Modern Gaming: Prototype

MODERN GAMING
Prototype
Developer: Radical Entertainment
Publisher: Activision
Year: 2009
Genre: Action
System: PS3, Xbox 360, PC

It's not easy trying to be original in videogames....for some perhaps. Whether your intentions are more for money or more for the gaming industry to be more variable, there may well always be a clone coming around the corner. And so we have Prototype, a game disturbingly similar apparently to Sucker Punch's Infamous which came out two weeks earlier. As I have and never will be able to play Infamous, I'm going to just have to judge this incorrectly named Prototype (because that would be a beta test of something, therefore the first) on its own merits.

Story - Alex Mercer is a dude apparently possessed with the voice of Michael Keaton as Batman, with his body able to change into all kinds of freakish forms like claws and scythes and fists like Fantastic Four's The Thing, discovering himself to be kidnapped by a pharmaceutical corporation (another one, you'd think Umbrella would show everyone how not to do this shady shit) and becoming some kind of monstrous gone-wrong experiment. So he escapes the place and is hunted down by the military forces and strike teams across Manhattan to be killed when he is found out to be the source of an infectious disease that could affect all of humanity.



Graphics - Like 80% of videogames today, the primary colours are grey and black. Here though it's grey and red, which is a bit nicer. The game world itself is literally Manhattan, all of the buildings being climbable to the very top of the city itself through the streets and crowds. It feels very impressive to be able to traverse Manhattan which feels certainly alive enough, moreso than the Spiderman games did (then again seeing it's the same publisher, that may not be surprising).
The fact that almost any object can be destroyed, glass and rock crunch under your deceptively powerful limbs and if you fall down hard enough you make impressive crater cracks in the street, is impressive enough, even if everyone only seems to know how to run and stumble, which is what New Yorkers seem to do in every single movie ever made about New York, just like Tokyo.

Gameplay - If you ever looked at the Spiderman games and thought "hey this'd be better if it had more violence and punching and missions only about them" well holy shit you are in luck because Prototype is nothing but that, to the point of turning rather dull. At least in the Spiderman games you had a variety of fighting attacks, while here you only have the punching combo and the kicking combo....okay maybe it's not that different at all.

There is more variety than that however in the form of dealing with the military.
Sometimes you have to be sneaky in order to get past them and you do this by consuming enemies, swallowing them into your corpse like the reverse effect of a tumour (and it looks as pretty as it sounds) so you can do two things. Taking on their identity and fooling everyone, or consuming those with important data inside their brain in order to progress to the next mission. Yes, you eat people's brains to gain knowledge.



I'm surprised Resident Evil has never used such a mechanic ever, you never had Albert Wesker chewing on one of the researcher's brains in a seductive Dracula fashion with his lurid "if Alan Rickman was American" voice paralysing his victims with shock and awe. But I digress. There's an entire web of information you can complete in the game called "The Web Of Intrigue" which is done so by consuming important people. You also gain experience points with various mission completions, consuming or destroying enemies and finding special items.

The experience points can be used to upgrade your monstrous form with more health, more speed, a shield from your arm, claws, stealth consuming, instant Verizon bypass, and so on except that last one.
Aside from this and the main missions there are other things to do in the city of Manhattan like the sub-missions that fall into two categories.
Killing enemies.
Running up buildings then jumping off of them.
That's it. Admittedly the fact you can run and climb up of ANY GODDAMN BUILDING in Manhattan IS pretty cool and Mercer is pretty cool looking when he does since he is actually RUNNING up it and he doesn't take any fall damage at all, but only these two kinds of missions? It's gonna piss you off unless you're a completionist whore.
Although you can ride helicopters and tanks too, but only those, before you karate-kick them into the pavement.



Let's face it, this is not a deep game, it's a game with a surface as thin as your skin and it's not going to pretend otherwise. Admittedly though, at least there's not one fucking balloon in sight. There are also hints and landmark collectibles to collect if, again you are a completionist whore, and DAMN that can get a lil addictive scaling every nook and cranny of the city for them. Just like in Spiderman 2 but with achievements!

I will say however the climbing controls get VERY pissy when you near the thinner parts of a building. If you're climbing something that is not larger in width than yourself, you're either forced off by Alan's confusion on where to go in his inability to comprehend climbing something his own body width, or you jump off automatically and believe me, you can maybe glide back to the building but the camera will not help you at all, in the sense that the camera is very lazy and barely tries to work with you at all, or even move at all. Other than the good layout of controls, I do like the fact that Alan will automatically leap over cars or fences or so.



Music/Sound - The music itself you will barely notice for the shooting, screaming and explosions. Speaking of which, the shooting, screaming and explosions are pretty awesome. There is no other sound like the rushing whoosh of air as you leap off the Chrysler Building backwards and crash upon the streets of Manhattan like a fucking comet. That's actually one thing I never get tired of with this game, leaping off of buildings when i want to.

So again I say, if you thought Spiderman 2 would have been more fun with brutal violence, no balloons and simpler combat, hey you'll love this. If you prefer a game of more depth, PERHAPS you should have a lookout on what Infamous has to offer, out of respect because it was there first and all. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go buy a new dictionary.

Fun and Innovation - 3
Replayability - 3
Gameplay - 4
Presentation - 3

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