InFamous: Second Son is a great X-Men game in everything but name
The X-Men comics have remained popular and relevant for much of their 50-year history because of what their characters represent. Marvel’s mutants are a stand-in for race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or anything else that might make a person stand out as different. “Sworn to protect a world that fears and hates them,” the X-Men’s greatest enemy is often propaganda and bigotry. Mob mentality tries to squash anything outside of itself, even when that outgroup is a legion of superheroes protecting the majority’s existence. But people just want to feel accepted. Most of us desire to be part of something bigger than ourselves while remaining unique and beautiful in our own right. It’s those sort of existential dilemmas and connection to the disenfranchised that makes X-Men great, yet despite dozens of forays into video games, we’ve yet to see that human side of the comic make the trip. It might not be an X-Men game by name, but InFamous: Second Son is the closest anyone has come.
In a story that takes place seven years after InFamous 2, players take on the role of Delsin Rowe, a rebellious graffiti artist from a Native American tribe. The game is afoot when Delsin discovers his latent Conduit (read: mutant) power, the ability to copy the superhuman powers of any other Conduit he touches. When the rest of his tribe is crippled trying to protect him from a government task force, Delsin sets out to find the powers he needs to save the lives of his people. By focusing on family and shared culture, Second Son quickly establishes a stronger motivation than the previous InFamous games had. It was hard to care whether Cole MacGrath’s judgmental girlfriend lived or died or to crave the approval of his drunken lowlife best friend, Zeke. But the sweet old lady who would lie to the police for Delsin and have her brittle bones broken for it? Who wouldn’t fight for her?
Deepening the familial bonds in the game, Delsin is supported in his journey by Reggie, his older brother. As the local sheriff, Reggie spends more time arresting his delinquent brother than bonding with him, but when Delsin is scared about the uncontrollable changes coming his way, it’s Reggie who puts everything aside to protect his baby brother. Reggie acts as the lens through which we see the way society has changed since the last game. He seems like a decent guy, quick to help anyone in need and able to put up with his brother’s attitude, but he also judges everyone with powers as a dangerous criminal who needs to be caged. It’s Reggie that shows us the depth of the xenophobia that has swept across the populous over the preceding seven years.
When Delsin gets excited about a new set of powers he’s acquired from some other Conduit, Reggie cuts him off to remind him that this is an “affliction, not gift.” All Reggie wants, more than to help his tribe back home, is a cure for his sick brother. To him, and to most of society, being a Conduit is wrong. When he chides Delsin, it sounds a lot like Iceman’s mother in the second X-Men movie when she asks, “Have you tried not being a mutant?” That line is so unctuous and full of disappointment that you might forget how homophobic it sounds. Reggie loves his brother unconditionally, and he’ll stick by his side through the worst of times, but society has programmed him to believe that what Delsin has become is empirically wrong, and that’s a tough belief to disregard.