Protoype - more thorough impressions
So Yahtzee did his review on the game this week, which I felt made coming hot off the heels of a very similar game "Infamous". I've been playing Prototype any moment I can spare, and have some more complete feelings about it.
While Yahtzee hated how the story is pieced together, I found it both different and intriguing (seeing as how it's called "The Web of Intrigue"). Anyway, many story elements and background is dependent on you "consuming" people Venom-style and absorbing their memory. There are story missions that explain things more explicitly, but the Web of Intrigue targets provide further background either into the main character or events surrounding him.
The first mission of the game pretty well sums up how most story missions go, which is pretty fucking tasty. Although, in between time, you can go about Manhattan sandbox style (and what third person game isn't these days). While traveling through the city, you can take on lesser side-quests that mostly involve killing either military or infected/mutated enemies. There are a few Events that involve racing against the clock to run and jump across buildings, or Glide Events that make you jump off a building and get as close to a target kind of a human dart-board style. All are fun, but the kill missions get really repetitive and just kind of tiring after a bit. The run and jump Events are still pretty fun though.
You can also decide to randomly destroy military bases, or building overrun by infection called "hives". Doing this normally involves stealing military weapons like rocket launchers, or throwing cars at the building - but the task becomes laughably easy after the point you're able to skyjack helicopters and use missiles to smash your intended building to a very fine, grindy, paste.
Probably one complaint I have is the very dodgy stealth mechanic. Sort of like in Assassin's Creed, enemy soldiers will watch you and you will gain a yellow indicator. This indicator only turns red if you attack an enemy soldier while someone else is watching. This is pretty peculiar seeing as how they're supposed to be watching out for you so they can shoot you. You could jump from the top of a building, fall 50 stories, land in front of a soldier, and all they'll do is point at you and say "HEY! look at that!" and you can dust yourself off and sprint away. Or for hilarious effect, if you do so in a military disguise, you can actually blame somebody else for being you and the soldiers will shoot that fuckhead instead.
On a more technical note, I deleted my XP operating system because I never use it. As a strange result Prototype runs better. Xp doesn't take up much space, and it really shouldn't have affected anything running in Vista, but it did for some reason. So now I can turn the graphics up without so much as a hiccup.
No more significant updates other than UPS is keeping me late and I don't have time for much of anything. It looks like mid-July before I can visit Evansville again. My folks are supposed to come in this weekend, and Jamie and I will be in Tell City on July 4th. So I'll let everybody know when I'll be in next.
While Yahtzee hated how the story is pieced together, I found it both different and intriguing (seeing as how it's called "The Web of Intrigue"). Anyway, many story elements and background is dependent on you "consuming" people Venom-style and absorbing their memory. There are story missions that explain things more explicitly, but the Web of Intrigue targets provide further background either into the main character or events surrounding him.
The first mission of the game pretty well sums up how most story missions go, which is pretty fucking tasty. Although, in between time, you can go about Manhattan sandbox style (and what third person game isn't these days). While traveling through the city, you can take on lesser side-quests that mostly involve killing either military or infected/mutated enemies. There are a few Events that involve racing against the clock to run and jump across buildings, or Glide Events that make you jump off a building and get as close to a target kind of a human dart-board style. All are fun, but the kill missions get really repetitive and just kind of tiring after a bit. The run and jump Events are still pretty fun though.
You can also decide to randomly destroy military bases, or building overrun by infection called "hives". Doing this normally involves stealing military weapons like rocket launchers, or throwing cars at the building - but the task becomes laughably easy after the point you're able to skyjack helicopters and use missiles to smash your intended building to a very fine, grindy, paste.
Probably one complaint I have is the very dodgy stealth mechanic. Sort of like in Assassin's Creed, enemy soldiers will watch you and you will gain a yellow indicator. This indicator only turns red if you attack an enemy soldier while someone else is watching. This is pretty peculiar seeing as how they're supposed to be watching out for you so they can shoot you. You could jump from the top of a building, fall 50 stories, land in front of a soldier, and all they'll do is point at you and say "HEY! look at that!" and you can dust yourself off and sprint away. Or for hilarious effect, if you do so in a military disguise, you can actually blame somebody else for being you and the soldiers will shoot that fuckhead instead.
On a more technical note, I deleted my XP operating system because I never use it. As a strange result Prototype runs better. Xp doesn't take up much space, and it really shouldn't have affected anything running in Vista, but it did for some reason. So now I can turn the graphics up without so much as a hiccup.
No more significant updates other than UPS is keeping me late and I don't have time for much of anything. It looks like mid-July before I can visit Evansville again. My folks are supposed to come in this weekend, and Jamie and I will be in Tell City on July 4th. So I'll let everybody know when I'll be in next.