This is my first review, so be prepared to correct any mistakes I make during the review.
*Warning: I like to explain things in detail, so the review is going to be pretty long.*
Prototype was a game I had my eye on for a long time. It looked great. Intuitive, unique, and fun. It was only until about a week ago that I discovered that all these things were very much true. Prototype, as you probably already know, is an open-world game with gameplay based around your character's wide gamut of super powers. It follows Alex Mercer, a man who wakes up in a morgue with no memory or recollection of how he came to be there. Alex seeks the truth behind his powers and is out to exact revenge on the person who did it to him. Along the way, he fights the military and a growing virus throughout the entire island of Manhattan, restyled only slightly from the real thing.
Gameplay
If it wasn't already obvious, one of the biggest parts of the game is the powers. The upgrade system is vital to playing Prototype. Some missions even require you to buy powers before you can begin them. You are given a huge pallet of upgrades to choose from, ranging from health upgrades, to movement upgrades, to buying new and interesting things to change your arms into. The gigantic amount of attacks and powers to acquire assure that gameplay never gets old. Some are useful, such as the Blade Air Slice, that sends Alex tumbling through the air to come down blade first on the target. This move can destroy tanks in one hit. Others are just fun or kooky, such as the Bodysurf power, that allows you to glide across the ground on a human corpse, or the Curb Stomp power. You know what that means. Later in the game, more and more combos and powers are added to your arsenal. This also proves to be a problem. Remembering all of the powers and attacks can be troublesome, but once mastered allow for extremely smooth and realistic fights. If you get good at memorizing and linking moves, it can give the game almost a Hollywood feel. If the powers elude you, you can also use conventional weapons and hijack vehicles, which can also be upgraded by consuming certain people within military bases. Prototype is the next step up from GTA. GTA was fun because of the chaos you can cause, but Prototype ups the ante. Although the super powers can be considered unfair, the point is, you never want to stop playing. GTA held the same spell on me, but never to the magnitude that Prototype did. Besides the standard story missions and just messing around, Prototype has tons of side missions to do. And I mean tons. After I unlocked all of the "Events", there was probably an event for every two blocks. And there is also orbs scattered all around Manhattan, consisting of 50 "Hints", which, as the title suggests, offer a helpful tip when you collect them, and 200 "Landmark Orbs", which don't do anything, but give you an experience points reward, as do hints. The experience points are what you use to buy upgrades and powers, and can be earned by collecting, as said above, or by killing enemies, destroying bases, doing missions, and several other ways.
Setting
As I said before, the story is set in a restyled Manhattan Island being taken over by a deadly virus that turns the inhabitants into mutants. Despite GTA 4 being one of the most popular open-world games ever made, there were a couple flaws that Prototype did away with. One was realism. While GTA did give you a fairly realistic rehash of New York City to mess around in, many times players were forced to sprint down streets for minutes before they found a car to steal or people to harass. The biggest problem I had with this was the consistency. Sometimes, the streets would be packed with juicy, meaty people to hit with my car, and minutes later, the streets would be deserted. It felt like GTA had to reset every so often and gradually let people trickle into Liberty City. Prototype can have literally hundreds of people on screen at any time. Prototype's Manhattan is living, breathing. In earlier stages of the game, pedestrians and traffic are everywhere and packed, but is also thinner and less likely to be found in infected areas. This gives the illusion of a city that's alive around you, greatly adding to the immersion of the game. The second was graphics. GTA looked great at first glance. However, draw distances and popping became problems in the game. Up in a helicopter, it seemed as if these problems didn't exist. You could see all of the islands from clear up in the air. But, as you got closer, you would notice lots of things that weren't there to begin with start to pop up. GTA's graphics were kind of like spreading butter. The wider expanse you saw, the more the draw distance was spread out. This looked great, but if you were at a good view point, this resulted in lots of popping. In Prototype, you can pretty much see all the way to the other end of the island, and almost no popping can be seen, and if popping does occur, it would be at a great distance. This, however, brings light to a flaw in Prototype. The only problem I have with Prototype is the topography. Manhattan is almost completely flat. It somewhat takes away from the realism. You can run all the way from one end to the other and never go up or down.
Story
I'm not going to talk about the plot, but I just need to say that anyone who says that Prototype's story needs work is wrong. It's great, with plot twists so shocking they made me sick to my stomach. I guess then, you could say that Prototype is a roller coaster ride, not only in cinematic terms, but in the literal sense. Prototype also adds an intuitive feature called The Web of Intrigue. It consists of consuming people in order to absorb their memories, adding to the backstory. This is good for people who want to know the whole story, but also allows people who don't care for the story to skip several minutes of backstory. What I like about this is the unique style in which the backstory is provided. I like Prototype's story, because, while some people (sorry Yahtzee) criticize it for Alex starting out with amnesia, I love it for this. Why? Because, instead of playing things out linearly, Prototype is a puzzle, which starts to come together, before ending with an explosive finale in which all the loose ends are tied up and all the questions are answered. I love a plot like this.
Now, I'm going to cover the gameplay part of the story. Missions are greatly varied, ranging from escorts to stealthily infiltrating military bases. Some missions require a great amount of thinking and strategy, while most missions of action games just consist of mindless tasks, usually amounting to killing a large sum of people. While some missions may seem impossible, the difficulty curve becomes familiar. When new enemies are introduced, or a new step up in difficulty is introduced, you can quickly step up to the challenge with practice. And if you can't adjust to the difficulty curve, the upgrade system assures that you can eventually overcome any challenge.
Conclusion
Prototype is fun, intuitive, and unique. It never gets old. Just messing around or doing story or side missions is always fun. I can't say it enough. Prototype is a game you will play, and play, and keep on playing. The great gameplay coupled with the good graphics and explosive story make Prototype a must buy for anyone who calls themselves a gamer.
Thank you for reading my review. If you thought it was a little long, then thank you for sticking to it all the way. I hope you agree with me if you have played Prototype, and I hoped I encouraged you to buy it if you haven't. If you enjoyed it, or you have any counter-points, please say so.
*Warning: I like to explain things in detail, so the review is going to be pretty long.*
Prototype was a game I had my eye on for a long time. It looked great. Intuitive, unique, and fun. It was only until about a week ago that I discovered that all these things were very much true. Prototype, as you probably already know, is an open-world game with gameplay based around your character's wide gamut of super powers. It follows Alex Mercer, a man who wakes up in a morgue with no memory or recollection of how he came to be there. Alex seeks the truth behind his powers and is out to exact revenge on the person who did it to him. Along the way, he fights the military and a growing virus throughout the entire island of Manhattan, restyled only slightly from the real thing.
Gameplay
If it wasn't already obvious, one of the biggest parts of the game is the powers. The upgrade system is vital to playing Prototype. Some missions even require you to buy powers before you can begin them. You are given a huge pallet of upgrades to choose from, ranging from health upgrades, to movement upgrades, to buying new and interesting things to change your arms into. The gigantic amount of attacks and powers to acquire assure that gameplay never gets old. Some are useful, such as the Blade Air Slice, that sends Alex tumbling through the air to come down blade first on the target. This move can destroy tanks in one hit. Others are just fun or kooky, such as the Bodysurf power, that allows you to glide across the ground on a human corpse, or the Curb Stomp power. You know what that means. Later in the game, more and more combos and powers are added to your arsenal. This also proves to be a problem. Remembering all of the powers and attacks can be troublesome, but once mastered allow for extremely smooth and realistic fights. If you get good at memorizing and linking moves, it can give the game almost a Hollywood feel. If the powers elude you, you can also use conventional weapons and hijack vehicles, which can also be upgraded by consuming certain people within military bases. Prototype is the next step up from GTA. GTA was fun because of the chaos you can cause, but Prototype ups the ante. Although the super powers can be considered unfair, the point is, you never want to stop playing. GTA held the same spell on me, but never to the magnitude that Prototype did. Besides the standard story missions and just messing around, Prototype has tons of side missions to do. And I mean tons. After I unlocked all of the "Events", there was probably an event for every two blocks. And there is also orbs scattered all around Manhattan, consisting of 50 "Hints", which, as the title suggests, offer a helpful tip when you collect them, and 200 "Landmark Orbs", which don't do anything, but give you an experience points reward, as do hints. The experience points are what you use to buy upgrades and powers, and can be earned by collecting, as said above, or by killing enemies, destroying bases, doing missions, and several other ways.
Setting
As I said before, the story is set in a restyled Manhattan Island being taken over by a deadly virus that turns the inhabitants into mutants. Despite GTA 4 being one of the most popular open-world games ever made, there were a couple flaws that Prototype did away with. One was realism. While GTA did give you a fairly realistic rehash of New York City to mess around in, many times players were forced to sprint down streets for minutes before they found a car to steal or people to harass. The biggest problem I had with this was the consistency. Sometimes, the streets would be packed with juicy, meaty people to hit with my car, and minutes later, the streets would be deserted. It felt like GTA had to reset every so often and gradually let people trickle into Liberty City. Prototype can have literally hundreds of people on screen at any time. Prototype's Manhattan is living, breathing. In earlier stages of the game, pedestrians and traffic are everywhere and packed, but is also thinner and less likely to be found in infected areas. This gives the illusion of a city that's alive around you, greatly adding to the immersion of the game. The second was graphics. GTA looked great at first glance. However, draw distances and popping became problems in the game. Up in a helicopter, it seemed as if these problems didn't exist. You could see all of the islands from clear up in the air. But, as you got closer, you would notice lots of things that weren't there to begin with start to pop up. GTA's graphics were kind of like spreading butter. The wider expanse you saw, the more the draw distance was spread out. This looked great, but if you were at a good view point, this resulted in lots of popping. In Prototype, you can pretty much see all the way to the other end of the island, and almost no popping can be seen, and if popping does occur, it would be at a great distance. This, however, brings light to a flaw in Prototype. The only problem I have with Prototype is the topography. Manhattan is almost completely flat. It somewhat takes away from the realism. You can run all the way from one end to the other and never go up or down.
Story
I'm not going to talk about the plot, but I just need to say that anyone who says that Prototype's story needs work is wrong. It's great, with plot twists so shocking they made me sick to my stomach. I guess then, you could say that Prototype is a roller coaster ride, not only in cinematic terms, but in the literal sense. Prototype also adds an intuitive feature called The Web of Intrigue. It consists of consuming people in order to absorb their memories, adding to the backstory. This is good for people who want to know the whole story, but also allows people who don't care for the story to skip several minutes of backstory. What I like about this is the unique style in which the backstory is provided. I like Prototype's story, because, while some people (sorry Yahtzee) criticize it for Alex starting out with amnesia, I love it for this. Why? Because, instead of playing things out linearly, Prototype is a puzzle, which starts to come together, before ending with an explosive finale in which all the loose ends are tied up and all the questions are answered. I love a plot like this.
Now, I'm going to cover the gameplay part of the story. Missions are greatly varied, ranging from escorts to stealthily infiltrating military bases. Some missions require a great amount of thinking and strategy, while most missions of action games just consist of mindless tasks, usually amounting to killing a large sum of people. While some missions may seem impossible, the difficulty curve becomes familiar. When new enemies are introduced, or a new step up in difficulty is introduced, you can quickly step up to the challenge with practice. And if you can't adjust to the difficulty curve, the upgrade system assures that you can eventually overcome any challenge.
Conclusion
Prototype is fun, intuitive, and unique. It never gets old. Just messing around or doing story or side missions is always fun. I can't say it enough. Prototype is a game you will play, and play, and keep on playing. The great gameplay coupled with the good graphics and explosive story make Prototype a must buy for anyone who calls themselves a gamer.
Thank you for reading my review. If you thought it was a little long, then thank you for sticking to it all the way. I hope you agree with me if you have played Prototype, and I hoped I encouraged you to buy it if you haven't. If you enjoyed it, or you have any counter-points, please say so.
