Prototype

Rating Mature Genre action Publisher Radical Entertainment External Links

The idea’s outlined in Outkast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below mostly involve beautiful women or a delicious slow jam worked into a fury of sexuality not heard since “Purple Rain.” Andre 3000’s tune on “The Love Below”, a slow jam called “Prototype,” is romantic, but strange in both the delivery and topic. Very little of the song deals with gliding around Manhattan fighting the military and virus spreading zombies as a superhuman being. However, very much of the action game Prototype is about nearly limitless powers and destroying everything in your path.

The genre as described is a sandbox/action. Just like Grand Theft Auto or Ultimate Spiderman, you wander around modern Manhattan without limits or controls; the open-ended game play lets you go where you want and do what you want, be it throwing a car off a building or carrying civilians around the city in a giant claw. Of course, this is no Fallout 3, but the option to complete missions or aimlessly float through the city present some alternative game play styles. You play as Alex Mercer, a mysterious man that starts on a coroner's table at the GENTEK lab, wakes up, and finds his memory gone. Mercer isn't just a normal corpse-come-alive; he's found that his body has become unbelievably powerful. 

Prototype is a revenge game at it's core. Mercer is pissed off at paramilitary group called Blackwatch for conducting this experiment on him and making him into a monster. With the power's Mercer acquires and an inability to die, it seems like he's giving them the short end of the stick. The other enemy is a rapidly growing group of viral zombies that seem to be taking over the city. Most of the game is spent killing either military personal or zombies, so there's really something in this one for everyone. Killing becomes indiscriminate; military, civilian, or zombie, anything goes in Prototype, which leads to many of the games high points, but also some of it's lows. 

The controls are simple and fun. You can run up buildings, glide from place to place, and sprint past cars. The speed and ease of moving through the city is keeps the game exciting and intense. Manhattan is not a big place and it certainly doesn't feel huge in this game. You really feel locked in between the ever encroaching forces of zombies and military. An issue here is that you don't develop a morality or personality based on who you kill or how you kill. The game is just counting bodies, not judging who is in the pile. It's a missed opportunity to have incorporated some Fable elements and make your decisions count. 

The game is laid out in a series of missions that revels more plot, brings secondary characters into the fold, and expands on Mercer's missing memories. In addition to the central plot line, there are characters scattered throughout Manhattan that can build on your “web of intrigue.” This web is the back story on what had happened to develop this virus, what the military is doing to capture you or quarantine the island, etc. When you find a “web of intrigue” target, go up to them, grab them, and consume there flesh. Simple! Now you shape shift into the last person you consumed. This works for hiding from the military or just if you want to run around New York with a pair of Chuck T's. In addition to gaining the targets identity, you'll also get a health boost which will be critical in the complicated battle elements of the game. 

The battle system can be chaotic, even at the best of times. Your moves involve unbelievable physical strength and speed, but many fights turn into 1-on-20 with tanks, helicopters, monsters, and rocket launcher's all  focused solely on you. It becomes a battle royal that can lead to a frustrating difficulty spike. Part of battling is knowing when to run, eat some people, and return to fight another day. Another remedy is the great upgrade system. By completing missions or killing enemies, you earn Evolve Points (EP) to spend on the real goodies of the game. The amount of EP needed per upgrade and the number of upgrades available keep you engaged and moving through the game. Some powers are lame (Wallgrip) while others (Devastators) are really cool and have excellent game-rendered cut scenes. 

If following directly along with the outlined missions isn't your cup of tea, there's a number of side missions to earn bonus EP. These are not the highlight of the game; being both generic and repetitive, Prototype struggles with too many side quests with too much echoing of previous accomplishments. Running around the city to consume targets, sneaking into military bases for the 20th time, or racing through checkpoints doesn't cut it in 2009. This could have been exploited by Radical for some really cool mini-games using your nearly limitless powers or maneuvers. Instead, the game takes itself too seriously, focuses too much of the gore, and suffers. 

Another frustration is the buildings don't take damage. You can stomp around on there roofs, but you can't really damage the integrity of any background structures. The military bases and zombie hives are available to be destroyed, but these look like generic warehouses. No skyscrapers or classic New York structures need to be ripped down by your insatiable thirst for vengeance; it's just the same old building that could have been a Wal-Mart. Radical could have really upped the ante by having larger structures and varying attack strategies to defeat them, both military and zombie.

The weakest element of the game is the city itself. The lack of distance in the rendering makes much of the city exploration ugly and boring. There's collectibles hidden throughout the city, but with these not rendering until you're almost right on top of them, it can be difficult to find them amongst the buildings. The collectibles number at 250, meaning without good help from a map or better distance vision, these will probably never be collected in full. 

The flip side of this is the close action battles look great. Using a claw or whip power means you can be ripping through legions of monster's with blood and gore painting the town red. You can zip through the streets with innocent victims in hand, throwing them over buildings or into oncoming traffic. Even the in-game cut scenes involving tanks and helicopters look really cool as you shred a tank driver up to take his place in the vehicle. 

Prototype is a great game for those that like to play king of the monsters. Every other enemy you fight is a pale comparison to yourself and the arsenal of moves you're packing. Most gamers will get through the story in a couple of days, however, those that like to go deeper, search the city, and try the side quests might be surprised how much fun is to be had in a virtual city of 11 million. Radical did not create something unique enough to be called a prototype, but they deliver in a game that will keep you coming back for more.