Fun, while it lasts
If you’re familiar with open-world games, then much of what you already expect is utilized in Prototype. However, the way Radical Entertainment has crafted the game allows it to take detours we haven’t seen; making it the anomalous figure of the open world-genre.
Prototype is unsurprisingly your typical cliché action story, but if you’re playing Prototype for the story, then you’ve come to the wrong place. For what it’s worth, the story centralizes itself around New York City and a man named Alex Mercer. A standard amnesiac, Alex happens to be infected with a virus that has transformed his entire body into a living weapon. Not at all pleased, Alex has made it his personal goal to find out who’s responsible and pay them back in brutal fashion.
While it’s largely derivative, Prototype tricks you into thinking there’s much more to the story by implementing something called the Web of Intrigue. The Web contains the memories or mini-cut-scenes Alex has once he consumes someone who has been directly involved in the viral infection . These people are scattered throughout the city and even appear during missions. The system does add a little more depth to the shallow story, but you’ll find that once the difficulty amps up towards the end that it’s just not worth the effort. The targets are often killed by random fire or are unexpectedly killed by collateral damage you’ve caused while approaching them. They’ll respawn after a period of time, but it really doesn’t matter in the end as you’re playing for the pure violence, not the story.
For a game that has a ludicrous amount going on, it’s a complete wonder how the frame-rate is so smooth. Granted, Prototype isn’t the best looking game out there, but for what it does it delivers visuals that are pleasing enough and that especially goes for the city. Traversing the cityscape is simply one of the best parts of Prototype. Bolting up the sides of skyscrapers and leaping off the precipice never tires and makes for an exhilarating way of transportation. But what do you expect from a man who can shift his arm into one massive blade?
Prototype separates itself from the rest by the extreme, over-the top gore typically not found in the open-world genre. Never have there been more dismembered limbs, headless bodies, and tidal waves of blood running freely through a digital city. Alex has five different mutations he can shift his arms to such as claws and a massive whip. Every mutation is awesome and all have their strengths and weaknesses. Of course, killing is the main focus of this game and it’s met with an emphasis on repeatability. Whenever you kill someone, hijack a helicopter, roll over a grandmother, you receive Evolution Points (EP), Radical’s equivalent to experience points. These points are usually given to you in bulk and thankfully so as there’s a tremendous amount of upgrades to purchase. At any given moment you can access the menu screen and spend your EP to further augment Alex’s lethal arsenal. The sheer amount of upgrades alone will have you completing missions or just mindlessly murdering so you can witness the destruction your new found abilities commit. It also helps that practically every move is ridiculously cool and leaves behind a certain satisfaction that can be hard to find nowadays.
On the other hand, there are so many abilities that some will find it tough to utilize them all. That or they’ll just stick with a few moves that get the job done and are actually able to be pulled off amidst the action. Some of Alex’s moves are redundant and/or are placed so strangely on the controller that they just aren’t viable in combat. For instance, in order to shoot towards the target in a cannonball you must depress the square and circle buttons (X and B for the 360). It’s not possible to contort your hand into some type of creature to do that. Couple that with the fact that it’s easier to simply karate kick for equivalent damage and you have a completely useless move. There are other abilities that fall along the same lines, but thankfully there’s a variety that masks the ones that don’t work well.
As fun as Prototype is, the game suffers from some serious flaws that otherwise hinder an exceptional game experience. Throughout the game the infection in the city will steadily grow, which also means the military presence increases to combat it. The problem with this is that by the time you reach the latter portion of the game, it’s not fun to run around and cleave people in two anymore. Whenever you attempt to do so, there’s a tank waiting for you or a legion of soldiers waiting to call in strike support. It’s understandable that Radical wanted to make the game a bit more challenging as the infection spread, but it’s ridiculous when you’re continuously knocked down by constant streams of rockets and tank fire. The game is easy yes, but by eliminating the gratifying overpowered nature of your powers it also eliminates the number one reason why Prototype is a fun game.
