@crimsontadpoles Congratulations, and good to hear it makes for a fitting end to the trilogy! I'm eagerly awaiting my shot at it, come June (or thereabouts). Which of the new levels was your favourite?
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@Th3solution Thanks for reminding me I've still got Death Stranding to play. I was wondering what I was going to play next. As soon as the second hand shops open again I'm grabbing a copy.
Good job, Parappa. You can go on to the next stage now.
@crimsontadpoles Awesome. I'd heard mixed reactions towards the final level, so it's good to know you've come down on the positive side of the fence. And initially disliking a level, only to grow to love it during later replays, is a sign of some classic Hitman design!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
Didn't think I'd finish it so quickly, but I got myself hooked on inFAMOUS 2 enough to finish its story late last night, and I've just finished tidying up the map... well, not entirely finished, but finished enough. Got myself to 50% trophies and, for a game about binary choices in which I stuck with a puritanical one-sided playthrough, I feel like that's a fitting statistic to walk away with.
It's definitely an effective case study in an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach to sequel design. Its refinements felt familiar, yet new and exciting at the same time, and the sheer amount of combat options never became overwhelming (although it does suffer from a common open-world sandbox problem of giving you really useful abilities far too late in the day to... well, to be actually useful). I also loved its self-aware sense of humour, which was incredibly subtle but welcome after the first game's relatively level-headed take on a superhero origin story. Characters and scenarios made me smile a heck of a lot more, from having to attack a rampaging kaiju to just chillin' with Zeke, beer in hand.
In fact, I'd call the story Zeke's redemption arc, and it really worked. I didn't like him in the first game, at all, so he faced an uphill struggle here, but he made it. I also adored Kuo (in that rare, "Am I really sure I like guys?" kinda way) and that made the game's final series of plot twists slightly maddening, if not totally understandable. As for Cole, he was a good protagonist; likeable enough, but deliberately kept vague so that the player could swing freely between Good and Bad Karma. Because of this, I can't criticise the writers for not nailing down his personality a little more.
I instantly hated Nix, despite her being portrayed by one of my all-time favourite voice actors. Even though I'd resolved to play the hero, her presence as the Bad Karma avatar made avoiding a darker path ridiculously easy, and removed the element of choice from many of the game's moral dilemmas (which were pretty cut-and-dry anyway, at least to begin with). I would've preferred some tangible temptation with real grey areas, but I suppose this isn't Mass Effect.
Overall, a marked improvement over the original and, at least speaking from my own range of experiences, one of the PS3's best sandbox superhero games. I loved the setting, the tone, the gameplay and a majority of the characters... oh, and great music, too. Really looking forward to booting up inFAMOUS: Second Son in the near future, although I still have the standalone spin-off Festival of Blood to play on PS3 first. I gather it's only a couple hours' worth of a distraction, so I might get to that in a couple weeks and use it as a stepping stone to the PS4 games.
Here's where I tag @Th3solution as promised, and cut this off before it becomes a full review!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger Wow, you've been ploughing through all these older inFamous games, so you can finally play Second Son? Isn't that the result of a few people here on the forums recommending you that game about three years ago?
Good to see you're going through the series. I am really curious what you think of Second Son. From what I remember Festival of Blood isn't really that special. But maybe I'm only saying that because I haven't thought about that game for the last 10 years.
@Kidfried Why yes, yes it is. Slow and steady wins the race!
I purchased them all, and played the first one, back in 2019 and I'm ashamed to admit it's taken me this long to play its sequel, through no fault of its own (probably because I ended up playing and loving multiple Spider-Man games, which share a lot of gameplay DNA). I made finishing the series one of my New Year's resolutions because I felt bad about abandoning it.
Yeah, that seems to be the consensus on Festival of Blood. I think it's a horror-based expansion, which was in fashion at the time (same as Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare).
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger Really great impressions on Infamous 2, and thanks for the tag! I’m glad it was overall a positive experience and your thoughts are on par with what I remember from years ago. I didn’t play Festival of Blood, but still am curious if/when you play it to know how you get along with it.
As you say, the series doesn’t exactly trailblaze and innovate much, but I’m sure you’ll feel the biggest bump in evolution when you play Second Son. Same recipe, but a little different personality as well as better polish on the gameplay. I’m worried about Troy Baker’s Delsin grating on you, so be warned, but if you can get past the infinitely more annoying Zeke (yes, he’s one of my least favorite video game characters, but better in this second game, as you stated) then I feel like you’ll be able to get past some of the Baker shenanigans. Protagonist is what makes the standalone expansion First Light an actually better Infamous game, in my opinion. Anyways, I’ll stop short so as to not inadvertently influence you negatively, because all in all I think I liked Second Son better than either of the first two games, which is substantial praise.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution No problemo. I'll try and remember to do the same for Festival of Blood (although the announcement of yet another remastered Star Wars game coming in early April just tossed a thermal detonator into my meticulous schedule, so it might not be right away).
Yeah, when I found out Troy Baker was the voice of Delsin Rowe, I did recoil slightly. I appreciate the heads-up all the same, and I'm sure I'll still be able to enjoy the experience if the gameplay is there, and its events lead towards First Light, which I'm really keen to try (because you're not the only person I've heard praise its protagonist). I still wouldn't call Zeke a particularly "good" character overall, but if they can at least make him tolerable in the space of a single release, I'll hold out some hope!
@colonelkilgore Hey, there's always some common ground somewhere! It's real easy to see why you'd prefer this game over Arkham City (and I say that as a huge bat-fan).
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@Th3solution I thought I would tag you as I believed we were discussing it...
I beat Heavy Rain this morning! I actually loved it by the end, I loved all the characters in it and also the setting. I do wonder if I'll enjoy the next two games as much if they lose the cast and setting because they seem to be my main takeaway from the game. As opposed to what I said earlier, I probably would play heavy rain again in the future or at least watch someone else play it if I can rope them in to doing it so I can see how differently the game might play out with someone else behind the wheel
The only thing I didn't like were the controls, the tank controls were a bit awkward and the motion controls were frustrating. Some bits of motion control was a lot worse than others, namely the gyrating hips of Madison Paige (not the worse bit to get stuck on except for the background music that blares out sex noises which is quite embarrassing 😅) and Madison riding the motorcycle at the end which I was unable to force my way through so I ended up holding the DS4 completely flat to get through it - awkward when you are playing the game in bed!(put in tags because in not sure if those bits are choice dependent). I did look up the motion controls and there was some anecdotal evidence that suggested that they didn't work as well in the PS4 version of the game in comparison to the PS3 version.
Anyway, apart from those small grievances, I loved the game and I would highly recommend it! I'll be highlighting that one as a "to buy" sometime in the future game on my PS Plus list instead of a "done" and dusted game.
I know I already "beat" the original Devil May Cry last week but I decided to try and at least get through it on the hard difficulty too before calling it quits with the title (for now at least). Especially after I found out you unlock Sparda as a playable character for a new game upon beating it at that setting.
Good lord I can only imagine what the final difficulty setting of "Dante Must Die" is like! Only 3% of people who've played DMC have beaten hard mode and I can bloody see why! Never again! Those boss fights against Nightmare at the end were pure... well... hell! Normal it is for me! (Which ain't exactly a walk in the park) 😂
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy well I’ve been ‘concerned’ that chasing the plats on the majority of the DMC series will be tough... therefore your comment doesn’t surprise me but I am even ‘more’ aware of that DMD difficulty playthru.
If you manage to beat the first DMC @colonelkilgore on DMD mode I'll salute you on your prowess Mr Gameplay King!
DMC 2 is quite easier in general (No doubt due to the VERY troubled production it had) so it's probably the most achievable of the lot to get the plat for? I'm not a trophy hunter in the slightest though so I wouldn't really know.
@ralphdibny I enjoyed Heavy Rain after initially bouncing off it because of the tank and motion controls. And having the identity of the Origami Killer revealed in a magazine article. I only completed after playing the later two games, and the controls do get a bit better with each game. Although I do remember the hand to hand combat and a stealth section being problematic in Beyond Two Souls. Do you plan on playing the other two as well? They have both been offered as part of the service in previous months.
Forgive my ignorance, but you are planning to buy some games you've already completed that you got through PS Plus? Is that for collection purposes?
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy appreciated foxy, I am due to start DMC in Feb next year so I’ll be sure to tag you in my progress (or lack thereof) when I do so. I do love a challenge though!
@JohnnyShoulder I got the Origami Killer spoiled too, just after finishing the baby sequence. Totally killed my feelings about the game and I lost the motivation to play more as I had totally taken to that certain character.
@JohnnyShoulder ah that's a shame about the killer being revealed early for you, I think it was a genuine surprise for me and I am not surprised easily. It's annoying to get a spoiler on something like this because it really is an integral part of the story, I think enjoyment can come from a replay but you might not want to replay it if you didn't take that initial journey without it being spoiled.
Yeah i'm definitely going to play the other two, probably with a few different games in between though. In terms of buying the games, its probably a bit of both replaying and collecting. I would say that having played them, they are not on my priority list to purchase. It may be some years down the line when I decide to get around to buying them. There might be a couple ps3 titles like Darkstalkers Resurrection that I will buy when my sub lapses just so I don't have to worry about it getting randomly taken off the PS Store while I have an active sub and am unable to buy it.
@nessisonett@JohnnyShoulder@ralphdibny Heavy Rain is a great game, and the controls do get significantly better in Detroit (can’t speak for Beyond TS) as well as just the whole package being a lot better. The characters in it will still win you over most likely, even though they are different and the setting is completely unique.
As for the Origami Killer, I fortunately didn’t have it spoiled and it was quite a surprising gut punch to me when playing the game. It was well done, especially for the time and yes - I only played the PS3 version so I wasn’t aware the controls were even worse on the PS4 version! That’s too bad. But I do remember all the memes about having to contort your hands into these crazy awkward positions in order to hold down multiple buttons in sequence. 😂 So yeah, they cleaned most of that up for Detroit.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution ahh I loved that guy so much, he seemed so genuine in how much he cared about all the people he visited and he was so bad ass when he shot up that mansion full of thugs! I know bits of this were partially me controlling it but he seemed like a genuine stand up guy! Who could have known that all of those actions were just part of his profile as a serial killer? It makes sense after the fact having watched so much X files and Millennium in my life, sometimes the killers do like to have a hero complex where they act all concerned and appear to help out the surviving people who suffered from their actions.
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