Like a junkie looking for a fix, I searched all my local retailers last week for a copy of Prototype. I was in need of some fresh megabytes to throw into my 360. I had solved Crackdown long ago, and GTA4 and I were not speaking any longer. After a day of searching, I unwrapped Prototype and got a whiff of that New Game Smell. Ahhhh.
You play as Alex Mercer. He’s on a mission it figure out what happen to him, fight a government conspiracy, and stop a virus from taking over New York City (you know, the usual). The story unfolds in flashbacks after you complete missions and consume key people. Early on the story is hard to follow. I found myself wondering who people were and why I should care about them. I blame the memory loss. It started to become clearer as I progressed, but I didn’t care any more or less for the characters.
The controls work really well. Getting around the city is fun. Traveling from one end of the island to the other only takes a few minutes. Holding down the Right Trigger sends Alex in a sprint where he pulls off some super human parkour moves and even run up walls. This is handy for getting away from alerted enemies. As you progress through the game, you can unlock new abilities and improve the ones you got with Experience Points (EP). I did find the targeting system to be very difficult to use. With multiple enemies on the screen, it will switch with a quick move of the analog stick. This makes it difficult to move and shoot at just one enemy.
Consuming people refills your health bar and gives you a disguise to switch into when the Military is looking to give you an acute case of lead poisoning. Alex also gets new skills by consuming certain people. Consume a base commander, and you get an artillery strike. Consume a tank driver, and you learn to hijack and drive a tank (the same goes for helicopters). Consuming gets pretty messy and isn’t for the squeamish. This is an M-rated game, and the attacks are equally brutal and bloody. Decapitating enemies is the order of the day. Claws, Whips, Hammer Fists, and a big Blade make short work of most enemy types with exception of the Hunter. These guys are tough and when there is more then one you’re best bet is to run away–fast!
The big question is: should you (yes, you!) buy Prototype? Unless you’re like me and in dire need of an open world jump-around-kill’em up game, I would say rent it first. I don’t feel bad for spending $60 on it, but I can’t fully recommend it to everyone either. If this game had dropped in the fall, it would have been eaten alive (pun fully intended) by the fall block busters. I wouldn’t have even looked at it until months later. It’s a good game, but not a great game.
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