I've been playing Prototype, and having a blast. It's basically just an excuse to give the player a ridiculously overpowered character to explore and destroy Manhattan.
Tons of fun.
Phil the Nuka-Cola Dude said:
Prototype. It's my first modern 'open ended action' game, as I've never played Crackdown or Infamous. So far the experience has been a mixed bag.
The game starts off with you having every single power available, which is amazing. Almost as soon as you get all of this awesome shit handed to you, it's taken away in a max payne style opening (THIS IS REALLY THE END OF THE GAME NOW LETS GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING, SHALL WE?).
Being dumped back into the world with nothing but the most rudimentary attacks is quite sad, as the fighting is rather bland after having the crazy combos and "destroy everything on screen with a flourish of tentacles" moves removed.
You only get to play in the 'this is what you'll get to do later' environment for a couple of minutes anyway, so it's not that bad. It also gives you a better incentive to earn EPs and upgrade your character.
Phil said:
The controls seem to have a mind of their own sometimes, and moving alex in the direction you want him to go in the very crowded fighting scenes becomes very frustrating after you've been juggled to death for the fifth time.
Use air recovery/dash/sprint more. If you get stuck between 3 hunters (the most common 'juggling' event I think), you can jump/dash your way out of there and back to safety pretty easily.
Phil said:
The buggy camera only compounds the control issues, since it likes to get stuck in this SUPER-low sensitivity mode, where you can't even turn to see where you're going (rapidly jumping on/off walls can fix this).
I have not had this at all.
Phil said:
Contrary to what the reviews all seem to be saying, the graphics are quite good. It also runs surprisingly well considering the absolutely MASSIVE amount of npcs, vehicles and explosions that are on screen constantly.
The graphics are crappy for a high-end modern game. They're on par with, say, GTA: San Andreas. Not that this is bothersome, the game runs super smooth (I have had 0 slowdowns anywhere), load times are fast, and you don't really notice that the graphics aren't great. The only annoying thing is the rather rampant pop-in of detailed objects (swivel the camera a bit fast and you see airco units and the like spawning on top of buildings).
As for the rest of the game, I have only one complaint: the plot is filled with MASSIVE FUCKING PLOTHOLES. They do a great job of setting the right atmosphere (think 28 Days Later), constant small movies you can 'collect' by exploring the "Web of Intrigue", which means basically absorbing any characters you stumble across that are marked as 'HEY INFO HERE', which then lead to more characters that are marked that way etc etc etc Great way to get the player to explore some of the backstory for himself without relying solely on the main quest line.
But if your brain is half turned-on, a ton of stuff just doesn't make any sense. Biggest plot annoyance so far:
[spoiler:9fcb617d09]
Mr. Badass Commando tracks you down to inject you with instant-kill-the-virus stuff (which actually seems to not work anyway), he sadistically goes "I've been looking forward to this" before violently trying to pummel you to death, even though he previously expressed the idea to his commander that you are still a sentient human, and he'd been working with your girlfriend who could've injected you with the stuff peacefully, without a problem without any need for any kind of risky face-to-face confrontation.[/spoiler:9fcb617d09]
I'm sure it will probably come out for PC same time as consoles, if it doesn't I wouldn't hold my breath.
