Prototype is a game about a man named Alex Mercer. Alex worked in a gentics lab in Manhattan. Something happened to Alex, and he doesn't remember what it was. Now he has several abilities, amoung them are super human strength and speed, and he can jump farther than the average human. He can also absorb a person into himself so that he can view the memories of the person he absorbed. On top of that, he has become a shapeshifter. He can change the shape of his whole body to take on the appearance of another, or he can change the shape of specific parts of his body to make weapons, and armor for himself. Alex must use these abilities to defend himself against a military presence that has taken over Manhattan, while trying to figure out the source of a viral epidemic that theatens to wipe out all of Manhattan island.
Now that you have the basics lets break this one down, and examine what it has.
Looking much like a twisted Altair, Alex sports a hooded ensamble that is apparently apart of what he has become. Story 7/10
Prototpy has a good story at the beginging that will keep your attention until the end of the game, but the ending really kind of felt rushed and you could predict the end from a specific point. The major chunks are delivered through the game's main missions, but the little pieces that make you go "oooh..." Are delivered by absorbing people that are connected to the Web of intrigue. These people tend to have an icon and appear through out the game in random places. Some times they appear at the most in oppurtune time, and die before you can get their info, but no worries, they'll pop up again. There is a good use of consume ability (which is the one used to absorb people) in the store.
The down side here is that you get to a specific point at the end of the game and you just know what is going to happen, and then it does happen, only it's rushed. I was quite dissppointed to get through this game, to be rewared with what I saw.
One of Alex's specials that seems to take way to long to unleash. Game Play 1/10
At the very beginning, you get a chance to use all the abilities the game has to offer. By abilities I mean all the weapons Alex can form his hands into. It's easy to waylay pretty much everything that gets in your way. That is the only time waylaying is that easy in the game. Then fighting gets harder and harder as the game progresses. You may say, "Well isn't it supposed to get harder?" The thing is it starts off pretty difficult from that moment that you begin with the limitied abilites. When you get all the abilities back that you had in teh beginning, the fighting is not as easy as it was then. To me, that is giving the player a false promise that if you earn all these abilities, then the fighting will be this easy.
The targeting systme in the game is a joke. The conneted it to the right analog stick, which also controls your view point. What this means is that if you are like me, and you like to keep what you are fighting in the screen, it's just not going to happen. You end up going to shift the view point following an enemy that has moved so fast the camera cannot keep up with him only to have the targeting system pick up an army man with a machine gun. Let me just say that the Army guy's threat level is about two steps higher than the pedestrians that run away from you. and if you are trying to fight in a chopper, just jump out and throw cars at then choppers. It'll be much easier.
I have never been this frustrated trying to beat a game before. So, what is it that is keeping me from giving this section of the game a 0 out of ten? The brutality thjat you can deliver to a crowd. With just about any shapeshifted weapon you can profuce, most of your enemies will end up on the ground in pieces. I also kind of enjoying jumping from the top of a skyscraper to land in the middle of a large group of cars, just so that they would get thrown from my impact point. Aside from that, the game play....I think you get the point.
The military eventually patrol the skies regularly. Graphics 8/10
Most of the game looks great. You can tell that what everything is supposed to be, which is pretty amazing considering the amount of body parts that can end up scattered all over the ground at the end of a fight. There are a couple of snags here and there. The largest one for me was the cars. While they looked like cars, I could even pick out what was supposed to be a Dodge Caravan, there was just something about them that didn't feel right. Also the people in the cars didn't move. You could pick up a car and throw it, but never in the entire game, does a person get launched out of a car. You can also slam a car around, and the person doesn't shift in their seat.
There are also a couple of cut scenes that show a specfic angle of Alex from the point of view of the person that he is talking to. In these instances, you can still see parts of the person Alex is talking to when you really shouldn't. Disembodied and inside out noses, and floating eye glasses are not something that I should see in my PS3 games.
Another end all small guys moved that takes a touch to long to use. Sound 8/10
Everything sounds great. Explosions sound like explosions, gunfire sounds like gunfire, and so on. There are a few unexplained sounds that occur. One seems directly connected to Alex. I have heard it jumping from rooftop to rooftop, consuming a person, taking a hit from an enemy, and delivering a hit to an enemy. And, it's not limited to one location. I have experienced this sound all throughout the city.
Yeah that is a lot of pedestrians down there. No, the game does not slow because of all those people. Overall 6/10
Prototype has a story that becomes predictable towards the end. And no, I am not talking about all the ideas adding up at a specific point. There is a twist or two they try to throw in, but those twists fail. The game play gets frustrating, because of the insane difficulty of the bosses, with moves that stun you long enough for them to hit you again, and other moves that wipe you out in one hit. And the targeting system is just plain crap. Graphics have a few snags, but are generally good, and teh same can be said of the sound.
The game play is frustrating enough that I am taking this game to Game Stop, and trust me I hate to spend $60 on a game to take it in for $23, but that is how irritated I am with that game.
Prototype's Website:
http://www.prototypegame.com/us/in…
