Infamous versus Longevity

 It's what the network wants- so why bother complain?

Yeah, I'm big on mortality this month it would seem. I guess the very concept of living forever has always been an interesting topic broached by science fiction and even fantasy here and there. Ideas and concepts might seem to last forever, legacies can feel longer lasting than the gods, but the truth is that even ideas themselves will one-day burn up into nothing once the cosmos finally go quiet. All things die. People, nations, ideas and gods. Death stalks everyone and everything, wolfish and grinning beneath it's red-eyed hood. You can choose to fight against death and be dragged down in a flurry of sweat, spit and snot; or dispense with the adversarial accoutrements and greet the end as a friend, departing from this life as equals. So, now that I've managed to make a reference to Puss in Boots and Harry Potter within one paragraph, how do you think I'm going to get around to the Infamous series?

Infamous is the action adventure franchise that put Sucker Punch Productions on the map as a talented 'exclusives creator' for Sony. Well... actually I guess that was more 'Sly Cooper', now wasn't it... Or maybe 'Ghost of Tsushima?" You know what, Sucker Punch Productions are just a supremely talented studio that by the graces of some distant and archaic deity have never really produced a total dud of a game- and yet somehow I've managed to miss most all of their library. Even when I owned a Playstation, I was more of a 'Ratchet And Clank' sort of guy; and when Infamous was doing the rounds for it's chaotic and flashy gameplay, I was trying to get into it's low-rent copy-cat 'Prototype'. (And 'Ghost' has yet to port to PC, much to my constant and perpetual chagrin.) But I've always been interested in their games. Enough to keep an eye on everything they've been up to from afar.

In fact, I've watched out for Sucker Punch so much that I absorbed the entirety of the marketing for Infamous Second Son back when it was the gorgeous system launch title for the Playstation 4. Before Horizon was the 'in-thing', Second Sun was the game that your girlfriend told you not to worry about. It was a looker and then some, boasting life-like character models, eye-shrivelling neon glares and densely backed dystopian city streets so realistic you could just taste the stench of oppression! And the story was alright too. Yeah, I remember watching a couple of full playthroughs of both the full game and the DLC, from which I retained nothing but nightmare style flashes of forgettable characters who popped up here and there before dissolving into smudge. And I kind of remember Delsin (the hero) being excessively annoying and hard to like for most of the run time. So maybe that game's beauty was mostly skin-deep; but I still kind-of remember it. Almost.

What I didn't know at the time, and I couldn't have known considering my very 'other side of the wall' relationship with this franchise; was that the rather strong Infamous community received Infamous Second Son with a mixture of confusion and slight betrayal. Those who like Infamous did so for more than just it's eye-popping and gratifying gameplay and systems, I later came to learn, they actually liked it's characters and story beats and themes and, most of all, it's ending. That's right, Infamous was one of the few franchises that actually had a conclusion to it's stories. And that conclusion came... before the release of Second Son. Oh... yeah, that's going to be something of a tricky issue to navigate I would imagine. But let's take a look at this from a laymen's perspective and see if we can figure out what the community took umbridge with when it came to Second Son.

Spoilers for the Infamous stories, of course; but the basic synopsis goes thusly. There's some sort of recessive gene bubbling around certain random people across humanity that, when activated, gives people super powers. Super powers makes people dangerous, thus kicks off the core struggle with the protagonist (one of these powered folk) going up against forces trying to stop him, other power users going out of control and everything inbetween. It's basically a CW show set-up where by the end of the season the big-bad looks like a cheap model who refuses to wear a shirt in any of his scenes because it 'devalues his brand'. At the end of Infamous 2, in order to resolve all the story issues in one fell swoop, a McGuffin death wave is released killing everyone currently alive in the world with that special gene, activated or not, killing off the entire cast and sub-characters and ending the franchise. And then there's Second Son.

Rather humorously there is no effort devoted in the slightest to explain how Delsin and that new wave of power users survived that extinction wave, despite them definitely being alive and around when it happened. Sucker Punch didn't even stick in some throw away text-scrawl about how the 'gene evolved' or some other such backhanded rewrite, which seems to contrast with a team that appeared to somewhat care about the franchise when they were making it for the PS3. From an outsider's perspective Second Son just seems like it's own 'new generation' iteration but for Infamous fans it was largely a spit-in the face to a finale that wrapped up the entire line of stories in a neat little bow. And there's actually no sensible explanation to why Second Son would exist beyond the most cynical- because Sony needed an impressive-looking system launch title and Sucker Punch had a franchise they could pull from.

For those that loved the originals, all the problems with Second Son- it's insincere protagonist, lacklustre villains and nonsensical 'continuation'- are all emblematic of the very soul of 'selling out'. All those fans see is a franchise exhumed and necromancy-ed back to a life it happily departed, and not really to a high enough standard to justify it's own existence. Now I'm sure that at least someone at Sucker Punch had an idea for what they could do with the Infamous franchise in the future, but nothing about Second Son appeared to have that level of care and love which fans fell in love with. Which isn't to say the game was bad, it just wasn't anything special. And as someone who once absorbed everything about the game with jealous abandon and currently can't even remember half of the major plot beats... yeah, I can see their point.

The moral should be rather clear out of all this. Not every story can just be picked up and continued without a whisper of thought put into justifying why. In fact, the best stories shouldn't be, because their end is just as important as how they started and where they progressed to. Why has no one sat down and just continued the story of Lord of Rings; telling us what the next generation of Hobbits got up to? Because that would be an insult to the quality of the stories themselves and such a writer would be rightly lambasted for assuming the gall to do so. Stories, like their tellers, have to reach their end. And those stories can drag themselves out, grow stale and boring and fizzle away once the time comes that no one wants to hear them anymore, or they can bow out with dignity whilst the stage lights are still shining on them. Dignity or longevity; you can't ever have both.

Ghost of Tsushima

He is a storm made flesh.

I have a feeling that this game is going to go down in history. Years from now, when a game show host asks "What was the last game that Sony ever announced during an E3" the answer just might be 'Ghost of Tsushima' given the publisher's lax approach to attending 'the gaming event of the year'. But even if that does end up being the case, a least Sony finished their relationship with the wider gaming populace on a high note with this title that looks to be the next big action adventure must-have title. (Isn't it funny how Sony always seems to come out with those?) With that sort of legacy, who needs to spend millions on advertising space in the middle of an LA hall, these kinds of games advertise themselves.

Positive word of mouth means that you were likely well aware of 'Ghost of Tsushima' before the TGAs despite Sony having no presence at last year's E3 and the game having an objectively hard to pronounce title. Perhaps that comes from the incredibly memorable faux-petal 2018 reveal event, or maybe just because everyone deep down wants to play a game about a ronin on a rampage. Sucker Punch's 'Ghost of Tsushima' seems to hit on all the 'dream game' bullet points for lovers of classic martial arts movie. The game looks brutal, picturesque and melodramatic in equal measure, totalling a product that looks as meticulous as it does effortless. It's as though the grass lily scene from 'Hero' was a whole movie. (That's 2002's 'Hero', for clarification's sake.) Ghost of Tsushima will be set in 1274 and will follow the Mongol invasion on the isle of Tsushima, as well as the resulting chaos and devastation that ensued. In the manner of only the most melodrama soaked story conventions, you will play one of the last surviving Samurai who will do what they can to resist the opposing forces. But in the words of 'Doom: Eternal': "You are just one man", and so traditional martial tactics aren't going to amount to much when you find yourself pit against an army. With this in mind, the player will be forced to take a more stealthy, Batman-esque, approach and in the words of the official website: "Forge a new way of fighting- The way of the Ghost." Essentially becoming the Dark Knight of Tsushima.

I think that is the image that most people get when they think of this title, and that is honestly one of the most flattering comparisons that these developers could ask for. Rocksteady's Arkham series still stands as one of the best action adventure titles of the past decade and not many other games have come anywhere close to it, let alone seem poised to be a successor to it. With this title's grasp on mobility, combat and tactile planning this may just be a prime candidate to do so. (Just a shame that the potential audience will be limited, given that this is another bloody PlayStation exclusive. I get it, Sony, you have a lot of money. Now let the rest of the kids in the playground play, why don't ya?)

The trailer from the VGAs actually does an admirable job of taking us through all the key points through the life of the Ghost in such a fashion that I can't but wonder if this is the last trailer we'll get before launch. In this footage we get to see what I can only assume to be the throes of the invasion with stacks of burning bodies and plenty of fellas looking mean. At this scene I'm struck, as I'm sure a great many others are, by how good everything looks from a design perspective. Sucker Punch have clearly dedicated a substantial degree of care into conceptualising a image for their game that is both believably historic and pleasing to the eye. And that is encapsulated no where better than when we get a look at 'The Ghost' himself. His tactical-looking battledress dyed jet black and his oni-face mask evoke distinct samurai Batman vibes, and we can see a vast array of gadgets strewn across his person to indicate how resourceful he is. I'm not usually one to comment on design but I must admit that the balance between tactile and wish fulfilment has been executed almost flawlessly. (My only issue is the sword he carries on his back which is so fantasy that it sort of distracts from all the other very real elements. Don't carry katanas on you back, kids!)

From there we get a glimpse of gameplay that I just cannot stop gushing about even though it's the most simple thing in the world. (Which I guess encapsulates how good the Sucker Punch team are at picking pleasing shots.) We see 'The Ghost' riding his horse across a wind strewn field of white plants whilst lightning strikes in the background and all the subtle visual tweaks that the team have utilised are on full display for this scene right here. We can see the interaction of the plants against the wind whilst being disturbed by the player's horse, their shine against the moonlight which implies the scene is damp and just the low hanging tracking cam which grounds you in the moment. Again, this is ridiculous, I'm geeking out over a three second shot but it is so good that I just can't help myself. This does raise some concerns, however, when I think about the studio involved. Sucker Punch have never been strangers to the aesthetically pleasing game, in fact their bread and butter up until now, The Infamous games, were famous for it. However their last game, Second Son, did seemed to focus more on being overtly pretty with light flares and neon bloom, than it did on being a good game. That is understandable and all, when you enter a new generation it can feel tempting to try out all of the new tricks that fresh platform offers, but at the end of the day it is the gameplay that is remembered and that sort of felt like second-fiddle in Second Son. (Oh look, I did a word play!) However, seeing the more subtle nuances that Sucker Punch pull to make this scene pop does make me think that they've learnt for their failings with that title and are putting their efforts where it matters this time around. (We can only hope.)

Next we get to an explosion of gameplay sequences and I have to admit, this is where the game positively sold me. Firstly, this may seem oddly specific again, but I love the collision detection with the sword in this game; it feels weighty and visceral in a way that a lot of swords-play games tend to forget about. (Although I'm sure we won't get a true sense on that angle until the game is in our hands.) In the combat we can see shades of Arkham and Assassin's Creed present as our Ghost launches himself ontop of folk and chucks disorienting smoke bombs around the place. This combination of gadgets and combat is the one thing that has me really excited about the potential for gameplay to stay fresh as we get our hands on new abilities, it sort of reminds me of how Sekiro managed to renew things with use of the synthetic hand. There does seem to be another clash of styles, however, in that the blood effects are clearly tilted more towards the cinematic than the realistic setting around it, but the atmosphere of the whole trailer does a good job of marrying those elements deftly. (At least it doesn't stick out as poorly as Hulk glowing green in Square Enix's Avengers.)

Finally there is a healthy mix of melodrama and excitement for the next flurry of scenes as we witness a bevy of different locations including a windy beach with a pagoda-rich tower dominating the scene and a night battlefield that seems to be lit-up by a flurry of flaming arrows. (Again, reminding me of scenes from Hero.) If there is one criticism I will air about what we've seen so far it is that aside from a couple of locations, the autumnal forest, and the orchard of cherry-red flowers; everything else seems to be lacking flair in it's palette. I understand that options are limited given the setting that the team have decided on, I just hope things aren't constantly bleary and drab as that will start to feel oppressive the longer that folk play the game. (Unless that is the intention, which could very much be the case.) As a side note: the game will apparently also feature the ability to have all the dialogue be in Japanese, which is a life-safer because that honestly was the only thing about these trailers that sort of had me on edge.

In terms of look and pomp, Ghost of Tsushima has all the potential to be the next big blockbuster out of the gaming world, and makes this game enough of a big deal to earn a spot on my 'watch-list'. We may be a while out until launch (nothing concrete has been announced yet on that front) but honestly I hope we don't get much more out of marketing as the mystery of this title seems positively palpable. I wonder at how exciting things can get, seeing as how the project seems committed to staying firmly fantasy free, but I'm sure that as long they keep taking design cues from Japanese cinema they can't go terribly wrong.