Something you probably don't care about

I know I haven't posted in a while, and I should probably start with something that my elusive readers might give a shit about, but I feel like talking about a comparison of two recent sandbox-style video games, inFAMOUS and Prototype, so that's what I'm talking about. They are very similar, and the comparisons are inevitable, so I'm jumping on the band wagon early.

Both games, as I mentioned, are sandbox games, that is large, open world games that you can traverse through a variety of means. They both feature a main character with a recently twisted past who struggles with the choices laid out before him and questions the powers he has recently developed. Each has interpersonal relationships that build and grow as the game progresses through its twisted plot. Both men fight against dark forces both external and internal.

However, there are notable differences. Infamous is a largely ranged fighting game with the main character, Cole, blasting electricity at people, whereas Prototype features the lead, Alex, who beats his foes mainly with melee fighting. While Infamous does feature several types of electricity based powers, Cole looks more or less the same throughout the game only gaining and improving his electric powers. Alex, on the other hand, not only gains powers and movement skills, but he also gains forms to shapeshift into, each having its own set of skills to grow.

Cole runs around with his powers, and only his powers, for the entire game. Alex, again, gets more choices. You can run around just punching people, and that is entertaining. But you can also absorb other people, gain their powers and skills, and do interesting things. You can steal weapons, tanks, even helicopters, all helping you get to your goals and blow things up. All of this adds a stealth aspect to the game as well, something lacking in Infamous.

Cole is stuck in relatively small game world, Empire City, that is broken up into three districts, each having its own set of missions and challenges. The world you're in seems familiar even though it has recently gone through a cataclysm and many of the buildings are broken or run down. Alex gets Manhattan. All of Manhattan. And where Cole can run around rather quickly, riding on electric wires or grinding on train tracks, Alex can run far faster, climb faster and farther, and can glide from the highest roof tops to cover huge amounts of ground quickly.

One thing that Infamous has that Prototype does not is the played out moral choice system. At times in the game Cole is faced with a choice between selfless hero and cruel madman. Not only has this been played out in like, oh, a billion games before, but also the dichotomy of the choices, Lawful Good or Chaotic Evil, is just boring. Choices should always have a neutral option, in my opinion, and there just isn't one here. Basically it's a system to get you to play the game twice to see both outcomes. Kind of annoying.

So Prototype is the clear winner here, right? Hell no. I am fully intending to play Infamous again, while I am merely chugging through Prototype, impatiently waiting for the damn game to end so I can see the plot through and be done with it.

Not what you were expecting, huh?

As we've all been told, be it true or not, bigger is not always better. Yes, Infamous has a smaller powers system. However, this lets you get used to the one form of combat you use each new weapon in your arsenal (minus maybe one power) as an absolutely necessary addition. By the end of the game you're zapping people a full city block away with your regular zappy power because you've had enough practice to learn how to do it well. You learn new tricks based on being good or evil that you can use to help yourself avoid murdering people by accident, or to just wipe out everyone unfortunate enough to be between you and your goals. In Prototype, I have like six forms, and I use two because I can't find any reason to use half of them since they don't seem to really make that much difference than just keeping the damn claws out. Shapeshifting is, while entertaining, rather irritating when it comes to combat.

Cole's Empire City is significantly smaller than Alex's Manhattan. However, a smaller game world makes you become more familiar with the worlds as you do missions and search the world for hidden missions and upgrade items. Climbing around in this game reminds me of Assassin's Creed, rewarding your climbing with beautiful if tragic cityscapes, views of a broken world. Cole my wander this world more slowly, but it's so well designed and attractive that the slightly smaller size is actually a benefit to the game. Prototype is just not as attractive a game. Arguably the game is graphically equivalent, perhaps even slightly better, but Infamous' artistic direction is much better. And, yes, Alex can race around Manhattan much faster than Cole, but the damn man moves to fast. There's little reason to climb a building other than to jump off a higher building for father glide distance. Though Alex's world is more dark than Cole's, it's just not as nice to look at. And the huge world only makes finding the hidden hints and landmark items that much rarer.

Cole gets missions, and Alex gets missions. They both get side missions. However, with Cole's side missions, he gains something besides just running around. He actually makes a difference in the game world, by doing missions, he cleans out enemies, making running around the city easier. All Alex gets is a bunch of races and skill missions, none of which do anything other than give tiny amounts of experience, and are often more difficult than they are worth and have no other benefit.

So what about the crappy moral choice thing? I do have my complaints about it, but the choices that are presented, as obvious as they are, aren't always an easy good/bad choice, because sometimes the "bad" option is good for you and your friends. Is that really bad? The first choice you're given (This happens in the first 5 minutes of game play, so it's not a spoiler) is to pick between sharing food with the people, or scaring people away and keeping it for your friends. And the choices are often varied like that. Some of them were hokey, but others I really did have to think about. At least if you're playing out an overplayed game system, you can do it well.

Ultimately, what makes Infamous better than Prototype is the writing. I found myself caring about Cole and his friends as I played the game. They were like real people, with real concerns and real choices. As things got better and worse for them I really felt a concern for how things would turn out. Alex? He's just some unlucky prick who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. His story is boring, the plight of Manhattan boring, and the characters merely there to progress the game through its increasing bullshit difficulty curve. Both games were hard, yes, but Infamous gave me something for my efforts; Prototype merely encourages me to rush through the game.

So there you go. Infamous is a better game than Prototype because rather than trying to be big and impressive, it took less and polished it to a brilliant shine.