Prototype - Review by Dana Olson - PlayStation fans are tawkn

Tawkn.com Review: Prototype

Written by Dana Olson
Published at 2009-07-13 01:33:33

200

944

1-player Action, Adventure for the PlayStation 3.
Developed by Radical Entertainment. Published by Activision.
Released 2009-06-09. Rated M (Mature).

Prototype is a pretty basic game: you fly across the screen; then blood flies across the screen.

OK, that's over-simplifying things. You play as Alex Mercer, a guy who has inherited some crazy abilities after a virus was unleashed on the city. Your main goal in the game is to kill everyone in sight, with a secondary objective of finding out what exactly happened to you. To do this, you follow a linear set of missions within an open-world game, with the ability to branch off in free-roam mode at your leisure, to complete various side missions and explore the city.

The first thing about Prototype that you'll notice are the graphics. If you have read any other reviews, you likely heard complaints about how the graphics look dated and animations are, at times, janky. Prototype put that fear to bed when the first cutscene came on the screen as I started the game, only to rear its ugly head once I realized that the cinematics were pre-rendered and not in-engine. Once I took control of Alex, I understood all of the complaints; every enemy looks nearly identical, buildings repeat tirelessly, trees don't look real, vehicles lack variety... On top of that, there's a lot of pop-in of objects, as well as odd-looking clipping issues at times. However - none of this really matters that much. There are far worse-looking games out there, and you would never mistake Prototype for a PS2 game, but if you're a graphics whore, then it will bother you. On the other hand, if you're a normal person who knows that graphics are only part of what makes a game, then you'll know that when flying across rooftops at near the speed of sound, everything is bound to look the same anyhow.

The audio in Prototype is good. The music is never really overbearing, and does its job. It doesn't ever stick out as an impressive centerpiece, and I'd be hard-pressed to recognize any of it as a piece from the game without visuals to go along with it, but Prototype doesn't really need a recognizable theme melody anyhow. The military and civilian chatter is varied, and most of the voiceover work, explosions, enemy grunts and growls, sound very convincing and well done. The speaking parts almost always manage to cut through all the other audio and remain intelligible, which is good audio design.

One big feature of the game is the upgrade tree and vast amount of abilities and upgrades you can unlock. As you kill enemies and complete missions, you accumulate Evolve Points, which you use to purchase upgrades to "evolve" your abilities. Myself, I concentrated on upgrading all of my movement and survivability options first, and then spreading the rest of my EP over other upgrades that seemed interesting for my play style. If you want to effectively use every attack and maneuver the game throws into your arsenal, you better have a good memory, because the buttons and combinations get a tad overwhelming. There really are a lot of options here, but I found the game worked best when I focused on using one or two attacks - my choice being the blade and claws - and upgrading those.

The combat is a big part of the game, and unfortunately, I just didn't find it to be very fulfilling. It was passable, but it did feel a lot like button-spamming most of the time. Alex can use his various abilities, or he can pick up a dropped gun and fire at enemies with that. He can also pick up incredibly large objects, such as cars, and toss them (most effectively at enemy helicopters). There is a targeting system, but I found it rarely worked how I wanted it to, so I learned to live with it and attack what the game was forcing my attention to. At times it feels a lot like a game I've played before, called The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction which was one of the better superhero games of last-gen and, coincidentally, was also developed by Radical Entertainment.

Though the combat is nothing to write home about, I find the game really shines while traversing the city - which is pretty handy, as nearly every objective in the main storyline missions are spread out a great deal, leaving you to sprint, climb, and jump across the buildings to get from one side of town to the other, before being forced to fight a bunch of baddies, and then do it all over again.

One interesting game mechanic is the Web of Intrigue. How it works is, during the course of gameplay, Alex can find marked targets to consume, which will allow him to see a clip of their memories. Using the Web of Intrigue, you can piece together a good deal of the story, and discover what exactly happened to Alex. It also functions as a collectible, as there are many memories to find, and this will easily extend play sessions for completionists.

There isn't a lot of variety to the missions, but there is some. Aside from the primary "kill enemies" objectives, there are times where you'll need to hunt down one enemy and consume him, or you'll have an escort mission that sees you protecting some tanks. The times when I got to drive a vehicle were the most enjoyment the game had to offer, next to traveling using Alex Mercer's insane acrobatic abilities. Overall, it is repetitive in a similar manner that Assassin's Creed was repetitive, but that's sometimes exactly what you need; a mindlessly fun weekend of gaming, plowing through a game where you know what you are doing the whole way through, with little surprises.

I did have the game lock up on me a couple times. I recall one time in particular, after completing a fairly difficult mission towards the end of the game. it froze during the post-mission cinematic. I reset my PS3, reloaded my save, and discovered that I had to re-do the mission because the game doesn't save your progress until after the cutscenes have completed and you're about to start your next mission. I don't know if the few lockups I had were flukes, but other games generally don't freeze on me, and the game disc was carefully inserted into my machine immediately after breaking the plastic seal around the case. I mention it here, as this seems like a minor technical issue with the game, which originally had issues with incorrectly reporting free disk space until Activision released a patch.

I went into Prototype not knowing what to expect, due to a current lack of downloadable demo. I was not impressed by the videos of gameplay that had been released in the weeks and months leading up to release, and so I was dreading reviewing the game, and expecting the worst. I was, mostly, pleasantly surprised. Aside from some design choices I thought were kinda lame, it turned out to be a decent brawler/parkour hybrid. While the main game is a tad on the short side, you could probably double the length by going for completion of collectibles and side missions. Upon completing the game, you are rewarded with a New Game+ mode, which lets you start from the beginning, but retaining all powers and upgrades. There are a lot of trophies in the game that you're likely to miss on a single playthrough, but the story and missions will all be the same, which limits the appeal of replaying the game. Overall, I wouldn't say this game is for everybody, but if you like melee-heavy games, or if you were a huge fan of Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, I'd say it's probably going to be right up your alley.

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