Casual Shinji said:
Did they need to incorperate an entirely new set of powers just for more pinpoint accuracy or faster attacks? Why no, because inFAMOUS 2 gave you certain versions of your already existing powers that you could switch on the fly. Want sticky grenades or ice grenades? You decide. Want to throw cars or launch yourself into the air with Ice Launch? It's up to you. Just highlight what power you want to use and it's ready to go. Case in point, in inFAMOUS 2 you had the regular lightning bolt attack, the precision shot, and the rapid fire lightning. Ready to be switched out whenever you so chose. In Second Son you have 3 entire "seperate" powers just for those attacks, which you have to run around and find approriate energy sources for just to switch up.
Sure, I'm not saying that Second Son's (for some reason, using the short - SS just feels wrong) is strictly better than system in InF 2, because I liked that one as well, I'll admit - even more, because it was more convenient (I hoped that adding new powers will let me switch at any time, or even have both at the same time) but the point of my post was to counter your statement, that new powers don't stand out, and don't add anything, when... Yeah thy do. The way I see this is - Cole was a Jack of All Trades, but master of none, which was cool. I liked it. Delsin is a master of 3 tactics, so you can either specialize in one, or try to master all of them and pick one most suitable for the job, and run away and switch for the more appropriate one if you were wrong and things went south... Which for me is also respectable in completely other way.
And then there's the bullshit process of having to upgrade each ability of a new power from scratch. Even the frikking energy bar.
Okay, I imagine it might be a problem. I didn't see it, because I have a habit of doing EVERYTHING side-quest related before going for the main plot, so, whenever I got a new power I had enough shards to instantly power it up to the max level. But yeah, I guess that's a fair point.
Yeah, that's fun for about 10 minutes. Then you realize there's no effort to it at all, and that it takes away the size and scope of every building. The fun of traversing the world in the first two games was that you had to work at it. You couldn't just press a button and instantly run up a building, you had to more carefully maneuver yourself. Going for those power cables, gaining speed to jump and grab enough air to cath the next one. You could screw up, but when you succeeded it felt amazing. Sort of how a videogame should be. In Second Son you press dash infront of an air vent and you zap to the top in a millisecond. Neon dash, and you run up any structure in no time. Video dash, and you fly up a building with ease. No effort, instant win.
Well, I can counter that with a similar argument - yes, timing jumps, glides, slides etc felt very rewarding (ok, I miss slides from previous games, that should be in Second Son in somewhere, Rule of Cool etc) when you did it right... For the first few times. Then, when you are hunting for collectibles, and going for missions which are miles away, and it's the only way to travel the map in any decent speed, they become routine, lose their awesomness pretty quick, and when you do screw up (and you will, probably more often than you want), then you're starting to be frustrated, because you lost all your momentum, and you have to climb this building AGAIN, because it's still faster to do it and try to catch the wind again, rather than going through half of the map on foot.
Sure, difficult things that feel amazingly rewarding when you do them right is a cool thing in games. And this game have it in spades - in combat. Health pool is pretty low, so you just can't go gung-ho on the enemy, and instead have to pick your strategy based on power you have mastered, power you currently have, and power that would be most useful in this situation - and then act accordingly. Personally, clearing some of the district showdowns, when they sent bigger number of super-enemies against you felt amazing, when I used all of my arsenal from one different power, than on the verge of dying, dashed away to another power source, to refill the power AND ammo for another set and finished the job.
My bottom line is this - it's fine to travel in style, but when I'm investing x hours in a game, at some point I WILL want to do it efficiently because going from place to place in minutes instead of seconds at some point WILL start to be a waste of time, especially when you notice, that you have maybe 20 minutes before you have to go to work or wherever. And so, fast ways to travel across the town should be there to help you if you need them. I mean, you don't have to even use it, just stick to the smoke powers, and time double-dashes and glides to do it anyway (yes, you can still bypass the entire climbing part by air vents... But no, climbing a 20-story building instead is not more challenging/rewarding/fun, unless getting there was the whole concept. It's tedious and busy work, especially in this series, where climbing isn't a puzzle like in say Catherine, or even AC's biggest cathedrals if we're looking for sandbox examples, and to be honest animation always looked pretty shit. Both Cole and Delsin climb like they weigh nothing, which for some reason damaged my willing suspension of disbelief more than any of the supernatural stuff going on). Super powered fast ways of travel were great in Saint's Row IV, and they are great in here.
And again, no blast shard hunting or even dead drops. Everything is marked on the map the instant you take out the enemy headquarters. No stunts to try and take out enemies creatively for extra EXP. And whoever decided to reset your Overdrive gage whenever you defeat an enemy counter to the currently filled out karma needs to get fired. And the missions were just boring as all hell.
Almost total agreement. Dead Drops were pretty cool, and there should be a better way to fill your overdrive... But I cannot agree with the missions, which IMO were pretty cool (come one, dashing/gliding with your wings to squeak in and land on the cargo carried by the choppers was great), and... Blast Shard Hunting? You really are serious? I got a platinum trophy in both InFamous 1 and 2 [http://psnprofiles.com/Yossarian1507], and GOD,the guy who placed all of the shard locations on map, or at least pointed out the general direction to seek them (in InF 2) deserves a medal. I spent fucking hours in InF 1 looking for that last one little blast shard, that just HAD to be hidden on the top of a crane near the port, so its color on the map was almost the same as the water, so you can easily miss it. There is a fine line between a challenge, and pointless search, and InF 1 definitely crossed the line in the wrong direction. GTA III and Vice City with their packages were obnoxious, and blast shards in InF 1 were obnoxious as well. In game help with finding collectibles is not a bad thing, at least you can do it right without pulling your hair out or consulting gamefaqs, whichever you feel is less humiliating.
