[Update]: And my playtime is over! I'll be sure to add the saved broadcast shortly.
[Original]: Infamous: Second Son features Delsin Rowe and several awesome powers, but the question remains: will he wield them for good or for evil? Combat and third-person shooting dominate his clashes with the D.U.P. or the Department of Unified Protection, but never fear, GR is here. And we've got tips for your Seattle adventure:
Make a choice and stick with it
Sucker Punch likes to play with your sense of morality. Delsin gets specific moves tied to his actions in-game so if you wanna play dirty, you can headshot, blow up, and generally tear society down around you. If you play clean people cheer for you in the streets and Delsin's friends develop into happier people as the city does. But do one or the other, not both.
Save the other choice for your second playthrough. Try both in the earliest parts of the game since Second Son makes each Karma opportunity really obvious. You get upgrades associated to your Karma balance, so choose one and level it up to get all of those abilities. You'll have an opportunity to switch at the end and give the city a love-hate relationship with Delsin, but make sure to go all one way first as the high level karma bombs are really cool and very powerful.
Upgrade Endless Speed in the Neon powers tree immediately
You'll use Neon quite a lot. I explained why it's my favorite power in our review, but hell, I'll talk about it more anyway. Neon looks cool, sounds cool, and mechanically it's really satisfying to see Deslin fly up vertical walls. You might get frustrated running into overhanging umbrellas or balconies, but as you get used to the powers and districts, you'll know when to switch Neon out.
Regardless, once you do get the neon power, purchase the Endless Speed upgrade as soon as possible to give yourself even bigger leaps, dashes, and launches with the Photon Jump maneuver. Neon is easily one of the coolest super powers I never knew I wanted.
Lazer focus your karma
I loved using Neon to lasso enemies for good karma. I never wanted to give the power up because it offered such quick disposal of DUP forces but once you get the Neon ability set in the first half of the story, make sure to use it to unlock karmic upgrades in smoke and other powers you obtain later on.
You can head shot enemies with neon to gain bad karma, but you can also get an upgrade in your smoke abilities that lets you stun enemies with a headshot. After that you can close the gap and subdue the enemy for good karma. Between smoke and neon you can headshot or legshot your way to good and bad karma, so aim carefully.
Leave the district completions for end game.
Don't try to collect everything. Don't bother rushing through to the next story point. Explore and unlock lots of upgrade points and karma points by defeating the DUP throughout Seattle. Just play. Just have fun first. Don't force yourself to do any one thing or to obsessively clear a district before you move on. Explore and run and jump and climb all over the city because that's the best way to enjoy everything Second Son has to offer.
I liked rooting out big flight patterns using smoke powers, dashing from sky scraper to vent to eventually land near a neon sign. Once you get a feel for neon, try running the subway tracks. Complete objectives as you stumble on them throughout the city. Once you finish the story it'll be really easy to mop up the remaining missions and DUP for 100% completion.
Mix up your combat strategies, but whittle bosses down with missiles
When you run into a boss, it's time to start shooting. Some of the bosses are introduced in a cool way, but if you fail you get sent back to a point where the boss had more health, even if you had been blasting away for a while. Every other piece of combat requires a lot of varied strategies, but you can use missiles on bosses almost exclusively. They use up a lot of power that you could use in all-out combat with weaker enemies. Mix up blasting, trapping, and slashing the little guys, but fire all of your heavy missiles at the boss. Then recharge your powers and do it again until you bring the bigger baddie down.
If you've found something cool or have a tip to share for your fellow superheroes exploring Seattle, share it in the comments!
Watch open-world gameplay above, then use these tips for map completion
- When you're looking for an audio recording, be sure to check vertically as the point likes to start you away and below the recording's location.
- If you're trying to lasso a secret D.U.P. agent, just wait for them to exit a concrete dash and then fire on them with either a missile or your standard shots. That's the fastest way to stop a fleeing agent as more often than not they dodge your melee attacks.
- Do drug busts or other karma-building activities before you go after a D.U.P. check point or mobile command station. Once you've got your Karma bomb all built up, you can unleash it and make short work of big enemy encounters.
- The Karma bombs also work wonders on final encounters, as you'll see in the gameplay at the top of this page.
- The map is really easy to use, so make your life easier as you hunt for upgrade shards and more. Simply hit the Options button and more often than not the map screen will already be open. You don't need to proceed further in the menu, just move your cursor, place the next marker, and get back to the action.
- Switch up your powers. The game will get boring fast otherwise. There's tons and tons of stuff to do after you finish the story in Infamous: Second Son, so make sure to experiment and upgrade all of your abilities as you go.
- Look for some easter eggs! I found a Sly Cooper grafitti tag in Seattle. What can you find?
- Use your area-of-effect attacks like the neon stasis field. This will make short work of grunts which will allow you to move on to the bigger enemies with less incoming fire.
- Have fun! Infamous: Second Son features some truly awesome open-world traversal mechanics. Which power is your favorite?
