Review Score:

Some of you may remember that this title was one of my top five games to look forward to. For the delay in this review I apologise, but I wanted to give it an extensive going over before I made a review, particularly in light of the mixed reviews it has recieved.

[Prototype] is a title that has been in the making for a while, almost on the verge of being Vaporware until the Gaming Gods shined down on us and finally released it. It is made by the same people who made the, very superior to the movie tie-in, Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. This was a last generation title that let you do all of the cool stuff you saw in the original movie. This game is by extension a very similar title in the sandbox genre, only on a larger scale and with a completely amoral anti-hero.

Yes, Alex Mercer, the protagonist in this game, is a complete badass. Even from the start he can already tear through crowds, run up buildings and leap from rooftop to rooftop. Straight away, it’s a balls experience. You are infected with some kind of virus, which in turn has altered your body and left you with amnesia. To discover what happened to you, you have to consume your way to the truth, by literally absorbing people on the street that hold key memories. This adds to the ‘Web of Intrigue’ a collection of memories that will lead you to everything you need to know. This is a very feature, and it’s not even the main storyline. You are on Manhattan and it is on the verge of Martial Law. The USMC as well as a sinister organisation called Blackwatch are started to move into the city and are on the hunt for you. Then the virus, without spoilers, gets unleashed on the population and all hell breaks loose. This leaves you squarely in the middle, but being only motivated by your need to regain your life, you take no sides and unleash your powers on all the denizens, infected and human alike.

The powers in the game vary from claws and whip arms to the awesomely powerful Scythe. You also develop stronger powers and moves by progressing through the game using evolve points, and through consuming certain creatures and soldiers. You can get a lot of these through complete the side missions. These range from consuming key targets and infiltrating bases, to the usual checkpoint races, as well as mayhem missions where you have to kill with a certain power. Some are fun, like the War missions where you side with either the military or the infected, and some can be a little annoying until you develop powers that increase your jumping and running powers. Still, it gives a nice break from the main story arc and lets you build up your abilities and gain new powers early on. You can also choose to destroy bases or hives to slow down or hamper your enemies.

The developers have obviously taken from their success with the Hulk title, and brought it bigger and badder into a new IP. This gives them a lot more freedom to go wild and give us the freedom to kill and slice our way without feeling guilty. Civilians provide nothing more than beings to consume and use a disguises. That is another cool feature, you can take on the appearance of whoever you consume, and in the miltary cases you can even use their abilities, like calling in airstrikes and accuse another marine of being you to distract a group of soldiers. You can also gain the ability to drive tanks and pilot helicopters.

I could spend all day writing about the abilities in this because they are numerous and most of them are completely over the top and ridiculously gory. They will definitely please anyone who likes this game of game.

Praises aside, there are a few points that stop this from being a masterpiece game, and I only mainly notice these due to the hype it got pre-release. The game engine definitely shows the time it has been in development. The visuals, while smooth for the most part, are far from pretty, and a lot of the NPCs are generic. Whilst adding a lot of new ideas to [Prototype] as far as game controls, they tried to play it safe with a lot of the mission structure. I would have also liked to see a lot more capability to destroy buildings outside of hives and bases. Some of the missions can be frustrating too, but overall it is a great game to rent or buy if you are a completionist.

Overall, if you care more about free roaming gameplay than graphical prowess and love games like Crackdown or Dead Rising, [Prototype] will stand worthy against these titles in your collection.

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