Prototype

     I beat Prototype yesterday on Normal difficulty. I ended up playing for another hour afterwards, and then started over in New Game +. As you can see, I really enjoy this game, but it's not for everyone.

     Prototype is a free world, action/adventure game developed by Radical Entertainment, which is just another way of saying "If you liked The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, you might like this game." It also has many attributes found in Spider-Man 2. At the very beginning, you watch a good looking CG clip, which might give you the idea that the in-game graphics will look good, too. You learn that there's something wrong with you, and you have to find who ultimately caused all this to happen. The first bit of gameplay gives you all of your powers and abilities, so you can get an idea of what is to come later in the story. After you've had a bit of fun and have grasped how to get through missions, it sends you back to the beginning, where the story really starts.

     It can be hard for some people to understand what's going on in the story, but that's what the game was going for. The problem is that, even when you finish the story mode, you still don't have the entire story, so some people may be left scratching their heads after playing through this 8-12 hour long story mode. One problem that may be the reason for this is that there are 131 people wandering around NYC that know something about what happened to you. While this can be fun and can give you a reason to keep playing after the story is finished, it may also discourage people from playing afterwards. People have condemned games like Crackdown for having to collect agility orbs, and this game has something similar to that, which may drive those people away. This is not to say that Prototype has a bad story, though I haven't quite figured it out 100% either because I need to find more people with information on the streets. There are trophies/achievements that tell you when you have enough info to figure out the story, but understanding it may be completely up to you.

     Running around freely in the city is the main attraction to this game for a lot of people. You can see it when you notice that the other parts of the game aren't as impressive as the gameplay. One part that caught my eye was the graphics. These aren't the worst graphics I've seen in this generation, but it's definitely not one of the better ones, either. In fact, it reminded me of last generation's graphics, even though there were some parts of the game that you knew couldn't have been done without this generation's technology. What made this OK for me was that it never got in the way of enjoying the game. Neither did the sound, though it never really caught my attention the way the graphics did at times, nor does sound really catch my attention in any game unless it's really bad.

     This brings me to another note I made while playing this game. The voice acting was...strange. I didn't know what to think of it, really. It didn't seem forced, but it didn't seem natural either. One problem could be the writing. At times, during conversations with Alex, he feels that he needs to give a dramatic one-liner to end the clip, wheter it fits or not. A scientist could be telling him to go grab a sample of the virus and bring it to her so she can analyze it and figure out a way to counter it, but the clip is about to end, so Alex says "Whatever's happening right now, it's only the beginning." When it feels like he should've just said "OK, I'll be back soon. Don't leave this room; the military might be looking for you." You know, something that pertained to the mission at hand. It doesn't seem to be a problem with most people, so you might not have a problem with it either. That's just my own personal experience.

     For those of you who are big on trophies/achievements, Prototype gives you a reason to go through the story mode 2 times at the very least. There are the usual easy ones, like getting a group of missions finished, and then there are the insanely hard ones, like beating the story mode while only killing between 0-10 civilians (which, for people like me, will be a trophy I'll just have to live without.) There are many trophies/achievements, that will keep you going through the story mode, and thanks to the + mode, which lets you go through the story with all the upgrades you bought, the game avoids the feeling of having to work from the ground up again, which adds to a more enjoyable experience.

     The big question I've been hearing is whether Infamous or Prototype is better, because the games seem so similar. From my experience playing Prototype and the demo I played of Infamous, I feel that these two games have similar characteristics when spoken of, but are very different once played. Both are free world, superhero, parkour games, but there are other factors, such as how they play. Prototype is a mostly melee-focused game, while Infamous is more like a shooting game (This seems to be the main difference between the two games, and it seems to be the best way to look at them and decide which one you'd like more.) In the end, both are definitely worth a rent, and which one you prefer or buy is up to how you like to play. You could also just buy both games. There's nothing wrong with buying two good games instead of buying one game and renting another good game.

     Prototype is a damn good game that has a few parts that needed to be polished. Thankfully, at least half of those parts didn't get in the way of having a lot of fun playing it. There's are many things to do, even after the story has been finished. There may be points in the story where you feel that the game is too hard, but the game notes that and tries to help you out occasionally. It might not be the best game in your collection, but if you buy it, you won't be embarassed to let your friends know you own it, unlike that copy of Velvet Assassin you have. Yeah, I saw it.