inFAMOUS: First Light
Description
inFAMOUS: First Light is a standalone game based on inFAMOUS: Second Son, similar to how inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood was based on inFAMOUS 2. Unlike Festival of Blood however, First Light is not entirely separate from the main game. The protagonist in this third-person action game is Abigail 'Fetch' Walker, an NPC in the original game. In Second Son she was introduced as a conduit / bioterrorist with neon powers that are absorbed by the protagonist Delsin Rowe. She is introduced as a vigilante who hunts down drug dealers to kill them, because she accidentally killed her own brother following heroin withdrawal. During the events of Second Son she eventually becomes an ally of Rowe.
The events of First Light are set before Second Son. Seven years after the conduits and their powers emerge, the Department of Unified Protection establishes Curdun Cay, a prison created to contain the conduits and their powers. The game starts with Fetch locked up an interrogated by Brooke Augustine. She is asked to tell the events that led to her imprisonment, which are then played as a flashbacks with portions of the game returning to the present. The story focuses largely on the discovery of her powers and the wrong people her brother Brent Walker was involved with, especially the small-time drug lord Shane.
The game contains new environments, such as the Curdun Cay prison and the snowy mountainside surrounding it. Players also get to revisit Seattle and most of the game is set in the first half of it (from the original game). There are various missions to complete involving fighting, platform challenges, and spraying graffiti, to earn upgrade points. Fetch has access to only one of the four power sets of Second Son: super speed through neon. It is immediately unlocked in full, providing endless speed for instance. There are some changes to its use. By running through pink clouds in the city a speed boost is achieved and combat has been extended with finishers for melee strikes and neon homing missiles.
In the present Fetch needs to complete three arena challenges in a small, enclosed environment for Augustine, fighting against waves holographic enemies and rescuing hostages. By completing these skill points are earned to upgrade abilities through an extensive skill tree. When a savegame of Second Son is detected, these can also be played as Delsin Rowe. The best performances are compared on worldwide leaderboards. A new type of enemy, the Demon, is exclusive to the arena challenges. The game includes a photo mode to capture and share screenshots.
Spellings
- inFAMOUS: Первый Свет - Russian spelling
Groups +
- Console Generation Exclusives: PlayStation 4
- Game feature: Free camera photo mode
- Gameplay feature: Graffiti / street art
- inFAMOUS series
- Japanese PlayStation 4 games with full English support
- Physics Engine: Havok
- Protagonist: Female
- Setting: City - Seattle
- Software Pyramide releases
- Sound engine: Wwise
- Standalone expansions
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Credits (PlayStation 4 version)
673 People (607 developers, 66 thanks) · View all
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 74% (based on 60 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 9 ratings with 1 reviews)
The Good
Right off the bat, inFamous: First Light has one thing going for it: A far more interesting protagonist in Fetch than Delsin was in Second Son. Her past is painful and tragic, being ripped away from her family at a young age due to the discovery of her powers. She's slightly unhinged, and lives as an outcast, sometimes getting in trouble with the police. But it's also clear that she's good-natured, she's just had a rough life. It's nice playing as a character worth learning about.
Fetch's abilities are limited to only the neon set of power. After having access to three power sets in Second Son, some players will be disappointed by the limitation. Their complaints aren't invalid, however it didn't bother me, as you're still plenty capable of traversing the cityscape and defeating enemies in a variety of ways. Some of what Fetch can do include running as supersonic speed, gliding, shooting neon lasers from her hands, shooting missiles, and creating a large gravitational ball that sucks enemies in and sends them flying.
It's also worth mentioning how good First Light looks. As of this writing, the engine is nearly two years old, and the fidelity of the neon effects working with a realistic interpretation of Seattle, and Fetch's highly detailed character design are still impressive. Second Son was one of the first games on the PS4 that made people say, "Oh, so this is what the new hardware can do.", so it should come as no surprise that First Light also looks great.
The Bad
The core gameplay in First Light is solid, but it's all a bit shallow. Aside from progressing through the story, you gain skill points by completing optional challenges. These get repetitive, and after you see the end of the narrative, there's not much reason to continue doing them as the city itself doesn't offer much to do. As a sandbox, it's nowhere near being on par with something like Grand Theft Auto V.
This is only noteworthy due to the game's current price of $14.99. At that point, it's entering into territory where players start expecting a decent amount of content with their game. In the case of First Light, there's about four hours of game worth playing.
The Bottom Line
Though it won't keep you busy for very long, inFamous: First Light is strong enough to recommend to people who like the series. Beyond that however, I'm not sure it's worth the price of admission. It's by no means an essential title, but there are worse ways to spend your time and money.
PlayStation 4 · by Jeff Voss (3) · 2016
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Sciere.
Additional contributors: POMAH.
Game added September 22, 2014. Last modified October 15, 2024.