New York has seen its share of monsters and aliens in the past, but they have never witnessed a human as destructive as Alex Mercer in Activision’s Prototype. Prototype is a fast paced open-world action game where you play as Alex Mercer, a man who wakes up in a morgue with no recollection on who he is and how he got there. Although his memories are gone, he possesses an untold power. He soon discovers that he can absorbs his enemy’s body and as a result gain their memories. After discovering his new found ability, Alex begins to hunt down the ones who’s responsible for his condition.
Ultra-Violent Gameplay:
There’s a lot of killing in Prototype. Not only can Alex absorbs his enemies body, but he can shape-shift into different forms as well, making him a dangerous weapon. Alex’s transformation powers is where Prototype really shines. For example, he can transform his hands into a razor sharp claws to cut his foe clean in half or he can transforms his hands into iron fists to do some unbelievable damage. If you guys are wondering how Alex gets around, don’t. Traveling through Manhattan is a breeze for Alex, his speed alone will have jumping over cars and running up the side of skyscrapers. Alex’s agility will get him out of tough situations, when the enemy becomes too overwhelming. Another cool power that Alex gains, is the ability to glide. If running around wasn’t easier enough, you now have the option to glide to your destination effortlessly. Alex can even factor in numerous air-to-ground attacks at his disposal, making him one fancy protagonist.
Prototype is not like most open world games where you just focus on gun play, combat in Prototype is heavily emphasized. Alex really doesn’t have that many ranged attacks, expect for the things he can pick up and throw, so he mainly will be focusing on his shape-shifting abilities to do some damage to his enemies. As Alex continues to upgrade his abilities, he becomes vastly more powerful, and the depth of the upgrade system is really impressive and fun. He will gain various effect attacks, better combos, new hand-to-hand moves, and even learn how to effectively use military hardware. Alex can even upgrade his stealth ability to infiltrate military bases, it’s not in depth like Metal Gear Solid or Splinter cell, but it’s fun mechnaic to have in the game. The combat in Prototype is just plain crazy-fun, especially once you’ve upgraded Alex to the point where he can hijack enemy tanks and skyjack helicopters at will. Later on the game, you can unlock some of Alex’s more devastating moves that will have him clear all enemies on the screen in just one strike. While the combat is pretty much solid, it’s not without its flaws. Some of the enemies Alex will face run right through his most powerful attacks. Alex has the ability to defend himself, but his shield breaks entirely too easy, his only real defense is too evade, but the enemies can even attack you when you in the process of doing that.
Feeling Alex Mercer’s pain:
The plot in Prototype is your basic government story, that involves a lot of secret projects, conspiracies, backstabbing etc. The main story has total of 31 missions, that you can complete in about 10-12 hours. But you can easily bump the hours of gameplay up too 10 more hours by doing the side missions. I don’t know if Alex will touch the player’s heart in telling his tale, because he’s definitely not a hero. Yeah it’s tough being the government’s lab rat and all, but I don’t know if I can feel sorry for anyone that picks up tank and launch it into crowd, because he’s having a bad day.
Final comments:
Prototype is definitely a good game and if you love action and gore, it’s right up your alley. Even though it has it flaws, it makes for everything in the gameplay. From running on top of cars and the side of buildings, everything is moving at smooth steady framerate. The graphics may not be of next-generation caliber, but you will know why once you play the game.
Score:
9 out of 10
