This has been bandied around far too much now, and its about time both games got a side-by-side comparison from someone who isn't a raging game-hating ass with a posh hat.... For those just joining us, the Infamous sections will be in blue, and the Prototype sections will be in red, and will alternate as the review goes on.

Game name: Infamous
Players:1
Age rating:15/Teen

Game name:Prototype
Players:1
Age rating:18/Mature

In a time where 3D open-world games are the norm, it takes something special to create an innovative, unique 3D open-world game that offers you something more than car stealing and prostitute murdering. In 2009, we saw the arrival of two games that, while being very different indeed, were more identical than some will dare to admit.

These games were Infamous (PS3 exclusive) and Prototype (PS3 and 360).

You play as Cole MacGrath, a courier who one day wakes up in the middle of utter devastation and chaos. A large explosion has destroyed a major chunk of the city, and you appear to be at the epicentre of it. As you slowly make your way to safety, it is clear that the explosion has changed you, and you appear to be able to control - or at least conduct - electricity. And thus begins your story: to find out what happened, why, and who caused it....

You are Alex Mercer, and you are dead. Or at least, you should be, which is why its a shock when you come to in a morgue, about to be autopsied (if thats a word) by two doctors, who after they have shit brix, make a run for it. As you have no idea who you are or where you are, you follow the doctors outside where they are immediately gunned down by soldiers, with Mercer gunned down right after. So then imagine the confusion as you stand up and clear a 30 foot wall in one jump. After your chase from a military helicopter is ended after you somehow catch a car launched during an explosion and then propel it into the helicopter, its time to find out just what happened to you....


Set in a city not too dissimilar from any major US city, Infamous grants you the ability to free-run (or "parkour") and climb pretty much anywhere you wish. Need to visit a friend on the 18th floor? No problem, just climb away. Need to get to the roof of that building over there? Sure thing, get jumping and grinding connecting powerlines to save time. Freedom in this game is handed to you from the outset, save for two areas - the other islands, and the water. The other islands are blocked off, and water will kill you dead, but considering you're electric, thats pretty much a given. The surroundings are surprisingly well detailed and its easy to see that there has been an awful lot of time and effort spent on making the city look as good as possible, and the attention to detail doesn't stop there. The electricity coursing through both Cole and the entire city looks real enough to be scared of, and the explosions look good enough to warm yourself on. But looks alone do not a good game make.

You begin your adventures in a meticulously mapped Manhattan, where with only a few exceptions, pretty much everything is as accurate as you can get it. Central Park is there, as are several other landmark buildings. Unfortunately, all the bridges out of the city are blocked off, and any attempt to vacate the infected island will result in a massive airstrike right on top of you. You can try swimming away, but entry into any water will result in an auto-jump back to land. Boo! Saying that, the entire island is at your disposal. Free-running has never been a more accurate term than here, allowing you to run right up the sides of buildings at high speed and from rooftop to rooftop with no restrictions. Unfortunately, all the buildings - while looking like their real life counterparts - are very bland, generic, and don't at all look like a current gen game. The vehicles and the pedestrians on the streets also appear to be nothing more than the same models but with different colours. It seems the only detail has gone into the various cutscenes and into Alex himself, as vapour flies off him with every single move he makes.

The story of Cole's amazing transformation is a very cryptic, close-knit secret that remains guarded right from the outset, save for a dying boss's cryptic message, or a mysterious stranger's few appearances in the game. Completing the games' missions seems to be more a case of "strap a carrot to the donkey's head and lead him to his destination", rather than a sightseeing information tour. You get given your task from whoever it is thats currently barking your orders, and you go do them. Every now and again, a "morality" based mission arises, giving you the option to be a hero or villain, and letting you gain EXP for the requisite super powers. From destroying the black toxin that is turning people insane, to retaking a prison that has been hijacked by psychos, the main story of Cole's transformation doesn't seem to be the forefront of this game. It isn't until the very final stages of the game that the real orchestrator of the events makes a lasting appearance culminating in a showdown at the games' Ground Zero and one of the greatest story endings ever.

Upon being cornered by a soldier and somehow "absorbing" the soldier entirely, Mercer discovers that doing so not only replenishes his health, but also absorbs the victims thoughts and memories. The soldier's memories mention Mercer's sister, and that there are more soldiers heading towards her, so you make a move to get there before the soldiers do. You soon discover that you're an (ex) government operative and you're somehow involved in this whole sorry mess, and begin to discover its secrets by working from the ground up, starting with Gentek, the company you worked for. It isn't long before you find out about experimental projects dating back to the 60s, test subjects, and an interesting survivor of a now wiped-out town. As you work your way up the chain of command and absorb more and more of the doctors and military personel involved, you see just how deep the rabbit hole goes, culminating in a race against time atop a naval carrier to prevent the nuclear "disinfecting" of Manhattan.

So while you're running everyone else's errands, there are also enemies out there trying to stop you. On the first island you have standard troops who take a few shots to kill and you have Conduits, who move quickly and require more hits to take down. The second island are more of the same, but slightly stronger. The second island's Conduits fire off mechanical spiders at you, which are easily destroyed. The third island have even more powerful troops with varying weapons, and massive golem-like Conduits, which are basically a pallette swap of one of the boss characters. Later in the game you will have invisible flying drone bot things to take care of too. All of them can be killed using the same method - headshots, and lots of them. You have melee combat moves at your disposal, but by the time you've gotten close enough to an enemy to hit them, they will have peppered your body so badly you'll resemble a sieve. Good job you have your powers....

But it isn't just Alex who is on a rampage. The virus that has taken over his body has also infected the city, with millions of citizens turned into mindless zombie-like creatures. These can be taken out easily, but later you get introduced to Hunters (imagine one of those dog monster things from Ghostbusters but without any skin on), Leader Hunters that are essentially regular Hunters on massive amounts of steroids, and then you have the Supreme Hunter, encountered only twice in the game, and for a very good reason - these babies would make RE's Nemesis its bitch. But considering the armed forces are intent on wiping the infection out, and considering you're basically the infection's carrier, the second they get a glimpse of you, its all hands on weapons. But you have one outstanding weapon at your disposal - absorption. And thats just for starters.

Being a conductor of electricity won't be enough to thwart the forces of evil though. You're gonna need new powers, stronger powers. As most of the game is spent trying to restore power to the city, you travel underground and repair substations. In order to do this you use yourself as a fusewire and absorb a huge amount of voltage. This leads to a new power, such as a force push move, electric grenades, electric shields, high altitude drop attacks, and the ability to glide using static. There are more powers to buy using EXP gained, and all can be upgraded to inflict more damage. Unfortunately, aside from the glide, grenades, force blast and standard bolts, they're all useless! Provided you max these skills out (as well as your health bar) you can pretty much coast the entire game without using any other power.

Viruses mutate, and Alex is no exception. You can change your hands into claws, blades, whips and giant hammers, each with their own unique upgrades and specific attacks. You also have the option of a shield of full body armour, two different sight modes, the ability to upgrade your running speed and jump height, mid-air dashes, the ability to glide through the air, melee combos, air melee combos, spikes that come out of the ground, throws, even the chance to use a human/mutated human as a skateboard! But my personal favourites are the Devastator attacks - exceed maximum health and unleash a Devastator to deal massive damage to everything around you. Turn yourself into a human porcupine and impale everyone close to you, or channel your entire body into one large focused attack that can destroy buildings, or raise razor sharp groundspikes all around you. But the great thing is, that whatever you buy, it'll have a use. Tanks are vunerable to blade attacks, Hunters to hammer attacks, mutants to claws, and the whips are just great for massacring everything around you. And the body surf? Alright, its just for fun, but by god its fun!

But no matter how powerful Cole gets, he's always outgunned by the enemy. Even the most basic enemy can zero in on the tip of Cole's nose from over 8 miles away and from around corners, while you can only throw bolts about 20 feet in front of you. And not only do they excel with their accuracy, but the damage they put out is at times stupidly overpowered. Even with health maxed out, it can still sometimes only take two or three long range shotgun hits to take you down, which can lead to some frustrating restarts. Couple this with a problem with Cole's seemingly overpowering obsession with grabbing ledges. If Cole walks towards a ledge, he grabs it. If he jumps, he goes to grab the nearest ledge. If he swings a punch, he'll grab a ledge. There is nothing more annoying than trying to escape a gang of shotgun wielding thugs and end up trying to hump a brick wall while they turn your arse into Swiss cheese, and this happens often.

The problem with all these powers is that you soon become far too strong for the enemy. Little more than halfway into the game, it stops being a challenge and just becomes a complete bloodbath. If you're not elbow dropping tanks from the top of buildings, you're skating around on some poor sap's corpse, leaving a trail of blood behind you. And even if you do take a battering from a group of Hunters, you can just snatch up an innocent bystander and absorb them for health. No having to run and hide here, its just pure out-and-out murder. The only real excitement comes with the boss battles, which is where the unique weapon types come into play. Bosses tend to be weak to only certain attacks, and they all have attack patterns, giving it an old-school feel, but once you work out the best weapon, they're a walkover.

In terms of extras Cole can engage in some moral-based side missions, which will see him either help or hinder the general population, and gain the respectful karma points to allow you to unlock new upgrades for your good/evil powers. On the pause screen there are "stunts" to perform, such as "Take down 3 enemies with a single force blast". There are 21 of these to perform. Then theres the Dead Drops: messages left behind by one of the characters you'll work with, dotted around the islands, and the Battery Shards, which up your electricity storage capacity. And aside from having two paths to take, thats your lot in terms of replay value.

The main missions aren't the only things Alex can do. Areas are either controlled by the Army, infected, or neutral. You get EXP for destroying the epicentres of the infected areas and for destroying infected water towers that act as incubators for Hunters. The Army bases can be invaded if you absorb the base commander, and there are usually troops inside that can upgrade your skills using military weapons and vehicles, as well as people in the Web Of Intrigue. People in the Web, once absorbed, give a little more of an insight into the origins of the virus you have, the people involved, and hints into Alex's past, and with 131 people in the Web, there's enough reason there to warrant replaying after completion. Couple this with the 200 collectable blue Location Orbs and the 50 Hint Orbs, and there's even more reason to continue to explore. But thats not all.... there's the Challenges.... Race from A to B before time runs out, jump off a building and land on a target miles away, kill soldiers for the infected, kill infected for the soldiers, or my personal favourite, kill as many people as possible using only the specified weapon or vehicle. With bronze, silver, gold and platinum medals for all Challenges, it'll be some time before you 100% this game.

So when all's said and done, how does Infamous fare? Well, there's no denying the game doesn't look good. Its not quite Uncharted material, but its not far off. One of the PS3's best looking titles, unfortunately let down by a clunky combat system, overpowered enemies, lacklustre missions, and a story that seems to play second fiddle to, well, everything else. In fact, one of the only reasons to play this game through to the end is to witness the shockingly amazing ending, no pun intended. And with very little reason to replay the game, it will be some time before its played again.

So is being a superpowered biomutant all its cracked up to be? Well, there's no denying that its as fun as it sounds, and lets face it, only someone like Mary Whitehouse wouldn't enjoy using a corpse as a surfboard. The story itself is intriguing enough and keeps the interest going, but with no change in scenery throughout the game and with Alex being almost invincible, things can get very samey very quickly. However, if you can get over the graphical inferiority, there's enough things to do after the games ending to keep your attention.

Ratings
Graphics: A
Sounds: A
Gameplay: B
Replayability: C

Overall score: B

Ratings
Graphics: C
Sounds: B
Gameplay: B
Replayability: A

Overall score: B

Final thoughts
These two games are so different yet so similar. Where one game suffers, the other excels. Graphics whores can keep their Infamous, while gameplay nuts will have a blast with Prototype. People wanting an intriguing story will love Prototype, but will be let down by its ending. Infamous players will have their lack of story made up for by its amazing ending. Infamous looks great but has little to draw you back, whereas Prototype looks dull but has more than enough reasons to continue playing after the game ends. Both games are brilliant at what they do, and will each attract their own fans.

But when all is said and done, there is only one winner - the PS3 owner. After all, they can experience both.

Just wondering...how many times have you played through each title?

Once each.

But not just a flying playthrough, I spent hours exploring everything, trying everything out, collecting as much stuff as I could before getting bored. In Infamous, I completed all stunts, all Dead Drops, almost all the Battery Shards, completed it with 100% good, maxed out all hero abilities and upgrades, and in Prototype I unlocked all the challenges, have almost all the upgrades, have almost all the Web Of Intrigue people, and was working my way through the Orbs before I got Arkham Asylum.

And if you're gonna say something like "If you haven't played Infamous evil then you can't comment", considering even YOU said there's little to no difference between the choices other than half an ending and one power (the continuous electricity blast), then I say my point still stands.

Blargh, playing as a hero felt better, but like Applejak said, the karma was just way too linear.

But yeah, stick with Batman...tis the best out of both.

I'll be honest, I'm loving B:AA, but Prototype was a fucking laugh a minute. Pick up an old woman and chuck her into a helicopter while running up the side of a building without stopping = LOL.

evil felt different because your playstyle changed.
when I was playing through the game as a good guy. I was precise, headshots and whatnot galore.
when I was playing through the game as a bady guy. I blew the fuck out of everything.

and I liked how the powers were all based on the same thing (apart from that one) and just had different variants depending on your karma choice. Meant that you didn't feel as if you were shafted by choosing good (which is what happens alot in this type of game.)

Also, the click the stick and show you where all the things nearby are, was fucking genius and needs to be in more games.

I felt bitter playing prototype (the little I played) because they took out what looked like a really cool co-op mode and then i stopped playing it because I got bored.


EDIT: oops, I thought this was that other I vs P thread.

ALSO: inFamous is nowhere near as good looking as uncharted.

It was fucking genius, yes, but it kinda made it less "run around and explore" and more "watch the minimap for treasure". Was ideal to locate recharge points though.

that's why it was optional

Nice.....