Prototype or Infamous?

[3dilettante]

Im suprised you are feeling bad for the people that you consume. The immersion in this game isn't all that good imo. i guess the insane gore coupled with the consuming can be upsetting. For me, it just doesnt look real enough to make me care if i kill some civilians on the way.

I like to role-play when I play a character, and I don't mind being evil.
My kind of evil isn't the kind Prototype has in mind.
Mine's an evil with the goal of gaining power or advantage, where destruction and casualties are expected and entertaining, but not the goal.
In some ways Infamous is a better fit for me, because you actually set down regions of control as you complete side quests. This has the unfortunate side effect that the game becomes more static and less exciting as you peel away areas of chaos, but I don't care too much about the aftergame.

Prototype's plot is in the opposite direction, as chaos is rising, and Mercer doesn't gain power in that way. This is fine, as he gains personal powers.
The downside is that there are so many, and I'm already so powerful, that beyond certain upgrades I don't see much difference.

I don't feel particularly bad when an NPC in a video game dies, but I felt sheepish with that one marine because it was so pointless. Sure if he had opened fire on me, or was somehow preventing me from getting something, it would have been an acceptable thing to take him down.
It was just such a pointless end result that I felt it was meaningless, not even worth the few second's effort it took to sneak up and consume him instead of ignoring or crushing him.

 

[RobertR1]

I'm still waiting on a sand box game where I can kill every single human character NPC in the game. Then just walk around an empty city "I am Legend" style owning wild animals next.

 

[obonicus]

I'm still waiting on a sand box game where I can kill every single human character NPC in the game. Then just walk around an empty city "I am Legend" style owning wild animals next.

Fallout 3? You can't kill everyone, but near enough.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

I'm still waiting on a sand box game where I can kill every single human character NPC in the game. Then just walk around an empty city "I am Legend" style owning wild animals next.

Fallout 3. But not much wildlife. Crysis if you mod it?

I like to role-play when I play a character, and I don't mind being evil.
My kind of evil isn't the kind Prototype has in mind.
Mine's an evil with the goal of gaining power or advantage, where destruction and casualties are expected and entertaining, but not the goal.

Well, technically

Spoiler

You aren't Alec Mercer, you are virus, if you "role-play" as a virus, all you care about is more bloodmass for survival, as you gain health

Sure, just don't be annoyed if you want to kill huddled group A and the game makes you throw drop-kick lone loser B.

The aiming system sucks indeed. i just started aiming my target before i do any moves. time slows down upon reaiming anyway

Unavoidable massacre of innocent people, you say? hmmmmm, I might have to pick this up.

Its a huge massacre! There is hundreds of civilians in the street, and if you wish you can cover the entire streets in blood. (Body surfing is not bad for killing people in your way)

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Well, technically

Spoiler

You aren't Alec Mercer, you are virus, if you "role-play" as a virus, all you care about is more bloodmass for survival, as you gain health

That's a great way to think about it. Either way, this is the best open world sandbox game I've played to day. And I'm still not sure why as I usually hate open world sandbox games (Saints Row, GTA, etc.)

Maybe I'll have to pickup Crackdown if I have a chance if it's anything like this.

Regards,
SB

 

[obonicus]

Well, technically

Spoiler

You aren't Alec Mercer, you are virus, if you "role-play" as a virus, all you care about is more bloodmass for survival, as you gain health

Yes, but

Spoiler

human Mercer was a bigger dick than virus Mercer. Virus is all 'Dana, I must save you!', 'I don't want to kill everyone!' in cutscenes and some in-mission speak, human Mercer is 'screw everyone, eat virus NYC'. Even Virus Mercer thinks that human Mercer was an asshole.

 

[DrJay24]

After a bit more time in Prototype I can say so far the game is a mess.

You are a soulless character running around destroying a soulless city, killing anyone in your way. The mission in the warehouse with the monster things was frustrating and the definition of how to piss off players. They put you in a small indoor area, filled with soldiers and monsters. You are expected to fight while the targeting is locking on to random crap and the camera is swinging around. Top it off with monsters that keep piling up as they fall through the opening in the ceiling. Then they want you to grab a rocket launcher and blow some fuel tanks, have fun trying to grab small things on the floor as six monsters beat you and 15 soldiers shoot at everything.

The game fairs better outdoors, but the seemingly random mission objective tied together by bits of story are not compelling. Sure you can drive crap, shoot crap and transform your body into crap, but it is a mess.

At least travel got a bit better with the glide ability.

The worst part of Prototype is the controls, too many button and things to remember. There is a weapon wheel for powers, but that just means more buttons. You wanted to sneak absorb? Opps, you forgot R1 and just did a regular absorb, time for the brainless AI to go on high alert while you transform into another person. Don't worry they will lose you despite your gliding and jumping 20ft in the air.

Ok, maybe the game gets much better with more powers and stuff, maybe. So far the game isn't even to Mercenaries 2 level, which at least has co-op to make up for it's repetitive nature.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Heh, the game isn't for everyone that's obvious. Interestingly enough it'll probably go on to sell at least twice as much as Infamous just because it's multiplatform. It's a shame Infamous isn't also.

But I didn't have nearly as much trouble as some seem to have. Perhaps it's because I played the PC version and maybe aiming is easier on the PC, dunno. None of my friends with consoles is into "superhero" type games so noone has picked up Prototype or Infamous. So couldn't compare there.

As for that mission. You don't actually need a rocket launcher to blow up the tanks. There's actually quite a few ways to do it. Hell if you are bored you can just stand in front of them and the soldiers and monsters will end up blowing them.

Myself I just used regular melee combat to destroy them, although a rocket launcher would probably be easier. But as it was I was having fun flying around the room slaughtering monsters, throwing soldiers into monsters, throwing stuff around. Bouncing off the walls. It was pure organized chaos for me.

Regards,
SB

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Yes I didn't find that mission particularly hard either, because the monsters aren't just attacking you and you have unlimited supply of soldiers to consume. I actually stayed there pretty long just killing monsters and gaining EP-points even after it was possible for me to blow up the last container. You get lot's of health when you consume those mutants. Anyways you're still pretty early in the game and that mission is kind of an exception, normally you don't have to be in such a confined space, but yeah the controls could have been better and I guarantee that there will be plenty of frustrating moments later in the game as well. I wish there would have been a free aim mode when using weapons.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I wish there would have been a free aim mode when using weapons.

Yeah, that's probably the major thing I don't particularly like. I rarely used the lock-on in this game unless there was something I absolutely HAD to hit.

And while free roaming melee combat works just peachy that way, guns and thrown objects appear to have a mind of their own unless you lock onto a target.

It's like the game is randomly picking something to lock onto even though you aren't locked onto anything. Usually it would shoot at what I was looking towards. But there were occasions where it would just randomly shoot someone off to the side.

Regards,
SB

 

[Cheezdoodles]

. The mission in the warehouse with the monster things was frustrating and the definition of how to piss off players. They put you in a small indoor area, filled with soldiers and monsters. You are expected to fight while the targeting is locking on to random crap and the camera is swinging around. Top it off with monsters that keep piling up as they fall through the opening in the ceiling. Then they want you to grab a rocket launcher and blow some fuel tanks, have fun trying to grab small things on the floor as six monsters beat you and 15 soldiers shoot at everything. .

This level can be frustrating (aspecially on hard), trick is to just fly around and do air attacks.

Fuel tanks aredestroyed by all attacks.I used arial on them aswell. I dont think i had anything else than the Flykick air ability at this point. Rocketlauncher does quite a lot of damage, so it can be useful, but it can be a pain just managing to pick up the rocket launcher with 4 hunters trying to get you.

As far as the lock on system goes, i dont have much problems with it. Sure, it sometimes chooses the wrong target, but time slows down when you switch targets, so you can usually find the one you want.

The game opens up alot once you get more powers, as you can utilize different strategies. Also, once you get better powers, the targeting system gets less annoying.

Air attacks are a very good way of staying alive, and many of them do a lot of damage. Before getting the blade, i like using the cannonball on enemies, when there are many of them. You are hard to hit, and you can do a lot of damage. Targeting doesn't really matter, just take any target, glide\dash around and keep hitting it with arials.

The targeting system will usually select either a hunter\monster or a tank\heli, not infantry when there is lots of enemies around.

Once you get the Blade and the arial swing, you can one shot tanks and hunters. At this point, the targeting system doesn't matter, since it will usually select one of the bigger enemies, and in 99% of the gametime, it doesn't really matter if you destroy that tank first, or the hunter.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

On that warehouse there are also plenty of soldiers to consume for energy and it's possible to start consuming another soldier, while still consuming the previous one, so you can recharge your energy quite fast whilst moving, you only have to be on the ground for a very short time to press triangle or Y to start consuming, so it's quite easy to evade the mutants.

On overall Prototype is imo a game which should be played with short off periods. There are so many powers and moves that they are easily forgotten, also the controls aren't the best in the class, so it's important to get a hold on them and finish the game, while you know what you are doing. I personally think I was atleast 50 % done, before I finally felt comfortable with the controls.

 

[DrJay24]

I must be doing it wrong then, because if you get hit while consuming and you get interrupted and no energy..

I found the most fun in Prototype is when not fighting. Take the form of some civilian and use the charged throw to chuck people around. Also use the ground pounding in large crowds for some hilarity.

I also think the best way to do any combat mission is to hijack a tank, seems these are better than his powers.

 

[obonicus]

The main trick is to use jump kicks. Absorbing is too dangerous, especially since at that point in the game all you have is the stupid claws. Later on hunters are cake, but that's just an incredibly annoying encounter.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

I must be doing it wrong then, because if you get hit while consuming and you get interrupted and no energy..

Kill the dudes with rocket launchers and that really shouldn't be a problem. Have you purchased the shield power? Keep it on, as having it is pretty essential in staying alive. When you consume a hunter I don't think you can get interrupted and they give lot's of health and EP. I honestly stayed in that room for a long time just to get more EP.

There is a small place a little bit higher in one corner with stairs leading up there, grap a soldier and consume it there if it's too much problem to do it elsewhere, the mutants can follow you there, but it usually takes a little while for them to get there, and even then not all of them will follow you there, so you can fight against 1-3 mutants there to make it little bit more fair fight.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

I must be doing it wrong then, because if you get hit while consuming and you get interrupted and no energy.. .

I have consumed plenty of hunters while having tons of enemies running around me, if you manage to do the consume move, you get energy no matter what happends. I cannot remember ever seing a consume being interupted, as long as you grab and push the consume button before you get hit.

(althought, if someone hits you for more damage than the consume would yield while your consuming, obviously your not gonna gain).

I also think the best way to do any combat mission is to hijack a tank, seems these are better than his powers.

I think you just need to learn how to use the powers efficiently or get more powers.

Tanks can be nice in some situations, aspecially early on, but there are many vastly better fighting options. The most effective attacks are usually the aerial ones, as its usually hard to hit you while your flying mid air, and most of the attacks are so powerful that they blow\stun enemies back a little when you land on the ground, giving you time to jump back up, and do another air attack.

I only use tanks\choppers to destroy hives and military bases quickly. Most of the powers you get, are good in some particular aeras, and if you take some time to test out their strenghts and weaknesses you become much more powerful than a tank is.

The claws however are pretty sucky thought ( groundspike can be good 1vs1)

 

[DrJay24]

I have consumed plenty of hunters while having tons of enemies running around me, if you manage to do the consume move, you get energy no matter what happends. I cannot remember ever seing a consume being interupted, as long as you grab and push the consume button before you get hit.

I was referring to consuming soldiers. To consume the hunters you have to have them near dead correct?

Anyhow I sent Prototype back to Gamefly, I spent more time with Red Faction though which is a good game that seems to have lost sales due to its later release date.

I need to play something that is not a sand box game, I've done a string of them on and off for a while; Saints Row 2, Mercs 2, inFamous, Prototype, Red Faction... I think I'll get Disgaea 3 or something different.