Prototype Review

How do you review something that is complete chaos? Prototype is one of those sensory overload titles that overwhelms you with cool explosives and extreme brutality. The premise? You are Alex Mercer, a man that wakes up in a morgue and realizes that he has incredible abilities…and has no idea how he got them. Such powers include morphing your hands into giant Wolverine-esque claws, or “consuming” another being and taking on their likeness, memories and in some cases, authoritative power, or many other gruesome powers.

To best describe Prototype in short: think God of War meets Spider-Man 2 meets Hulk: Ultimate Destruction (which makes sense, seeing as how Radical Entertainment made both Prototype and the Hulk game). The game is based in an open-world New York City. You start off with your full powers in what seems like Armageddon with a military crackdown and supernatural creatures gunning for your blood. This gives you a small taste of what Alex can do, such as pick up cars and hurdle them at helicopters, smash tanks in a single crushing blow with your “Hammerfist” ability, or even make an enemy soldier explode into tiny bloody bits with a single punch. Yes, this basically serves as the game’s tutorial, since your powers are mostly stripped away as you flashback 18 days. Through a Devil May Cry style upgrading menu, you learn more shape-shifting abilities as the game progresses and each new ability is twice as bloody and brutal as the one you learned before it. You get to feel like an all-powerful being, which makes Mercer’s codename of Zeus all the more appropriate.

One positive thing about this game is the control layout and execution (no pun intended). You can fluidly scale buildings, glide a few dozen blocks, pick up a car, hurl it at a group of unsuspecting pedestrians then run up another building and assume the identity of another citizen to take the heat off of you, all with very little effort from your fingertips. Every assignment on the controller just makes sense, because it utilizes beat-em-up controls: meaning X (square on PS3) for basic attacks, Y (triangle) for strong attacks, B (circle) to grab and A (cross) to jump. All attacks and the jump can be charged for more powerful variations, at the sacrifice of speed. The consume command is actually very well placed, using B then Y for a very quick and easy to execute combination for this very important tool of the trade. When you are on the run from a particularly murderous group of militants, consuming them, or a civilian, to boost your life, could be your only way to see another day.

The look of the game leaves much to be desired. Yes, just like the 5 billion other games that use New York City as the backdrop, it looks just like it’s real life counter-part and before you even ask, much like the cliche in most NY games, yes, there is a “collectible” at the top of the Empire State Building. The pedestrians have a few different character models, but I did see 5 of the same guys wearing the same jerseys in Central Park standing around randomly screaming at me. When running up buildings you notice bits of glass and debris coming from under your feet as you book it at full speed, yet there is no physical damage to the building. Also, when beating people to a bloody pulp there is no blood from normal attacks. You can punch someone so hard they’ll fly 2 blocks and you won’t see a drop. But I guess you can say they make up for it with the excessive amount used when you consume a victim (I think I need help). The executions look great, but get really repetitive, as each weapon gets you two different animations. The amount of chaos on the screen at one time is impressive, but the overall graphics aren’t up to par with some of today’s AAA games.

I am really split down the middle when it comes to the game’s audio. The environmental sound effects are what one would expect from being in a bustling city: random chattering, pissed off car-horns and angry people (also very scared people most of the time) put you right in the middle of a virtual New York. One of my main beefs with the audio (which is directly related to one of my problems with the graphics), is that when running up a building, with all the debris flying all over the place, there is no sound of crushing brick and glass. It sounds like you’re out for a leisurely jog down the street (or up the side of the building). This just makes the super human feeling diminish a bit…which frankly isn’t the reason I played the game in the first place. I wanted to feel like an immortal being that could do whatever the hell he wants. One thing that definitely stands out in the game is the gratuitous use of the F-Bomb. It’s used so much that I actually got tired of hearing it. It seems like they tried too hard to earn the “M” rating for the language use. To the game’s credit, there was some pretty funny dialogue at times.

Don’t get me wrong, overall Prototype is a good game. The fluidity of the transfer between easy to control parkour to effortlessly slaughtering hundreds of people in a matter of seconds is amazing. The story is a bit hard to follow, but really comes together at the end and makes for one of the better stories in recent games, but you have to stick with it. I definitely recommend as a rental, though the lack of multi-player and 12-15 hour campaign really makes it hard to say it’s worth the normal $60 price tag. True, there are several events to be unlocked that will keep you busy, hundreds of orbs hidden around the city for you to find, and a “Story+” mode that lets you play through with all of your powers (yes, even with your amazing powers…some of the missions are rough). Determining if it’s worth your hard earned cash isn’t up to me. I did enjoy the game and I believe anyone who likes destroying things and causing chaos will enjoy sticking through to the end.