Saturday 14 November 2015

LO1 Game Analysis of Infamous Second Son - 8/10

Infamous Second Son - Tested on the PlayStation 4 Platform

The genre of this game is action-adventure game. This game is a 3rd person based game that allows you to take control of the protagonist, set in an open world for you to explore over the city of Seattle in a democratic-esque setting. It shows stylistic conventions of the genre by the player being able to take control of the protagonist. Also the game contains power ups and traits that can be upgraded, and decisions that can be made that effect the development of the story and influence certain mission objectives. It stands out to other games in the genre, as it focuses on a man with super human capabilities known as “Conduits” this gives the player a more interactive and interesting experience in comparison to other games.

The game directly leads on from the end of the last game, “Infamous 2” where the protagonist Cole McGrath, stops a viral infection that would kill the whole population but save the conduits, therefore killing all conduits in the process. Between the events of these two games the conduits have risen again and for their own safety have been locked up by the antagonist called Brooke Augustine who is a conduit herself who wields the power of rock. The protagonist, Delsin Rowe attempts to put a stop to her wrath and free conduits and create equality all and show the public who the real threat is. The story heavily informs your gameplay, it makes you very hostile towards incoming characters and enemies depending on your chosen decisions and play styles. The story directly connects the target audience, as the target audience is generally fans of the genre and teenagers. It would connect with teenagers because the protagonist is a young adult and is seen as a role model, even though the player doesn’t go through the problem of having super human capabilities and having a whole country hunting you down, it’s the inspirational way in which he dealt with his problems dead on without any hesitation.

Sucker Punch Productions started development of the game when the PlayStation 4 console was still in production. Teams from the production of the game had help in designing the PlayStation 4 itself. The new hardware let the particle system that helps light up Delsin’s face when he uses his neon powers.  The increased memory bandwidth help the game designers render the characters with a higher fidelity. The game was designed with the feel that the protagonist would feel weightlessness and therefore this influenced the combat in the game to be more fluent and clean. Also it helped the player to control the player more easily with more control, making it seem more realistic.


The main characters are; Delsin Rowe the protagonist, Brooke Augustine the antagonist, Reggie Rowe the brother, Fetch an assailant. These characters are essential to the players experience and the story development, how the characters interact with each other presents their personalities and play styles. These characters are relevant to the target audience as most of them are teens to young adults which would relate to the target audience.  The characters relate directly to the conventions of the genres, being that every character has a back story and development, and also that the characters influence the story’s development. I feel in terms of the strength of the characters and their relevance to the stories progression, they are very strong, the characters present in the game are very original and possess very instinctive personalities.


The challenge in the game is to collect the tools needed to upgraded your traits and gain new power capabilities. But the main challenge of the game is to fight the opposition with a certain level of stealth and skill and variety of skills and melee. There are different difficulty levels in the game, ranging from easy to difficult, so the difficulty that is picked is based on the players play style, depends on if the player prefers a challenge or not. The best gameplay aspects of the game are definitely without a doubt the combat and super human capability aspect and the movement aspect. The gameplay is directly linked to the narrative as the story entails the protagonist having conduit powers fighting for freedom, which is presented in the gameplay. The game is constantly evolving to keep the players attention by; releasing new DLC’s to develop the narrative and character development, as well as constant updates and bug fixes to make the sure the gameplay is as smooth and interesting as possible.

The target audience is generally fans of the action-adventure genre, so anything that shows stylistic conventions of the genre would appeal to that specific target audience. Also the main target audience is teenagers, which links to the protagonist being a young adult which lets the player sympathise and connect with him. The game appeal directly to the target audience with the protagonist going on an adventure full of action, with the main character having superpowers, its everyone’s dream to have super powers, it’s a chance for everyone to relive their childhood. If other games of the genre are trying to appeal to the same target audience, they show stylistic conventions of the genre. The game stands out to other games in the genre by presenting superpowers in a successful way, other games are more realistic.


The game is available on the PlayStation 4 platform only. It is suited to this platform as the company that produced the game helped with the making of the PlayStation 4 system, to enhance the gameplay for their game. The online capabilities of the PlayStation 4 system allow the console to link to the internet and present exclusive expansions. Also there is a microphone and speaker on the controller, allowing the player to take part in phone calls, and the touch pad is pressed down to absorb energy for the protagonist’s powers.

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