Prototype

Review from Oracle, Oracle and Oracle - Saturday, 03 October 2009 @ 12:43am

Prototype is one of the bloodiest sandbox games I’ve ever played. If you thought picking up a hooker, having sex with her and bashing her to death with a baseball bat was f*cked up, think again. You will see blood in this game. Lots of blood. And you’ll see gory carcasses. Hundreds and thousands of gory carcasses. Activision has grabbed the idea of a bad ass rebel (“super hero” if you like) and thrown him into a New York City for us gamers to cause as much destruction as possible.

Prototype was coincidently released in stores the same week as the much acclaimed PS3 title, inFamous. As a result, the two could not escape a side-by-side comparison and have often been critiqued in direct competition. The most obvious merit for Prototype is that while inFamous is a PS3 exclusive, Prototype was released across several platforms, giving no gamers an excuse to have not played it. Currently, Prototype is available on 360, PS3 and PC. Instead of writing an indepth comparison report of the two games I’m just going to link you to a competition Yahtzee held where both developers were required to draw their bad boy characters in drag.

SURPRISE BITCH!

You play as Alex Mercer, who you will instantly notice is no ordinary man. The giant blades for arms are a bit of a giveaway. He’s somehow been caught by a corporation called GENTEK and has awoken on an operating table with no memory. Without thinking twice Alex decides to do what any man with no idea who he is would do—leg it and avoid anyone who looks potentially dangerous. In Alex’s case, this is mostly soldiers and doctors with white coats, who he goes to all extremes to avoid as he makes his way to his sister’s place in an attempt to regain his memory. Oh and this entire story is being told 12 days after everything has happened.. ooo, yeah. Didn’t see that coming did ya?

As you get to know Alex he gets to know himself (who hasn’t heard that before?). Any hoo, not much after the introduction to the game Alex quickly discovers that somehow he’s able to shape shift parts of his body to give him superhuman powers, such as turning his arms into nearly any lethal weapon. He’s also able to out run a dodgy Taxi and leap as high as a bird, which is way more fun than having swords for arms anyway.

I couldn’t help but find Alex taking over the jerk role for the sake of being a rebel. I noticed while I was getting him to calmly walk along with his fellow citizens he can’t help but push and shove them out of his way. Show no mercy, eh?

Ultimately though, it is up to you to help restore Alex’s memory by consuming people and taking their memories. Yes, you are to take the innocent lives of hundreds just so one man can remember what he did last week.

The storyline isn’t why teenage boys are jumping counters to grab this game. The gameplay is pure mindless fun. You can’t go wrong with Prototype. The military and some infectious monsters are out to get Alex. Why? Who cares! It’s a wonderful mix when it comes to chaos. A stroll around lower Manhattan Island can quickly turn into a military or wild hunter chase. Will you decide to flee by running vertically up an 86 storey building, or decide to leap off and hijack an Apache chopper? As I said this is Prototype, and if it sounds ridiculous it might end up being Alex’s best bid to survive.

What did you say about my mum?

As you progress through the game Alex becomes better, faster and stronger through the upgrades you choose to give him as you earn orbs by defeating enemies or collecting hidden items. You’ll slowly watch the streets develop into viral infested wastelands and witness the military grow in units and in armour. Those Bradley tanks you once knew are now 61 tonne M1 Abrams tanks. But that’s not going to stop you from wanting to toss them into the air like kittens.

As the virus spreads Alex bumps into more enemies. Heck, even the citizens turn into mindless zombies and start attacking you and other non infected citizens. The benefit of being a complete asshole throughout this game is that it’s easy to tell who’s against you later on... everyone.

You are given missions which require you to escort, destroy or protect a target. There’s not much else to it. Scattered across Manhattan Island are side quests or mini games which are mostly time fillers. Speeds runs, how many guys you can kill within a minute, hunt down this person and kill them... senseless tasks like that.

One day this will all be yours Kimba... I mean Simba

There are a few control complaints I have to make about Prototype. At first I had some major issues understanding which button did what and getting used to the clunky nature of Alex. So there are a few keys the game has done right but it’s forgotten some core values which takes the frustration out of most sandbox games these days.

The world Alex lives and breathes is Baby Bear perfect. Not too large and not too small. Big enough to hold the action but small enough so you won’t be taking 20 minutes to trek from east to west. So feel free to go all Goldilock’s in NYC.

Unfortunately another aspect I found the game to fail with was the lack of direction during missions. After getting distracted with slaughtering innocent civilians, I often found myself left wandering around and scratching my head without any hints or clues as to what I was actually meant to be doing. A nice big arrow or a “hey, btw do this to complete this mission” would have been nice.

The last time I saw this many tentacles was in a Japanese film

The animation and visuals in Prototype is nothing too exciting but I did enjoy having hardly any draw distance and seeing as far as the eye could see from atop of the Empire State Building. The rendering of the tentacles were very cool to watch shoot out of Alex and stab each and every person surrounding you. A very cool move to use and watch.

The voice acting in the game is kinda bland. Again nothing too exciting but it gets the job done. Same goes for the music. What’s that? A helicopter is chasing you? Dun dun dun da nana nana nana shun dada dada bun nana nana. Mmmm.. Bananas.

And a final word of warning... The end boss fight is so much of a pain to win it took all the 12 hours of fun I had in the game away from me in the very last minute. I’m happy to admit I gave up on him. Such an overpowered asshole. I couldn't help but feel a Prototype 2 will be on it's way while playing this game.

I’ve been told to end this review by saying something really cool. So I’m off to make some tacos in my underwear. Good night everybody!

Pros

Massive city to explore, better, faster, stronger player = fun, hijacking vehicles, consuming citizens, the self satisfaction after destroying a strike team, draw distance is perfect for a game like this.

Cons

Controls are a little stiff, the storyline isn't as interesting as you would hope it to be, lack of direction during missions can cause frustration, a lot of the side activities are repetitive and may lose your interest early. BOSS FIGHT!