Prototype impressions

Like inFamous, I spent a lot of time with this game and lost a bunch of sleep too. Unlike inFamous, I don't think or don't know if I advanced the story all that much or know what my motivation really is, but it's still too early to call.

What I like about it is that you are in New York. Running through Central Park does give off a similar vibe of what that place is supposed to look like especially if you've ever been there. There are also a few other recognizable buildings and climbing to the top of the Chrysler Building and looking down at the boroughs in the distance is epic. People and vehicles react to you. When you're barrelling down the street in oncoming traffic cars try to swerve out of your way and if you nudge or bump into people they'll yell at you. If you attack someone with powers everyone runs away in horror and tries to stay the hell away from you for an extended period of time. The most awesome thing about the game though is that every character model is playable. Alex has the power to morph his body into the appearance of the last person he absorbed from the business man in the expensive suit to the diva girl in the cashmere sweater and Uggs.

The parkour in the game doesn't really feel like parkour. Alex will jump and flip over obstacles but he doesn't grab ledges, shimmy, or swing. You just hold R2 and he runs up a building, or he can spiderman style crawl along the side of it. The powers are fun to mess with and fighting assault teams, helicopters, tanks, and monsters all at the same time is cool, but the constant respawning makes if feel like you're not really having much of an effect. The other thing I don't like is how some of the power upgrades are split up. I'm fine with having to buy a special attack or power with EP (the game's upgrade commodity) but being able to throw something while sprinting should not be something I have to spend EP on. inFamous spoiled me a little as well as got did power distribution so right and let you preview what the upgrade was before you spent your XP on it. All games should adopt that system.

The story seems interesting. It's told in flashbacks and they do the Metroid thing where you start nearly all the way leveled up then spend the rest of the game learning the powers you used before. From what I can tell there are no side missions. There are events you can do to gain more EP like racing from rooftop to rooftop withing a certain time limit and GTA rampage style missions, but nothing that supplements what you are doing. The main story missions are long though with multiple checkpoints. You'll start by having to find someone, then infiltrate a military base, then destroy the base, then destroy the the new weapons, then destroy or evade the enemies tracking you.

Bottom line for now is the game is really fun and has some epic battles. As far as a comparison to inFamous, it's still to early to call, but I think inFamous may be the better game. You motivations are more clear in that game, you can actually affect the environment, and there are no constantly respawing enemies. I should have a full review and a full comparison write up posted by the end of the weekend.