360 Review: [PROTOTYPE]

Categories: 360, Games, Microsoft, PC, PS3, Sony | one response

Ahhh…Prototype. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if you would live up to the hype. I mean, you looked cool in the trailers & screenshots. Such viciousness & brutality. Morphing tentacles hinting of the Venom/Carnage symbiotic powers from the pages of Marvel Comics. Yeah, I personally held you in high regard let alone the hype machine that surrounded you as you approached gold status. Did you let me down? Was my faith in you misplaced? Not at all! Granted, you can be an acquired taste for some, but for me, I loved you right down to the last infected crumb……

Prototype is set in New York City. The entire island of Manhattan has been besieged by an outbreak of some kind of infection. This virus mutates human beings & drives them insane, but after playing through it, I’m happy just calling them zombies. The game starts out introducing us to you, Alex Mercer. At this point in the story, Alex has most (if not all) of his special abilities and the player immediately gets a feel for the strength and power of Alex. Unfortunately, that doesn’t last as the game’s story is told from a flashback perspective. The first mission is set in current time (where Alex seems to be fully upgraded), then we flash back about 18 days to begin telling how it all began. It can get a bit confusing at first because one of Alex’s biggest problems is he has no memories. All he knows is he has something wrong with him & he needs to find out who did it to him & why. As you progress through the game, Alex’s memories are pieced together through the literal consumption of key people (which the game alerts you to). These memories can be a bit disconcerting as they’re not in order & the imagery is straight out of a Nine Inch Nails video. You learn very fast that you are sort of a rogue, as neither the infected nor the military like you & both want to stop you. I’ll stop there as part of the fun of the game is learning about the whole conspiracy. And trust me, there are a lot of twits & turns in it.

I’ve been asked many times over the last 48 hours what the game is like. The best way for me to describe it is to take Spider-Man 2, combine that with Crackdown & then sprinkle in some Nine Inch Nails & Outbreak for good measure. You have the fully explorable sandbox of Manhattan island & your super jumping (you can unlock a glide ability too) allows you to almost fly all over the place. You have the ability to explore the entire city right from the start. The missions are given to you as you choose them. If you want to play around in the sandbox for awhile (collecting landmark icons ala the power orbs in Crackdown) or if you want to complete some of the optional missions, you can. It’s completely up to you. Your map will always have a marker pointing you to the next story mission so you will always know where to go to proceed in the game. The map also has markers for several different kinds of optional missions like the standard “race through the city & hit the markers”, to fighting off the infected in a given area, to fighting off the military in a given area. At first, you won’t have many optional missions to play with, but as you progress through the story, more will be unlocked.

The coolest part has to be the powers though. At the beginning, you have just a basic move set. But as you kill enemies, accomplish missions, consume people, etc…, you gain experience that can then be spent on new moves or upgrading existing ones. I can’t remember the last game that truly made me feel as powerful as I felt in Prototype. That’s not to say the enemies will be a push over. For the sake of time (so I could get this review done as quickly as possible; I didn’t get a prerelease copy {if any PR folks are reading this, add me to your list so I can review your games too!} ) I played through on ‘Easy’ & still was challenged by several parts of the game. I commend Relic (the developer) for finding a way to make me feel super powerful without sacrificing the challenge of the game. In addition to your movement abilities (jump, glide, lunge), you also have disguises (taking the form of the last person you consumed), special sight (I won’t tell you what or why, I’ll leave that for you to discover), & several different ‘costumes’ for lack of a better term. They don’t change your appearance, just your abilities, but switching between them is similar to switching costumes in other games. One version gives you whips for hands. Another gives claws similar to wolverine. Yet another beefs up your fists like The Hulk. There is some strategy to it as well since some ‘costumes’ work better against certain enemies than they do against others. During one of the boss fights, I found myself switching powers many times. Relic did throw in the ability to drive a tank or fly a helicopter, but I typically only used them when the missions required it. Partly because I enjoyed my powers too much, & partly because the vehicle controls felt a bit sluggish to me. Especially the helicopter. I always view the helicopter as a very agile piece machinery. In this game, it isn’t.

The visuals are decent, even though the facial models creep me out (I’m not talking about the infected either). You will find repetitive character models, but the look of the city was great & when you are on top of the buildings, the scope feels HUGE. If you are a stickler for mouth movements during the voiceovers, prepare to be disappointed as they’re stiff & the mouths barely move. Gamestop takes a prominent role on the billboards as in-game advertising is in full effect here and those with a keen eye will also spot Hollywood Video, Golds Gym, DC Comics, & Wildstorm Comics (there may be more, those were just the ones I noticed). The neatest part though was the way the different areas are represented depending on which factor is dominate. In the areas where there is law & order, the city looks fairly normal & it’s represented by blue on your map. But, where the infected have control, it’s total chaos in the streets & there is a red hue enveloping that area of the city in the map, & the players screen. The game really shines where these 2 zones collide as there are infected chasing non-infected, military trying to gain control & people running & screaming everywhere. It’s total chaos & it feels completely natural & random. Nothing felt scripted. Prototype also features a gradual day/night cycle, which helped a bit as I found myself searching for Landscape orbs (and hint orbs) primarily at night. The sound was good, if forgettable. Nothing really wowed me about it except for some of the chilling cut scenes. For me, this is a good thing whereas if I don’t notice the sound because I’m to into the game, then they did it right. The sounds should add to the ambiance, not distract me from the game. Overall, I thought the look, sound, & feel of the game was good if not great in some cases & the memory cut scenes were down right weird at times.

So, the next question is should you buy it or rent it. If your a fan of either of the 2 games I listed above, or if you enjoy a good twisty story, or if you just love a good action beat-em-up, I would say buy it, no doubt. Between the upgradable powers & the basic strategy side of figuring out when to use them, this game appeals to many different genres. If you are considering a rental, keep in mind that it took me about 15 hours on Easy to complete. That was with me only doing a couple dozen of the optional missions just so I could get a feel for them. If you want to do all the optional missions (& hence getting all the achievements), plan on spending a lot longer as each mission type bumps up in difficulty as you complete them. Plus, once you have a gold medal in each one, you still need to go back & get a platinum medal before you can claim 100%. In addition, once you complete the story, a ‘Story Plus’ mode opens up giving you your full set of powers right from the start. Perfect for those who just want to jump right in & get their infection on. In other words, no matter why you like the game, there is enough replay to make it worth the investment.

[PROTOTYPE] is available now for the PC, Xbox 360 & PS3.