Faceoff! inFAMOUS vs Prototype

It’s never easy when two products of similar themes get released around the same time period. Whether it be Deep Impact and Armageddon, Dante’s Peak and Volcano, or Mall Cop and Observe and Report. No matter what, the two will always be compared, and the cold hard truth is that one is destined to be better than the other.

Such was the case with Mays release of Sucker Punch’s superhero open world game inFAMOUS, and Radical Entertainments similarly themed open world game, Prototype, release in June, just two weeks after inFAMOUS hit store shelves.

Starting now, every week we’ll present you with a new Faceoff pitting two similarly themed games against one another, and objectively weighing their pros and cons from main character, to gameplay, to graphics, and deciding the victor. Face off begins now!

On the surface, the games seem remarkably similar. To the point that many a curious onlooker would get the two mixed up. Dive a bit deeper, however, and you’ll find two totally different gaming experiences, and just like the differences between Twister and Tornado, one is, in this writer’s humble opinion, better than the other.

We’ll begin by tackling the games primary similarities, and from there on, delve into the myriad of differences between the two, starting with the protagonists of both. Please read with caution, as there may be some tidbits of stories revealed about both games that could be considered spoilerish (but no big reveals about plot twists or anything).

HERO

inFAMOUS:

Cole McGrath – A lowly bike courier who finds himself gifted with incredible electricity based powers after a package he was delivering exploded, wiping out a large portion of the Historic District of Empire City, killing thousands. When he awakens a week later, he discovers that a plague has swept throughout the city, and the three major gangs inhabiting the place have carved up the three districts as their own like a Thanksgiving turkey. The military has also quarantined the city to contain the outbreak. Cole soon discovers that his powers may be the only hope the city has of regaining it’s sanity, or he may just be their destructor.

On a personality level, we don’t know much about Cole beyond a few snippets of dialogue shared between him and the two people closest to him, his best friend Zeke, and his girl, Trish, who lost her sister in the blast. From what we can gleem from these conversations is that Cole didn’t much care for anything or anyone more complicated than delivering the next package, and making ends meet. He cares about his friend Zeke, counting him as one of the only two people in the world he can trust, and he loves Trish more than anything, although things get complicated and strained when she learns that Cole was responsible for the explosion that tore apart Empire City, and claimed the life of her sister.

Cole narrates the game, and offers some insight into his mindset as events unfold around him, and he comes to grips with his powers. He has a smart mouth, quick to make a quip with Zeke, or lip off to Moya, the FBI Agent who has promised Cole a way out of the city if he can help her locate her husband, who dissappeared after the blast. Overall, he is a fairly likable, believable character, but left just blank enough for the morality system to be feasible whether being “Good Cole,” or “Evil Cole.”

Prototype:

Alex Mercer – An enigma in more ways than one. In the opening sequence of the game, Alex proclaims that he is “no monster,” and “not a killer.” For the remainder of the game, however, he proceeds to annihilate and maim and murder literally thousands of people on his quest of revenge. After awakening in a morgue, Alex learns that he has been given incredible abilities including shapeshifting, running along walls, gliding through the air, creating a thick exoskeleton around him, and unleashing tentacles not unlike the villain Venom from Spider-Man. Those are just the tips of the iceberg when it comes to Mercer’s abilities, as he gains more powers throughout his journey. Alex also discovers that a plague has been unleashed upon New York City, and it has subsequently been quarantined by the government until it can be brought under control. Unlike inFAMOUS, however, the citizens of the city are not just rendered sick and helpless. They are turned into mindless zombies that will kill and murder anyone who gets in their path.

As a person, Alex is still that enigma. We don’t know much about him at the start of the game, other than he has a sister named Dana who he cares a lot about, and an ex-girlfriend, Karen Parker, who used to work for the very company that Alex believes gave him his abilities. Considering that he spends most of the game proclaiming to be “not evil,” or “not a killer,” I can’t help but get mixed signals when he proceeds to slaughter hundreds upon hundreds of the citizens of New York City while trying to kill the soldiers and people responsible for turning him into this monster. There isn’t really much to gleem from the dialogue between Alex, his sister, ex-girlfriend, and anyone else he comes across, because it’s all just so damn hackneyed and cliched. After racing to his ex-girlfriend’s apartment to get her out of there before a strike team arrives, this dialogue takes place:

Alex: “Karen Parker.”

Karen: “Alex! I thought you were dead!”

Alex: “I was.”

I can’t help but groan inwardly at exchanges like this, and the fact that they are this groan-inducing whenever a cutscene happens. Alex falls into the “I’m tough because the kids want a cool ‘anti-hero,'” but the story doesn’t give him much reason to be such a douche to everyone. He’s barely civil to his sister, who simply serves as the person who gives him missions.

In the end, I feel that Sucker Punch’s approach to their main character results in a more “relatable,” believable protagonist, who players can empathize with as they progress through his heroe’s journey. Cole may not be on par with Nathan Drake in terms of fantastic characterization, but he certainly makes Alex Mercer look like he was written by a high schooler who’s read one too many Image Comic books from the 90s (I used to be one of those high schoolers, by the way).

The CITIES

Outside of the intial setup being remarkably similar, Sucker Punch and Radical Entertainment have taken two totally different approaches to the open world sandbox genre, and the presentation of a city.

inFAMOUS:

Empire City – The world of inFAMOUS is broken up into three islands: The Neon District, The Warren, and The Historic District. After the explosion ripped apart the Historic district, a plague swept through the city, causing the government to quarantine it. The citizens are occassionaly given food drops by the authorities, but they are often hijacked by the gangs roving the place. You will often see many a citizen rooting around in garbage cans, sitting curled up against a wall or on a bench, falling to their knees in dispair, or simply collapsing due to a combination of hunger and the plague infecting their bodies. There are also a few policement left who continue the good fight and occassionally battle it out with the various gangs.

The three districts also have three very distinct looks, atmospheres, and gangs. The Neon district is home of the Reapers, and features tunnels, a large plaza with a huge fountain, and many, many buildings housing bright, glowing signs. The Warren, home of the Dustmen, is like a junkyard given life. There is a gigantic tower made of junk looming over the city, a warehouse district, and many of the houses look like rundown shanties. The Historic district is home of the First Sons, and the buildings are all in a gothic motif, with the largest landmark being ground zero of the blast, which is a smoking crater surrounded by the remains of destroyed buildings.

The city feels lived in and hopeless, with the atmosphere changing depending on if Cole is following the Heroic or Infamous paths. When being “good,” the citizens will praise Cole, hang up posters of him, give him thumbs up, and even throw rocks at enemies attacking him. When being “evil,” the citizens will shout insults, spray graffiti over your propaganda posters, and hurl rocks at Cole as he walks down the street.They will even try and gang up on him and push, punch, and kick him.

Prototype:

New York City – The city that never sleeps. While in the real world, New York City is a place filled with history, a bustling population crawling with all sorts of astounding characters, and a fantastic skyline, New York in the world of Prototype feels, unfortunately, flat, flavorless, and bland. While the skyline itself is still intact, the world below is populated with, primarily panicked people who never stop running and screaming, infected zombie citizens, and the military, who are relentless in cutting Alex down on sight.

The infected parts of the city are the most interesting, since there are Hives scattered around, releasing more plague, and infecting more citizens. These areas even cause the sky to change color to a sickening orangish red. Outside of this, there isn’t really much detail in the city. There’s barely any trash on the ground, no citizens attempting to go about their regular lives despite the horrible scenario they find themselves in. It’s pure chaos, which there is nothing wrong with, but the lack of atmosphere really makes the New York in Prototype not very interesting to explore. It’s also unfortunate that this same New York map has been in nearly 10 super hero open world games already, so it just doesn’t feel as fresh or fun to explore like the completely original Empire City in inFAMOUS. It should also be noted that the map in Prototype is much smaller than the three islands present in inFAMOUS.

GAMEPLAY:

Here is where the two titles really set themselves apart from one another, and where the quality of both experiences really shows.

inFAMOUS:

Not only has Cole been given absolute control over electricity, he was also an “urban explorer” before the blast, and as such, he has the uncanny ability to climb practically every building and surface in Empire City. From street poles, to train tracks, to power lines, if it looks like Cole should be able to leap up and grab it, he can. This results in some stickyness, as he will literally “auto-target” to anything nearby that he can grab when you jump at it, but overall, the feeling of precision while traversing the environment is fantastic. As he unlocks more electric abilities by restoring the power grid in blacked out areas of the city, these combine with his parkour skills, and it really opens up the traversal element of gameplay. He will learn how to grind on train tracks and powerlines, as well as utilize “Static Thrusters,” which will allow him to hover through the air for a short period of time. For defense, he can also dive and roll, as well as gain a Polarity Shield ability, which puts up a force field of energy that repels enemy attacks, and replenishes his battery core reserves (which deplete when Cole uses his higher level abilities).

On the offensive side, Cole gains 10 abilities, each with three upgrades that make saving or oppressing Empire City that much more possible. His initial ability is the Electric Bolt, which doesn’t consumer battery cores, and is unlimited in use. It is like a pistol in other shooters (inFAMOUS is, truthfully, a third person shooter with action/adventure and platform elements weaved throughout the fabric of the design). While I won’t spoil all of the powers, he gains abilities like a Precision Shot, which works like a sniper rifle and also slows down time, aiding in more precise shots, as well as the ability to call down a devastating lighting strike from the sky, decimating all in it’s path.

Overall gameplay is straightforward, but the morality system keeps things in check by rewarding you with experience points based on how good or bad you are while playing the game. Each of Cole’s 10 alignment abilities have a good or bad iteration. For example, your shock grenades on Hero level will automatically incapacitate enemies with Arc Restraints (think of them as electric handcuffs that pin enemies and civilians alike to the ground). When you are Infamous level, the shock grenades will splinter into seven little grenades that spread out and explode, causing massive explosions should they attach to other objects, and vehicles, resulting in massive chaos. In short, the “heroic” powers are all very precise, designed to minimize collateral damage whenever possible (you are being heroic, after all), while the “evil” powers are all very destructive, designed to cause as much damage as possible, to whoever is in the way.

The morality system isn’t just dependent on using your offensive powers to kill enemies or civilians. As you progress through the game, you will come across specific Karma Moments that present you with a scenario that you can either respond to with a positive or negative action. For example, while traversing the city, I came across an angry mob of people who had another civilian strung up by his feet from a pole. They claimed that he stole their food. If I wanted, I could simply walk away, and let the guy get slaughtered by the mob, resulting in negative Karma, or I could shoot the guy down, freeing him, resulting in positive Karma. There are also 15 good missions, and 15 bad missions that will give you significant boosts in positive and negative Karma, as well as awarding you with a new power specific to that alignment. There are 40 story missions, and at the least 70 or more side missions that are all rather varied and fun, although there are a few repetitive mission types spread across the three islands. Also, at any give moment you are given the ability to Arc Restrain (handcuff), or Bio Leech a citizen or enemy. Bio Leech will literally drain all the bio-electric energy from a human, killing them, and of course, resulting in negative XP and Karma.

There are also 350 blast shards(fragments from the blast) to collect, which give you XP, as well as additional battery cores (meaning you can use your high level abilities more often), and 32 Dead Drops, which were left behind by a mysterious character named John. These Dead Drops contain a lot of back story that fleshes out the world, and gives you a lot of insight as to the circumstances that lead to Cole gaining electric abilities.

The overall gameplay package of inFAMOUS feels very polished and well designed, and very rarely does the game get in the way of the fun. The controls are damn near spotless, the combat is intense and satisfying, and climbing, gliding, and grinding your way around the city is a joy.

Prototype:

Prototype has a very straightforward gameplay ethic: Destroy everything. The gameplay has more than a little in common with Radical Entertainment’s previous title, Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. Each one of Alex’s abilities serves that primary gameplay ethic. There is no middle ground, or morality system at play in Prototype. Everyone dies. Infected zombies, soldiers, and innocent civilians. No one is safe from Alex’s warpath. If all you want is a game where you kill and slaughter everyone, then Prototype is quite possibly the quintessential action game experience. If you want some justification for why Alex, when running down the street, just pushes people to the side, and is all around a straight up douchebag to any and everyone, you won’t find it here.

Revenge is always a great motivator for games and movies. It’s fun to see a character bring some ruthless comeuppance to those that have wronged him. Where I believe Prototype faulters is that Alex is never justified when it comes to punishing the innocent civilians just trying to survive the plague that has torn their city apart. Slaughtering all of this fodder is genuinely enjoyable due to a myriad of abilities and combos that can be bought with experience you earn for completing story missions (of which there are 33), and side missions, which include races, consume missions, and kill missions. The shapeshifting ability, despite being extremely unbelievable in the gameplay department (you can shapeshift in a soldier, and proceed to run along walls, flip over objects, and use most of Alex’s abilities without the other soldiers batting an eye), is useful in the missions where you can use it, but in regular, traversing the city gameplay, it’s not helpful. The real joy is earning XP, and obtaining Alex’s higher level, more devastating attacks.

Alex is also able to hijack helicopters and tanks, as well as utilize firearms to take out enemies, but they feel tacked on, as the lock on system for weapons is the only way to hit targets (there is no manual aiming), and controlling tanks and helicopters isn’t as enjoyable as simply running into a crowd and smashing them to bits.

Also throughout the game are select individuals that, when consumed by Alex, open up more info on what is called the Web of Intrigue. This is simply a series of memories that Alex can obtain to learn more about what exactly is going on in the world and story. It’s a rather creative and clever gameplay mechanic, marred somewhat by the very cliche, predictable story of a “government up to no good, and trying to hide it from the rest of the world.” If the story wasn’t cut from the same cloth of many other games with similar premises, it would have been much more intriguing (no pun intended), to unravel the Web of Intrigue. Alex being such an unsympathetic character to begin with is probably a large part of why the web doesn’t feel vital to gameplay. In fact, because of the character of Alex being so bland, the enjoyment of the game comes from only the gameplay, not a combination of compelling narrative and solid gameplay.

Gameplay is always key, of course, but Prototype suffers from two major flaws that detract from the overall package, and they combine with the mediocre story to hold Prototype bak from greatness.

The first is the insanely cumbersome control scheme. In short, it simply isn’t very enjoyable to traverse the city and engage in combat like it should be. Alex is simultaneously loose and floaty, and heavy and sluggish. He doesn’t control particularly well, and it’s very easy to lose track of enemies (of which there are tons of them shooting at you at once), and some of Alex’s higher level abilities require you to press some rather awkward button combinations (one skill has you pressing the B and X button, or Square and Circle button, at the same time to execute it). In short, the control scheme for combat just isn’t very intuitive, and often you are bringing up the L1 menu to access abilities and swap out, instead of having them all there at the press of a button like inFAMOUS.

Secondly, traversing the city is not as fluid as it should be. Sure, Alex can run up walls and glide through the sky, but as soon as you need to accomplish more precise manuvers like grabbing experience orbs that may be up on a spire that Alex cannot directly climb up. Precise controls are paramount to a quality gaming experience, and unfortunately, Prototype suffers from a lack of polish in this department. It is very difficult to go from playing with spot on controls such as in inFAMOUS, then moving on to the clumsy Prototype afterwards.

It is a decent gaming experience, but one you will, more often than not, grow frustrated with (due to horrendous difficulty spikes) more-often that you are swept away by the satisfying carnage and destruction.

GRAPHICS:

Gameplay over Graphics has been the mantra of this generation since the beginning, but I’m from the camp that believes that both qualities can co-exist to create a fantastic gaming experience. And I never hear anyone complain when an awesome game just so happens to have awesome visuals as well (see, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, or Mass Effect for examples of games with great visuals, and equally great gameplay).

inFAMOUS:

The world of Empire City is large, detailed, and immersive. Cole’s character model has great detail and animations, but it’s the city itself that really sings. For an open world sandbox game, the level of detail in the buildings, textures, and streets and roads is remarkable. Even when scrutinizing the walls and streets, the game impresses. Even moreso, the particle effects for when Cole uses his various abilities are spectacular, as is the lighting (in particular in the sewer sections, when the entire area is lit only by your electric glow). It’s a shame that things like pop in plague the game when traveling at fast speeds (in particular when grinding on train tracks at top speed), and animations for characters during the few cutscenes that are actually using the in game engine are weak.

Overall, however, inFAMOUS is, hands down, the best-looking sandbox game available right now. It must also be noted that the stylish cutscenes, done in a comic book style presentation look fantastic, and really give the game an identity all it’s own.

Prototype:

Despite New York City being such a colorful character, as mentioned before, the city itself feels very sterile and lifeless. Textures are flat and lack depth and detail, and the citizens are pretty much stuck in panic mode the entire time. Because we’ve seen this New York many times before in other sandbox games (Spider-Man 2, Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man 3, True Crime 2, Hulk: Ultimate Destruction all took place in New York), there is nothing new in the environment that feels fresh and surprising.

Alex’s animations look fine when they are taken as separate instances, but when stringing them together, the result is very jerky and lacks fluidity. Some of his attacks most certainly look cool, but lack the visual punch of inFAMOUS.

Lighting and visual effects are also weak. In truth, Prototype most certainly isn’t winning any awards for technology, and the game only looks marginally better than Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. Blood and guts can only do much to distract from the overall mediocre visual presentation of Prototype. The CGI cutscenes are full of flashiness (as is the actual gameplay), but like the overall package surrounding Prototype, it simply comes off as being by the numbers, standard action adventure game fair. It does nothing visually to establish itself as it’s own entity apart from the Spider-Man and Incredible Hulk games. Even some of Alex’s moves are direct copies of moves seen in those video games. A unique approach to visuals may have very well set the game apart, and made it stand out. Blood and guts will not detract from uninspired gameplay and design for long.

CONCLUSIONS:

I think it’s fair to say that by this point, you are aware of where I stand on the inFAMOUS vs Prototype battle. I feel that inFAMOUS is the better game due to an original, unique style that is all it’s own, precise controls that simply feel right when the controller is in your hands, and fantastic visuals. The story, while simplistic, has just enough character and intrigue to keep you compelled, and the way the game rewards you with new powers on a regular basis through the story, instead of simply having them all laid out until you purchase them from a menu, is a great incentive to keep you playing “just one more mission.” Controls, Presentation, Game Design, Graphics. inFAMOUS delivers all of those things near flawlessly. No, it’s not perfect, and the game has flaws, but they are so miniscule, and don’t hamper gameplay to the point where you are too frustrated or bored to continue on. The fact that the game can be played as both Good and Evil, with significant changes to the story and gameplay (evil powers feel much different than good powers), makes replayability high, and the fantastic ending and intriguing Dead Drops give quite a bit of insight into where this excellent new series may go in future installments.

Prototype is a solid rental. It’s cotton candy. It’s good for the short time that it lasts, but ultimately, you will want something more substantial and filling in the end. It also lacks the depth of gameplay and world that will keep you coming back for more long after the story is complete.

WINNER:

inFAMOUS