Recent weeks saw the release of two super powered sand box games, inFAMOUS and Prototype. After now spending a good amount of time playing both, I think it's fair to say that although they have completely different play styles, one just comes off as better than the other.

inFAMOUS has the feel of a third person shooter who uses electricity instead of bullets. Sure, there are melee aspects too, but for the most part the enemies run away from you when you try to close in which means you'll use them less. New powers are unlocked at a pretty good rate where you don't feel like they're suddenly dumped on you and there's nothing new to add later in the game. The missions are diverse enough that they don't feel stale and, being a fan of Batman's "No Man's Land" story, it was rewarding to see my territory grow. There are even differences in the powers depending on the path chosen; heroic being more precise and evil being about utter destruction. There are also collectables scattered across the city which add on to the amount of electricity "ammo" you can hold. This added to the fun of exploring the city, solving puzzles of how to climb certain buildings or just grinding along rail and power lines. The story is also very rewarding, offering cliff hangers as you go along with a suprise twist in the end. The story also offers up explanations for sequels, including a possible explanation often omitted in Zelda and Megaman games of the hero being depowered in the next game. This being that Cole is affected by the power grid. A sequel just needs to start out with a black out and the lead character starts out at square one again.

Prototype on the other hand plays like more of a brawler with a variety of attacks at your disposal. Firearms are available to pick up and use, but for the most part the easiest way to deal with things is to transform and unleash hell. Being able to hijack vehicles aslo helps add some variety, although I'm not the greatest at air combat with other helicopters. More often it's just easy to ditch one and hijack the other. There is also a variety of side missions and Alex's powers are quickly upgradable with points being easy to accumilate. There is also an aspect of stealth when consuming people for upgrades or filling in story elements with the Web of Intrigue.

Both games have solid gameplay, but it becomes evident which is the exclusive title and which is the multi-platform when it comes down to load times. Often when taking story missions, Prototype is filled with load times. Although they aren't extensive, it still interupts what would normally be an enjoyable pace. Also, Prototypes story doesn't offer the same level of intrigue as inFAMOUS. Early on my only draw to keep going with Prototype was to unlock new powers and the story didn't really offer anything for me to want to find out what happens next. The level of city exploration is nice in Prototype, but the "run on anything" doesn't offer any sort of challenge and the city just feels smaller than in inFAMOUS.

So although both are worth picking up, I felt more satisfied with inFAMOUS and saw it as a game I'll go back to grom time to time more so than Prototype.