Check out our InFamous: Second Son review.
For the past five years, one of the most famous figures associated with the PlayStation family has been Cole McGrath, the protagonist Infamous, The infamous 2and the Infamous DLC Blood festival. His character appeared on PlayStation 3 boxes, advertisements, and was even a playable character PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royalea fighting game starring Sony’s most beloved characters.
Why would developer Sucker Punch decide to ditch him and create an entirely new character, completely unrelated to McGrath?
Aside from losing the character’s visual recognizability factor, the switch to new protagonist Delsin Rowe also means abandoning the familiar control scheme and powers that Cole has carried throughout the two games and standalone DLC. In many ways, it does Infamous: Second Son rebooting the franchise, and a potentially risky one at that. Cole was an iconic character. This new star is an unknown quantity.
It’s a new character, a new environment, a new platform.
We sat down with Brian Fleming, founder of Infamous developer Sucker Punch Studios and producer of the new game, and asked him those questions—as well as why the series moved from a fictional, alternate version of America filled with fictional cities to the more realistic world and setting of Seattle.
Be warned though, the discussion deals with potential spoilers regarding the ending The infamous 2. If you still plan to play the game in anticipation of the PlayStation 4 exclusive release on March 21st Infamous: Second Sonconsider yourself warned.
This is the third game in the famous series – why change the main character?
We knew we were going to do this. If you know the franchise well, after The infamous 2 we’re Blood festival. It was about a three-month project for us, and by the end of that project we knew we were working on a new guy. We had several months of Trophy data that confirmed what we expected, that people would sacrifice Cole [at the end of Infamous 2].
That sacrifice ending was a “good” ending. The Infamous games have always had a “good guy” vs. “bad guy” approach, so did people generally prefer the “good” path?
Predominantly. Seventy-eight percent played a good Trophy first [to] sacrifice Cole. And that’s backed up by … six years of focus groups, where we watch people play this game. You will have a room full of 20 people, three will be evil and 17 will be evil [won’t]. It is very common that the first playthrough will be good.
Cole McGrath in Infamous Image used with permission of the copyright holder
We also knew that we were doing a title that was right before the launch of the PlayStation, that was like a defining goal: Let’s be crazy early. Launch day. If not on launch day, within the first few days, right where we are. When we knew that… all the more so since this game The infamous 3, and it felt like you had to play the last two games, we thought it was less good for the opening window. So we think it would be nice if this felt like something new. And you got the console launch and something new from us. So we wanted it.
The third reason was that until the end The infamous 2, the control scheme became so overloaded, it was so complex, and to build on something that was already complex, we said, “We’d like to be able to take a step back and maybe group powers into sets or something like that, or maybe you had different power circuits.” And so all of those things really point you in a direction where you say, “Hey, look, why don’t we make a new character.” It’s not an easy decision, because you’re giving up a lot of incredibly hard-won territory, and you risk making the fanbase super angry as well.
Yes, Cole is fast approaching an icon for Sony.
It’s a perfectly good entry point for people who haven’t played the first games.
And so you give up a lot, but at the same time you get a lot back. You get another character for the universe that I think adds a new dimension and richness to what Infamous is. And then you look at some of the other characters they brought with them, Fetch [the neon-based conduit we recently saw in our last preview] and some of the characters come to life in this game, and the universe starts to feel a little more rounded. It’s starting to feel a little more dimensional.
So I guess we’ll find out in the game why you use the subtitle “Second Son?”
You will not get an answer to that question.
Really?
I will give you three answers that I heard, and you decide for yourself.
Something like a Choose Your Own Adventure answer.
The first thing that people have claimed – it could be true – is that it refers to the First Sons, who are the people who discovered the Ray Sphere energy needed to activate the conduits, and was the basis of the first two games.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
The second is that Cole is Infamous’s first son and Delsa’s second son. He is another character.
The third thing we heard is that in many royal families you can have an heir to the throne and then a “back-up”. The second son is a lower position in the family hierarchy. And of course, in this game Delsin actually is, because his older brother Reggie is a National Merit Scholar, blah blah blah. And Delsin has always been a bit of a trouble maker, a bit disaffected. He didn’t quite find himself. And so he, in fact, personifies the idea of being the second son. So these are all good reasons.
So what is the real reason?
If we’re going to work in Seattle, let’s call it Seattle, go talk to the Space Needle guys, get a license and put it in there.
The real reason is what people like after hearing it all.
So did you choose to use a subtitle instead of a title The infamous 3 so it’s something like a reboot?
Yes absolutely. Actually it shouldn’t be The infamous 3. It’s a new character, a new environment, a new platform. I have to give credit to all the people who worked on that decision. Somehow we found the right balance. It’s very much an Infamous game, but it’s something new, and it’s a perfectly good entry point for people who haven’t played the first games. It’s the same fabric, but it’s not like, oh my god, you’re going to get confused. This is a very entry point for people.
So why call it “Seattle” when the last two games were set in fictional cities?
That’s a good question. I think at this point we felt like we could do a really good job of some of our favorite things about Seattle, and it felt like why are we dancing around it? To be clear, it was originally a “seaport”. And we’re like “wait a minute, why are we dancing around this?” Like, what kind of needle are you going to put in there? Will you place the “Galaxy Needle?” That doesn’t make any sense. Like, if we’re going to do it in Seattle, let’s call it Seattle, let’s go talk to the Space Needle guys and get a license and put it in there. So let’s just do it!
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
So it’s the same universe after all, where New Marais replaces New Orleans and Empire City is pseudo New York?
Yes, indeed. That.
What was the process of creating the new character like? How to avoid just making Cole 2.0?
It wasn’t really a problem. There were two really important touchstones for us. I think we decided pretty early on that this kid was from one of the nearby Indian reservations—
Who?
“Okomish,” is a fictional tribe. And I think that’s partly just to make sure… that we don’t want to accidentally – and certainly not intentionally – be insensitive to the tribe. It is not our heritage, so I would be afraid of making an unintentional mistake. So we just decided it was better to make a fictional tribe. And we met with tribal people to get some ideas, you know, just to make sure we weren’t being totally stupid about things. But I still do not present us as the greatest experts in this.
Infamous is about an ordinary guy who becomes superhuman.
So this was a kid who grew up on a reservation, and we really liked that idea. Again, Infamous is about an ordinary guy who becomes superhuman. And so we were trying to find someone, you know, a bike courier or a reservation kid, who, if I tell you that about them, you almost round them up, fair or foul. This is someone for whom the road is particularly long, because they started from humble beginnings. And that was part of it, we knew we wanted him to be from one of the reserves. And then we were really looking for a different general personality type. We didn’t want a guy who was like Cole McGrath in terms of his personality. The two are interesting because they are different. So pretty early in the process someone said “What if Johnny Knoxville got superpowers?” Literally, what would happen? And we’re like, OK, that’s interesting-
It could be a bit funny…
And it would be funny. The game isn’t trying to be a pure comedy or anything like that. But it seemed like a really interesting difference. Here’s a guy who’s like “Cute!” He’s excited about having powers and that really makes him different. So I think it started with background, bio and attitude. And then we just started working.
Horia [Dociu], the art director and the rest of the team started working on who this guy could be. And we started working on details like his clothing, and I think some of that was driven by some technology. We wanted to have a guy with a similar facial structure to Troy [Baker, the voice of Delsin] after he was cast…we didn’t want him to look exactly like troy baker, but he certainly shares some facial features with troy. And the same goes for Laura [Bailey, who plays fetch] and Travis [Willingham, who plays Reggie] also. So that’s part of it.
So do you already have a canon ending in mind for Second sonor are you just going to let it play out?
No, I can’t say I think we have. We’ll see how this goes. It will be interesting. There are significant differences… We’ll find out how people go.
So you’re in Seattle and know the area well. How accurate is the representation of the city? Sneaking into your favorite restaurant now and then?
Like any work of art it is how it feels. We are not trying to do Google Maps. It is not a literal transcription of Seattle. The important part is that people from Seattle say, “Wow, this is like Seattle, I can’t believe how big it is.” And there are landmarks, and there are architectural styles and street widths, and the presence of foliage in the environment, and lighting standards.
There are many small details that distinguish Seattle-ness. But we take quite a lot of liberties with the locations of things. It is a kind of homage to our hometown, but it is not a transcription of our hometown.
(Images and video © Sucker Punch Productions)
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Source: newstars.edu.vn