Manhattan has always been the center of all forms of disaster in the media. From the Die Hard movies to the web shooting Spider-man comics, this concrete jungle of historic landmarks, such as Time Square, serves as a backdrop for Activision’s latest game “Prototype.” What makes “Prototype”’s disaster scenario stick out from the rest of the flock is its sheer magnitude – you’ll see buildings destroyed and burned, piles of bodies littering the streets, crushed taxi cabs occupying the sidewalks, and the military performing questionable acts to maintain order. While this sounds like a delightful concept for a sandbox action game, is it worth it?

The game’s plot begins with its protagonist, Alex Mercer, waking up in a morgue. He doesn’t know what happened, or how he got there, and runs off to find out his identity. Almost immediately after his escape, he realizes that he is now beyond human, as he makes Olympic breaking jumps with ease, runs extremely fast, can pick up cars, and can run up walls. But, the military is after him and there are reports of a viral threat in New York, so he goes around consuming people to gather their memories as he tries to make sense of what is going on, and that’s where the game’s first problem appears.

While it sounds pretty stupid to criticize the writing in a video game, since it’s usually on the same level of comic books and manga, it’s generally not expected to be great, and “Prototype” tries so desperately hard for you to take it seriously. You will be constantly bombarded with cut scenes, consumed memories, and Alex’s brief monologues, making it very hard to ignore the plot, but there are just so many cliches and plot hole that one can’t help but criticize it. For example, the virus is nothing more than something that turns people into zombies and mutants. There is a person in the game who you think is an ally but they’re actually the antagonist. Finally, the conveniently placed amnesia is basically just a cheap way to create a “mysterious” background. And that’s just within the three first missions, although there are plenty of more cliches and plot holes to encounter during the duration of the game like why are people walking outside when 80% of the population are infected?!

Fortunately, the game itself and the controls seems to have more work put into then the plot, although not by much. Like many other sandbox style, superpower games, you gain experience (or EP) as you perform missions and kill your enemies. You then spend the EP to gain new power-ups, although certain power-ups can only be gained during certain plot points; some of these are passive, while others have to be activated by either selecting it in the “power wheel” menu or with a certain combination of buttons.

As you progress through the game, you’ll feel that Alex Mercer might become a little too overpowered, but in comic book fashion, the antagonists raise the stakes by adding new enemies and hazards to overcome. However, despite these attempts to increase the difficulty by adding new obstacles, the game does tend to actually get easier, and you’ll find some of your powers posses enough kick to one-shot opponents with ease. A perfect example of this is the bladed arm where you leap in the air and hold the strong attack button; you’ll lock onto your target and if you hit him just right, you’ll kill it with just one blow, whether you’re firing at a tank or a mutant.

However, the targeting system has problems of its own. You might find it difficult to target the right opponents since the locking system tends to be your enemy during the chaotic battles. In the beginning you’ll think this is one of the best systems available, since it does everything with ease especially when there are only a few targets. But later on, when apartment buildings are on fire, mutants are destroying cars with tanks, and birds fly overhead feeding on the dead, the controls aren’t your friend as you’ll have trouble locking onto specific targets while being constantly attacked off-screen. To make matters worse, the designers thought it would be a good idea to have the enemy attacks not able to be interrupted, so if you play aggressively, or jump in at the wrong moment, you can lose a good chunk of your life, sometimes as much as half, and you won’t be able to evade because the enemy animation cannot be canceled.

Aside from the combat and storyline, is there anything else to do in “Prototype”? Unfortunately, there is nothing near the scope of other sandbox games like “inFamous” and “Grand Theft Auto.” All of your side missions are basically mini-games where you get to abuse your powers. Some examples include a race to collect orbs, killing a certain number of enemies with a selected power, or consuming a chain of people in a short period of time. These can be easily forgettable and ignored, especially since they offer very little EP as rewards.

The only really praiseworthy part of “Prototype” are the graphics – while other games say they allow you to play a superhuman being in an urban environment, none of them could come close to how this game presents itself. Your character is a living weapon, and this game demonstrates that over and over by by allowing you hijack helicopters while in the air, plow through hordes of zombies with your claws, and throw a human being at the speed of light towards an occupied mutant. This game is visually stunning, and it includes many small details that reinforce the anarchistic scenario in New York, and no game currently matches this experience.

That being said, “Prototype” isn’t that bad or that good. The controls are a pain in the later parts of the game, the plot is laughable, the side missions are terrible, and the difficulty is a hack job. At the same time, the game evolves as it grants you some additional powers that are not witnessed in other games, and being involved in New York’s destruction, at least on this scale, is not something that happens everyday. This is a rental at best and certainly not worth the full price tag, especially since the storyline doesn’t last more than 10 hours.

[Rating: 3/5]

“Prototype” was developed by Radical Entertainment and released by Activision for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on June 8, 2009. The version reviewed was the Xbox 360 version.

TAGS: activision, prototype, XBOX360

Comments (0)