Infamous Second Son Gameplay Trailer Impressions (with Pictures!)

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Just some of my thoughts on the Infamous Second Son 6 minute gameplay trailer. As you may know, the character you play as is named Delsin Rowe, it looks like he has an older brother hence the subtitle “Second Son”. First thing that I noticed is that there is no “aiming mode” like in the previous games so the player can just run around shooting enemies without the need to hold down a button (L1 in Infamous One and Two). This affects the camera because now it no longer zooms in and Delsin is always in the middle of the screen and he only switches the hand he fires from depending on the angle he shoots at.

The next thing that we see is something completely new, Delsin can sneak up to enemies and knock them unconscious, effectively taking them out before the fight even begins. Delsin then does a “Blink Strike” ability (teleporting a short distance to catch up and attack an enemy) behind the remaining guard without them being able to get a shot off. The enemies that Delsin faces in the trailer are just regular soldiers, and they barely pose a threat because you have superpowers. There is one other type of enemy that they show, an enemy that can jump around by manipulating the ground below them to gain momentum and gain some distance from the player similar to the Vermaak 88 (the ice PMC dudes from Infamous 2).

Where Cole used his fists, and then the “Amp”, Delsin seems to be using a faster weapon with his “Smoke Chains”. When he attacks uses a melee attack he quickly takes out chains, I assume these are made of smoke because of how quickly he can take them out and put them away, and hits his enemies with quick powerful hits. The trailer does not show whether or not he has the melee “finishers” that Cole did in Infamous Two (gain charges for every time you hit an enemy then press triangle to do a finisher), however with or without them Delsin seems to be a force to be reckoned with when he gets up close and personal.

They seem to have made a compromise between the “basic” projectile attack between Infamous One and Two. Where Cole in Infamous One had a “Lightning Bolt” that hit an enemy instantly as long as they were in range and you had your crosshair on them. Cole in Infamous Two had a sort of “Ball Lightning” attack with a set projectile speed making it a bit more difficult to hit moving targets. Delsin in Second Son seems to have a mix of the two, with a much quicker projectile speed (it may even be an instant hit) with his “Smoke Bolt”, he can also charge this bolt up to create a similar effect that we see with the “Megawatt Hammer” where it will explode on contact with a destructive force.

Delsin can climb up walls and other pieces of the environment just as Cole can, whether or not this means he has training in parkour or whether he can do this because of his superpowers is irrelevant like this sentence, he can climb that's what matters. Delsin hovers just like Cole can, the only difference being that Delsin uses fire and smoke instead of static electricity. One major difference is that Delsin has a way to have sustained flight. Remember that Delsin can turn into smoke, well he can do this in midair while hovering. He can hover, turn into smoke to gain a bit of altitude and momentum, depending on whether turning into smoke requires energy or not, you could essentially fly forever.

There are destructible environments in Second Son, Delsin can use multiple quick basic smoke bolts to destroy the environments or he can use his charge shot to destroy them in seemingly one hit. The player can destroy many things, cameras that alert the enemy to your location, bridges that connect watchtowers that enemies cross, the watchtowers themselves, explosive canisters, and even cover that the enemies as well the player can use.

The last bit of combat that the trailer shows is of Delsin using one of his “ultimate” abilities. The ability they show is of him flying up into the air, then crashing down in a spectacular explosion of fire. He calls in a tactical airstrike, except that HE is the airstrike. The explosion takes out all the remaining guards, as well as completely destroying the armored trucks that have just arrived on scene.

The thing that excites me the most about this trailer is that we're shown that this city is beautiful and that it has a lot of color. In Infamous One, it starts off with an explosion that destroys the city, and when you start the game the city is completely broken, there is desolation and death everywhere and you're struggling to survive. In Infamous Two they take you to a city that is in the middle of recovering from a huge flood (remember that New Marais is based off of New Orleans), so in the earlier games it made some sense that there wasn't much in the way of color. In Second Son however, it seems this may not be the case, the city in the trailer is colorful and it has not been destroyed (yet).

That said, we were shown very little about the game, we were shown that they have learned from the earlier games, we were shown that there will be new powers and a lot more destruction. What we were not shown is how many more powers Delsin will be able to unlock, whether or not smoke is the only thing he has available to him (some speculate he can absorb other conduits powers), how the karma system will work (if there is one), whether the story will have a branching story, how they will handle side quests, and how the citizens will interact with Delsin seeing as how, as a Conduit, he will be labelled a bio-terrorist.

All in all the trailer has made me very excited and hopeful for what's to come, and I am looking forward to just flying around the city, especially if the city is colorful, and alive. Anyway these are just my thoughts, leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments . (Had to reupload, accidentally deleted it )