Prototype Review
Prototype is a 3rd person action game based in Manhattan. You'll be playing the part of Alex Mercer, an individual that wakes up one morning and can't remember his past. To get to the bottom of it he's going to have to find and rely on others, as well as massacre soldiers, innocent bystanders, and the infected. As the game progresses your powers will increase, and as they increase your chances of finding out the truth increase.
The graphics for this game at first look stunning. It isn't until you see the cut scenes that you can see that something might be a bit off. You're also going to see buildings in ruins, but when you go around the city you're not going to be able to find said buildings. Another issue I have is the fact that this game LOVES to reuse models, so there is a good chance that you'll be walking down the street, disguised, and run into your identical twin six or seven times, each time being a "different person". The way that your character can go into disguise is impressive, until you notice that some how all of Manhattan has people of the same size and build. The memory cut scenes are just bizarre, and if you can't handle scenes that can cause epileptic seizures you're not going to want to see them.
The music isn't really going to blow you away in this game. The voice work is really hit and miss in this game. Some of the lines will draw you in, but then there's going to be other characters that will leave you wondering how much you should put into this game. You are going to get to hear a ton of the soldiers lines as you're probably going to raise attention to yourself throughout the game.
The controls for the most part seem solid. There's some issues about trying to switch powers from the dials that you can pull up in game. This might be a game issue more than a control issue, but there will be times where you're going to have to hit the correct button on the screen while in battle, sometimes if you are trying to pull off a combo you'll never be able to hit that button because the game is going to try to complete the combo before accepting input.
So the story is that you've lost your memory and now you're seeking out everyone and anyone who might know something about your past. This sounds like a real good start to a game, the problem is that the majority of the game's quest to find out what happen just seem like errand quests. These didn't leave me hungering for more. There are also side quests that you can find throughout the game. I have to say that I did one of each type, and then never did them again. My favorite part was consuming people of importance to gain knowledge or information. Sadly though there was no easy way to find these people so most of the hunting for them seemed extremely forced. There's a ton of power ups you can give your character, but once I got the blade, and the armor, I never had any desire to try to upgrade any other skill. They are the strongest in offense and defense.
Prototype was an enjoyable game, but not one that was very memorable. If you're looking for an interesting bio-terrorist game, where you have mutant powers, you might enjoy this game, but you need to remember not to expect too much from this game. For me this is a game that once down with the main story arc I have no desire to go back and complete the rest of the game. This game gets a 7.6 out of 10.
