Postby Twistkill » 2009.10.16 (19:13)
Just as a note, kai, I don't have Prototype. You're right, I can't form an opinion on a game I haven't played, but I'm not sure it will be worth $60 based on the reviews from metacritic. I didn't say "WELL IGN SAID IT'S BORING SO I'M NOT BUYING THIS GAME", I'm just trying to make a judgment based on what I can figure out before playing it.
inFamous has a demo on PSN, Prototype doesn't.
By the way, inFamous isn't linear, it's a sandbox game too. You collect blast shards, electrified pieces of the earth resulting from the explosion than increase how much electricity you carry, and there's dead drops, which are encrypted messages left by one of the characters you meet near the end of the game. Also, there's a list of stunts, which are fancy ways to dispatch your enemies, that have trophies associated with them. Plus there's more side missions, as far as I know.
Understandably Cole uses electricity for almost everything, but the powers are varied in the sense that they resemble traditional firearms in energy form. The standard lightning bolt is for general purpose killing and charging objects, which doesn't require electricity. The special attacks are a shock grenade for groups, the megawatt hammer, which is basically like a rocket launcher, a shockwave for deflecting rockets and knocking away enemies (useful on roofs), and the thunder drop, a surprisingly powerful AOE attack when you're in the air. You also have a shield, but you can't use it while in aim mode, and the lightning storm, the strongest attack in the game, capable of taking out turret trucks, conduits, and huge groups of enemies in a matter of seconds, but it uses a lot of electricity. These special attacks all use electricity, which you only store, not generate. You collect energy from ANY power source you see (this also speeds up your auto-healing), which makes the game dynamic and fun. Then you have melee attacks for close range.
Okay, healing pedestrians. What he does is speed up the healing process in the body to a rapid degree by giving it a boost. Kind of like a battery.
There are moments in the game where you come across a dead person or enemy who has a side mission. You go up to him/her and you touch their head. This allows you to see their thoughts because Cole "reads" the electrical impulses that are still firing in the brain. This is used for tracking down enemies you need to defeat or finding hidden packages, which contain 5 blast shards.
When you click L3, you get blips on your radar for blast shard and dead drop locations and electricity sources. This also allows you to see residual electrical energy, which outlines the silhouette of a character that passed through the area (only used in story missions).
You upgrade your powers and abilities based on the experience you earn from completing missions, killing enemies, performing stunts, and so on. However, because there's 2 karma sides, some of the upgrades for certain weapons are different. If you're evil, your attacks are more explosion-y (the shock grenade and megawatt hammer split up into pieces in the later levels for more explosions), and cause more collateral damage at the cost of not being effective in one-on-one combat. If you're good Cole, your attacks are more safety-based, which means they're more focused on taking out a particular enemy (the level 3 shock grenade auto-restrains enemies when they get taken out so you earn good karma right away) and less explosion-based, which means they do less collateral damage. The shock grenade just becomes one large explosion instead of a bunch of smaller ones (which I think is better) and the megawatt hammer is the same thing, except while it's in mid-air, you can redirect it to another spot by shooting your lightning bolt.
Also, the karma system means the game has replay value. The plot is almost unchanged except for scenes regarding your publicity and the supporting characters, but your appearance (ooh, red electricity), upgrades, and how people react to your presence are all different.

"A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult."
-Proverbs 12:16
Newfrag is my PSN name. Add me as a friend so we can play and chat, just make sure to tell me you're from these forums or else I'll think you're trying to molest me.