So, yes: get used to the new guy. Delsin isn’t just a new face and sensibility for the series. He represents a new sort of superhero metaphor, too, and operates in a new city. Seattle exists in the real world and using it as a setting is a big shift for Sucker Punch. “Most of us live in Seattle. We thought we could do an absolutely spot on job making this place feel alive and true. Then when you mix super-human abilities into this very true-feeling city, that foundation of reality supports the surreality of the powers so you believe in them. We think that feeling like your superpowers have weight and can really affect the world is what players want. Not to feel like you’re a cartoon hero in a cartoon world.”

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They may not have been real, but I’ll miss the places Cole electro-skated, through, too. Influenced by the societal carnage wreaked by Hurricane Katrina, Sucker Punch crafted two different but equally great open-world cities. Empire City was a bustling, reactive homage to New York City, struggling to survive. New Marais was soulful and funky, throwing everything from creepy swamp monsters to Anne Rice-style vampires at you. Electricity is the lifeblood of the modern age, used to kill or cure with the right application. In both burgs, players revived or restored the power grid to establish a benevolent or draconian order. The powers and how you used them created a symbiotic relationship to the character and the cities.

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Smoke, on the other hand burns, chokes and obscures. It's a different power set for different times, playing out in a real city where surveillance is nearly omnipresent in its fictional version. In a year that saw the revelation of the NSA's domestic window-peeping into the lives of American citizens, having a power that lets you disappear or blind those who'd watch your every move feels eerily spot-on. “We love the idea of conduits being able to interact with the real world around them,” Fox told me. “What things do you see when you walk outside of your door? How would your powers change your relationship to them? It was an interesting challenge, a way of thinking, “What can you do when you have the ability to turn yourself into smoke?”

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Fox: "In a game about choices with consequences, why not have the whole franchise move along with what players think is right?"


Honestly, I don’t know enough yet about Delsin to know if I’ll like him. His powerset doesn’t seem like it’s going to be conducive to letting me get my Jesus on. Fox told me that players will still get to make choices on how they develop abilities by how they play. So, maybe the messiah craving I have will get fulfilled by, I don’t know, improving air quality or something.

infamous

Nevertheless, Delsin’s journey has yet to start. But I’ll always remember the guy who came before him, a guy who let me bring entire cities back to life. Cole McGrath was the best superhero video games have ever produced. May he rest in peace.

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To contact the author of this post, write to evan@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @EvNarc