InFamous: Second Son - 10 Reasons It's Dividing Opinion

5. Seattle: The Emerald City

A definite polarity in reviews here, and sad to say, justifiably so. The real world Seattle is home to over half a million city residents, with the metropolis numbering circa 3.5 million. Either the D.U.P. have been incredibly successful at keeping everyone indoors or our game world population is only a few hundred. One could take this portrayal of Seattle and drop it into a corner of GTA V or Assassin's Creed IV where it could fit in nicely as a suburb. Seattleites appear to have little to do with their lives beyond providing a few side-missions for Delsin, and the impact of their dystopian existence seems to cast no shadow. Much like no shadows are cast by any citizen, enemy, or Delsin himself. The city exists purely as a playground, a fun playground as long as the player maintains a healthy willingness to suspend disbelief, but once the cracks show, they become increasingly difficult to ignore. There are half a dozen or so side missions in about a dozen districts, fairly generic in nature but fun nonetheless. Procedurally generated diversions seem to be limited to a D.U.P. vehicle roaming the streets, or occasionally popping into existence mere yards from the player. Players can be diverted by saving suspected bio-terrorists or attacking D.U.P. Patrols, or simply blasting a street-entertainer to smithereens, although this rightfully denotes you as evil; sadly there is no 'good' equivalent of blasting people who take too long deciding what to get at the deli counter. Despite some elements being lacking, such as areas that could have done with more detail and a greater diversity of environments, we have some visual goodness to be found. Draining the neon powers is incredibly aesthetically pleasing, with a peculiarly satisfying weight and 'realness' to it. In the same way that gaming addicts sometimes find it difficult to pass crates without smashing them open to see if there's health packs inside, we may find ourselves feeling oddly foolish and foolishly odd as we will soon be standing outside our local Starbucks with the building to urge to suck some energy from the neon sign.