So I just borrowed Prototype from a friend and there are two things about the game that I really don’t like to see in games ever. In Prototype I experienced probably my least favorite cliché in video games: the arbitrary loose all of your abilities mission.
The thing that gets me about these missions is only about half of them actually feel right. For how much I hated it and groaned when the developers made me run around without my abilities, I begrudgingly accepted it as it made sense story wise in Prototype. I still grumbled to holy hell the whole time and shot through the levels as quickly as possible to get it over with though....
It always pisses me off, always. If you want to challenge me, challenge me. Throw in a boss the causes me to utilize all of my abilities. Or how about enemies that constantly change their tactics? Don't dumb me down so you can pretend to challenge me because anybody can kick a kitten. And this is why I dislike these missions most of the time; they feel extremely arbitrary. These "gamey" moments can really pull you out of the game and ruin any potential immersion the game has developed.
I’m not saying that it can’t be done right ever. These types of missions if implemented correctly makes the user feel vulnerable and cause them to play more cautiously. For numerous RPGs this tactic is used to usually push a key point of the narrative through, and to also make high level characters feel as if they are under a greater level of danger. The Fable series has done this TWICE and every Thief game has this type of mission at least once, and both of these series did these missions rather well. However even then most of the times it feels like a stall tactic to length the game experience that rarely contributes to the story in a successful manner. It’s as if developers feel like their video game should religiously follow the heroic cycle.
Now I want to talk about the second thing I really hated about Prototype, the beginning. This is another gaming cliché that I really don’t like. In Prototype the game showcased all of the abilities you will receive by the end of the game, it didn’t take anything away from you per-say but it showcases what the game would be like latter down the road.
I hate this.
The preview of powers introduction is just a love and hate type of thing, and I hate them. Sure I like getting a feel for what I will get in the future but I also loathe having the surprise ruined. This is something that I never liked about Assassin’s Creed. Sure the degrade in power in Assassin's Creed was tolerable and made sense for the story, Altair is being punish for being reckless blah blah.... But why ruin the surprise? Assassin's Creed wasted everyone's time by teasing us with full abilities then taking them away. What really annoyed me about it, personally, was that they weren't even all abilities that required the items you lost.
How the HELL do you forget physical dexterity, countering, and the ability to grab onto ledges mid air? Did they give Altair a frontal lobotomy as punishment? Altair just "forgets" these atributes because he's gone down in rank. Altair can't perform his mission as well not because he can't find the equipment; it's simply because of a 'rule' that he can't use them. Like I said before these “gamey” limitations just feel looney and ruins the immersion of the game; which is one of the few truly flawless aspects of Assassin's Creed.
Also if there is one thing I learned from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, it's that an awesome powers introduction beginning could be a sign that the game is more of a bottle rocket than a fireworks display.
This is one of the reasons why I am looking forward to Assassin's Creed 2. Instead of starting in the middle of a guy's career and getting dumb down for penance, we get to be at the beginning of a new character’s career and work our way up. It makes me feel like I am part of the story from the ground level instead of feeling like I’m some middle manager coming in after the company got off the ground, so to speak. It is also this same reason why I’m simultaneously looking forward to Metroid: Other M. The concept that I’m going to play as Samus as she is trying to establish herself has a lot of potential.
Okay, okay, you probably knew going in reading a blog that complained about loosing abilities that the Metroid series would at least get a mention. However with the Metroid series I feel more ambivalent about loosing abilities and then having to collect them. That's right, the Metroid series is one of those times where I think the cliché is done correctly. Prime was a progression, parallel worlds in Echoes was a progression, and Other M appears to be a heck of a progression, but item collecting is a (hopefully) constant aspect of the series. Removing the weapon spilling stops it from being a Metroid game. Metroid (like most Nintendo) is about a very specific game play style that persists throughout the franchise. If I play Halo I expect the story to involve a bloke with power amour and badass weapons of mass destruction to jack fools, if I play Metroid I expect item hunting. Now when dealing with the backtracking that shit is getting old and it better not be in Other M or else I'll bitch about it with no feelings of remorse.
In the end I stopped playing Prototype on my friends’ Xbox 360 not necessarily because of the issues mentioned above but because that game is JANKY AS HELL! Jesus the pedestrains are idiots who are satisfied with me running them over with a tank, and the game doesn't look all that great. But then again you might as well just bitch about one thing and piss off a few people than bitch about a lot of things and piss everyone off.
Log in to comment