Electricity vs Tentacles
Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 4:29 pm
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.
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.