A shape-shifting, heart-pounding gore fest fuelled by an deep, innovative story!
***MAY CONTAIN POSSIBLE SPOILERS***
(This is my first review, so no trolling or I eat your happiness. )
Story: I'd say about...3/5
The story - at first glance - is cliche'd. A virus wreaks havoc throughout the city, and you're the pinnacle of the mutation. You can benefit all the side effects of it, but at the same time, some effects fall into the 'Failed' section and are merely added for S*** and giggles.
However, once you immerse into it, the story infects you (Get it?) with a dynamic and clever plot advancer, which is all to the player's choice to pursue. I introduce you to: The Web Of Intrigue! This brilliant application has you seeking out different storyline-related yet plot-unnaffecting targets throughout free-roaming the city, looking down every road, street, back alley and rubbish bin.
Upon finding a target, you grab and consume them, showing the player a short little cut scene which will explain a small little splinter from the main story. Find all 50 targets, and those splinters become branches, and leaves the player with the entire tree (If you will) of Prototype's secret-ridden, blood-spilling, chaos-spawning story.
Main Character: Hurrr.....4/5
Oh boy! Easily the most fun main character ever! As Alex Mercer, voiced by the amazing actor Barry Pepper (Jackson, the Sniper from Saving Private Ryan). Alex was once an ordinary civilian, and I use the word 'once' with emphasis. He is now the best -and worse- thing that happened because of the virus. At his disposal, many, MANY pain-inflicting, limb-tearing weapons, ranging from Claws (Bascially, longer finger nails) to Hammerfists (Literally, wrecking balls for hands) to the Whipfist (Imagine Alien's tail on your arm...:D). Aside from weapons, Alex can make himself an amazingly cool suit of armour, a Shield spawned from his arm (Which, sadly, dis-allows the use of a weapon), different visions which can detect different organisms, and the main tool of the game - The Disguise ability. Upon consuming any person, you can change to that person and depending on who you consume, can do different things that would usually get Alex turned into Swiss Cheese in an instant. For example, consume a Base Commander and you can, literally, stroll into a military base and call in an airstrike on a bunch of soldiers! Fun, fun fun!
On the bad side, every attack -be it a rocket shell or a simple sneeze- will send Alex a few feet backwards, and still able to receive damage while you're still recoiling in pain from being sneezed on. **********SPOILER**********NOT SO FUN WHEN HUNTERS ARE BEATING THE LIVING CRAP OUT OF YOU.
Action/Gore: O.o 5/5
Imagine GTA 4, now, combine that with Assassin's Creed.
THAT is a small taste of the action you'll get from Prototype. You can steal any military vehicle, from simple APC's to the almight yet rare Thermobaric Tank. Any attack you do will most likely spill blood, and lots of it, but not too much that it'll put you off. The gore is sometimes a little excessive, and can make you think "Wow, that's actually physically impossible to bleed that much". The many weapons Alex can weild all produce attacks with different intensities and of different damages to people, vehicles and structures, and even different consumption animations which are always fun to watch.
Upon hijacking military vehicles you have full control over everything that vehicle can do. For Tanks and APC's you can either blow the living excrement out of everything in sight, or choose the ever-always fun option of painting the pavement, road, and walls red as you crush tens of people in seconds by ploughing your way into the crowds, sometimes even making a 70-ton Tank bounce a good few meters into the air.
Helicopters are simple, yet awesomely cool to unleash a fiery storm upon anyone and anything you want. But, unlike their Armoured counterparts, helicopters can't withstand much more then a simple slap before they scream that God-awful alarm clock buzzing/beeping sound that'll make you want to scream "FFFFFFUUUU-" and bring back memories of waking up early to go to School and-...sorry, got a litle carried away ^_^;;, moving on!
Playability and Reply Value: 3/5
Yeah, you've got a cool main character, a brilliant story, unmeasurable gore, but, you also have, like, 3 Boss fights.
Yup, only 3 I can recall as of yet, and only 1 of them is huge - thank God. One certain boss will have you F'ing and screaming at your TV for the boss to go suck your erect penile extension.
However, upon completeing the story, you get the New Game+ mode, where you can start again with all of Alex's upgrades and abilities OR you can carry on and complete the game 100% if you haven't already.
So, to shorten things:
Story: 3/5 - Could've not been so damn immersive and cliche'
Main Character: 4/5 - Needs to learn to take pain without flinching
Action/Gore: 5/5 - Might need to tone it down just a teenie-weenie bit
Playability and Replay Value: 3/5 - More bosses and less Events.