InFamous Second Son has arrived

So here it is, the PS4's  InFamous Second Son has arrived.

InFamous Second Son might be set in a new city, Seattle (home of developers Sucker Punch). But there's plenty that fans of the original will find familiar.

Infamous has never enjoyed the success and pomp of other PlayStation exclusives such as Gran Turismo or Uncharted, because even though the games have been sound, they have lacked vivid characters and have had poor visuals.

Fans will be pleased to know that Infamous Second Son addresses these issues from the off. The open world lay-out of Seattle is beautiful and although obviously not as large as the real city, all of the major landmarks are there to see. The title uses vivid colours to contrast against that of the drab dullness of government forces - The DUP (Department Of Unified Protection).

The main character is a mouthy, deep down good guy, street artist named Delsin Rowe. It was refreshing that the powers are not given to a character with atortured soul and a gravely voice. Instead Delsin seems to enjoy obtaining his powers and wielding them like a kid in a sweet shop and this rubs off on the player.

The supporting cast is also equally strong and you need Reggie (Delsin's brother) who is a cop or sheriff or highway patrol guy to help you lie low and to not always wield your new found God like powers in public.

Basically, the plot of the game sees Delsin head to Seattle to find head DUP and crazy lady Augustine, who is hell bent on locking up all people who possess super powers known as Conduits. Augustine also wreaked havoc on Delsin's home town and has left innocent people crippled and for Delsin to help his fellow town folk he must absorb her power - which is the ability to manipulate concrete.

Delsin's main trump card is that his power is the ability to absorb other Conduits power when he comes into direct contact with them. You start the game with 'smoke', which allows you to fire heavy air and transport short distances through vents and fences. You can rejuvenate your powers by absorbing smoke from nearby chimneys or car wrecks left by DUP forces.

Soon you add neon and video (weird right) to your bag of tricks and you rejuvenate your powers - you guessed it - by absorbing the energy from neon lights.

Each power is pretty similar and there is a standard move(s) that can be enhanced or upgraded by earning 'karma' and a power move once you have wielded your power and completed objectives and side missions.

Karma is earned for good and bad deeds, namely using non lethal force to subdue an opponent for good karma and vice versa to earn bad karma. There are certain powers and moves that can only be unlocked by following a certain path to being good or bad.

The paths to enhance your powers don’t offer much in the way of variety and I would advise to pick the power you like the most and boost it up as much as possible.

The reason for this is that game’s overall difficulty often spikes to crazy heights. For example, once you travel to a new area, you are not able to start a new mission or open up items in the map until you take down a node. However, most nodes are guarded by DUP soldiers, conduits, automated turrets and, occasionally attack helicopters!

The game offers you a way around this; just complete some moral side-missions, 'tag up' some buildings and either subdue or kill some DUP forces, then you can return to the node with an uber-attack powered up. Deploy it correctly and you can wipe out almost every enemy – anyone who remains will usually surrender.

Infamous Second Son’s storyline does not take very long to complete and once you've seen the end credits, you'll have little to do apart from taking out the rest of the DUP strongholds, picking up collectibles and completing repetitive side missions. So it might be worth leaving some content unexplored until the end of the game.

Infamous  Second Son is not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, the characters are well put together, the graphics are great and the game for the most part is fun to play.

However, as you play along you may get the sense that you've been there before with this particular genre of game. If you come to this conclusion for yourself you may feel that Infamous Second Son presents some missed opportunities.

Score 7 out of 10

Do you agree with the review? Tell us your thoughts below.