A Fun Action Title That Will Keep You Entertained
Prototype is a solid game marred by a few flaws that could have been mostly avoided if Radical took a bit more time to polish the dull parts. Action heavy game play that rarely gives the player a break, entertaining movement, and a well implemented upgrade system keep this title from getting old too fast. Repetition sets in after about 15 to 20 hours of game play and only the most die hard completionist will go to the lengths of grabbing all those damn orbs strewn all over the place as well as all the web of intrigue targets. The PC suffers from some control problems but ultimately the games are the same no matter what you play it on. Prototype could have been great but some kinks in the chain prevent it from getting higher so it will have to settle for better then average.
You are Alex Mercer, genetically altered bad ass who is hell bent on crushing the military presence on Manhattan island in a bid for revenge, you also happen to be hell bent on destroying an infectious over mind call the hive, and on top of all that, you seem at times to hate all those losers walking/driving aimlessly in new york so plan on destroying most of them too. Action games rarely try very hard in the plot department so I'm not surprised that Prototype's story, while at times original, still suffers from noticeable sketchy points and issues with consistency. One thing I liked though was the web of intrigue, which is basically a collect them all side mission but with mini videos that help flesh out some of the back story. Over all the plot doesn't hurt the game but one the other hand it doesn't help it either which really is too bad because the premise is refreshingly different. After it was all said and done and the credits rolled I still had a sinking suspicion that all Alex really needed was a kitten to love and something soft and pink to wear, but maybe that's just me.
Game play is always the most important aspect to look at in a game and Prototype delivers on this front for the most part. The powers all have certain situations their good at and the fact that you have to buy them with Prototype's form of currency called evolution points or EP helps give the game a more dynamic feel as well as the fact that more become unlocked through the course of the game. Every thing you do grants EP so expect every 20 minutes or so to grab a new move or upgrade of some kind. Radical entertainment did a good job at making the upgrades useful and added moves help define the powers roles better and the added sprint speeds and abilities make an already entertaining and well thought out movement system better. I thought it was interesting at first that the developer decided to add in guns and vehicles to the mix, while the guns really only came into play for some of the challenges and a few missions the tanks and choppers added viable new ways of taking on any particular tasks.
The game is free roam so you can expect to wander an open world that comes off as a bit small and is jam packed with all the find all of these we hid every where and plenty of side missions and timed challenges we now come to expect as standard these days. The side missions range from sneak into this military base in a set amount of time and consume this target for EP and some form of conventional weapons up grade, to destroy either a military base or hive somewhere in the city again in a limited time frame, and last but not least my all time favorite get to each of these points and consume these targets before the time runs out. These missions get very repetitive after doing them a few times, at one point I found myself doing the exact same one only 20 minutes after I did it the first time. The challenges are broken down into three types, kill as much as you can with this power, weapon, or vehicle until the time runs out, hit these points as fast as you can, and finally join this side and kill all of the other side as fast.... well you get the point.
For the most part problems remain with the story and repetitive side missions but within the first 10 minutes of game play I ran into two flaws. First, Prototype looks decent on the streets but the higher you go, the uglier it gets. Outside of a few landmarks the building textures are bland and one quick look down while you glide through the sky or hover in a helicopter you notice just how bad the draw distance is. Second, while the controls for the consoles are solid the PC version comes of as a bit wonky for me and it took a few hours of getting use to until the flow of the game kicked in.
Prototype's short comings don't end there, the game starts off as a bit easy with few tanks and helicopters to deal with then ramps it up about half way through in terms of both numbers of enemies and the damage they do. One of the games strong points is the amount of chaos that goes on the screen at any given moment. This strong point quickly turns into a weakness when that chaos is directed solely at you, when you have over 4 tanks shooting at you along with 2 or more helicopters and a few dozen marines unleashing a barrage of machine guns, grenade launchers, and rockets, most of which do good amounts of damage, you go down fast. I can see some of the reasoning behind it, outside of a few exceptions every living thing walking the streets might as well be a health pack with arms and legs but when your under that much fire stopping to consume some poor sap will more often then not kill you. This can lead to some frustrating moments when you have too little heath to run far enough away from your pursuers. Even when you are good to fight with that many wanting a piece of your shape shifting ass you get pigeon holed into fighting in limited ways instead of unleashing some of those cool powers you worked to get.
While it might not look pretty the main character's animations in Prototype were always spot on and smooth. Everything from flying off a building to throwing some poor bastard into the side of a tank looked good. While not as much effort animation-wise was put into everyone else populating this pedestrian chucking wasteland inhabited by both the worlds worst drivers and a military run by what probably is the most brutal Turkish riot officer known to man they didn't stand out as poorly done. The game ran smooth on all three platforms and looked if not identical then damn near it.
If your the type of person that thinks the Die Hard movies never had enough explosions as well as the type that enjoys watching armored tanks plow right through heavy traffic and people alike like they were countless boxes of poppers and blood filled peeps all the while plastering propaganda about how there here to help then this game is for you.
A decent 8 out of 10.
