[360/PS3/PC] Prototype Review

[AgtFox]

Prototype Review

Title: Prototype
Platform: 360/PS3/PC
Developer: Radical Entertainment
Publisher: Activision
ESRB: Mature
MSRP: $59.99 (360/PS3), $49.99 (PC)
Editor: Loren 'AgtFox' Halek

What's Hot: Graphics are not jaw dropping, but draw distance is; copious amounts of violence if that is what you are looking for; the shapeshifting ability for stealth; Web of Intrigue fleshes out story; optional side missions; Alex is very powerful, especially at the beginning and end; wide open on what powers you want to give Alex

What's Not: Controls are a bit too loose; difficulty ramps up towards the end; many of the upgrades may rarely be used; relatively short game if you only do story missions; story nosedives in the last part of the game after being somewhat serviceable

Finally this little stretch of open world games comes to an end with Prototype, a game that can be compared to inFAMOUS although this game is far violent and dark than the PS3 only game. You play Alex Mercer, who seems to be neither alive nor dead, but capable of superhuman things. You’ve picked up amnesia when you wake up from your supposed death at the city morgue. You remember some things, but mostly it is a blank slate. The rest of the game sees Alex filling in the blanks about who or what he is.

This game tells its story a bit differently. The game opens on Day 18 of the virus outbreak with Alex at full power and a variety of abilities at your disposal. Problem is the game doesn’t do a good job at teaching you how to use these powers. Instead, you’re pretty much dropped in New York City and expected to get to the mission target. Once there, you begin to talk to another character about the events that have brought you to this point. The other character is of course shrouded in mystery as to who it is until later in the game. The game is told mostly through flashbacks with Alex giving the overall afterthoughts of the section you are about to play and seeing quick cut graphics of things you will see in the upcoming mission.

The sections open telling you what day of the virus outbreak it is and how much percentage of the population has been infected. Unlike inFAMOUS, where the city was fictional, Prototype is based in New York City. Many places are noticeable, such as Central Park, Times Square and the Statue of Liberty (you need to be in free roam and have a helicopter to see it up close), but to be honest you’ll be gliding around the city and running up buildings so much you really don’t take in any of the sights. Alex first finds his sister Dana and puts her into a hideout because he believes the military Blackwatch group will eventually find her. She becomes your eyes and ears in the game, although she usually only shows up at the end of missions in order to set up the next mission and fill in the story along the way.

This game is quite violent and makes no qualms at being a Mature rated game. Alex is capable of consuming enemies and their thoughts by grabbing them with the B button and then pressing the Y button. The consumption is shown by a mass of blood and viral, almost Carnage-like (from Spider-Man comics) tentacles, encasing the enemy and being sucked into Alex. You will come across people as you circumnavigate the city connected to the Web of Intrigue. You consume them and a small little cutscene that shows what the person has recently been doing that is tied to the overall story is told. These are optional much like the other side missions in the game, but it does flesh out the story quite a bit. After consumption, Alex is then able to disguise himself as that person with a simple flick of the left d-pad. This allows him to get into things undetected unless a viral searching mechanism is nearby. If there is one present, you’ll want to destroy it so no one will know you’re actually Alex when trying to infiltrate a military base for example.

The streets of New York City run red with blood as you slice and dice your way through both military, infected enemies and even civilians whether purposefully or not. Although everyone that’s reviewed this game talks about Alex having parkour moves, he honestly doesn’t do the same things as Faith from Mirror’s Edge or Cole from inFAMOUS do. Alex can literally run up walls via holding the right trigger down and does little flips when an object is in front of him. Alex has no fear of death from falling, so calling it parkour is a stretch in my imagination since the basis of it is that any wrong move could kill you. Alex’s movements are also not as fluid as Faith or Cole and he is kind of a loosely controlled lumbering character. There’s no real finesse to his moves because he is literally a tank in human form. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise since Radical did the well reviewed Hulk: Ultimate Destruction game and there are certainly similarities in how Alex jumps and the overall strength he has to the Hulk.

Along the way Alex picks up different offensive weapons he can use. Early on he gets claws that are attached to up on the d-pad and constitute the offensive options he has. Later on in the game he gets other offensive weapons such as a long-ass blade constituted from his hand that can be selected by hot buttoning it to up on the d-pad or pressing the right bumper button and choosing it. Same goes for his defensive options tied to the down arrow, shapeshifting abilities tied to the left and sense powers like being able to see infected people and the like are tied to the right. There are certain pluses and minuses of using each type, such as if you put armor on Alex you can no longer glide through the air. There are also points in the game where Alex loses most of his powers, but somehow keeps the ability to run up everything and glide through the air along with his near invulnerability and super strength.

The game itself is actually quite good and can be as short or long as you want depending on if you want to take up the side quests and side collections. It took me about six and a half hours to make it through the game, doing mostly story missions and Web of Intrigue hunts. Given the loose controls of the game I really didn’t find it exciting to find all the blue orbs around the city, although maybe with the unlocking of the New Game+ mode after beating the game, I would go through the game again. I will say the game did not grab me like inFAMOUS did and I think that has more to do with the more mature subject matter and the almost synthetic reliance upon swearing and copious amounts of violence just to show how badass this game is. Now, I like my mature stuff, but in some cases this just seems a bit over the top. It won’t win any awards with graphics other than it has a huge draw distance and they certainly look nice. However all the damage that Alex delivers on the city is never seen again at the same place if you go away from the area and come back to it. Yes, the city gets more damaged as the days of infection wear on through the story, but the damage you deliver is simply not there.

Prototype is highlighted by the abilities you can purchase and the huge amounts of experience and health that are doled out by completing missions as well as consuming and/or defeating enemies. The movement abilities and ones that are marked “Core” in the upgrade screen are probably the biggest thing Alex has going for him. The ability to glide, airdash and run up and down buildings are his base movement abilities and make it relatively easy to move around the city. There are obvious ties to Radical’s Hulk: Ultimate Destruction in this game, especially Alex’s jump ability as well as being able to pick up objects and throw them. The jump to me is almost worthless because once you are up high on the vertical plane you’re basically gliding and airdashing to another rooftop and rarely ever go down to the street until a mission needs it.

The only side missions I found myself drawn to in the game were the Web of Intrigue ones. As you traverse the city, sometimes an orange head icon will come up and that is a target for Alex to grab and consume in order to get their thoughts. This fleshes out the story a bit and there are quite a few of them. This helps you understand more about what Alex is and the previous epidemic that happened decades ago outside of the main 31 story missions. Many story missions themselves are short, but there were times toward the end where the difficulty ramped up quite a bit and Alex was grossly outnumbered, especially by Super Soldiers and Hunters versus the regular military units. Overall the game is relatively easy because Alex is so powerful, but then again his health regeneration powers never get your health bar above half. You have to kill and consume enemies to boost the health up and into the Critical Mass (a light blue color shows you are in that section) section in order to be able to unleash devastator attacks that you purchase. These are powerful moves that can take out a lot of enemies at once and come into great use when Alex is severely outnumbered. However when you get the ability to highjack helicopters and can find one the game becomes much easier since you have another mode of fast transportation with it as well as some long-range firepower and the ability to move from things being thrown at you.

Prototype is a good game that is brought down by what I consider to be really loose controls. I would not say it is as good as I thought inFAMOUS or even Activision’s recent X-Men Origins: Wolverine was on most levels, but it is certainly more violent and dark than inFAMOUS. Add to this that if you don’t have a PS3, this game is really your only option in the “superhero”, and I use that term loosely given what you learn about Alex throughout the game, open world genre with new games. Amazingly I think the game could have used a little more gestation time on the control side, although it is already almost a year late. I’m not sure where co-op ever would have come into play since Alex is never joined by another person in the game. It was smart for Activision to hold onto this game with the Vivendi merger, I could easily see DLC and/or a sequel come out of this. I think it appeals to a broad base of people with its violence, destruction and the power set Alex has and is certainly a game to at least check out if not buy.

Score: 4 out of 5 CoGs


Loren says, ”Prototype is a really good game marred only by the loose controls and relatively short play if you only hit story missions in my opinion. The story kind of falls apart at the end, but Alex’s powers and the ability to fly around New York City is not something to take lightly. Not as good as inFAMOUS or X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but it still stacks right up there.”

*Note - Review based upon the 360 version of game

[Deadend]

Hey, you forgot the biggest sin of Prototype, the fact that the reason none of the cool combos will be used is that Alex will spend so much time being knocked around and hit, that he will never complete a combo, let alone one involving charging up each hit of it. Or at least not against foes that are strong enough to require being hit at full strength.
It's kind of stupid that way in that the only combat moves that can really be used later on are the quick basic attacks along with fast rolling out of the way and running around doing single light hits.
It's like the people responsible for enemies and mission design have a hate-on towards the idea of being a badass.

[TrackZero]

Originally Posted by Deadend

Hey, you forgot the biggest sin of Prototype, the fact that the reason none of the cool combos will be used is that Alex will spend so much time being knocked around and hit, that he will never complete a combo, let alone one involving charging up each hit of it. Or at least not against foes that are strong enough to require being hit at full strength.
It's kind of stupid that way in that the only combat moves that can really be used later on are the quick basic attacks along with fast rolling out of the way and running around doing single light hits.
It's like the people responsible for enemies and mission design have a hate-on towards the idea of being a badass.

If you're referring to the standard (non-weapon) attack combos, definitely I'd agree they're hard to pull off in many end-game situations. However, I still found a number of times I could use them, specifically when I was fighting infected (the military is another matter).

[Gorvi]

Another game I eventually need to pick up cheap apparently.

[Kelegacy]

Since my PS3 doesn't work, this is the sandbox game that I want most. If I can score it cheap I'll buy it. I'm still playing Saints Row 2, but will be on the lookout for another good sandbox game before long.

[Talanvor]

Whoa, Digg tag. Neat.

I'm wanting to play Prototype, but I imagine I'll be picking up Infamous first. I have so many games in the backlog anything without amazing multiplayer gets put lower on the Want list.

[AgtFox]

Originally Posted by Talanvor

Whoa, Digg tag. Neat.

I'm wanting to play Prototype, but I imagine I'll be picking up Infamous first. I have so many games in the backlog anything without amazing multiplayer gets put lower on the Want list.

Every review has a Digg tag on it. I wish more people digged them though.

[Iron Past]

I don't really agree with "loose controls," but I will say that it took some getting used to when moving around. Actually, on second thought, maybe I do agree with that; it shouldn't take so long to get used to movement. Either way, after some time with it and maxing out my sprint and jump (plus the Wall Latch ability), I've become rather deft at going wherever the hell I want fairly easily. The jump can also be used when you run up the sides of buildings, making the trip much quicker (and is needed for some of the foot race stuff). I did not like that if my thumb slipped even a little, I ended up a block away from where I meant to be.

The game really opens up after more moves are unlocked, and there's stuff to be done aside from the story. Like Fox said, it's as long as you want it to be, since I'm around hour seven and have done 16 (of 31) story missions. A nice touch I thought was the quick slowdown whenever your target someone or open up you power wheel; it allows you to react to the enemy or select a power without really being vulnerable.

[Karak]

Good game and good review.
I would have to argue that the game NEVER was ever difficult. One of the only games I can remember never dying in. But from some of the other comments, I might be the only one who had that..."problem?" Good game.

[Lon Lon Rabbit]

Originally Posted by Karak

Good game and good review.
I would have to argue that the game NEVER was ever difficult. One of the only games I can remember never dying in. But from some of the other comments, I might be the only one who had that..."problem?" Good game.

Did you play on easy?

For the main game I can mostly agree with you but some of the bosses had a few cheap shots which caused me to die a few times.

The last boss in particular, has a devastator attack like you which can kill you super easy.

Sometimes it was virtually impossible to dodge, for example a few times I started to do a devastator and half way through it he activates his, so it's already passing through me by the time I regain control and it lasts for so long that it could kill me from 75% HP.

Despite the fact I'm only talking about some of the game's shortcomings in this post, I loved the game.

EDIT: Spoiler tagged as I'm talking about the last boss, even though I'm being pretty vague.

[AgtFox]

Originally Posted by Karak

Good game and good review.
I would have to argue that the game NEVER was ever difficult. One of the only games I can remember never dying in. But from some of the other comments, I might be the only one who had that..."problem?" Good game.

The only difficulty I had were in the last few missions where you had to go into military bases where a lot of Super Soldiers were following you. It wasn't super difficult, but it was turned up many notches from what had come before I guess is the best way to explain it.

[AgtFox]

Originally Posted by Lon Lon Rabbit

The last boss in particular, has a devastator attack like you which can kill you super easy.

Sometimes it was virtually impossible to dodge, for example a few times I started to do a devastator and half way through it he activates his, so it's already passing through me by the time I regain control and it lasts for so long that it could kill me from 75% HP.

For me what I did was as soon as he did his telling "sound" that acknowledged the Devastator attack was coming, I'd run/glide away from the area and go consume some military people to get myself into Critical Mass. I'd then jump in after he was done and unleash my Devastator.

The last boss was probably the easiest part of the endgame, except when the timer pops up, then you have to do things pretty quickly.

Changed this with spoiler text since Lon Lon also put spoiler links in his.

[Lon Lon Rabbit]

Originally Posted by AgtFox

For me what I did was as soon as he did his telling "sound" that acknowledged the Devastator attack was coming, I'd run/glide away from the area and go consume some military people to get myself into Critical Mass. I'd then jump in after he was done and unleash my Devastator.
The last boss was probably the easiest part of the endgame, except when the timer pops up, then you have to do things pretty quickly.

Yeah but what I'm saying is that sometimes you'd do your own devastator, and only THEN would he indicate he was about to attack, and your devastator is so long that by the time it's finished his is just passing over you, so you have no chance of escape.

[Karak]

Originally Posted by Lon Lon Rabbit

Did you play on easy?

For the main game I can mostly agree with you but some of the bosses had a few cheap shots which caused me to die a few times.

The last boss in particular, has a devastator attack like you which can kill you super easy.

Sometimes it was virtually impossible to dodge, for example a few times I started to do a devastator and half way through it he activates his, so it's already passing through me by the time I regain control and it lasts for so long that it could kill me from 75% HP.

Despite the fact I'm only talking about some of the game's shortcomings in this post, I loved the game.

EDIT: Spoiler tagged as I'm talking about the last boss, even though I'm being pretty vague.

No I played on default difficulty.
The guy your talking about actually gave me less problems then the very first boss battle. Which puzzled me for some time. I had an issue running then stopping to grab a missile launcher and shooting the gas tanks. But no. I did not find it difficult at all. I think I just got lucky.

[BigJonno]

I didn't die on any of the bosses, though I gave up on the penultimate one out of boredom half way through and went back later. I was rocket spammed a few times, but overall I didn't find it a difficult game. That was on the normal setting.

[Talanvor]

Originally Posted by AgtFox

Every review has a Digg tag on it. I wish more people digged them though.

I never noticed it before, sorry about that!

[crazyD]

Originally Posted by AgtFox

Every review has a Digg tag on it. I wish more people digged them though.

I don't use Digg, but if you included Reddit, you'd get my vote.

[Narradisall]

You missed the helicopter in that screenshot.

[AgtFox]

Originally Posted by Narradisall

You missed the helicopter in that screenshot.

Actually, Activision finally sent the game along (I had already rented it in order to get a review done) and it came with a press kit CD with screenshots on it. I took those three from that.

And no, it did not come with a review guide like Lair did

[Purple Santa]

Originally Posted by Gorvi

Another game I eventually need to pick up cheap apparently.

Just pick up inFamous cheap first

Nice review. I already have Prototype waiting to be played, but the review definitely would of helped me decide it's worth looking into.