Electricity vs Tentacles

[Zeta]

Last night I sat down and played an hour each of Prototype and Infamous and wanted to get down some initial thoughts.

Prototype is truly awesome and makes you feel like a god among ants. The combat and movement system is very fun and very intuitive. Your powers are basically being a cross between Venom and the Incredible Hulk, and the speed and strength and ferocity with which your character moves is amazing. However, everyone in this game is a colossal monstrous asshole - first and foremost the main character. You're not really motivated to do anything. The main character angsting about what's been done to him is so horrible is laughable considering the glee with which he uses his powers to rip apart the city and civilians. The setting is very bleak and not that much fun. Letting you use cars and guns is really kind of stupid, because you don't need either in the slightest. The game does capture the freedom of movement of being a superpowered individual in the best way since Spider-Man 2 the Game.

Infamous has a much better story, much more likable supporting cast, and is a better-developed universe. You actually get to fight other people with superpowers instead of just the military and zombies. You have the option to actually BE a hero and have people cheer for you, which is nice. However, I didn't really feel like a superhero at all. No, I felt like Sly Cooper who happened to have a ton of guns - all of which shot lightning. I just wasn't as impressed with the scale of the powers in this game. Pretty much everything you do is some variation on using a gun. It takes about 30,000 volts of electricity to make common gang members and cops go down at the beginning of the game, which makes you feel less like a superhero and more like a super-dud if any guy with a pistol would be more affective than the guy with fucking superpowers. The biggest problem I have with this game is the lack of transport. Ironically, while Alex Mercer can use guns and cars but has no need for these petty toys, Cole McGrath cannot even though they'd actually be useful. Transportation is a bitch. Cole slowly toddles around the (admittedly smaller) city with an awkward gait, his only other means of movement being limited to grinding on power lines. I dunno, the coolest part of being a superhero for me is getting around - swinging from webs or zip-lines, levitating something or self-propelled flight, gliding or huge leaps, wall crawling, teleportation or superspeed. Cole doesn't have any of that nice shit AND he can't even use cars or a fucking bicycle (which is stupid, because he was a professional bike messenger). The platforming sections feel out of place. Supposedly, all of Cole's acrobatic abilities come from Parkour, but he can still jump twice his own height and swing around like the best of them - specifically Sly Cooper, and the platforming feels really forced and frankly odd. There are a wide variety of powers, but all of them are mostly different variations on FPS or third-person shooter guns except with lightning tacked onto it as the explanation - Lightning Pistol, Lightning Grenades, Lightning Sniper Rifle - etc. This game could have really been saved by giving you the power to ride on electromagnetically levitated metal or manhole covers ala Static Shock. The game has a lot of heart and variety that Prototype is lacking, and it feels more polished, but you don't get a sensation of power as much as you do get the sensation of playing as a cross between Jak from Jak II and Sly Cooper. Control-wise, Infamous's powers are a lot less intuitive than Prototypes. Various combinations need to be pressed in order to shoot, there's no auto-lock on so you can shoot easily while running or platforming. Also, the ending is moronic. The moral system is unnecessary, since just from what we see of the main character from the first hour being evil seems like it would totally go against what little personality he has - ironic since the game's title references the evil path alone.

In the end, I sort of feel like these two games are two halves of the same game. Infamous has more variety, a more likable cast, a better story, and more motivation to actually move forward - but it doesn't do a good job of conveying the feeling of being a superhero or having superpowers. Prototype does a fantastic job of making you feel like you posses superpowers, but has much less variety and a bleaker, emptier, and more depressing and annoying cast and setting. Infamous offers less interaction with objects, but more interaction with your direct surroundings, but in the end getting around just plain isn't fun. Prototype lets you interact with objects more, but most of the time it's a waste of time, and everyplace feels kind of the same because of the scale of your powers, but just stomping around the city is a blast. I think that these two games would have been game of the decade if they had been one game with Alex being the Villain Story, Cole being the Hero story, and both individual plots ending with a clash of epic proportions. As it is, both of the games kind of fizzle out at the end, at least from the people I've talked to.

[Kogen]

I have been mildly interested in these games, so I will get one when a price drops. Considering Prototype is actually on more than PS3, I think I will be going with that one. I guess it will eventually get a Steam weekend thing.

It is good to see open world stuff that is not just 'lol crime'. GTA, that weird GTA clone, and Crackdown can go eat dicks. Just Cause and Mercs look horrible.

[J.C.14]

I was actually anticipating this would be a fetish discussion on the preference of either tentacles or shock/vibration. At the very least electricity is possible IRL.

[Kogen]

I thought it was about Day of the Tentacle being remade.

[Zeta]

It is good to see open world stuff that is not just 'lol crime'. GTA, that weird GTA clone, and Crackdown can go eat dicks. Just Cause and Mercs look horrible.

If by GTA clone you mean Saint's Row, I can tell you that Saint's Row 2 is a fantastic game, easily eclipsing any of the Grand Theft Autos. Basically, you play more as a supervillain than a regular crime lord or the "wronged honest guy looking for revenge who happens to run over little old ladies" like you do in GTA 3 and 4. My character is an evil British kungfu asian clown in a pimp suit with a rocket launcher, flamethrower, chainsaw, UFO, and an army of never-ending ninjas at his disposal.

[Kogen]

It is good to see open world stuff that is not just 'lol crime'. GTA, that weird GTA clone, and Crackdown can go eat dicks. Just Cause and Mercs look horrible.

If by GTA clone you mean Saint's Row, I can tell you that Saint's Row 2 is a fantastic game, easily eclipsing any of the Grand Theft Autos. Basically, you play more as a supervillain than a regular crime lord or the "wronged honest guy looking for revenge who happens to run over little old ladies" like you do in GTA 3 and 4. My character is an evil British kungfu asian clown in a pimp suit with a rocket launcher, flamethrower, chainsaw, UFO, and an army of never-ending ninjas at his disposal.

Yeah... that is just random and stupid. I am not into that stuff (Garry's mod sux lolol).

[Shadow Hog]

I thought it was about Day of the Tentacle being remade.

Incidentally, Dave Grossman said if Tales of Monkey Island does well, that's the franchise they at Telltale/LucasArts are gonna look at next.

And since Day of the Tentacle was one of my childhood favorites, that would excite me to no end. Although they should do the correct thing and call it Maniac Mansion 3, given that, well, DotT was Maniac Mansion 2. (Incidentally, Maniac Mansion [1] didn't really do much for me. I guess it was the whole "oh, you can actually die" aspect of it. I did get reasonably far into it, though, but I never really finished it...)

[Arcade]

Well, since Maniac Mansion was more or less made by the same staff who did "Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders", I think is pissy easy compared to it...

But, do people nowadays know how to make a "point and click" game? The only good one I have seen since "Grim Fandango" was "Sam&Max season one", and only because I played all the episodes in a row....

Loom, remember Loom? A game based in music, played easy but was hard, cause you had to remember the tunes... how would a Rock Band game or Guitar Hero game play if they used Loom as a base?.

"Your name is muffin, the Last of the guitar wizards, play a game where you do spells using your guitar"

[Zeta]

Was hoping Infamous would get better as it went along. It hasn't, if anything it's gotten more bland.

This feels like Sly 4, just with a realistic coat of paint and guns, erm, I mean "superpowers". This is the most boring depiction of superpowers I've ever seen, really. All of your "electricity" works like your generic FPS or third-person shooter rifles, and you don't even have a travel power that you can use consistently.

* Melee: The "Knife".
o Gigawatt Blades: The "Chainsaw".
* Lightning Bolt: The Pistol
* Shockwave: The Shotgun
* Overload Burst: The Sniper Rifle (albeit with splash damage)
* Arc Lightning: The Automatic Weapon (Lightning Gun variation, naturally)
* Shock Grenades: Grenades (obviously).
* Megawhatt Hammer: The Rocket Launcher
* Lightning Storm: BFG

It's just a standard third-person shooter with Sly Cooper platforming and a superhero coat of paint.

Most of the game is spent spamming grenades. When I hear the premise "Superhero game about a guy with lightning powers" and discover that the core gameplay mechanic is throwing grenades that are "made of electricity", I feel the spirit of creativity actively weeping within me. How could they fuck this up so bad by taking a fantastic idea like electric superpowers and watering it down into standard FPS shit?

[j-man]

I keep hearing stuff to the effect of "InFamous is only about being a villain. It's right there in the title!".

Check this out.

InFamous.

See that? See what they did there? NOW CHOOSE YOUR PATH lolol

[Zeta]

The villain path makes little to no sense considering the character's relationships and personal views, actually. However, the only move that actually feels like actual electricity is sadly limited to it.

[Dr. Watson]

I was actually anticipating this would be a fetish discussion on the preference of either tentacles or shock/vibration. At the very least electricity is possible IRL.

I thought maybe we would be treated to some awesome video of an octopus fighting an electric eel.

[hedgepig]

I just don't see the appeal of these games when the glorious Crackdown did it two years ago with far more style and charm.

The art style of prototype really reminds me Shadow the Hedgehog.

Crackdown 2 is on it's way, no need for these emo pretenders.

[Zeta]

I thought Crackdown handled like shit, myself, actually.

[Segaholic2]

Prototype is boring generic shit.

[Zeta]

That's what your MOM said while she was having sex with a prototype of a walrus! BURN.

[Delphine]

Ignore him, he just doesn't like it because it doesn't have multiplayer.

[Segaholic2]

I don't like YOU because you don't have multiplayer!!!

[P.P.A.]

I don't like YOU because you don't have multiplayer!!!

Unlike your mother.

[Baba O'Riley]

I don't like YOU because you don't have multiplayer!!!

Unlike your mother.

OH SNAP

[Baba O'Riley]

On a more related note, this debate was also referenced on Zero Punctuation, for those of you that care about that sort of thing.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... -Prototype

[Zeta]

Everything he said was pretty much right.

In fact, he stole it all from me.

Cheating bastard.

[Isuka]

But, do people nowadays know how to make a "point and click" game? The only good one I have seen since "Grim Fandango"

lol Arcade, et cetera.

As I get it, Prototype just needs some actual, old school stages and compelling missions (it seems it's appropriately difficult as it is). Everything else I can cope with.

[Team Mecha]

So both companies responded to the challenge at the end of the Zero Punctuation video. NSFW to put it mildly.

[Delphine]

REALLY? I love the internet.