Showing posts with label Infamous: Second Son. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Infamous: Second Son. Show all posts

5.27.2014

Just finished "Infamous: Second Son"...



























...both Evil and Good paths (in that order).

Here's some hot, sweaty reactions.


Three games in, and they have yet to make one with any replayability.

One thing I absolutely love is the accessibility: aside from the Space Needle, you can climb anything in a matter of seconds. No fucking around with Assassins'-Creed-style yearning looks upward*; unless you get stuck under an awning, then you're as helpless as a fly in a jar.

I understand why they didn't put more effort into the Paper Trail DLC, which is, for the most part really fascinating and fun (thanks to 42 Entertainment handling the web integration stuff), and does a great job of expanding the universe and the story: I imagine the number of people that will finish the game, let alone engage in something that goes beyond the game is dishearteningly small. I, on the other hand, have only ever left one game unfinished. Hopefully we'll see some compromise with this type of line-blurring in the future.

I wish my first reaction hadn't have been "can't wait for the sequel". 
But seriously, I can't wait for the sequel; wire, glass and paper conduits?
Dag.
Although, as I typed the above sentence, I realized that, if someone knocked at my door and said, here you go, here's the next Infamous game, I probably wouldn't both for a while as, I'm pretty burnt out after playing it twice.
Once was a bit of a stretch, quite frankly.
I found this true of Infamous 1 and 2 and, more recently, of the entire Assassins' Creed franchise. I finally ground my way through AC3, only to hear that AC4 is the good one, but I'm probably not even going to look at that until the 2015 AC game(s) are out, if then.

A bit let down by the concrete power and the timing of it, but, then again, how do you do that? You need it for the last boss, but then the game is over.
Another tear shed for replayability.

I also liked that each blast shard was necessary**, no pointless collectibles this time around.

Didn't really see that many morality choices, five in all, I believe. And they were less evil andmore selfish.

As for the protagonist being a Native American and the tiny handfuls of Indian stuff in the story, I would have given more of a shit if there had been more of it, but, if there had been more of it, I would have probably ended up complaining about how I don't care about the indian stuff.
Make sense?

Going back to the discrepancy between investment and reward with Paper Trail, I get it, but, as for Cole's Legacy, the DLC that's supposed to connect the first two games and the world in which all three take place, they should have absolutely done more.
And Zeke is still worthless and annoying.

On the whole, the game felt short. Although the first two games felt too long at times. That's always the rub, isn't it? I need to remember that, just because this is the next-generation not everything is going to be bigger and longer and more detailed...but it kind of should be, shouldn't it?
It should be longer and bigger and more nuanced than last generation's iteration.

As far as the graphical style, video was my favorite power; if it had the traversal ability of neon, it would be my preferred overall. 

I found all the boos fights annoying, although the set up and look at your battle with the angels was pretty stellar.
Thinking back, I don't think I've ever enjoyed an Infamous boss fight.

Story beats were all pretty predictable too. Although Delsin destroying his tribe at the end of the Evil playthrough was a nice, personal, dark touch.
That was kind of the only time I really felt he was evil. The worst you did before that was strangling a guy who had totally double-crossed him and who had gotten his brother killed.

I also like that the powerless segments are only a minute or two at their longest and that you're never in a place without a power source, although going again back to how shitty concrete is…


This was my first "made only for the PS4" game, and, while some parts of it look utterly stunning, overall, it felt less like a new generation, and more like a room I've been in since 2006 with a fresh coat of paint on the walls.
Still waiting for that jaw dropping moment when I'm reminded, again, that I'm living in the future.

And now, after a few more moments of expectation mitigation, I'm going to pop in Watch_Dogs***.
And, no, I will not be enabling Random Asshole Invasion mode. 
Sorry.





* God damn does that make it hard to believe you're part of a millennia-old brotherhood of crazy assassins...

** Compared to their use in the first two games anyway.

*** If I don't use the underscore, I could be arrested.

5.13.2014

Soundboarding with myself regarding Watchdogs

Going to blurt for a second about Watchdogs.
So...I really do like the look and idea of this game. There appears to be a hell of a lot of depth and it looks stunning...but...I'm blasting my way through Infamous: Second Son at the moment, and, while it's not the same game, it is a city sandbox game. Then there's the fact that, of all these nuances and features and everything, how much am I actually going to use?
Street races?
Fuck street races. The last thing I ever want to do in a GTA-style game is have to drive somewhere while there's a fucking clock on my screen.
Multiplayer that allows those assholes I try to keep myself insulated from access to my game? In order to fuck with me? Who in the fuck would want something like that in their game?* Imagine trying to finish a report at work when some guy walked into your cubicle and kept farting.
Now pay money for that.
Boom, you've just experienced Watchdogs multiplayer.
Plus, everything we've seen that looks amazing thus far has been PC, something that does not apply to me, the dialogue in this sounds like the worst kind of tripe and these characters look as generic as humanly possible. In fact, more so, I feel like the big reveal is that a computer designed these generic-ass characters based on an amalgam of generic-ass characters.
Is this just Ubisoft dressing up a turd in HD?

In the end, it's only a $60 expenditure and I've reached a point in my life where $60 is not going to make or break me, but, just because I can spend the money, does that mean I should? There's also the PS4 drought at the moment.
I want to be in the next generation, but, so far, nothing has felt that next-gen. Second Son does look really gorgeous, specifically the streets and all the power effects, especially the third one that you get, I love the style, but it just looks like a really beautiful coat of paint on the walls of a room I've been in for almost ten years.
I'm sure I'm not the only person lamenting this and I know we're going to have to wait until 2015 to maybe see something that actually drops our collective nerd jaws, but...I don't know...Veruca Salt.

Hm.
You know how, when you're stuck between two things, sometimes you'll flip a coin? You know how, more advanced thinkers will choose which side they want and then just go with that as their choice because the fact that they chose that means it was what they preferred?
I feel like this little ramble has served as that.
Thanks, no one!





* Players of Demon's Souls, Dead Souls and Dead Souls 2, please put down your erections.