One of
the things I was told pretty regularly before I finished inFamous:
Second Son was that getting the First Light expansion was worth it.
Since it was a standalone DLC akin to that of Far Cry 3: Blood
Dragon, this was something that people told me to play without even
touching the main game. Because it was free on PlayStation Plus, I
took the opportunity to play it after finishing Second Son. First
Light, especially when compared to Second Son, is quite interesting
to look at. This is because it is in a very unique position with
regards to the franchise, which I will detail this week. Hopefully,
First Light shows Sucker Punch a new direction they can take the
franchise, to help alleviate some of the more common criticisms from
both myself and other critics.
Released
in August of 2014, First Light tells the story of Abigail “Fetch”
Walker, the conduit Delsin takes his Neon powers from in Second Son.
It shows how, after coming to Seattle, she finds herself embroiled in
gang politics, narcotics dealing, and the DUP. Not only is her
capture and transfer to DUP custody explained, but also her descent
into anger and rage, resulting in the Fetch seen in Second Son.
The very
first thing I noticed while playing First Light is that it is the
very first game in the inFamous franchise that did not make use of
the Good/Evil karma system seen in every other inFamous title to
date. In fact, no morality system exists in this game. This does
wonders for the story. Since Fetch has to become the character from
Second Son, she cannot take a different path. Secure in the knowledge
that the plot only has one possible outcome, the writers are free to
delve deeper into the character and why she is making the choices she
makes. Fetch is totally free to express her inner thoughts, take
stances of her own, and define herself as a character.
Previous
inFamous protagonists did not get that same freedom. Because the
player could choose between being completely Good or completely Evil,
the writers had to take both possibilities into account when writing
dialog. The protagonist's dialog had to make sense for both a saint
and a devil, with the exception of scenes that take place immediately
after a karmic choice. In a sense, they served more as ciphers for
the player than actual characters. Because of this, they could not
take strong moral stances on anything, because the possibility
existed that they would not take the path which they were advocating.
Since Fetch can take moral stands, and form opinions of others, it
makes her that much more strongly characterized as a result.
The
other positive about removing the karma system is that is eliminates
this need to allow players to choose between two overly extreme story
choices. As I have talked
about
in the past, inFamous's karma system often makes the player make
decisions between normal person or cartoon villain. Second Son had
the opposite problem where choices felt far too similar on both sides
in some instances. When these get removed, the writing becomes
stronger just by virtue of not taking the player out of the
experience with these inherently meaningless choices.
Another
way in which First Light differentiates itself from Second Son is in
the way powers develop. In Second Son, there were four different
power sets that all played the same, but had different properties,
because Delsin could use multiple powers. Fetch only has Neon powers,
much like Cole in the original games only had electricity. Instead of
having one template in which multiple powers are used, Fetch has one
skillset which gets augmented gradually, over the course of the
expansion. As a result, the sense of progression is a bit more
pronounced.
What is
more important to our conversation is how these powers can be
upgraded over the course of the game. In both games, players need to
gather some form of collectible. Delsin had to collect Blast Shards
in Second Son and Fetch was required to gather Neon “Lumens” in
First Light. For certain upgrades, Delsin also had to acquire a
specific karma-level, either Good or Evil, to earn the right to
purchase them. For example, only an Evil Delsin can upgrade his
grenades to have a larger explosive range, while only good characters
can heal themselves by subduing enemies without killing them. On the
other hand, Fetch only needs to unlock the base power to purchase
upgrades for it. Some can only be gained after beating the game, but
without karma blocking off development, Fetch develops much more
organically.
Overall,
the removal of the karma system afforded First Light a number of
opportunities not granted to other inFamous games. I know, deep down,
that this is because it is only a $15 DLC, much like the Festival of
Blood on the PS3. However, it still reveals that the franchise has
been held back for a long time by what initially seemed like a
necessity. At the time of the first inFamous, moral-choice systems
were all the rage. Now, in an era full of choice-based games like
those from Telltale, they seem very weak. Perhaps it is time to
consider a change of pace for the series, now that we know it can
work without such mechanics.
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