PS4 Exclusive inFAMOUS: Second Son Gets Lots of New Info on Controls, Powers, Choices and Endings

Giuseppe Nelva January 28, 2014 5:46 AM EST

inFAMOUS: Second Son was featured heavily at Taipei Game Show in Taiwan, with a demo playable on the show floor and one of the most successful stage events of the whole event, and more information is filtering through thanks to the Taiwanese and Japanese press in attendance (3C & Tech, UDN and Game Watch).

First of all we learn more about the control scheme of the game, of course only related to the powers that heve already been unveiled, smoke and neon. The effects of some buttons change depending on what power is equipped. You can find a partial list of the controls below:

L2: moderate zoom over the shoulder, somewhat similar to the view of a third person shooter, but a bit further back.

R2: Shoots a ranged attack with the currently selected power.

Square: Melee attack in smoke mode, high speed warp with afterimage in neon mode. The neon warp allows to “walk in the air,” run up walls and dash from roof to roof.

X: Jump.

X followed by Square: air dash attack.

Circle: Interact.

Circle near a vent, followed by Square: In smoke mode Delsin gets sucked into the vent and propelled into the air. Pressing square while falling creates a flashy shockwave attack.

D-pad down: Karma bomb. This is situational and apparently works only in certain conditions.

The touch pad on the DualShock 4 can be used for various operations like opening doors, activating fingerprint scanners, absorbing elements from nearby sources, releasing prisoners and so forth.

Only one power can be used at any given time. It’s possible to switch between them but not on the fly. You have to actually find a source of that element and absorb it in order to change. Smoke powers are stronger in melee, while Neon powers are more suitable for ranged attacks, with faster and more accurate energy bullets. In the demo the neon element didn’t have a melee attack available yet, but according to the staff at the event it will be implemented in the final game.

Superpowers are not unlimited in their use and don’t recharge over time. It’s necessary to replenish them by observing the surroundings and absorbing energy from the right objects, like a chimney or a car on fire for smoke or a neon sign for neon. Suitable sources are marked on the minimap on the lower right corner of the screen.

There will be other conduits even if their specific elements are unknown. The only one that has been glimpsed uses fire as an attack and can stand in the air by condensing the atmosphere into rock.

There are a myriad of choices and branches that can be followed though different decisions during the game, but there will be only two endings: a good one and an evil one. That said, the path to get there will differ from player to player, and different choices can even influence the difficulty of the game.

Below you can see a video (that we already showcased yesterday) from the stage event that shows some of the gameplay elements described above. inFAMOUS: Second Son will be released on March 21st exclusively for PS4.