inFamous and Prototype : A comparison
So, I’ve been playing a bunch of both of these open world super power games recently, and they make for an excellent comparison of choices that you can make in developing an open world game.
It’s a little sad that they’ve both been released at the same time, bringing the inevitable comparison and competition. Add platform exclusivity into the mix, and you’re guarenteed to get heated discussion on both sides. Nothing I write here is to outline ways in which one performs better than the other, merely the ways in which different choices take you to different places.
Prototype and inFamous are both excellent examples of the new breed of open world games, and the fact that they’ve both metacriticed in the mid eighties is a clear indication of how high the bar is when it comes to open world development. The amount of work involved in making an open world at this level of polish and amount of content is simply boggling – many times the amount of work involved in a classic FPS, or even a linear third person platformer.
Pacing and powers:
It’s worth noting that the classic open world game (GTA) doesn’t unlock new abilities in the fashion most games do. In fact, it’s avowedly open world, in that even those abilities granted by gaining new items (planes, missile launchers, etc) are available if you know where to go to get them. Both Prototype and inFamous take the more normal game approach, teaching the player new abilties as they progress both to add variety to gameplay and to allow them to learn as they progress.
inFamous utilises pretty classic platform game pacing. New abilites grant new power, which often grant access to new areas of play or movement through the neighborhood. With relatively few new powers (there are about 17 that actually provide new functionality, with many of those having three levels of upgrade) the overall game progress feels relatively gently paced.
Prototype, on the other hand, accelerates unlock pacing to absurd lengths. There are no commercial games I can think of that provide this many game changing power-ups this quickly. I haven’t had so many things unlock since Burnout Legends (and there, most of the unlocks were cosmetic and not functional). Prototype contains about EIGHTY different abilities (and that’s only counting ones that add a new function – not those that boost stats or damage) and hands them out like candy.
Combat and movement :
Both games feature great moment to moment gameplay, with really differing intents. Prototype has a hugely extensible “mayhem” focused combat system. In general the goals seem to be ultraviolence and freedom of movement, and it achieves this in spades. That said, there’s not so much in the way of tactical decisions throughout the combat, nor is this the goal.
In contrast, inFamous is a study in small scale combat. While you have a decent range of abilities that cause destruction, they are heavily limited in terms of usage (they deplete your powerbar as you progress). This, along with the cover system and fragility of the main character, all lead towards short term tactical usages of power, and pop and shoot gameplay much like many other current gen shooters.
As a result, inFamous has much better thought out combat puzzles. Environment is key to inFamous, both for combat and movement – in combat, it plays more like a Gears of War, and in movement more like a classic platformer (not surprising, given the developers pedigree). In contrast, combat in Prototype leans towards Devil May Cry combined with Spiderman. These choices define the sorts of tools the designers have to create interesting content – and as a result, each game plays distinctly differently, despite surface similarities.
Side Missions :
Prototype lost me very quickly with it’s side missions (called events) – each of the ones I picked up felt unmotivated (there’s no real dialog or cutscenes to set them up) and on top of that, they were unrewarding. This is as much down to my personal play style as anything else – I like to see variety, and I like rewards to move me forward. I tried out a few events, and in each case completed them without scoring high enough to be rewarded. This turned me quickly off them – there was a lot more instant gratification on the mainline game path, and thanks to the huge whack of powers you get anyways, I never felt I needed to grind the side missions to get more.
That said, I returned to the side missions after a few hours of play (and after upgrading my abilities) and found it much easier to achieve success and medals. They still weren’t as compelling or varied as I’d like, but nonetheless the difficulty felt much better placed once my powers were at the appropriate level. While new events get unlocked all the time (and I presume that the events unlocked increase in difficulty as the game progresses) there’s no way to tell which events are appropriate for your current skill / upgrade level.
In effect, the way events have been established against the framework of (the already discussed) power unlocks in Prototype makes balancing them delicately almost impossible. Each one has its own difficulty and power requirements, and may shift from too difficult to too easy depending on the load out the player currently possesses. In this situation, the player really needs tools to understand which are appropriate for their current skill level. That said, I suspect most players will follow my course, and simply ignore them – which isn’t actually a bad thing. Prototype is a better game in terms of content engineered to the players skill level without them. The difficulty ramp feels much more reasonable and the main plot line is put together very well.
I do get the sense that some elements of the main plot line are intentionally made overly difficult (for example the sequence where you have no powers, which represented a difficulty spike for me) in order to encourage you to go back and grind side missions for more XP. I’ve yet to meet anything that requires it, however.
Getting around to inFamous – largely a study in contrast. Side missions are set up with a bit of character work, and have a meaningful reward at each point – they actually change the properties of the environment you’re in (Hive and Military base sidemissions do this for Prototype – and as a result are the only ones I played). On completion, you’ll get a bit of feedback (again, from characters or watching the TV’s in the world) as to how people are starting to view you differently. While it seems like a small thing, this combined with the length and accessibilty of the side missions makes them appealing. It’s always worth five minutes to me to see some progress in the world – and the missions are so well checkpointed that I can quickly progress through to conclusion.
UI :
A quick note on UI. The generic “hi tech” interface used by Protoype I find generally unappealing, especially the small text in dialog boxes. The whole thing comes across as functional, and being functional I want to get past it ASAP. I find inFamous generally more appealing and interesting. A small thing, but I do think it has an impact on how willing I am to browse menus and sidemission screens.
Wrap up :
Mechanic decisions in an open world game determine (to a large degree) how exactly you can build content, and by so doing, what sort of play experience the gamer gets from your game. Prototype and inFamous are both excellent examples of this – with very similar (in theme and surface detail) set ups, they go to very different places in terms of moment to moment play experience.
Radio National
You can hear myself and Lee Sheldon talking about Serious Games on Life Matters from Radio National. Check the program for 11th June 2009 to hear us wax lyrical on games in general, and serious games in particular.
Welcome
The paint is still drying on the good ship HMS ICBF, and things will change a bit over the next few days. Nonetheless, pull up a chair and make yourselves comfortable!
