Hi guys! I have started a new blog and hope that it will surely give me a chance to introduce you people to the most amazing part of virtual world, "The Gaming World"!!!
This week I am giving you guys an in-depth review of an upcoming game on the most advanced and the most successful gaming console in the market, the amazing Xbox 360. This game is known as "PROTOTYPE", is all about a man, rather a beast , who is seeking revenge from the people who made him like that.
Alex Mercer is a rather misunderstood guy. All he wants in his life is to find the person that turned him into an ungodly powerful monster who has the ability to shape shift, make bladed weapons from his own body, and run and fly everywhere. While Alex may want revenge for this, you might have more fun slaughtering everything along the way.
Gameplay
Easily the best part of this game. From the very instant you start the game; you are capable of causing an incredible amount of carnage. From civilians to cars, there isn't a lot of things that Alex cannot throw. There is also tons of things to explore in this game as well. Hints and “Landmark” tokens exist all throughout New York, rewarding curious people. Exploring is made a breeze thanks to the extremely fluid control scheme. The enemies are somewhat varied as well. You have the “Infected” and the good old “Marines”. The Marines fairly varied as well, as well they literally die to only three of your attacks at most; the weapons they have make a big impact on how to deal with them. What's even better is that once you kill them, you can actually pick up their weapon and start using that, so you're not just limited to your powers. Not only do they send footsoldiers at you, but they also sent Tanks, APC's, and Helicopters after you. If you happen to like any of the toys they are using, you are able to jack most of their vehicles with a minimum amount of fuss. The Infected enemies do have some special enemies of their own, but outside of story missions you probably won't see a lot of them. The Infected come in two flavors. Normal Infected which are just basically free frags, and Hunters. The latter are very capable of killing you far faster than any Marine can if you are careless. There are a few more varieties of Infected, but they really only show up in story missions and not in free roam (thankfully). Bosses in this game are indeed rather tricky at times. If you attempt a straight up slugfest with them, you will die very quickly. Most of my time in boss battles involved me running around them and shooting at them with Marine weapons or just chucking cars at them. Because of this, boss battles can last a while. If you did not upgrade Alex before the boss battle, it will be a chore. Most of the bosses in this game do a good job of reminding you that also need to think with your head as well as your fists. In order to deal with stronger enemies, Alex is capable of upgrading both himself and his powers. There is no shortage of powers and you will most certainly not run of things to do with them. Bare fists, monstrous claws, armored fists that can crack tank armor like a walnut, a sword arm, and more. Certain powers do better in certain situations than others, so you need to know the right tool for the right job. One of the more unique and subtle powers of the bunch is the shapeshifting power. Alex has the ability to assume the form of the last person he “consumed”. This basically allowed you to actually fight alongside the military, infiltrate their bases, and take over their vehicles without them trying to kill you. Some of the powers do has questionable usefulness however, such as the ability to juggle humanoid opponents into the air. Bit pointless as most things will be either dead as soon as they are in the air or far too heavy to launch into the air in the first place. Finally, there are a fairly varied amount of optional missions available. While most of these missions have absolutely nothing to do with the storyline nor offer any kind of storyline on their own, they are a fun distraction from mindless slaughter. These quests range from “Find and consume these people in X time”, a gliding game that works like darts, checkpoint races, battles in where you fight as an Infected/Military ally, to events where you need to kill a certain amount of things only using the given weapon/power. Certainly no shortage of things and some of them are very challenging. There is also the “Web of Intrigue”. As said earlier, Alex has Amnesia. He has no idea who what made him into a bioweapon. So in order to find out, he needs to find certain targets and consume them to absorb their memories. Once this is done, a piece of the storyline puzzle is filled in. While the Web of Intrigue is entirely optional, it is needed to fill in some of the gaps the main storyline mission has. The puzzle is also quite large with a total of 131 pieces you need to track down over the city. As for difficulty, the game tends to flux randomly between easy to fairly difficult with little warning. Rest assured if you go into certain storyline missions without certain upgrades, it will be utter hell. Most of these issues come from the storyline missions. The late game can get fairly bad as well, but thankfully you have the option of running away when in free roam. Whenever you annoy the Marines too much, they send in Strike Teams. These things are annoying because Marines gun for Infected just as much as you, the Strike teams solely gun for you. You can attempt to stop a Strike Team from homing in on you by killing the Marine who is attempting to contact them, but sometimes a Tank calls the Strike, and there is literally no way you can kill the tank in time before the Strike Team is summoned. What's worse is that once you kill the Strike team and show up in front of the Marines again, they will summon another Strike Team no less than a minute later. You can temporarily stop Strike Teams from being summoned by destroying Military Bases, but it'll only last 10 or so minutes. While I do wish they made the Strike Teams a little more interesting by sending different enemies at me (The Strike Team always has the same enemies), it isn't enough to severely cripple the game.
Graphics
Graphics are certainly not Prototype's strongest point in any way, but they are certainly not terrible. They are much more akin to early Xbox 360 games or very late generation Xbox games. But the low graphics can be easily excused for the sheer amount of action happening on the screen. Hundreds of civilians, soldiers, cars, Infected, and vehicles all in the same area with explosions happening everywhere, and not a single bit of slowdown. It's incredible, well worth the payoff for some slightly decreased graphics with absolutely no load times while running around the island. But the graphics are still good enough to see the bulging muscles of Hunters or the bodies of people you can literally cleave in two.
Sound
The game does a fairly good job with sound effects. The enemies have many, many different lines and sounds of explosions are crisp and clear. The garbled sounds of the Infected, the monstrous roars of the Hunters, to the sound of crushing a screaming Marine's head like a melon are very well done. The music in the game does a great job of setting the atmosphere, and certainly lets you know when a Strike Team is coming for you. While the music won't have its own soundtrack label, it certainly does its job of immersing you into the game.
Control
Normally this doesn't get its own section, but this game deserves it. The developers spent a lot of time on the controls of this game and it really, really shows. Moving around the city is both fun and effortless. When you dash, Alex automatically vaults over cars, pushes civilians aside, and climbs buildings all automatically. You can easily run towards a cab, grab it as you leap over, jump in the air and throw it at the helicopter behind you all in one fluid movement. Locking onto opponents is a breeze, and the game makes it rather easy as it locks onto the most dangerous opponent in the area. Your last used offensive, defensive, and utility powers are mapped to the D-pad, so you can quickly turn them off and on when needed. Controls in the tank and APC are extremely easy to use as well, and make ripping through downtown in a Tank just as fun as it is ripping them apart with your claws. Helicopter controls could've used a little more work, as the method of rotating your craft is the same as switching targets, and sometimes it targets the enemy base two kilometers in the distance rather than the enemy helicopter launching missiles in front of your face. Minor gripe, but nothing that really takes away from the value of the game.
Length
Prototype has a fairly decent length to it. It took me about 15 hours to beat the game on normal with a little over half of the optional things completed (Landmark tokens, optional missions, and Web of Intrigue). It is certainly fun to replay and a great stress reliever if you ever need to blow some steam. Once you beat the game, you can attempt hard mode, new game plus (New game will all your upgrades), or just continue around in sandbox mode completing missions. Enemies are varied enough to keep you interested, though dealing with Strike Teams constantly can be tedious. It is this reviewers opinion that much of the fun comes from the free roam and optional missions, rather than the storyline itself. So if you're the kind of person that plays games solely for story, you may want to consider renting this game instead of buying it.
Overall
Overall I'd give this game an 8/10. It is a solid game with a few minor flaws holding back. People who bought and enjoyed Free Radial's other game “Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction” will certainly love this game and notice many similarities in the titles. People who also enjoyed other sandbox free roam games such as Crackdown or GTA should also give this some consideration. I do recommend that this game be played by all and at least given a chance, but those who play games solely for story might want to consider renting instead of buying. Happy hunting!
