Prototype review — gory fun
In terms of video game release, summer is not the best for the gamers, few games are released, and of those, few are quality titles. Luckily, one of those few is Prototype, the 3rd person action game recently released on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC (this review is based on the Xbox 360 version).
The game is set in an open world (many games are these days), this time, it’s a rendered version of Manhattan, which the player has the option of fully exploring. The story goes as follows: the military has blocked off Manhattan and is trying to contain an outbreak of a virus that turns people into mutants. Players assume the role of Alex Mercer, a character with not much background, as he wakes up and suffers from amnesia, and his initial reluctance to help or care means he almost serves as an anti-hero in the game. Not that it’s a bad thing. You soon discover that you have been infected with the same virus as many others, however, yours is a lot more serious case. For instance, you have a sort of mutated arm, which you can not only use to climb buildings, but to kill people across a distance, as it extends quite a lot.
When you begin, you immediately realize you’re not like the others; you can run faster, scale buildings and you take no damage from falling off buildings, should you time your jump wrong. The gameplay has a sense of Crackdown mixed up with X-Men feel to it, as your run along in a large city with super-human abilities. But that’s where the similarities end. You see, Prototype has a lot more to offer. For one, you can shape shift into any human, making it easier to escape and infiltrate areas. Also, you can swallow entire humans in order to regenerate your health, and then shape shit into them. You can also hijack military vehicles such as jeeps, tanks and helicopters. The game features a good progression, as enemies increasingly get tougher, just as you increasingly learn new moves and attain weapons. However, while you can pick up weapons from your enemies, or use vehicles, the weapon you’ll find yourself using the most is the one you start off with: your mutated arm. Think of it as the AK-47 in any first person shooter: reliable, easy to use and gets the job done.
As for the technical aspects of the game; the setting of Manhattan is intruding for the first half hour, then it gets very repetitive, with the same buildings and visuals that happen over and over again. It quickly becomes what most fear of open world games: boring. But the action more than makes up for that. The sound and music are top notch, and the game runs smoothly with no frame rate drops, no matter how much action is going on on the screen.
The game offers some side missions to explore the city, for instance, collecting orbs, like you did in Crackdown. Another way Prototype copies Crackdown — which it does quite a lot) — is side missions which feature roof top races and checkpoint runs. As for the main campaign, you can complete the game in 9-10 hours, then there are the side missions which probably add another 5 hours (more if you are an Achievement hunter on the Xbox 360).
While not the prettiest game around, and far from perfect, Prototype still offers hours and hours of single-player fun for the hot summer days.
The Good:
Gameplay
Feels original
Bloody (very bloody at times)
Character animation
Physics
The Bad:
Graphics could be better
Cut scenes
Final score: 9/10