[PROTOTYPE] is a sandbox action game developed by Radical Entertainment, It was released locally on June 12 2009.
PLOT: The game is set in New York City. You take control Alex Mercer, a Gentek employee infected with the Blacklight virus which wipes his memory and makes him an incredibly powerful shapeshifter intent on unlocking the secrets of his past and enacting his revenge on those responsible for his plight.
GAMEPLAY: Mercer (codename: ZEUS) has an impressive array of weoponry at his disposal and each power has abilities to unlock as the game goes on. He can run up the side of buildings and drop off the top of them unscathed. He alters the shape of his arms into everything from razor sharp claws to a Whip like appendage with some serious range. His powers are very reminiscent of Carnage from the Spiderman comics.
The switching between the different powers is very flowing and with a bit of practice you can always be ready for the fight ahead. Mercer has enemies on all sides. From the Military and Blackwatch forces to the fellow infected mutations. The Gameplay can simply be summarized as Chaotic. You can often get pinned down by the relentless attacks of Military vehicles and Elite Infected. And while playing on the hardest difficulty a lot of retreat and heal comes into play. While you can navigate the city quite quickly the flow of movement suffers from the necessity for Alex to move at speed.
Design: While the Character design is quite immpressive, the enviroment is quite bland. Buildings are very dull and there are few reminders that you are playing in New York City. The render distance is quite near and with lots of pop up. Sometimes while gliding or piloting a Helicopter you can actully outrun the enviroment rendering. I frequently had issues while running up the side of a building I would do a back flip and fall down the way I came, Killing the flow of the game.
Story: The main storyline is very fun and has some interesting plot twists and turns. While not an open ended game, you can see the effects of your actions on your enviroment. However Alex Mercer is not a Hero. His actions are selfish and his quest for revenge hurts the city a lot. He is simply out to get even and anybody in his way is left a stain on the pavement. Even while using his powers to fight his enemies you can see innocent civilians getting minced in the crossfire. While I love playing the Antihero and even the evil character. Anybody looking for a superhero game should look elsewhere because Alex Mercer ain't in it for the Glory.
The Good:
- The game never lets up on the action, You are never safe from attack and so it never gets boring.
- Mercer has some awesome Powers and abilities and impressive Animations to go with them.
- The chaos of the game can lead to some awesome fights and challenging boss battles.
- You can run up the side of the Empire state building and elbow drop a tank from hundreds of feet above to some fist pumping results.
- Terrible environment design, it looks like a 3D rendering of a Map.
- The immersion shattering controls, there are some button combinations required that force you to check your finger placement to get the critical mass attacks that mean the difference between the progression of the game or the bitch-slap back to the start of the boss fight.
- A lot of the side missions become very repetitive and in my quest for the Platinum trophy I got extremely bored of them.
And after the Dust has settled....
[PROTOTYPE] is a extremely fun game which you will enjoy playing a lot, there is not a lot of replay value but for the price you can get it for these days it's a Bargain...
Stick around for a review of [PROTOTYPE]'s arch nemesis, Infamous later this week.
Thanks for reading.
John.
