When Infamous: Second Son launched in March it had quite a bit of hype behind it. While it may not have fulfilled all the potential it had, it was still a great game. Its been five months since Infamous: Second Son was released and now we have our first stand-alone DLC expansion.
When I heard Infamous: First Light was coming, I’ll be completely honest, I was not all very excited. Despite how much of a fan of the series I am and how much I enjoyed Second Son, I just wasn’t ready for more. I’m also not that big on challenge rooms, so this DLC just didn’t have me all that excited. The good news is that I was wrong to not be excited, because this side story is all sorts of fun.
In Infamous: First Light you play as the side character from Second Son, Fetch. Unlike Delsin from the main game, Fetch actually has a certain amount of depth to her which is a much welcomed improvement. The story revolves around Fetch and her brother, who are both homeless and trying to leave town. One of the weakest aspects from Second Son was its story and while First Light does not have an amazing story it does a better job thanks mostly in part to its troubled main character.
The gameplay in Infamous has always been where the games shine the most and Infamous: First Light is no exception. If you have played Second Son you know exactly what you are getting yourself into. The one downside is coming from the main game where you are used to having the ability to switch between all your other powers. As to be expected in First Light though, you are limited to just Fetch‘s neon powers. This may be a bigger problem for some than it is for others. Personally, my favorite powers in Second Son were the neon powers. So, I didn’t have to much of an issue. Fetch‘s neon powers are a little different from Delsin’s though. They are tweaked to make it a little more interesting since it is the only powers you will be using.
Running around Seattle with super powers is as fun as ever, although nothing has really changed. The main game in First Light doesn’t do anything to move the series forward in any meaningful ways. The uninspired mission design from Second Son still finds its way into this game unfortunately. Each mission mainly consist of you just going to a certain area and killing any number of enemies. This is a problem that I wish didn’t exist, but thankfully to the very fun and fluid combat, you notice it a little less.
The one new feature Infamous: First Light brings to the table is a series of wave based challenge rooms. If the idea of this causes you to scratch your head and wonder why, you’re not alone. Infamous is never a game I felt needed anything like this. Maybe its just me, but challenge rooms just don’t excite me. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they are actually quite a bit of fun though. The challenge rooms don’t do anything particularly new. They are just fun to chase your friends high scores and to do various challenges. It’s a very typical setup that involves you killing increasingly harder waves of enemies until you die.
The formula here is once again held up by the awesome combat. There is a leaderboard to challenge everyone you know, and a ton of challenges to complete that lead to that platinum trophy. You heard that right, this standalone DLC has a platinum trophy, and it is a fun one. You can beat the main story in about 3 hours, and you can knock out that platinum trophy in around 8-10 hours.
Infamous: First Light doesn’t break any new ground for the series, it just serves as a fun experience for fans. The combat is as fast, fun, and fluid as it has ever been. It makes up for a lot of shortcomings the game has. If only Sucker Punch would have used the criticism from Second Son to make this DLC amazing and a little less typical.
