in Japan to discuss such improvements. Thus, a touchpad on a gamepad was invented (using the touchpad, the player emulates a fingerprint scanner) ^[27] .

It was assumed that inFamous: Second Son takes full advantage of the hardware of the future console, and will not be ported to the PlayStation 3 . The PS4 hardware allowed developers to improve the particle system , which more clearly and detailedly illuminates Delsin’s face while he charges the neon ability from billboards ^[26] and adds even clearer reflections in the game world ^[29] . The increased console memory allowed Sucker Punch to visualize textures with higher expansion and accuracy ^[27] . The studio also noticed that the simplified PS4 interface is so easy to use that they were able to achieve very high graphic quality ^[30] .

Over the game worked more than 110 developers, the number of which was considered small. Nate Fox , the main game designer of Infamous: Second Son , believed that working with a small team required a certain vision of the game ^[30] . Sometimes during development there were ideas that should have been thrown out for inconsistency with the original vision of the game. “We kill the sucker punch . It’s not easy, it’s necessary, ”said Fox ^[30] . The game is displayed in 1080p at 30 frames per second ^[31] .

Design

Sucker Punch decided to make the game in their native Seattle , as they wanted to extract their personal experience in the design of the open world ^[32] . In the early stages of developing Second Son , when the developers discussed where the game would take place, Seattle was most appreciated. Fleming said that before Second Son, Seattle was not featured in many games, so he would not be "bloated." He also felt that the weather of the city and the architecture would make it interesting ^[33] . The team conducted special field work in the nearby Seattle forests with audio and video equipment that were used to play the local flora and chirping sounds of itinerant thrushes . Sights of the city, like the Space-Needle , are the main feature of the game. The developers also licensed the logos and signs of enterprises. Gryzemer called the game world Second Son "an abstraction" of Seattle, rather than a re-creation, because the map did not match the gameplay of the game, and required the team to make the necessary changes ^[28] . The developers wanted to thematically explore the legacy of the Indian tribes of the Pacific North-West Seattle in the game ^[33] .

Designers used special graphic sliders in their game engine to determine the amount of water in the puddles on the streets. As in the present Seattle, the rain in the game is most often ^[28] . Light effects (such as neon light) along with reflections help bring color to the dark and rainy atmosphere of Seattle ^[26] . Thanks to the transition to PS4, Sucker Punch could make a more lively and detailed open world, unlike previous games in the series. “You better feel the city. You can see more. ”Said Grisemer ^[27] .

After the developers decided to make a game in Seattle, they also began to think about the abilities that Delsin would have. Neon lighting was added to the city to make the streets of Seattle “more beautiful”, and subsequently the developers decided to make neon with Delsin's ability, and neon signs as an energy source ^[28] . Animation director Billy Harper said that Delsin's “smoke” ability was very difficult to design, because Sucker Punch wanted the forces to look more realistic than in other games of the series ^[34] . Nate Fox believed that smoke helps Delsin to deftly move around the game world, allowing him to pass through people and enemies ^[34] . Grisemer (he worked with Bungie , who developed the Halo series of games) ^[35] wanted to bring Second Son to the maximum realism. Sucker Punch revised the control scheme of previous games in the series and “removed some of the complexity that prevented people from playing” ^[34] .

Grizemer stated that in all the games of the series there was the idea of ​​"modern elementary forces" taken from the game world ^[28] . Producer Brian Fleming noted that the graphic elements help inform players about the amount of energy that Delsin possesses. “This game is about super powers, so what matters to us is how the effects look.” The producer explained ^[29] . Fox believed that the similarity of the game world with Seattle helped the super powers look realistic ^[28] .

Character creation and development

The plot of Second Son is built on the Infamous 2 finale, in which Cole McGrath sacrifices himself to save humanity. A study of trophies on the PlayStation Network showed that 78% of the players chose this ending ^[34] . Therefore, the creators decided to create a new main character from scratch ^[32] . “Turning to the creation of Second Son , we said:“ Well, Cole is dead. People chose this final. Let's make a new hero. ”“ Explained Fox ^[34] . Grisemer felt that creating a new character for PS4 meant a new chapter in the series, and that moving away from the history of previous games would help them reach a new audience. “We needed a new chapter in the series. Delsin Row is the first step for her. ”- he explained ^[28] . The idea of ​​moving away from Cole’s history arose during the developer meetings and was confirmed both within the company and with Sony Computer Entertainment . “It will be a new equipment, a new platform, a new game, and we will have a new audience.” Gryzemer described his feelings ^[28] .

The heritage of the Native American Delsin stems from the research of the developers of the Pacific Northwest, where a large number of Indians live ^[28] . Delsin wears a red hat worn by Billy Harper in the studio. The character of the protagonist was taken from a street artist ^[36] . Harper considered Delsin to be a character “full of reckless dedication,” noting that he could jump off a cliff when he got his abilities ^{[36] [37]} .

Special equipment for motion capture was delivered to the studio. Fox helped guide the performances of the actors, but realized that they did not need the help of their roles. “You need to let them know what you need on stage,” he explained. ^[30] Fleming believed that motion capture adds authenticity to characters. “The ability to capture people from [Delsin] is a big deal,” said Fleming ^[29] .

Most of the NPCs inhabiting the game world have also been made using motion capture . The developers contacted the casting agency and asked their friends if they would like to appear as an NPC in the game. In three days more than 75 people came. They were put on chairs and ordered not to move and smile, so that a special high-definition digital camera captures the 3D model of their faces. The camera sent stroboscopic patterns to capture the volume and shape of each face. The 360-degree setting captures the moving bodies of the actors. Mannequins were also used to help capture a variety of clothing styles. The data collected from the cameras were used by designers to visualize digital models, each of which consisted of about 1.4 million polygons. To display the models in the game, the data was compressed by reducing the number of polygons ^[38] .

February 20, 2013, Sony held a conference in New York , at which it was announced on the PlayStation 4 ^[39] . Nate Fox appeared on the scene at the time of the conference and spoke about his participation in the anti-globalist protest in Seattle in 1999 ^[27] . He announced inFamous: Second Son and showed the debut trailer, in which a new main character appeared ^[40] . The demo version of the game was demonstrated at E3 2013 ^[41] . At this conference, called the release date of Second Son - March 21, 2014 ^[42] . On February 25, 2014, the game became completely finished ^[43] .

On March 8, it became known that the number of pre-orders for Second Son surpassed that of The Last of Us in the UK ^[44] . Two versions of the game were released: the pre-order of the regular game, and the pre-order of the game with the addition of Cole 's Legacy, which explains the relationship between the plots Infamous 2 and Infamous: Second Son . The collector's edition of the game includes eight icons from Delsin's vest, his hat and an exclusive game vest ^{[45] [46]} .

Downloadable Content

Paper Trail ( English Paper Trail ) is a free DLC with “alternate reality” functions. The story is divided into six parts, and it tells about a little girl Chelia, who has a “paper” ability ^[47] . Each part came out from March 28 every Friday. The final part was released on April 25, 2014.

At E3 2014 , the DLC was announced, positioned as a separate story, inFamous: First Light . The game was released on August 26, 2014. In First Light, the player controls Abigail "The Slick" Walker, who has a "neon" ability. The actions of this add-on occur before the events of the original. Unlike Second Son , First Light received mixed reviews ^{[48] [49]} .

inFamous: Second Son received "generally favorable" reviews, according to the site aggregator Metacritic , whose score is 80 points ^[50] .

Vince Inienito of IGN most highly praised the visual effects, as well as the open world, calling it “beautiful and diverse” ^[5] . Tom Mac Shy of Gamespot also called the visual effects "incredible" ^[56] . Eurogamer Oli Welch praised the game world of Second Son ^[54] . Tamur Hussein from Computer and Video Games magazine highly appreciated the graphics and lighting system: “[The game] is colorful, rich with all sorts of small details and the best visual effects we have seen on consoles,” he wrote ^[51] .

Mac Shea called the fights balanced and praised Delsin's dexterity and strength ^[56] . Chris Carter of Destructoid considered the simplicity of fights the main feature of Second Son ^[52] . Edge was delighted with the open world, noting that as soon as Delsin got his skills and reached Seattle , the game became very fun ^[53] . They felt that the enemies were smart, making the fights funny, and calling the mission “well thought out” ^[53] . IGN's inenito liked to use Delsin’s forces in battle and called each ability “strong enough” ^[5] . He also stated that improvements in Delsin’s abilities make fights “fresh” ^[5] . Philip Collard of Polygon preferred to use the “neon” ability, but at the same time praised the balance and diversity of forces ^[58] . He also praised the fights, calling them "damn fun" ^[58] . Eurogamer Oli Welch called the battles "imperfect but amusing" ^[54] .

Chris Carter of Destructoid called Delsine Row a more interesting character than the “wooden” Cole McGrath ^[52] . Vince Inienito of IGN thought that Delsin was a great hero because of the chemistry with his brother Reggie. He also called the play of Troy Baker "[imbued with] charm." He criticized “insufficiently disclosed” secondary characters, such as “Weasels,” and the narrative is too simple ^[5] . Edge Magazine stated that the characters acted well, despite the clichés ^[53] . Tom Mac Shi of Gamespot, on the other hand , called Delsine an annoying hero, also noticing that the gameplay was more interesting than he and his story ^[56] . Phillip Collard of Polygon was disappointed with the narration, despite the well-written characters ^[58] .

Edge and Eurogamer criticized the electoral system because, in their opinion, it does not have enough influence on the plot ^{[53] [54]} . Vince Inienito called the election “outdated,” and felt that making bad decisions greatly changed the character of Delsin ^[5] . He also stated that the election system was redundant because Delsin had either a good or evil style of play, instead of crossing between them ^[5] . Mack Shi of Gamespot said that the election system was too “binary” because there was no “moral zone” between good and evil ^[56] . Polygon Collard supported Mac Shih, also calling the binary system an election, adding that the elections were too polarized between good and evil ^[58] . The only one who praised the election system is Danny Cowan of Joystiq , calling it well balanced ^[57] .

Tom Mac Shy of Gamespot described the Seattle game as "a playground for you to go crazy" ^[56] . CVG 's Tamur Hussein called Seattle empty, with rarely changing NPCs behaving very unnaturally ^[51] . He also noted the lifelessness of the game world and made unfavorable comparisons with Grand Theft Auto V , Sleeping Dogs and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag , which, in his opinion, were more lively and open ^[51] . Eurogamer said that Second Son did not introduce any innovations in the open world genre ^[54] . Phillip Collard of Polygon felt that there was not enough diversity in missions and actions, since “all tasks are the achievement of a goal and the beating of a large number of soldiers and thugs” ^[58] . Edge noted a small amount of content and repetitive side quests ^[53] . Chris Carter of Destructoid, however, called the amount of different content sufficient, and he also enjoyed collecting fragments to improve the forces and free the city ^[52] .

InFamous: Second Son sales in the first nine days amounted to more than one million copies, making Second Son one of the best selling games on the PlayStation 4 , as well as the most sold game in the series ^[66] .

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Sources

• Official site