inFAMOUS: Second Son Trailer Looks inFAMOUSy

Sony unveiled a new trailer for inFAMOUS: Second Son during their Gamescom press conference today, showing an explosive mixture of gameplay and plot-centric cutscenes.

inFAMOUS: Second Son takes place seven years after the conclusion of the second game. Cole MacGrath, the hero of the first two games, is no where to be found. He’s been replaced by a new beanie-clad protagonist: Delsin Rowe. Like Cole, Delsin has supernatural abilities. Only now there’s a shady organization called DUP (the Department of Protection) rounding up people like him.

Judging from the trailer, Second Son appears to retain the most appealing aspects of the first two games: the combination of a massive urban sandbox with an array of destructive toys. Together with parkour, supernatural abilities are used to explore the city and wreak an absurd level of havoc.

Sure, there’s a linear narrative featuring plenty of violence and corruption, and people are divided along lines of good and evil and it’s not always easy to tell them apart. But really, who cares about all of that?

Personal investment with inFAMOUS was rarely all that deep for me. The story was always there, but it was not really the point. It provided structure. It was the thin, chewy casing around the fat, yet delicious sausage. Who even knows what sort of meat it was made from? It’s a sausage. It’s probably not very healthy, but hell if it isn’t delicious.

Anyway, it’s encouraging to see that they appear to be aiming for a similar tonal balance with Infamous: Second Son. Even if player-character Delsin does look like skateboarder-turned-reality star Bam Margera. The next-gen power of the PlayStation 4 should allow for a higher level of possible chaos – a higher number of delicious mystery meats stuffed into that stretchy sausage casing.

It’ll be out February 2014 for PlayStation 4. Watch the trailer above and let us know your thoughts.