Infamous Second Son

Intense overall intensity
Highest flag: Language — strong
AdventureSandboxSuperhero

What's in it

Crime & lawlessness rewarded for crime against innocents
High

Story involves gangs and drug crime; on the villain karma path the player can gun down innocent civilians and execute surrendering foes.

Language strong
High

Recurring profanity in dialogue between the protagonist and other characters.

Violence realistic
Moderate

Third-person super-powered combat against human soldiers and enemies using smoke, neon, and concrete blasts, gunfire, and melee; on-screen blood but no gore or dismemberment.

Dark themes intense
Moderate

Themes include a character's drug-addiction history, government internment and persecution of super-powered people, and family loss.

Torture depicted
Moderate

An antagonist impales and tortures captured townsfolk with concrete shards to extract information in shown scenes.

Substances referenced
Low

Drug dealers and drug busts feature in missions, and a supporting character's past heroin addiction is referenced; the player does not use drugs.

Who can reach your kid

What it is

Infamous Second Son is an open-world action-adventure game set in a fictionalized Seattle, where you play Delsin Rowe, a young man who gains super-powers (smoke, neon, concrete, and more) and fights a paramilitary agency that hunts people like him. Gameplay centers on climbing buildings, exploring city districts, and super-powered combat against human soldiers and enemies, with realistic gunfire and blood but no gore. A morality system lets you play as a hero (healing civilians, subduing enemies, breaking up drug operations) or a villain (killing surrendering foes and even innocent bystanders). Content includes profanity, suggestive dialogue, drug references tied to a character's addiction and to drug-crime missions, and scenes of characters being tortured with concrete spikes.

How it's framed

The game builds an explicit good-versus-evil karma system: heroic acts and villainous acts each unlock matching powers and change Delsin's appearance, so cruelty toward civilians is mechanically rewarded on the evil path while restraint is rewarded on the good path. Heavier subject matter — addiction, persecution of a minority group of powered people, and torture by the antagonist — is presented as dramatic story stakes rather than dwelt on graphically.

Details

Developer
Sucker Punch Productions
Publisher
Sony Computer Entertainment
Released
2014
Metacritic 80critic score (third-party) · out of 100

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