PROTOTYPE and why sometimes you just have to let go

The other weekend I finally had the opportunity to rent Prototype and was extremely disappointed with the game. I wound up taking it back to blockbuster after coming to terms with the reality that I couldn't get into the story and did not enjoy the gameplay. I was perfectly content to let that be the end of it, until I read this great article by ArsTechnica entitled "Why we quit," but now instead of returning it and never mentioning it again I'd like to point out the parts that I found frustrating. Maybe doing so will be therapeutic and I can rent Prototype again and give it a second chance, or maybe Infamous will finally be in and I can just play the superior version of the same game.

And maybe that's a good place to start, after playing just the demo of Infamous, no matter how often I tried to put Infamous out of my mind it was hard not to notice the similarities between the two. Infamous' lead character, Cole, is electric powered and the controls reflect this fluidity that you'd expect from a parkour delivery boy versus the barreling rhinoceros that is Prototype's lead, Alex. Everything about Alex is dumbed down and forced: the way he moves, his morality, even his dialogue. The only thing that has any finesse is the amazing cinematics that play when you kill someone in some of the most grotesque way imaginable.

Even the fun parts of this game aren't all that enjoyable. Killing people as horrifically as possible? Press one button and watch Alex have all the fun, or just do the same 3 button combo over and over. Quickly the funnest thing to do will be to grab random people off the street run up the side of the tallest building nearby and see how far you can throw them, but even this can be ruined when Alex has some problem with curved walls or even running straight. OK, maybe I was just being OCD, but I wanted to stand at the very top of the Empire State Building and every time i got up to the spire near the top Alex would do a backflip off the building and crush my dreams.

Well maybe I'll enjoy completing some of those missions that will unlock more of that story I don't care about...think again. The game opens with you playing as a god basically, you have all your powers and get to wreak havoc toward some checkpoints, until they send you to where the story began(you know, that boring part where you don't have all your awesome powers). The missions might be fun for a minute but let me explain what I recall of the few that made me quit.

1.Somehow I unleashed these "Hunters" and while they we're killed in 3 hits when you were all powerful they can now obliterate you, easily. Then you realize that the game would like for you to kill 20 of these hunters before it lets you move on.

2.There are some infected water towers that I need to get DNA from but if i get to close to them they explode and unleash hunters. I somehow missed that they'd explode if I got to close (one of the perils of having and SD tv, is that many games have text to small for anything other than HD) so I get bored and spend an hour or so karate kicking helicopters tell I get bored of that and try to figure out the water towers again.

3.I have to destroy some military patrols before they find my hideout. Alright, destroyed 7 patrol groups and then I die and get sent all the way back to the beginning?! Is this not the year 2009? Do modern games not have check points? I get that some people might enjoy this part or you might have needed to include it to extend gameplay but not providing a few more checkpoints turns something that might be enjoyable into an unnecessary grind.

There are things to enjoy about Prototype although it mainly seems to be mindless fun which isn't enough when Infamous is on the shelf right next to it. Alas, maybe I'm asking to much of Prototype. Penny Arcade seemed to enjoy it (I've embedded the comic below but here is a link too).