Everyone's talking about Infamous versus Prototype, on blogs, podcasts, even TV shows like X-Play. The consensus seems to be that Infamous wins that battle.
I'm playing Infamous right now, about a third of the way through the game. It's great fun, but it's making me think fondly of the X-Box 360 game Crackdown. I started thinking about that so much that I bought a used copy of the game (after foolishly selling it a few months ago) to answer the question: which is better, Infamous or Crackdown?
Character.
Infamous' lead character, Cole, is well defined and realized. If you play him as a hero, he's a bit in the Marvel vein, misunderstood by the public, yet trying to do the right thing. If you go the villain route, you're more like Grant Morrison's Marvel Boy, wrecking havoc for selfish gain.
Crackdown's lead character had no personality at all. He's a super-cop with no personality, no friends, no cut-scenes where he talks to other characters.
Winner: Infamous.
Story.
Infamous has a story worthy of any Marvel or DC comic. After a mysterious explosion wipes out half the city, we find out that Cole was at the center of it. He awakens with electrical powers and immediately must decide how to use them, for good or evil. No matter which route you choose, there's a mystery to solve which propels the game forward. Who really triggered the blast and how did Cole get these miraculous powers? The cut scenes feature artwork that really seems to pop out of a comic book page.
Crackdown doesn't have a good story. It has three main goals with several sub-tasks. Three main areas of the city must be rid of crime, each area has gang leaders that must be taken down to reach this goal. The ending of Crackdown is pretty lame, just a montage of the city with a voiceover telling you what a good job you've done.
Winner: Infamous.
Powers.
Both games have a level up system for the powers each character has. Cole's electrical abilities have several dimensions. For each action you take in the game, whether it's taking down bad guys or saving people, you get XP. You spend these points on new powers that Cole can use. This helps motivate you to do all the side missions, so you can level up and do more fantastic things.
Crackdown allows the super-cop to level up in a different way. The more the cop does a particular action--jumping, driving, shooting--he levels up in that area. He has to level up in order to take down the bigger gangs. But he also has to level up in order to climb the taller buildings, an important factor in attaining the orbs.
One thing that never levels up in Infamous is Cole's jumping ability. The super-cop in Crackdown goes through quite a change--by the end of the game, you are jumping like the Hulk.Winner: It's a draw.
Crackdown also has a cool device that levels up the appearance and functionality of the cars as you level up the driving skill. The cars actually morph into bigger vehicles when you get in them.
Winner: Crackdown, because leveling up affects everything.
City Design.
Infamous and Crackdown each have big cities divided up into different islands. The city center, where you go in the beginning of the game, looks pretty cool. The buildings in Infamous get repetitive after a while. I've seen that same health clinic building in many different areas. The city also looks quite drab to me.
Crackdown's architecture is much more unique and colorful. It feels like a real city. I can easily make it different buildings from far away by their unique structure and color scheme.
Winner: Crackdown.
Transportation.
Cole gets around the city by climbing buildings and jumping like Sly Cooper (Sucker Punch did that game as well, of course). Later he gets the power to ride the rails on electrical currents. He also zooms across electrical wires strung along the rooftops.
Crackdown's main character does all of that, but the way he does it makes me feel like I am more in control. Cole is really super-sticky whenever he gets close to things. I guess it makes it easier and less frustrating, but I just feel it's too automatic.
Crackdown has one big advantage over Infamous here. The character can jump around everywhere, but if you get bored of that, you can grab any car or truck you see and start driving. The cars are really unique as well. The DLC for Crackdown gives you some neat additions.
Winner: Crackdown.
Collectability (Gotta Catch 'Em All syndrome).
Collecting shit in games isn't a new innovation. Yet when I see the blue shards strung around the city in Infamous, I really think that Sucker Punch was inspired by the orbs Crackdown. Both games have a finite amount of shards/orbs that turn you into a collecting addict. Sometimes you'll want to stop fighting the baddies in order to stop and collect one.
However, the shards in Infamous look shitty. A little diagonal object that glows. WTF. Crackdown's orbs are bright objects with a unique design. They have different XP values that you can recognize by the amount of dots above each one. You won't get the higher value orbs without first leveling up your jumping ability. Even cooler, the orbs emit a pulsating sound--my favorite sound effect in any game--that let you know if you're around one.
Winner: Crackdown.
Replayability.
Many gamers who have played Infamous want to play it again, taking the opposite path down good/evil to see what happens. There's motivation in doing that, since Cole has a different power set for each branch. The problem with the replayability aspect here is that Infamous' side missions are very repetitive. I've saved about 6 water towers so far.
Crackdown doesn't have much here. Once you finish the main objective of clearing out the entire city of crime, you can go exploring to find the remaining orbs, or complete the various side missions, like rooftop races. But there's no gain in replaying it a second time.
Although I have to admit, when I popped the game back in, I was tempted to play Crackdown from scratch just to get those orbs all over again. Maybe one day!
Winner: Infamous.
Four points to Crackdown, three for Infamous. The XBox 360 game wins.
Don't get me wrong, Infamous is a great game and well worth buying. It does a lot of things better than Crackdown. But in the end, Crackdown's city design, cars, orbs, and driving just make it more fun. I was really pleased by the E3 2009 announcement that Crackdown 2 is in development. Even better, some of the original Crackdown developers who recently left Realtime Worlds are working on the sequel. Nuff said.
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