Prototype Review

Forget Ninjas, when Alex flips out...everyone dies!

Played on Xbox 360

Reviewed by Coxster  

Remember The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction on the last generation of consoles? I remember getting it on the original Xbox and thought it to be one of the best super hero games I’d ever played.  It really made you feel like you were the Hulk, ridiculously exaggerated comic book fun in a open-world environment that was entertaining, graphically confident and an overall joy to play that did the source material proud.  Radical have finally released the much anticipated Prototype (or as I read on one forum – Protohype) and, for my money, plays so closely to what the Hulk game was, that you could be forgiven into thinking this was a game that started it’s journey as a title that was meant to star the big green giant but was probably changed somewhere along due to licensing.  Now, I’m not saying that is a fact, just that it is so close to the way that Ultimate Destruction played, that you really can tell that they were made by the same development studio. Does this make is a lesser game? Hell no! Read on peeps.

  Someone's about to cop it sweet...

Set in Manhattan, Prototype is a superhero story with a bit of attitude. Alex Mercer is the main character in the middle of this tale and also the guy you’ll be controlling through the 30 or so missions that make up the story. Alex isn’t you’re clean cut good guy either, he’s quite a dark figure that shows little remorse and for the most part seems quite tortured. There’s a classic revenge tale as well as the good old story device of helping Alex remember his past (no groaning please) and while the story is pretty standard fare, it’s not all bad. There has been a viral outbreak which is turning people into zombie monsters and there is the faceless military thugs fighting them, and then there is you in the middle, taking on both sides of the fight. For some reason which isn’t made clear at the beginning, you have been turned into a creature that can use the deforming abilities of the virus to good use. You can pretty much execute, hack, lacerate, explode or cleave anything that gets in your way…and a lot will try to get in your way.

The best thing about Prototype is the almost limitless amount of attacks that Alex Mercer can pull off. His abilities range from being able to disguise himself as pretty much anyone he consumes (yeah you heard me right) to be able to elbow drop on tanks which explodes them, to leaping across the skyline, there is just about nothing that Alex can’t do. There are dozens of combos, abilities and moves to unlock, and learning them all is going to take several play throughs. You can run up the sides of buildings, throw cars at helicopters, the possibilities in regards to combat, are almost endless.

This is a helicopter...copping it sweet...

Upgrading your powers and moves can be a bit daunting, you’ll know what I mean when you look at the upgrade screen.  There is so many things to unlock that you’ll feel a little bit overwhelmed at first.  But like any game these days, give it time and you’ll start to appreciate the vast amounts of power that Mercer has at his disposal.   My first time through the game, I didn’t even come close to unlocking everything that was in the options (choosing a more methodical approach, I unlocked what I thought would serve me best) but I’m sure to correct that on subsequent play throughs.   Half the stuff I did unlock was too tricky to remember half the time and I didn’t end up using most of the attacks, instead opting for more traditional moves that did the job easy enough. 

It’s nice that there are so many combat options to choose from and no doubt that there are going to be heaps of people learning every little last combo, but you don’t need to learn them all to beat the game.  It’s always nice to have more than you need though.  The moves and abilities are freakin’ awesome, from ripping pilots out of helicopters, to taking out battalions of marines, Alex Mercer does it in style, and you’ll often find yourself pulling off a combo only to look down at your controller and think to yourself ‘Did I do that?’.  There’s plenty of cool shit here, and thank god Alex Mercer is not real.  Could you imagine someone like that running around the streets?  Jesus.

This is a bad guy...being consumed...suspect...

The graphics are kind of a mixed bag.  There are some lousy textures that look like they were made about four years ago, there are moments where the draw distance is completely inadequate,  making the job of finding orbs a chore rather than a pleasure like in crackdown, and occasionally the camera seems to have a mind of its own.  The action can get a little overwhelming and you can expect to get your arse handed back to you time and time again.  It’s just lucky that the main character is so awesome, he is powerful, bloodthirsty and a complete badass. The city lacks personality and can feel a little generic but at least stomping about like some human sized Godzilla and making pedestrians run in terror always stays fun.

Prototype is a single player experience only so those looking for some XBL love will need to find it elsewhere.  Prototype has more than few problems, but it manages to still shine due to the excellent  main character and destructive combat.  It may feel a little behind the times in terms of graphics, but the gameplay manages to save this one from being a total loss.  It does a great job at making you feel like a powerful and ruthless superhero, a rampaging weapon of mass destruction, for gamers like me, that’s more than enough to hold my attention and keep me smiling.