Prototype Review [360]

19 Jun 2009 at 12:22:39 by
Systems used to review this title: (360)

Alex Mercer may not mean much to you if you've not played Prototype, but if you have he'll still not really mean much to you.

But empathy for Alex Mercer was never really the priority of this game, even though he's actually dead.  Yes, it's great when you feel a connection with the protagonist, and it's fantastic when you've got a great storyline to support the title, but sometimes it's really never about the storyline, but more about the gameplay and the things you can do in the world which make a game.  And this is exactly what Prototype does, albeit slowly.

I'm not going to lie to you, I fell in love with Prototype as quickly as I fell out of love with it; only to find myself falling back in love with it and not really knowing why.  It's like being in a relationship you know is no good for you, like watching your wife sleeping around, but not being able to help loving her.  It's one of those games which deceives time and confuses emotion.  One minute you're cursing the loss of all your powers, and the next you're having uber fun blowing up a military base or a viral hive while racking up the experience points.

The premise of the story is quite simple.  Mercer, your character, is a virus.  He has no idea what he is and where he's come from, and to make matters worse he can only recall very little bits of his past.  The only way for him to ascertain where he's come from and to gather other bits of vital intelligence to progress through the game, is to consume enemies.  Consuming certain targets doesn't only unlock the "web of intrigue", the in-game map of his past, but also allows Alex to assume the physical appearance of his victim, vital for some missions and also extremely important when evading the military.

But consuming victims also allows Alex to regain health and, given you've consumed enough victims, approach your critical mass which allows you to execute some pretty impressive moves.

You see Alex is not just a virus, he's a versatile weapon of destruction.  As you progress through the game more abilities become available to you.  When you first start you're limited to the claws, but very quickly you're able to unlock a hammerfist and a grapplehook thing called a whipfist; you'll also be able to protect yourself from incoming fire using your shield.  Later, and at the "Fu** me" moment in the game, you're given access to more powerful weapons, as well as armour. 

You select your shape by using a radial dial menu and arm using the d-pad.  You can change your shape (and when I say shape, I mean weapon) at any time, but you only have one slot on the d-pad for your weapons, and that's the top.  The bottom arms your defense (so shield or armour), the left disguises you and the right enables your infected vision, allowing you to see who's infected and who's not, something which isn't really as useful as it sounds and is only required for one or two missions.

Of course, depending on your shape of choice, you have dedicated moves which can be bought and upgraded in the pause menu.  Upgrading is vital and buying special moves, or devastator attacks will certainly help you in your time of crisis.  Devastator moves can only be used, however, when your breathing your last breath and they are worth the money.  Alternatively you can escape the danger-zone (and I don't mean my groin) and consume to replenish health.

But not all upgrades can be bought, some have to be acquired by silently consuming victims and these upgrades and powers can vary from better tank handling to getting more artillery shells.  Yes, artillery.  Using a sub-menu (with the RB) you can access special moves, artillery being one of them, and these are little help in the greater scheme of things.

Prototype also offers side-missions which vary from hitting waypoints, to consuming web of intrigue targets to gliding missions to destruction missions and everything in between.  These too, give you experience points and help you become more au fait with your protagonist. 

But like I said, it's not the protagonist you care about.  It's all the little things that make this game work, like being able to pick up military hardware (guns, rocket launchers and the like) to use yourself; it's being able to access all the vehicles you want to access and being able to hijack them in a variety of ways, it's the stealth elements and the upgrade options.  This game, when I first picked it up, reminded me of a cross-between Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Ninja Gaiden.  But unlike Star Wars, the story is dire, and unlike Ninja Gaiden there aren't as many combo's or upgrades.  But that doesn't matter and when you play the game and are soaring through the Manhattan skyline you'll understand why...!

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