A New Protagonist
The original Infamous titles starred Cole McGrath, a bike messenger with the power of electricity who died in Infamous 2. Second Son put you in the shoes of Delsin Rowe, a Native American with the ability to absorb powers from other Conduits. While he didn’t grow on everyone, he did end up canonically saving the Conduits locked up in Curdun Cay and kicking off the second age.
His time is done for the moment, but it’s worth noting that the Second Son loading screens mention that the military took control of Conduit hunting operations before the DUP was founded. Problem is, the military was rarely able to capture Conduits without casualties. A game set before Second Son would be able to expand on what we know and see how that game’s antagonist Augustine rose to power.
It’s during this time, three years after Infamous 2, that we learn the military is handling everything related to Conduits. We meet our protagonist, a Japanese teenage girl around the age of 14 and 16. She and her mother have been living in Chicago for years, her mother able to hide her from the government because she’s a government agent. Her mother falsifies reports, gives agents fake leads, and straight up alters her medical records, anything she can to remain off the government’s radar. The protagonist is able to live a fairly normal life, but that starts to get complicated when the military shows up and locks off the city after hearing about four other Conduits loose in the city.
Over the course of the game, she learns that these four Conduits are a drug dealer, a crime lord, one of her teachers, and the younger brother of her best friend.
Return to One Power
The protagonist has the ability to control glass and glass-like materials, and the reason for this is twofold. For one, it was previously mentioned as a power that the DUP tested out for their agents in Second Son. The DUP wanted a power that was “visually strong, easy to train, and versatile”, and glass actually proved to be a strong choice that ended up proving to be too difficult to master. Concept art for the game even showed that this was something the developers were considering. The second reason is something Sucker Punch stated when they chose electricity for the first Infamous–in the same way that electrical powers fit in with the city organically and create a bond between the environment and the player, the same could be said about glass.
Glass is, well, pretty much everywhere in major cities, and it’d be easy for the protagonist to absorb some and refuel. Like how Second Son had you blow up vehicles to refill on smoke, you could just break a mirror or window and drain the shards into your body. Ow. Infamous 2 let you choose between having fire or ice powers, and Second Son expanded on that by giving you access to smoke, neon, video, and concrete. This protagonist wouldn’t be able to have a wide variety of powers like Delsin, but she would be able to absorb glass like substances like diamonds or crystals. She wouldn’t have to hold down a button and alternate between each element like Cole did, it’d just be an extension of her glass power.
Like in the previous Infamous games, your powers would transfer well to ranged combat, up close, and getting around the city. Long range glass shards shot from your hands, shrapnel grenades, and punching people with your fists (or turning your arms into glass weapons, just to be cool) would deal with enemies pretty quickly. You’d get around the city multiple ways; the protagonist would be a skateboarder, and time on her board would translate with glass skates that allow her to slide around the city like a figure skater. In the air, she’d deploy glass wings or thrusters to help her hover. To help her gain some distance, she’d launch her wings as she kicks off on a building.
Climbing buildings and the series’ trademark parkour would remain, as the protagonist would have shards embedded into her hands and feet to allow her to climb (think Spider-Man). Your glass powers would let you create clones of yourself or blend in with mirrors so you can get the sneak on enemies or listen in on conversations to learn about where Dead Drops or Blast Shards are.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Choices
Of course, it’s not an Infamous game without moral choices, and that would receive an overhaul. Making the protagonist a teenager would tie into the game’s morality system. Teenagers go through a range of emotions all the time, and they never know if what they’re doing is actually the right thing. Seriously, think back to when you were a teenager and think about the number of times you second guessed yourself. Infamous 2 had Nix and Kuo influence you with evil and good choices, while Second Son allowed you to corrupt or redeem Fetch and Eugene.
Why not combine the two?
You meet each of the four Conduits over the course of the story–the crime lord’s people save you from a jam, your teacher just reveals to you they’re a Conduit, etc. The crime lord and teacher can influence you, while you in turn influence the drug dealer and your friend’s brother. Choosing one side over the other enough times would eventually lead to the other side refusing your help and even attacking you if you try to approach. The morality system would be reworked to allow for neutral choices–say the crime lord wants you to “persuade” someone in your teacher’s neighborhood because they haven’t paid their monthly fee. Instead of telling that person to leave town (good) or shoot glass into their knees with a warning (evil), you just opt to not do it. Neutrality leaves you with the possibility of uniting all four Conduits, which’ll be necessary for when the DUP shows up.
Arriving around the midway point of Act 2, the DUP at this point are basically mercenaries just getting their feet off the ground. Augustine has a few soldiers on her pay and is looking for a big catch to catch the eye of the government. Four Conduits loose in a major city, with rumors of a fifth, is pretty much a golden goose. She begrudgingly works with and sometimes against the military to bring you all down. Depending on which side you take, someone on the opposite moral end will end up leading you to her or giving themselves up so you can bring down Augustine and the military presence.
Ultimately, you and Augustine are going to face off. She’s going to hold your mother in a concrete prison and won’t let her go unless you give up the remaining Conduits and come with her. The good ending will have you give yourself up to Augustine and the DUP using you to test the possibility of glass powers in their agents. Choosing evil will have you shooting your mother and trying to take down Augustine, but you get gunned down and your corpse is still experimented on (it’s unclear if a Conduit needs to be alive to have their powers transferred to others). The neutral ending will have you creating a glass copy and saving your mother, the two of you leaving Chicago with the Conduits that are alive.
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