Forum Overview :: Reviews :: Infamous is exactly as you describe it

[quote name="Lizard_King"]With most parts of the gameplay done competently enough that it's good. Prototype is a different animal entirely. I can see where the comparisons arise as they have from day one, but for me the key to enjoying Prototype is to see it as a brawler that just happens to take place in a sandbox type environment. That may seem like a worthless distinction, but especially with the slow motion on lock on and the gradually fleshed out move list I find myself focusing much more on the intense hand to hand (and cracking open civilians along the way) than any other element. Also, I just purchased the human surfing, which was a success in DMC3 and is here again. As a sandbox title it fails, for the most part, because the story missions are so heavily scripted against your experimentation. I've come across explicitly hostile design choices like unkillable helicopters and indestructible hives, often in missions where they have significantly shit on your powers already, which is potentially gamebreaking on a grand scale. But the inclusion of a reasonable checkpoint system and the visceral thrill of combat have gotten me through this far. Also, after slowly driving across Mars in Red Faction and slowly making my way across the city in Infamous, being able to Shinobi my way across Manhattan in seconds is tremendously gratifying. No safehouses, no stores, no bullshit. Just buckets of gore and surprisingly high quality cutscenes to break up the action a bit, with most every action rewarded by loads of experience. [/quote]