User Review : Prototype

Prototype Review

Prototype is an open world game in which you play a superpowered, gravelly-voiced, sometimes morally-grey character, and as such had drawn a lot of comparisons with the PS3 exclusive game inFamous. Many idiotic fanboys have been doing the whole “mine is better”, especially, oddly enough, fr0m the PS3 fanboys, who, I would have said, have the most to gain from this, considering that they benifit from having both games. I’m also perplexed by the logic they use: ‘these games are similar, ergo, one must be crap.’ If inFamous is anything like Prototype, it should be great! (Not that I didn’t enjoy Jim Sterling’s ‘blatantly better’ article on the subject)

You begin the game awaking in a morgue, unable to remember anything (a particularly cheap way of allowing the player to connect with the character, but, whatever, let’s roll with it), who discovers that he has superpowers, and not just ‘pause time for a few seconds’ or ‘pick things up with his mind’. He can eat people and assume their identities, extrude various blades, claws, fists, spikes, etc, from his body to viciously maim passers-by with (and elbow-drop tanks) , and fly. And he’s still angry with the world, for some reason.

Anyhow, you progress by killing those who would kill you, mostly soldiers, initially, but as the virus which provides your powers (spoiler!) spreads through the city, you have to fight more mutants as well. The plot is imparted via cutscenes, as usual, but also through a system called the ‘Web of Intrigue’. I like it because it’s different. You have to absorb the people and then you get a brief glimpse of memory. No-one has the ‘whole picture’, so you need to go and find lots of people so it all makes sense. And if you only got the game because it allows you to elbow-drop tanks, you don’t even need to bother with it.

It could be considered that a sandbox is only as good as the means you have to get around it. Much as I loved GTA IV, it was a little tiresome having to drive everywhere. In this game, you can run up walls and glide from tall buildings. You can hijack (or elbow-drop) tanks and helicopters (if you’ve absorbed pilots with the appropriate skills) which all serves to further the non-stop cavalcade of destruction.

If I were to complain, it would be about how hectic fights can get, and the really big setpiece battles can cause slight frame-rate dips, the muddiness of the graphics, and how on the PC version, moving the camera changes the target… but overall, any complaints I have are overshadowed by all the awesome stuff that can be done, and don’t detract enough for me to lower my opinion of the game, especially because, as I shouldn’t have to remind you, you can elbow-drop tanks. Sorry, I’ve repeated that quite a few times. It doesn’t really lose it’s charm. Anyway, Prototype’s an awesome game, highly reccomended!