Something went wrong. Try again later
    Follow

    Prototype

    Game » consists of 11 releases. Released Jun 09, 2009

    Prototype is an open-world action game from Radical Entertainment. You are Alex Mercer, a human transformed by a deadly virus into a virtually invincible killing machine.

    skillface's Prototype (Xbox 360) review

    Avatar image for skillface
    • Score:
    • skillface wrote this review on .
    • 1 out of 1 Giant Bomb users found it helpful.

    Fun but Flawed

    I had been anticipating this game’s release since I heard that it was made by Radical Entertainment, the minds behind Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. I remember playing Hulk and really enjoying the power it gave you. I figured a similar game made by the same people would give me the same sense of power and accomplishment. I was only half right.
     
    The protagonist of this journey and supposedly “the most powerful video game character ever created” is Alex Mercer, codename Zeus. This game takes place in New York City (creative, right?) on Manhattan island where a nasty viral infection is spreading. Alex wakes up in a morgue, confused and without any memory of his life. The only thought he has is to find those who made him what he is, and exact revenge. This is where your hope of “moral choices” becomes dashed, because there are no moral choices in this game. In fact, it’s almost impossible to play through the game without killing hundreds of both innocent people and people who want you dead. The story sort of takes a seat for the action though, and isn’t all that captivating. There are also moments in the cut scenes when you sort of feel left out of the story, like the game is skipping important parts, and it can get pretty confusing.
     
    Prototype starts you off at a later point in the game, to show off the different techniques that you won’t be able to use until later, then returns you to the beginning through Alex retelling how he got there to a mysterious friend. I’m not a big fan of games doing this, but instead of frustrating me, it just motivated me to continue with the game so I could earn these powers.
     
    So what is Alex Mercer, and what can he do? The game gives you a plethora of powers and abilities to unlock (as well as a few that you begin the game with) including claws, a defensive shield power, upgrades to your jump and sprint, the ability to glide, body armour, and a lot more. The game sure as hell doesn’t skimp on the abilities, as you’ll find yourself by the end of the game leaping and bounding across Manhattan with ease. You obtain powers first by unlocking them through story missions. Then, by navigating through the upgrades menu and spending EP (Evolution Points) to buy them. You earn EP a variety of ways; killing enemies, finishing missions, doing events and finding collectibles spread throughout the city. You rarely feel as if you don’t have enough, and the game does a good job of keeping a steady supply of EP so that you always have enough for the new abilities. It also gives you a reason to go back to the game, to become all-powerful.
     
    The game does a lot of things right. It gives you a lot of variety in both the story missions and the powers, and most of all, it makes you feel like a badass. And there’s nothing more fun than disguising as a Granny and throwing taxis all over Central Park. The story missions, however, ramp up in difficulty almost to extreme levels around ¾ into the game. A boss battle at a later point of the game took me two hours to complete.  This boss battle made apparent  several fatal flaws that almost ruined the game for me.
     
    Alex has the ability to “consume” living things to recover health. This becomes crucial when the mission difficulty increases, to run back into the crowd and consume a nearby infected for a small bonus of health, or a large “Hunter”, bounding infected monsters who can match Alex’s speed, to regain a large amount of health.. There’s a constant “three-way war” occurring in Manhattan between Alex, the infected, and the Military. Alex is on neither side, and so often becomes hunted by both. This can lead to complete chaos in the battle environments, a cool but damaging effect. You’ll often find yourself taking damage and wondering why. “Maybe it was the missile that hit me, or maybe it was those infected clawing at me.” Every time that Alex consumes something, a small cutscene occurs where Alex brutally murders them and absorbs their body. While awesome-looking, the small cutscene leaves you vulnerable to damage which there is no shortage of at this point in the game. Often times consuming can be a waste of time, considering most of the time you end up taking more damage than you gain health.
     
    The game has a targeting system where you hold LT, and the targeting system moves automatically to the highest threat. This can be important when trying to take out one or two Hunters, but extremely frustrating when it auto targets the boss, and you find yourself navigating through every living thing on the street with the right stick to get to the one enemy that you want to target. It ends up hindering you more than it helps. Once I remember during a battle, I was trying to kill a hunter that had been giving me trouble. I tried to target it, but the game felt that the tank on the city streets posed more of a threat to me. The hunter knocked me off a building into a place that was “out of the mission area” and I had five seconds to get back. However, as soon as Alex got up, several other hunters started doing their slap-attacks, hitting me into a corner. I figured that the game would teleport me back into the area or something, but no. I failed the mission, and had to restart from a checkpoint that was about 15 minutes back. 
     
    The game is overall an enjoyable experience, it’s just a few clunky things that completely turn me off from recommending it to others. It’s a real shame, because I wanted to love this game. I do love it, in part, for the free roaming and the general chaos of it. However, the game can get too chaotic, and little things will make you frustrated. If you're planning on playing this game, I would recommend the Easy mode, because the hectic nature of it leads to confusion and anger at later parts of the game.

    Other reviews for Prototype (Xbox 360)

      But what is the... prototype? 0

      Prototype arrived ridding a wave of hype, but does it deliver its promises or does instead drown in them? The game tells the story of man, Alex Mercer, awaking in the morgue, with no memories, and a question on his mind:"Who did this to me?"In the meantime, Manhattan is put under quarantine by the regular army and a unknown military outfit, called the Blackwatch Special Forces, due to a misterious virus that spread within the city, turning its citizens into disfigured zombies.Are the two related...

      7 out of 7 found this review helpful.

      The Type of Game that I Love to Borrow. 0

      [Prototype] is the type of game that I love to borrow. There are moments when you are scaling sky-scrapers, destroying tanks, hijacking helicopters, and you feel like an elite, über antihero. And there are moments when you have to do lame repetitive missions and totally suspend your disbelief to swallow the video game-iness of the experience. Bottom line if I haven't caught you attention with these first few sentences, this game is a two week treasure. Play it. It's great. But don't expect ...

      1 out of 1 found this review helpful.

    This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:

    Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.

    Comment and Save

    Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.