Prototype 2 (probably)

I watched a half hour gameplay video of this and the missions looked exactly the same as the boring "go from point a to point b and kill a group of dudes" ones from the first game. It seems like this is fun as a sandbox, like the first was, but with no real substance behind it.

It kind of does, yeah. But half the movelist in Prototype 1 was totally useless anyway, especially the for the muscle arms. Being able to charge each hit of the attack strings was good though. The claws have been beefed up a bit anyway and don't feel as weak this time. The charge move for claws is a pounce attack which is useful.

Dodging actually works in this game, which is a big bonus. Can't even remember if the first Prototype had it, so I can only assume it was rubbish.

The upgrade system doesn't look nearly as good though. It's nearly all just stat boosting as far as I can tell.

Anyway so what is this like graphically compared to the first game?

Out of all the DLC wrecking ball looks like the only useful move i guess from a practical standpoint hardened steel is useful but hardly seems like a thing that matters

Spoiler:

A_Nonny_Moose wrote:

It kind of does, yeah. But half the movelist in Prototype 1 was totally useless anyway, especially the for the muscle arms. Being able to charge each hit of the attack strings was good though. The claws have been beefed up a bit anyway and don't feel as weak this time. The charge move for claws is a pounce attack which is useful.

Dodging actually works in this game, which is a big bonus. Can't even remember if the first Prototype had it, so I can only assume it was rubbish.

The upgrade system doesn't look nearly as good though. It's nearly all just stat boosting as far as I can tell.

There was dodging in the first prototype and was essential on hard difficulty. The claws were decent enough in the first, its just the sword was stupidly overpowered.

It looks about the same. Slightly better character models.

I love the tendrils. After a fight using them there's bodies strung up all over the place, and the charge attack hits one target and then sends tendrils out to fling stuff back at the target. Good for taking out helicopters. Rather than just wrecked cars and debris everywhere after a fight, the tendrils really leave a lasting a impression.

Alrighty then, playing this now. It was cool of them to put a Prototype 1 recap in the main menu there.

Okay, I see how it works now. If you hold X through the whole jump you get the maximum height, if you just tap X you get the minimum height (or a dodge roll if you're not sprinting), and you can let go of X any time during the jump to stop ascending and start falling. It's the same charging system but you do it during the jumps instead of before them.

Is it just me or is this game much shorter than the first one? I'm already near the end of the game now.

Spoiler:

Seriously? I've barely started.

Aside from possibly having a shorter length, the game seems much more easier too. i recall reaching certain annoying points in the first one and that was on normal. Here, I'm playing on hard and it's been pretty much a breeze.

My copy only arrived today. What the hell Royal Mail...?

SimianWonder wrote:

My copy only arrived today. What the hell Royal Mail...?

I'm pretty sure thats treason, the authorities have been informed.

I remember the controls feeling a little more fluid than this in the original, but that may be me comparing a maxed out Mercer to a beginner Heller.

Looks like they listened to Yahtzee's review because the arbitrary race/challenge bonus missions seem to be exclusive to Radnet, while the game's real side missions are actually little side missions. The collectibles have also changed from generic glowing orbs to generic audio tapes. Finding all of them in a certain area gets you a powerup.

A_Nonny_Moose wrote:

Looks like they listened to Yahtzee's review

Oh he's started reviewing games now?

Bag of Oranges wrote:

A_Nonny_Moose wrote:

Looks like they listened to Yahtzee's review

Oh he's started reviewing games now?

You would post something like that after i sent you those links, almost making me instantly regret it.

There's a difference between reviewing something and what Yahtzee does.

Well that was a cool final boss... I guess. Cheap and a little annoying, but still a badass duel.

Wow, this does seem like it'll be quite short. I've been playing for around six hours and my in-game completion is at 48%. Given that likely includes all the collectibles and not just progress through story mode, I'm guessing I'm closer to two-thirds through, yet I don't feel I've done much.

The devs seemed keen to point out they've replaced Mercer because no one liked him, yet Heller is one of the least likeable leads I think I've ever encountered. I was quite happy with Mercer in P1, thougn granted Mercer seems to have become a colossal dick between P1 & 2.

This sounds really bad from everything you guys are saying. I love the first game, in fact i might just rebuy it.

It's still a lot of fun - the story is garbage, but there's more variety to the missions, and you can cause chaos on a scale even P1 would struggle to match. Graphics aren't great - there's more detail than in P1, though the draw distance is occasionally suspect and the character models are mediocre. Still, even when everything is going to shit it keeps the frame rate quite solid.

If you loved the first game, I'd still buy it.

You can tell that they pu a lot more thought and effort creating an actual story this time rather than just a plot, but you can also tell they're not very good at it. They upped the spectacle and scale of the action but lost a lot of the little details along the way, and those are what I loved about the first game after playing it so much.

Air dashing and gliding has been annoying me and I couldn't figure out why, so I popped in P1 and realised they switched the buttons around. In Prototype, X/A made you glide and R2/RT made you air dash. In Prototype 2 it's the other way round.

All this time I was pressing R2 just before landing in Prototype 2 without really knowing why, which caused Heller to start gliding and fuck up my cool landing. Now I know it's because I got so used to doing that in Prototype 1 because then you would dash into the landing and hit the ground running at full speed.

A_Nonny_Moose wrote:

Air dashing and gliding has been annoying me and I couldn't figure out why, so I popped in P1 and realised they switched the buttons around. In Prototype, X/A made you glide and R2/RT made you air dash. In Prototype 2 it's the other way round.

All this time I was pressing R2 just before landing in Prototype 2 without really knowing why, which caused Heller to start gliding and fuck up my cool landing. Now I know it's because I got so used to doing that in Prototype 1 because then you would dash into the landing and hit the ground running at full speed.

Seems like this reeks of poor design decisions.