So I have been playing Infamous for the last two weeks and have a love/hate relationship. There are some things that really piss me off but I am still playing so it must be a good game. I picked up Prototype and Red Faction recently so I am going to compare and contrast the three games as they are very similar.
First the similarities
- Open world
- You’re a lone hero/villian against the government
- You have special powers (or in the case of red faction weapons)
- You can blow shit up
- Game play gets repetitive
Now the differences
Infamous PS3
- Good/Bad system
- Climb everything
Prototype XBOX 360
- Very diverse powers including stealth
- Climb everything
- Extreme gore
Red Faction Guerrilla XBOX 360
- Fully destructible environments
- Vehicles
- No climbing
All three games have a cheesy story but its passable. Of the three I like Red Faction the least. Something about having superhuman powers, being able to scale everything is just too much fun, Red Faction feels not as fun by comparison but its still a good game.
One of the things that bothers about Infamous and Prototype is you have this super human power, you can fall off of a sky scraper but bullets hurt you; both are kinetic impacts why does one type hurt you but the other doesn’t?
In Red Faction you can blow up just about everything except blue barrels and rocks it doesn’t make any sense.
Of the three games I think Prototype has the best crowd system. The crowd reacts like I think they should: they run in terror. In Infamous they either boo you or give you the “you’re the man” sign. In Red Faction folks just wander about not really caring what you do and they tend to clump up in front of buildings so you have to bully your way in.
In Infamous you can ride the rails and electric wires so you can get around quick. In Prototype you have super speed and in Red Faction you have vehicles. Now Prototype also has vehicles but they are tanks and stuff and not meant to get you around. All three makes it easy to get to the main and side missions.
Of the three I think Red Faction and Infamous have the best side missions but that isn’t saying much. Prototype’s side missions are time trials. I hate time trials. I want to play the game at my own pace. Any way I want in depth side missions like in Oblivion or Fallout 3 not shallow “kill X things” and “run X maze”.
All three have an upgrade system so you can get more powers or better weapons. I like the Protoype system the best then Infamous and finally Red Faction in dead last. Red Faction makes you collect scrap metal like Rachet & Clank. So stupid.
I am still going through the single player missions so I haven’t played multiplayer yet.
Finally above and beyond everything I said above all three are great games and if you can only afford one you won’t be disappointed with any of them.