Sucker Punch's Nate Fox has explored morality in inFamous: Second Son in a VG24/7 interview and revealed that most players will choose to play as good characters first but might have more fun as an evil character on a second playthrough.
He said the game's iteration of Seattle will react to the player and the choices you make:
“We’ve always said that the inFamous series is about an everyday guy who gets super powers and decides if he wants to use them for good or evil and that’s still true in Second Son – except – we’ve tried even harder to make the world relatable, true and grounded so that these super powers are plausible, you believe in them. The game world does react to you. You make choices throughout the game with pretty serious consequences, so that serious choice and consequence theme is still there. You matter in that world.”
Fox added that the Sucker Punch team has worked hard to improve gamer immersion in Second Son's world and how powers are used – both of which help create a more powerful narrative, he adds:
“Where we’re trying to break new ground on, frankly, is really integrated powers that are totally intuitive in how you use them. We redesigned the control interface so that people who are not expert players can pull of spectacular moves, as well as putting time into trying to make our narrative as potent as possible. A lot of that comes from doing facial motion capture so we can get these very nuances performances from the actors. All of those things come together to make it easier to get sucked into the screen and lose yourself in the moment which, with anything next-gen, it’s got to be that, right?”
In news that may prove disappointing to some, it seems the difference between good and evil, which has always been central to the series, will continue to be pretty clear cut:
“We try and make it pretty clear when you’ve done something evil, mainly because it really sucks when it’s nebulous. It’s not fun to feel like, ‘Well I think I did the right thing in that videogame,’ because there’s so much you have to understand about the rules of the world, your abilities, what the mission is asking you and all of that stuff. We try to cut down on ambiguity as much as possible, but at the same time we try to put situations in front of the player that are frankly tough, because that’s what games are good for; they can transport you to places you’ve never been and let you do things you’ve never done before.”
Fox went on to say that though society has conditioned most players to choose good options but that gamers who replay the title as an evil character may have more fun:
“But then they play through again, and they’re the most evil sons-of-guns you’ve ever met. They enjoy being evil, but they’ve got to get the good guy experience out of their systems before they allow themselves to be the jerks they are in their heart.”
inFamous: Second Son is set for release this year on PlayStation 4. Fox has previously said Delsin, Second Son's protagonist, will start in a "neutral" position to allow players to mold the character.
He has also revealed that Sucker Punch expected most players of inFamous 2 to be evil and changed the story for Second Son based on trophy data which showed 80 per cent of players chose to sacrifice Cole for the good ending. Fox added that the developers will also look at trophy date from Second Son to see what direction to take with the series in future.
