Prototype: Defying Physics Is Fun
"My name is Alex Mercer. They call me a monster, a terrorist, and a giant strain on military funding. I destroy city blocks and thousands of innocent lives but I'm really not that bad a guy. I love my sister, apparently, because I'll kill anyone to stop her safe house from being discovered. How am I dealing with these extraordinary yet terrifying powers? Its pretty cool I guess, I'm not complaining."
That about sums up the level of emotional engagement you're likely to have playing the "protaganist" in Prototype, but be prepared to forgive its inexplicable nature when your effortlessly launching yourself around an approximation of the big apple, and causing more chaos within a minute than our man Niko in GTA can pull off in several missions. Radical understands they have an inherently addictive physics engine on their hands that has luckily seen more polish since the similar Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. If you'v e played the Hulk game you will be familiar with running up the sides of buildings, taking giant leaps and landing with a resounding boom and crumble. Vehicles, civilians, and the majority of your enemies simply can't hold up against your unearthly might. You pick up "evolution points" points for completing missions and a variety of subsequent challenges, and like in the Hulk, these points can be used to purchase a slew of deadly manuevers and talents.
Where do these gifts come from? Well as far as we can tell (minus spoilers) its an evolved weaponised virus of sorts akin to what we've seen throughout the Resident Evil franchise, and while such a concept should be considered stale, we aren't half as interested in the cause as we are the effect. So this virus is slowly but surely giving portions of NYC a morbid makeover, and the US millitary is composed of driven, obedient pricks, so this leaves mister Mercer to indiscriminately slaughter his way to the truth. Did I mention he has Amnesia? A selective amnesia at that, because he remembers enough not to crush his supposed ex-girlfreinds skull on a whim as most players would do if given the option.
Much like the T-1000 of the Terminator franchise, Mercer is able to mimick the appearance and occaisonally the special abilities of anyone he consumes. This mechanic actually aids in keeping things fresh, allowing you to be discreet and walk among your enemies unnoticed when the mood suits your, or particular mission demands you do so. There are dozens of characters that contribute to a "web of intrigue", where relevant information is extracted via the memory after you grotesquely absorb them into your body. These sequences are short, frangmented and dreamlike. Don't let the ominous music and pasable voice acting fool you though, there isn't a strong narrative to be found in this game. However, as I implied earlier, this has little bearing on the fun you're going to have playing this game.
The most impressive thing about Protoype I find is the potential in this unique gameplay, which despite suffering a bit graphically manages to stage and excecute unfathomable power convincingly enough for consistent thrills throughout. I can only imagine how popular a game would be where online players could customize their own heroes or villians, create teams, and go at it in a variety of sandbox environments, Thats exactly where Radical needs to go.
I recommend this game as the best "pick up and play" game for the X-box this year, but I would like to ad that as far as this
