In depth review for Prototype.
The victim of a military experiment gone horribly wrong, Mercer's quest is to find the people responsible for unleashing a viral outbreak on New York. But while other games featuring superpowered protagonists - such as BioShock and inFamous, have offered players the choice to use their new found powers, Prototype dumps all questions about morality into a rubbish skip in the first cut-scene. Mercer is flat-out ruthless and over the course of the game, players will use him to oslaughter untold thousands of soldiers, mutants and innocent bystanders. Prototype's most obvious reference point in terms of gameplay, is Radical Entertainment's Hulk: Ultimate Destruction - another title which offered players an open-world free-running experience with action that was so over the top it was down the other side. But Prototype is nothing like that game, at all. Mercer can run up the side of buildings, leap between rooftops and pick up cars (and other heavy objects) and fling them around like toys. He can't use a pair of automobiles as boxing gloves, but he does have access to a selection of other superhuman abilities. Prototype offers a wide selection of really powerful powers, from a lethal blade, to swinging fists all of which are sublimely mapped on the controller through a wheel menu. The game starts by bestowing just a couple of abilities on the player, but as time moves on - and experience points (XP) are gained, Mercer begins to slowly evolve into a one-man army. You can use Mercer's body-morphing abilities in a host of different ways; they can encase him armour, generate claws and oversized fists as well as turn one arm into lacerating whip, a shield and a massive double-edged blade. The attacks are broken into the standard, grab, light and heavy attacks but in Prototype they look absolutely spectacular - holding down on the heavy attack in claw mode, for example, causes Mercer to plunge his fist into the ground producing a wall of spikes to shoot up underneath his enemies, impaling the lot of them in a satisfyingly gory action. And one thing they got right in Prototype, is the gory action. At some points, I couldn't even see the pavement, walls and cars infront of me, as blood was everywhere. It is a real gore fest.
Players can also spend XP to level up Mercer's abilities, enabling him to run faster, glide between buildings and gain access to a host of new abilities and combos. Of course, the sheer number of options that become available inevitably means that players will probably not bother to use all of them, but this in turn may offer re-play value to obsessives. It should be said at this point, however, that some unlockable abilities suffer from poor controls. But mostly, the gameplay is solid, and similar to inFamous, with a slight more trickier combo system. Mercer is also able to absorb any of the living beings in his environment and doing so gives him a quick health boost. If the target is human he also has the ability to assume their shape. This comes in particularly handy when avoiding the unwanted attentions of the military; if players are caught in an unwinnable firefight, they simply absorb someone, break their attacker's line of sight and then shapeshift. In most instances this will give them some breathing space, unless a strike team or mutants are in pursuit. The absorption power also unlocks some new abilities because Mercer gains the skills of any specialised military personnel he consumes. Once he's absorbed a tank driver and a pilot, he can commandeer and drive those vehicles. If he absorbs a soldier of notable rank, he can gain access to military bases and the weapons and vehicles they contain. Later on in the game, he even gains the ability to call down tactical strikes on enemy strongholds. What's probably becoming apparent by now, is that everything in the game is geared towards giving the player the capacity to unleash hellish carnage on an ever increasing scale and it has to be said, the combat in Prototype is immense fun. Charging through a hail of rockets and bullets while using Mercer's ever-increasing list of powers to lay waste to foes never loses its visceral thrill – even when frustration occasionally sets in due to the game's erratic difficulty curve.
Graphics wise, there is nothing wrong with Prototype. Maybe, just maybe if the team behind the game put a little more effort into, say a tank being destroyed, it would have gotton that 10 mark. But there are a few graphical faults, for instance, sometimes the area around you will look grainy, and tanks crumble away like a burnt piece of toast. But, that still doesn't hold Prototype back. Aside from the game's story missions, which are driven by a plot which isn't that bad, but not that original and the city holds a variety of side-quests, orbs to find and mini challenges which reward you with XP or reveal more details about the plot.
Prototype offers an action-filled experience that few games can match, and the array of attacks on offer is almost unparallelled in both its variety and its easy accessability. The pure adrenaline-boosting entertainment value of the finished product is enough to push most visual and gameplay niggles far enough into the background. Alex Mercer may be a nasty character in a flawed and sometimes ugly game, but he's compelling enough to command your attention, and Prototype delivers a action packed game, that everyone should have in there collection!
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Graphics: 4/5
Gameplay: 5/5
Story: 3/5
Lengh: 5/5
Enemie AI: 4/5
Replay Value: 5/5