Note: Spoilers for the original two Infamous games, as well as Infamous: Second Son follow in this article. We recommend playing and finishing them before reading.
It has been a few weeks since the release of Infamous: Second Son and no doubt developer Sucker Punch Studios are enjoying a well-deserved rest after such a warm reception for their game (you can check out our review here). As they slowly release their free story/altered reality DLC titled “Paper Trail” over the next few weeks, gamers around the globe are already pondering what could potentially be the follow-up game to Infamous: Second Son.
The story of Infamous: Second Son was quite well rounded and contained. Personally, I feel like that both endings were different enough that one of them must be chosen to be “canon” for any sequel to continue from. Other than a stop-over at conduit penitentiary “Curdan Cay”, there weren’t any solid elements or factors in play to warrant a direct sequel.
Take the original InFamous for example. Good or bad karma, the end result still stayed the same, each decision may have yielded slightly various consequences but at the end of the day. Zeke still betrayed you, Trish and John died and Kessler delivered his message, “The Beast was coming.” This quite obviously is decent material for a sequel.?Let’s take a quick look at Second Son’s endings and how they differ:
In the good ending, Delsin exposed Augustine for what she had done and revealed her to the world for her actions, disbanding the D.U.P in the process. Following that Delsin then progresses to do what he initially set out to do, heal the members of his tribe. After the events of the game Delsin has proved that Conduits and normal people can co-exist peacefully. The inmates are soon to be released and left to their own vices.
On the other hand, in the evil ending, Delsin kills Augustine for what she has put him through, which to the world only re-enforces the need for the D.U.P. His tribe having seen the total destruction and mayhem he caused at Seattle rejects him and in the ultimate temper tantrum comet drops his tribe in their hospital, no doubt obliterating them. Then proceeds to detail how he plans to release the inmates of Curdan Cay and “Shake every one of their hands on the way out”. (To absorb their powers, just in case you thought it sounded a bit too friendly for an evil ending)
Having covered those, I am sure you can see where I am coming from. In essence, nothing stays the same between the two endings – besides the Curdan Cay prisoners being released. There is potential for this to be stretched out long enough to cover a whole game’s worth of content – but to what end? An example could have Delsin releasing inmates, one bad egg causes more trouble than Delsin is comfortable with and the player must recruit other conduits to help his cause. It’s a viable situation, but not especially creative – though the inclusion of more interesting powers could prove me wrong. I just don’t really feel it would be viable going down this route of introducing a brand new enemy for an already established protagonist when there is thousands of other conduits worldwide.
This is all years away of course and odd are I am completely wrong, just ask my partner (I am nearly always wrong). But an interesting slip of the tongue may have already ousted Sucker Punch’s next move.
Nate Fox, from Sucker Punch Productions had this to say in an interview last year when asked a PS Vita/Remote Play related question. “Right now we’re only talking about the PS4 game; I would love to talk to you about any Vita-related titles when…or if the time comes.” (Source DualShockers) Perhaps that slight pause and hesitation revealed that Sucker Punch has been working on more than just PS4’s Second Son.
Given the mission based structure of the Infamous games, it seems well suited for a handheld console. We received a superficial taste of what this would be like with the PS4’s remote play functionality, but I see a huge opportunity for expanding the franchise, specifically to the Vita as it lacks a lot of dedicated content.
Recently during an interview with Nate Fox via OPM, he was queried about the future of the series. He didn’t seem to be too fussed about Sucker Punch only being recognised for Infamous games. “That’s a good curse to be saddled with. InFamous is a really broad concept – an everyday person gets powers and decides if they want to use them for good or evil. That could be anybody of any age, any gender, any time, in any country. It’s as wide open as superhero fiction,”
The interviewer then made an excellent comment associating and acknowledging potential similarities in the formula of Assassins Creed to Infamous. More of an anywhere in the world, any person, any power/s kind of experience. Which Nate seemingly likened the idea, calling it “A great example”.
Given these two sources of information, it may very well be that we are in for a treat with shorter chapters but more of them set in the super powered world of Infamous on the portable Vita or stationary PS4.
This article isn’t really shedding new light on anything Infamous related, it is more a food for thought process; having seen vast amounts of individuals suffering withdrawals of sorts after having completed their Infamous: Second Son adventure. Like I said, I could be dead wrong about my speculation but it’s just that – speculation. Until then we will just have to sit and wait through the remaining few weeks of the Paper Trail episodic content and see what happens after that.
None the less I would love to hear what you thought of Second Son, what you think Sucker Punch may be working on next, if the Assassins Creed formula could work or basically anything Infamous you want to share.
Odds are that Sucker Punch have already begun working on their next game and been blatantly obvious about it with the title displayed clear as day in Second Son. A conduit fuelled MMO titled “Heavens Hellfire”. Players create their own super powered conduits, select a karmatic stance and battle it out against their opposition (this is just a WILD guess of my own of course).
