His actual character and development are total shit, but his voice acting in general after the first section is pretty good for the weak writing he has to go off of. It's just the first few scenes with him are so godawful.. you think someone would have noticed.
His actual character and development are total shit, but his voice acting in general after the first section is pretty good for the weak writing he has to go off of. It's just the first few scenes with him are so godawful.. you think someone would have noticed.
Alex doesn't really develop as a character, he starts off as a sociopathic dickhead and ends up a sociopathic dickhead.
There's a very very very good reason Mercer's a dick, though.
Also, if being stealthy meant you couldn't run up walls and shit, people would complain that being stealthy was no fun. They're just giving you the option. If you think it's gamebreaking to run around on walls, then don't run around on walls.
I couldn't see said reason for Mercer being a dick. It seemed like he was a reprehensible character before and after his infection, no change there. Also said suspension of disbelief went out of the window when civilians and cars threw themselves under my tanks treads and instead of hiding indoors with bottled water and tinned food they choose to swarm the streets getting shot to pieces or killed by zombies. The stealth among the soldiers amounts to infiltrating indentikit bunkers with a randomised entrance/exit with the same 4 people to consume for abilities/WOI. Again, very gamey, very copy and paste like much of Prototype.
I finished the game so I guess on some level I liked it. The plot, characterisation and writing are horrible to the extent that I caught myself laughing out loud at it on several occasions. The best plot revelations are from the web of intrigue so why did they confine their best storytelling to an optional collectible? The Elizabeth and Alex WOI strands should have been learnt from NPCs that the main story guides you towards instead of cutting it up piecemeal and forcing you to consume 10 different people dotted around the city using a printed off map after you've finished the game just to get some semblance of a story.
Talking about collectibles... hint orbs. Really Radical? Really?
Movement in Prototype isn't done particularly well either because it's so easy and the environments so boring and nondescript. There is no skill to it and nothing to interact with so travelling from one end of the map (essentially a rectangle with no obstacles) to the other is such a slog. All I'm doing is holding down R2 and mashing X to go up buildings then glide and if I fall, whatever, there is no consequence for being bad so by extension it doesn't feel good either. It's a chore, it's just there and it doesn't feel empowering.
The method of buying all abilities (instead of the Zelda method) isn't particularly good either. There are too many to buy and none of them are essential so parts of the game cannot be designed around having one of them, they all amount to just destruction at various ranges. There is no section where you have to use the claws to progress. Some might like the kitchen sink, pick whatever tool you want for this job and go crazy approach but I think it's lazy game design and makes what is a fairly mindless game, even more mindless.
And oh god the targeting on the last boss!
But yes, I liked it enough to finish it so it wasn't all bad. Putting aside my desire to be good and just going on a destruction rampage was kinda fun until the repetition of identical strike teams and identical bunkers/hives kicks in once more. If I was reviewing it I would give it a 5/10, deeply average and forgettable.
Moioink on
0
GreenStick around.I'm full of bad ideas.Registered Userregular
I couldn't see said reason for Mercer being a dick. It seemed like he was a reprehensible character before and after his infection, no change there. Also said suspension of disbelief went out of the window when civilians and cars threw themselves under my tanks treads and instead of hiding indoors with bottled water and tinned food they choose to swarm the streets getting shot to pieces or killed by zombies.
You are never really Alex Mercer in the game, you're a self-aware virus that took his form.
Oh and in reality, yes, people would hide inside. Would that be fun? No.
Movement in Prototype isn't done particularly well either because it's so easy and the environments so boring and nondescript. There is no skill to it and nothing to interact with so travelling from one end of the map (essentially a rectangle with no obstacles) to the other is such a slog. All I'm doing is holding down R2 and mashing X to go up buildings then glide and if I fall, whatever, there is no consequence for being bad so by extension it doesn't feel good either. It's a chore, it's just there and it doesn't feel empowering.
That's because you're doing it wrong. If you do the movement trials, you'll find there actually is depth to the movement, you're just not using it.
In Prototype's case yes, for the reasons I detailed. More does not always mean better. Everything and the kitchen sink is a poor approach to design that requires little thought.
You are never really Alex Mercer in the game, you're a self-aware virus that took his form.
He was still the dominant personality, voice and appearance of the virus who sought to re-establish links to his past. Even after his realisation he still defaults to Alex Mercer's form. To say he's not to some degree Alex Mercer (albeit an amnesiac mutant Alex Mercer) is pushing it. Whatever, it's poorly written.
That's because you're doing it wrong. If you do the movement trials, you'll find there actually is depth to the movement, you're just not using it.
Oh please. I know how to do the dashing and gliding, it really isn't very interesting when the environments mean so little. I standby what I wrote, I was not doing anything "wrong".
Greene ate diving blade slashes, while blade combos made short work of the hunters.
On the last boss, I managed to disguise and end the alert. Queue a bunch of marines and choppers focusing their fire on one big, ugly target. Had full health going into the countdown.
Zoku Gojira on
"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." - Bertolt Brecht
0
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
edited July 2009
Okay, so the muscle powerup has become my new favorite. And I've finally decided to adopt throwing everything I can to defeat enemies. Problem is, I'm on a mission for the main story to protect some pump and there's a lack of things to throw without having to venture out far from the protection point. I've made it as far as when super soldiers and hunter leaders show up. Any tips?
Okay, so the muscle powerup has become my new favorite. And I've finally decided to adopt throwing everything I can to defeat enemies. Problem is, I'm on a mission for the main story to protect some pump and there's a lack of things to throw without having to venture out far from the protection point. I've made it as far as when super soldiers and hunter leaders show up. Any tips?
Just use the blade because the game gives you no reason to use anything else and in many cases actively punishes you for not using it.
JAEF on
0
GreenStick around.I'm full of bad ideas.Registered Userregular
In Prototype's case yes, for the reasons I detailed. More does not always mean better. Everything and the kitchen sink is a poor approach to design that requires little thought.
But how is your proposed alternative (a section for claws, a section for hammerfist, etc.) any better? I would think shoehorning the player into a predetermined moveset to progress takes a lot less thought on both the developer's and player's sides.
Green on
0
GreenStick around.I'm full of bad ideas.Registered Userregular
On the last boss, I managed to disguise and end the alert. Queue a bunch of marines and choppers focusing their fire on one big, ugly target. Had full health going into the countdown.
Okay, so the muscle powerup has become my new favorite. And I've finally decided to adopt throwing everything I can to defeat enemies. Problem is, I'm on a mission for the main story to protect some pump and there's a lack of things to throw without having to venture out far from the protection point. I've made it as far as when super soldiers and hunter leaders show up. Any tips?
Just use the blade because the game gives you no reason to use anything else and in many cases actively punishes you for not using it.
Muscle's better for bosses.
Also great for Hunters, even the big ones. The Blade's better for supersoldiers, though.
Okay, so the muscle powerup has become my new favorite. And I've finally decided to adopt throwing everything I can to defeat enemies. Problem is, I'm on a mission for the main story to protect some pump and there's a lack of things to throw without having to venture out far from the protection point. I've made it as far as when super soldiers and hunter leaders show up. Any tips?
Just use the blade because the game gives you no reason to use anything else and in many cases actively punishes you for not using it.
Except that almost every boss encounter I've had has required me to throw a barrel at it lest I be punished with a swift death.
Henroid on
0
Olivawgood name, isn't it?the foot of mt fujiRegistered Userregular
edited July 2009
I like all the powers equally, because they are all awesome
In Prototype's case yes, for the reasons I detailed. More does not always mean better. Everything and the kitchen sink is a poor approach to design that requires little thought.
But how is your proposed alternative (a section for claws, a section for hammerfist, etc.) any better? I would think shoehorning the player into a predetermined moveset to progress takes a lot less thought on both the developer's and player's sides.
It works for Infamous and Zelda. Gradual accumulation of abilities each one followed by a tutorial cum exam in how to use that ability, the game designed around all abilities up to that point. This also allows the player to become acclimatised to each ability steadily building up their skill as well as their repertoire.
Prototype meanwhile I was able to buy about three different forms in one go very early on, something I find rather ridiculous. They had a better approach with the Guyver armour and blade which if I remember correctly are the only abilities given as part of the story mode.
Blade power - I almost never used it. Musclemass and Whipfist were all I needed.
Elitistb on
0
UnluckyThat's not meant to happenRegistered Userregular
edited July 2009
Preference of powers:
Blade > Muscle > Whip > Claws.
All ways had stealth on until fights, with which armour was equipped. I wish you could use armour and shield together in conjunction as an upgrade or something, it was so useless once you grabbed armour.
Also, I pretty much never used Whip until that 'catch the choppers!' mission near the end and claws were just made redundant due to blade. Hell, I only accidentally started using Muscle Mass and near the end it was debateably my primary.
Are the various attack upgrades in the Combat tree any good? I'm tempted to do musclemass/combat on my next playthrough; right now I'm spread all over the place, probably inefficiently.
Are the various attack upgrades in the Combat tree any good? I'm tempted to do musclemass/combat on my next playthrough; right now I'm spread all over the place, probably inefficiently.
A few of them like body surf, which is an addition to the in-air X kick, make it easier to attack in the clusterfucks. The surf makes it so you keep going through the first humanoid you hit, so if an infected jumps in front of you when you're trying to take out a soldier with a missile launcher, you'll keep going and hit the soldier also I'm pretty sure.
I'm at the stage of the game where most of the city is so full of infected that it looks like Resident Evil on a serious crack overdose, and I got a point of confusion about this.
The normal lurching infected that look like people with bad acne and blood on their shirts are all over the shop, as are Hunters (annoying fuckers they are!) but there's something missing.
On the contruction site on the West side of the city, where the event "Enemy of my Enemy" (or something like that is) there is a repeated spawning of infected that are like halfway between normal Infected and Hunters. They're fast and can climb and give off two biomass orbs when you slice and dice 'em.
So when into the game do they start appearing in other infected areas?
Rogers video sucks and now you all have to hear about it.
Walk in there today, and both prototypes are available for rent! joy of joys!
Rent one, back in the car I see that they put NHL 09 in the box. Eff, simple mistake though.
Rent the second one, back HOME i see that the disc has a perfect 180 degree scratch right around the middle, and wont run. Hip hooray!
I guess I'm just going to have to buy it and hope that it truly is the awesome.
Lamoid on
0
Olivawgood name, isn't it?the foot of mt fujiRegistered Userregular
Rogers video sucks and now you all have to hear about it.
Walk in there today, and both prototypes are available for rent! joy of joys!
Rent one, back in the car I see that they put NHL 09 in the box. Eff, simple mistake though.
Rent the second one, back HOME i see that the disc has a perfect 180 degree scratch right around the middle, and wont run. Hip hooray!
I guess I'm just going to have to buy it and hope that it truly is the awesome.
You can punch a dude so hard he explodes in a shower of blood and limbs
Rogers video sucks and now you all have to hear about it.
Walk in there today, and both prototypes are available for rent! joy of joys!
Rent one, back in the car I see that they put NHL 09 in the box. Eff, simple mistake though.
Rent the second one, back HOME i see that the disc has a perfect 180 degree scratch right around the middle, and wont run. Hip hooray!
I guess I'm just going to have to buy it and hope that it truly is the awesome.
You can punch a dude so hard he explodes in a shower of blood and limbs
Or take his form, run 200 feet up the side of a building, and elbow drop onto his confused and scared wife, to paraphrase Yahtzee.
yalborap on
0
GoodKingJayIIIThey wanna get mygold on the ceilingRegistered Userregular
edited July 2009
Just fought the first
hunter prime
and found that most of my powers were utterly useless against him. After dying five or six times, I stayed in armor/muscle mass until tossing rocks and shopping carts and cars at the bastard until the military showed up, where I proceeded to take over tanks and whittle him down with missiles and .50 caliber fire. I don't mind taking over armor when I have a purpose, but generally I like to stick to my power set. My usual tactic is to use air attacks to wear targets down, but he just seemed to block all my incoming kicks and elbow drops. At the point I founght him, I didn't have a lot of the prime rib powers (hammertoss, blade drop, etc.) available to me. When you guys came up against this boss, how did you fight him?
I'm really enjoying this game. Of course the feeling of power is wonderful, but my favorite parts of the game are the movement and the web of intrigue. I don't the sense that Radical intended to make movement another obstacle to be circumvented. Rather, everything about Alex evokes a sense of power and freedom. Running up buildings, airdash-glide-airdash-glide, vaulting off another building, etc. - it's all meant to give you that freedom. And I'll be damned if it isn't exhilirating, soaring over the city or vaulting up walls to outmaneuver Blackwatch.
And the WOI... it may not reveal a particularly unique story, but the method of that story's delivery is incredibly well done. Sure, you can pick some random WOI target off the street and end up with some garbled message, but the developers were very good about giving you some tidbit each time you do it, something that sparks curiosity and impels you forward.
Ok, enough gushing about the game. But I do have one more question regarding achievements. Specifically the stealth achievements (complete a mission without alerting Blackwatch, complete three missions without alerting Blackwatch.) I completed an entire mission yesterday without garnering military attention, and I still did not get the achievement. It was the mission where
you must track down and kill the leader hunter who captured Dana in order to find her location.
I stayed in military form, stealth consumed all the necessary Blackwatch members, never got a military alert, and still no achievement. What gives? Are these bugged? Did I somehow miss alerting the military?
I restarted. I was at the point where you can purchase Hammertoss as an upgrade, along with several other expensive ones, and I decided I wanted to be a little more thorough completing Events as they pop up and absorbing military in bases. I also learned enough about the game's mechanics to be having a lot more fun now, particularly as regards to avoiding military alerts and fighting big ugly things.
Platinum is doable. I only needed tips on 2 events, one to help me realize that random goober non-marked infected count toward my kill total and another for "Raid" to help me realize that I should stay on the ground, strafe and keep the hunters away from the tank.
RandomEngy on
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But it was a lot of fun. I felt badass for awhile, than I got used to it, and still felt bad ass.
I thought the whole game was pretty good.
T-Nation blog
Alex doesn't really develop as a character, he starts off as a sociopathic dickhead and ends up a sociopathic dickhead.
I couldn't see said reason for Mercer being a dick. It seemed like he was a reprehensible character before and after his infection, no change there. Also said suspension of disbelief went out of the window when civilians and cars threw themselves under my tanks treads and instead of hiding indoors with bottled water and tinned food they choose to swarm the streets getting shot to pieces or killed by zombies. The stealth among the soldiers amounts to infiltrating indentikit bunkers with a randomised entrance/exit with the same 4 people to consume for abilities/WOI. Again, very gamey, very copy and paste like much of Prototype.
I finished the game so I guess on some level I liked it. The plot, characterisation and writing are horrible to the extent that I caught myself laughing out loud at it on several occasions. The best plot revelations are from the web of intrigue so why did they confine their best storytelling to an optional collectible? The Elizabeth and Alex WOI strands should have been learnt from NPCs that the main story guides you towards instead of cutting it up piecemeal and forcing you to consume 10 different people dotted around the city using a printed off map after you've finished the game just to get some semblance of a story.
Talking about collectibles... hint orbs. Really Radical? Really?
Movement in Prototype isn't done particularly well either because it's so easy and the environments so boring and nondescript. There is no skill to it and nothing to interact with so travelling from one end of the map (essentially a rectangle with no obstacles) to the other is such a slog. All I'm doing is holding down R2 and mashing X to go up buildings then glide and if I fall, whatever, there is no consequence for being bad so by extension it doesn't feel good either. It's a chore, it's just there and it doesn't feel empowering.
The method of buying all abilities (instead of the Zelda method) isn't particularly good either. There are too many to buy and none of them are essential so parts of the game cannot be designed around having one of them, they all amount to just destruction at various ranges. There is no section where you have to use the claws to progress. Some might like the kitchen sink, pick whatever tool you want for this job and go crazy approach but I think it's lazy game design and makes what is a fairly mindless game, even more mindless.
And oh god the targeting on the last boss!
But yes, I liked it enough to finish it so it wasn't all bad. Putting aside my desire to be good and just going on a destruction rampage was kinda fun until the repetition of identical strike teams and identical bunkers/hives kicks in once more. If I was reviewing it I would give it a 5/10, deeply average and forgettable.
Oh and in reality, yes, people would hide inside. Would that be fun? No.
That's because you're doing it wrong. If you do the movement trials, you'll find there actually is depth to the movement, you're just not using it.
One question though, at any point are bits of the plot web lost forever, as in, take too long to eat one, do a mission, and they're gone?
In Prototype's case yes, for the reasons I detailed. More does not always mean better. Everything and the kitchen sink is a poor approach to design that requires little thought.
Oh please.
Greene ate diving blade slashes, while blade combos made short work of the hunters.
On the last boss, I managed to disguise and end the alert. Queue a bunch of marines and choppers focusing their fire on one big, ugly target. Had full health going into the countdown.
But how is your proposed alternative (a section for claws, a section for hammerfist, etc.) any better? I would think shoehorning the player into a predetermined moveset to progress takes a lot less thought on both the developer's and player's sides.
what
Muscle's better for bosses.
Also great for Hunters, even the big ones. The Blade's better for supersoldiers, though.
Except that almost every boss encounter I've had has required me to throw a barrel at it lest I be punished with a swift death.
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
It works for Infamous and Zelda. Gradual accumulation of abilities each one followed by a tutorial cum exam in how to use that ability, the game designed around all abilities up to that point. This also allows the player to become acclimatised to each ability steadily building up their skill as well as their repertoire.
Prototype meanwhile I was able to buy about three different forms in one go very early on, something I find rather ridiculous. They had a better approach with the Guyver armour and blade which if I remember correctly are the only abilities given as part of the story mode.
So's Infected vision, though that one doesn't really count.
Blade > Muscle > Whip > Claws.
All ways had stealth on until fights, with which armour was equipped. I wish you could use armour and shield together in conjunction as an upgrade or something, it was so useless once you grabbed armour.
Also, I pretty much never used Whip until that 'catch the choppers!' mission near the end and claws were just made redundant due to blade. Hell, I only accidentally started using Muscle Mass and near the end it was debateably my primary.
I really admire your enthusiasm in this thread for Prototype it seems like it really captured your imagination like Infamous did mine.
*shrugs* something for everyone.
Hell, now I got the urge to replay that game, maybe I should dig out the old FU thread..
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
A few of them like body surf, which is an addition to the in-air X kick, make it easier to attack in the clusterfucks. The surf makes it so you keep going through the first humanoid you hit, so if an infected jumps in front of you when you're trying to take out a soldier with a missile launcher, you'll keep going and hit the soldier also I'm pretty sure.
The normal lurching infected that look like people with bad acne and blood on their shirts are all over the shop, as are Hunters (annoying fuckers they are!) but there's something missing.
On the contruction site on the West side of the city, where the event "Enemy of my Enemy" (or something like that is) there is a repeated spawning of infected that are like halfway between normal Infected and Hunters. They're fast and can climb and give off two biomass orbs when you slice and dice 'em.
So when into the game do they start appearing in other infected areas?
Walk in there today, and both prototypes are available for rent! joy of joys!
Rent one, back in the car I see that they put NHL 09 in the box. Eff, simple mistake though.
Rent the second one, back HOME i see that the disc has a perfect 180 degree scratch right around the middle, and wont run. Hip hooray!
I guess I'm just going to have to buy it and hope that it truly is the awesome.
You can punch a dude so hard he explodes in a shower of blood and limbs
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
Or take his form, run 200 feet up the side of a building, and elbow drop onto his confused and scared wife, to paraphrase Yahtzee.
and found that most of my powers were utterly useless against him. After dying five or six times, I stayed in armor/muscle mass until tossing rocks and shopping carts and cars at the bastard until the military showed up, where I proceeded to take over tanks and whittle him down with missiles and .50 caliber fire. I don't mind taking over armor when I have a purpose, but generally I like to stick to my power set. My usual tactic is to use air attacks to wear targets down, but he just seemed to block all my incoming kicks and elbow drops. At the point I founght him, I didn't have a lot of the prime rib powers (hammertoss, blade drop, etc.) available to me. When you guys came up against this boss, how did you fight him?
I'm really enjoying this game. Of course the feeling of power is wonderful, but my favorite parts of the game are the movement and the web of intrigue. I don't the sense that Radical intended to make movement another obstacle to be circumvented. Rather, everything about Alex evokes a sense of power and freedom. Running up buildings, airdash-glide-airdash-glide, vaulting off another building, etc. - it's all meant to give you that freedom. And I'll be damned if it isn't exhilirating, soaring over the city or vaulting up walls to outmaneuver Blackwatch.
And the WOI... it may not reveal a particularly unique story, but the method of that story's delivery is incredibly well done. Sure, you can pick some random WOI target off the street and end up with some garbled message, but the developers were very good about giving you some tidbit each time you do it, something that sparks curiosity and impels you forward.
Ok, enough gushing about the game. But I do have one more question regarding achievements. Specifically the stealth achievements (complete a mission without alerting Blackwatch, complete three missions without alerting Blackwatch.) I completed an entire mission yesterday without garnering military attention, and I still did not get the achievement. It was the mission where
I stayed in military form, stealth consumed all the necessary Blackwatch members, never got a military alert, and still no achievement. What gives? Are these bugged? Did I somehow miss alerting the military?
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.