Shazam!
06-25-2009, 01:05 AM
Prototype (PT) is a sandbox style action game published by Activision for 360 and PS3.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/97/PROTOTYPE.jpg
You are Alex Mercer, infected with a virus in a quarantined Manhattan that is under military lockdown. The virus is spreading and infecting people and creating grotesque monstrosities (as is always the case with those damn deadly gaming viruses) as it spreads and worsens.
You can shift into a variety of forms and turn your arms into various weapons. You can also pick up various firearms for use, but your own powers are better.
You consume other people and feed off them for life and you manifest their thoughts (which spread the story throughout most of the game). You can even become them for infiltration missions (such as enemy soldiers) and escaping the army by concealing yourself as one of their own soldiers, or quickly blending in a crowd of panicked civilians.
Alex controls very smoothly and easily, and in no time you'll be sprinting around Manhattan and making pole-vault-like-super-leaps through downtown NYC. He has tons of cool moves that are upgradeable, and a variety of forms. Some may say there are too many moves and the like, but you'll definitely find something for your taste.
This game is brutally violent to the max.
Some battles are chaotic and remind me of Dynasty Warriors, with nearly a hundred enemies, infected citizens, and innocent panicked pedestrians running for their life on screen at once in any major battle. Not to mention the cars, tanks, choppers, and monsters too.
The combat does get repetitive, but your onslaught is just a bloody dance of death it's so much fun. Picking up cars and trucks and using them as missiles for downing choppers is a treat, or you can just jump at one to take it down or jack it (when you unlock the ability). You have so many powers you feel unstoppable.
The virtual Manhattan is a giant playground for all your wild abilities. There are representations of the George Washington Bridge, Third Avenue Bridge, Washington Square Park, Central Park, the Zoo, and other notable NYC landmarks.
PT tries to do a good job of trying to make you feel like a ruthless killing machine, something like the Terminator but it ultimately fails. Towards the end of the game you have so many moves you feel that you should be nearly unstoppable, but you are not. You have all these killer moves, but the game is merciless with cheap deaths sometimes. Against some of the tougher enemies, once you get stuck in his attack animation, there is nothing you can do to stop it, AND other enemies can hit you too when you're stuck. So you pretty much have to avoid the enemy and wait until it's done with it's attack animations. So, it rewards you for doing nothing. Kind of lame when you're supposed to be the most powerful being on the island. It would've been better with a simple parrying move with a button sequence or something that you see in so many games nowadays.
You even have all these defensive powers but they are rendered useless too often. Sure, when low on health just run up and absorb some civillians for some more HPs. But after the 100th time, it loses something regardless of how brutal the animations are that you've seen a thousand times already.
I enjoy tough games and I consider myself a pretty skilled gamer, but the game pacing sometimes ruins the balance and all the chaos going on may overwhelm some, especially if you've never played the crowd-clearing combat genre.
The story is decent enough, told through flashbacks and sequences of what people knew as you consume them.
The graphics are pretty good but Manhattan could've been more detailed. Mercer and the soldiers are detailed well enough, but too many pedestrians are aliased. There's a variety of cars but you can't drive them (except the military vehicles). There is so much going on at once at any moment, the framerate never dips at all so it makes up for it. That part is impressive.
The sound is ok, with lots of gunfire, explosions, and gut churning knifings as you tear through the hordes but nothing sets it apart. The music is dramatic when it needs to be and the radio chatter of the military is varied enough that it sounds different most of the time when they call in strike teams and air raids. The shrills of the screaming citizens are great. The voice acting is ok.
There is a ton of side missions, races, scripted events, collecting and the like, but it is almost too many and after awhile they will seem like a waste of time. The side quests are all boring and seen before in many other games.
Being able to go anywhere is cool and running up the side of the Empire State Building to the top never gets old, and surfing down the side of a skyscraper using a severed torso as a surfboard is always a helluva lot of fun too. However, there are a few issues that hold this title back. It's all good fun but it could've been more.
7/10
Rated M for Mature- Blood and gore, intense violence and language
EDIT- I made a few additions and lowered my score as with more playing time some and a longer experience with the game some of it's problems are more apparent. Since someone may base a purchase on what an actual user may think as opposed to what a site like IGN or Gamespot may say, I want to be as honest and detailed as I can with my time playing.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/97/PROTOTYPE.jpg
You are Alex Mercer, infected with a virus in a quarantined Manhattan that is under military lockdown. The virus is spreading and infecting people and creating grotesque monstrosities (as is always the case with those damn deadly gaming viruses) as it spreads and worsens.
You can shift into a variety of forms and turn your arms into various weapons. You can also pick up various firearms for use, but your own powers are better.
You consume other people and feed off them for life and you manifest their thoughts (which spread the story throughout most of the game). You can even become them for infiltration missions (such as enemy soldiers) and escaping the army by concealing yourself as one of their own soldiers, or quickly blending in a crowd of panicked civilians.
Alex controls very smoothly and easily, and in no time you'll be sprinting around Manhattan and making pole-vault-like-super-leaps through downtown NYC. He has tons of cool moves that are upgradeable, and a variety of forms. Some may say there are too many moves and the like, but you'll definitely find something for your taste.
This game is brutally violent to the max.
Some battles are chaotic and remind me of Dynasty Warriors, with nearly a hundred enemies, infected citizens, and innocent panicked pedestrians running for their life on screen at once in any major battle. Not to mention the cars, tanks, choppers, and monsters too.
The combat does get repetitive, but your onslaught is just a bloody dance of death it's so much fun. Picking up cars and trucks and using them as missiles for downing choppers is a treat, or you can just jump at one to take it down or jack it (when you unlock the ability). You have so many powers you feel unstoppable.
The virtual Manhattan is a giant playground for all your wild abilities. There are representations of the George Washington Bridge, Third Avenue Bridge, Washington Square Park, Central Park, the Zoo, and other notable NYC landmarks.
PT tries to do a good job of trying to make you feel like a ruthless killing machine, something like the Terminator but it ultimately fails. Towards the end of the game you have so many moves you feel that you should be nearly unstoppable, but you are not. You have all these killer moves, but the game is merciless with cheap deaths sometimes. Against some of the tougher enemies, once you get stuck in his attack animation, there is nothing you can do to stop it, AND other enemies can hit you too when you're stuck. So you pretty much have to avoid the enemy and wait until it's done with it's attack animations. So, it rewards you for doing nothing. Kind of lame when you're supposed to be the most powerful being on the island. It would've been better with a simple parrying move with a button sequence or something that you see in so many games nowadays.
You even have all these defensive powers but they are rendered useless too often. Sure, when low on health just run up and absorb some civillians for some more HPs. But after the 100th time, it loses something regardless of how brutal the animations are that you've seen a thousand times already.
I enjoy tough games and I consider myself a pretty skilled gamer, but the game pacing sometimes ruins the balance and all the chaos going on may overwhelm some, especially if you've never played the crowd-clearing combat genre.
The story is decent enough, told through flashbacks and sequences of what people knew as you consume them.
The graphics are pretty good but Manhattan could've been more detailed. Mercer and the soldiers are detailed well enough, but too many pedestrians are aliased. There's a variety of cars but you can't drive them (except the military vehicles). There is so much going on at once at any moment, the framerate never dips at all so it makes up for it. That part is impressive.
The sound is ok, with lots of gunfire, explosions, and gut churning knifings as you tear through the hordes but nothing sets it apart. The music is dramatic when it needs to be and the radio chatter of the military is varied enough that it sounds different most of the time when they call in strike teams and air raids. The shrills of the screaming citizens are great. The voice acting is ok.
There is a ton of side missions, races, scripted events, collecting and the like, but it is almost too many and after awhile they will seem like a waste of time. The side quests are all boring and seen before in many other games.
Being able to go anywhere is cool and running up the side of the Empire State Building to the top never gets old, and surfing down the side of a skyscraper using a severed torso as a surfboard is always a helluva lot of fun too. However, there are a few issues that hold this title back. It's all good fun but it could've been more.
7/10
Rated M for Mature- Blood and gore, intense violence and language
EDIT- I made a few additions and lowered my score as with more playing time some and a longer experience with the game some of it's problems are more apparent. Since someone may base a purchase on what an actual user may think as opposed to what a site like IGN or Gamespot may say, I want to be as honest and detailed as I can with my time playing.