OXCGN's Non-Comparative Prototype Review

OXCGN:

"No need to compare to InFamous or Crackdown all the time…

Alex Mercer is a man out for revenge and answers, and, like many anti-heroes of our time, nothing stands in his way of completing his objective. Waking up from the dead on the surgery table, almost being cut under the knife, Alex is unleashed on New York city with a plethora of powers at his disposal and questions needing answering.

Too many 360 owners upon first glance see the game in a sense as the R18+ version of Crackdown, except with a lot more powers at your disposal and more freedom."

[darkmurder]

Pretty fun but it gets kinda repetitive.

[WildArmed]

Agreed. I loved messing around then doing missions.
It was a blast! I limited myself to 2-3 missions per sitting so the game doesnt get repeatitive soo much that i cant play on.

Good game

[XboxOZ360]

That's what I do not understand . . .games are repetative by their very nature. They are designed so you have a task, do that task, gain a reward, move to next section, rinse - repeat . .

That's true of just about every game ever made, so saying a game is repeatitve is sort of odd really. Sure, there has to be things repeated, as it simply can''t be entirely different from one end to the other. That is impossible.

SO you will find games like that, the trick is to take some side trips, expand your visions and investigate other alternatives. Then you'll find stuff the developers have actually hidden for those type of ppl.

God, I found heaps of stuff in the second Far Cry (not the current one) simply by going way from the normal paths, and even doing things not in the logical order.

Try doing that and it throws the whole experience in a flip. Give it a go, see if it does it for you. You've got nothing to lose, and plenty to gain.

[gaminoz]

Another open world game set in New York City (sigh). Nope, no thanks. He may have a hoodie and hooked fingers, but I'd rather bat-ears or a spandex red suit with webbing....or a robotic shell, or...

[allegionary]

Yeah I know...how many shows, movies, and games show us New york! Dulllllll. Open worlds should give us somewhere different and new to explore

[Immortal Kaim]

Not my style of game personally, but atleast the reviewer doesn't compare it to inFAMOUS every chance he gets.

[Superfragilistic]

Yeah I actually think Infamous is its own game entirely no need to compare the two. Instead...

Infamous is like GTAIV, Prototype is like Saints Row 2.

[GrathiusXR]

ohhh inFamous does this better or this does that better and really i don't care about what inFamous does better or worse..

I want to read about Prototype and why i should get this game and enjoy it or what i should look out for whilst playing it.

What makes it fun, what makes it want me to play till the end and spend my money on the game.

That's why i read reviews to try to persuade me into wanting to buy the game because it may be something i like or might enjoy..

[DARK WITNESS]

i think its a good game and worth playing.

i actually quite like the story and the way its told, but i can totally understand why some would not like it.

my biggest issue with the game is indeed the graphics. I am not a graphics whore or anything and up until now i had reserved my opinion on the matter till i had first hand experience.

I have always believed that gameplay is more important then graphics, but.. i do think you get to a point were a basic standard is set and something falling short of that can affect the game play.

its the single biggest thing that lets the game down in my eyes. they really are not good( or what i would even call acceptable for a tittle this gen.)

in my opinion, they should not have used new york, they should have created a fictional city that they can put some personality too. thats not to say NY does not have personality, but not done right it really can look like a block of ... well you know.

simply put, if Prototype had taken place in liberty city from GTA 4 it would have been awesome. you can see where the Devs have used the power of the system to render 100's of characters on screen in the streets for all the action, but its a sacrifice i don't think is worth it.

rather then having 100's on screen, if they had just gone for having 50 or so at a time, trust me with all the frantic action you prob would not notice anyway and maybe it would have given them more power they can put towards rendering the actual city.

the problem with Alic is such a cool character to use with his abilities it makes you want to love the game, but after running up a building and flying from roof top to roof top, it leaves you feeling really disappointed when you look out from the roof top down at a load of grey blurry blocks with no textures.

its great fun, really great fun and the whole stealth aspect of it as well makes the game interested and it gives you a lot more options in terms of how you want to deal with a mission.

sure the missions can be repetitive, but really what open world game this gen has not been accused of that... remember GTA 4 when it came out.

whats funny is people saying GTA 4 looked graphically bad ( i wonder want they think of it now ) the more i play games like prototype the more it makes me appreciate the real art and time that has gone into making GTA4 and the more it makes me think actually GTA4 was a dam good looking game.

so anyway those are my thoughts on the game. its worth playing, but not buying at full price.

and for the record i also owned Infamous.

what i will say about both games is this... there is a big difference in my book between a " sandbox" game and a action game in a " sandbox stage". thats the difference between them and GTA4.

[Superfragilistic]

Bubbles for an epic but readable post!

[gaminoz]

@ Dark Witness

Some very good points there.

I personally am an Assassin's Creed vista fan over GTA's city, but either you have a stylised open city or you do the hard work to make it look as good as possible. I think open world games are difficult to make because they really need to take their time and get the gameplay missions as well as the look right.

[DARK WITNESS]

@ gaminoz

oh yes, i totally agree..

in my book the two best looking open world games we have seen so far this gen have been AC and GTA 4.

AC does look better then gta4 specially in terms of the character modeling but here are some interesting things i have noticed about them.

just about every open world game has been accused of being too repetitive, the only one that has not was Saints Row and Saints row 2.. but Saints row 2 looked rubbish compared to GTA4.

AC looks better then GTA4, but with GTA4 when you start to add all the other stuff like the physics, water effects number of people on screen + cars and most importantly the amount of random stuff the people are actually doing ( independent of the actual games story or side mission ) then you really start to see why GTA is still the king.

then take into account the production values etc... GTA really is a living city from the trains to the radio stations to the bum sleeping in some ally.

half of this stuff i never even noticed playing it the first time. it was playing Saints row 2 and then playing L&D after that really made me sit up take a step back and take a good look at the city.

With GTA its about all the random stuff going on that actually has nothing to do with the game, thats were they nailed it. after all i live in london how much goes on out there that has nothing to do with me.

I really liked AC a lot and till this day i am not really sure why it got so much hate. I think your right and it is very, very hard to make a really good sandbox game that has both graphics and gameplay that does not feel repetitive.

out of all the open world games so far AC, gta4 and red faction have been my best games. i think both Infamous and Prototype could have been a lot better.

[XboxOZ360]

Great points mate,

Wait until you see or better still, experience Red Dead: Redemption . .

It's 4 times as big in both visuals, area, amount going on, and NPC roles etc. It's by far the BIGGEST thing Rockstar have ever undertaken. Their words, not mine. We've seen it recently, and I got to say, I'm very impressed, and usually sandbox games do not impress me, this left me wanting it, and it was only alpha stage . . bloody brilliant.

[DARK WITNESS]

@0X360

interesting, i would normally have just passed on the game, i have not played a western game i have enjoyed in a very long time. Infact i can't remember the last time i bought a western game.

I think i will have to give it a try going on your word. when's it due out ?

[allegionary]

@ DarK Witness

Very good observations about GTA IV, Red Faction and AC. I totally agree that they are the benchmarks for other open world non RPG games. The feeling of a living place with great detail is very important. AC was a repetitive like lots of these sorts of games but the next one looks like it'll fix that!

[gaminoz]

Ah, Assassin's Creed 2...can't wait.

[Daz]

i think this game is good, i got it on steam.

Runs great for me, lag free and alots of fun but alot of side missions are repetitive.

Im having fun.

[GrathiusXR]

Yeah a few guys in my Games Dev class purchased Prototype on Steam and loved it.

It's just fun and enjoyable they said. They loved the game and didn't care for the storyline and thought the ending was average but that didn't bother them because they had fun playing the game and liked how their money spent towards it was repayed with having fun!

[Immortal Kaim]

You are becoming a Game Developer? Cool, where do you do that?

[Godem]

i bought it today, can't wait to give it a go