Playstation 2 days are relived when you pick up games that include superhero exploits across the whole of Manhattan Island. I'm reminded of Activision's Spiderman franchise that made the comic book action and, by Spiderman 2, web-slinging free-roam an experience worth...well, experiencing. Prototype nearly hits that mark in a faithful bound, but misses it by miles and falls flat on its face...into a barrage of tank-fire, no less.
Like any good superhero story, Alex Mercer's begins as an ordinary man placed in extraordinary situations and given great and foreign powers because of it. Granted, Alex is no superhero. His exploits across the island of Manhattan usually result in catastrophic bodycounts on both civilian and military sides. Either way, when he's around, someone is ending up sliced in two. You take the hooded anti-hero across the island, witnessing firsthand as the Big Apple gets a few bruises in the fashion of an rampant, infectious disease that's taking over people and buildings alike. As the story goes along, it's made clear that it's all Alex's fault. Pretty much -everything- is Alex's fault. That is, of course, except for the game's mechanics and storyline.
-The Big Picture- The storyline is mostly predictable. Alex is a rebellious employee for a big corporation who screwed the pooch big time when he released a crazy virus that starts crawling across Manhattan. Of course, everything goes wrong, Alex gets plugged by a few soldiers and ends up as the shapeshifting warmachine you see here. The virus basically took him over and is now using him as a vehicle. Yeah.
When you get past that crazy mess, you have the ridiculously overdone writing for the soldiers. The lot of which sounds a lot like random words thrown together to mock the codespeak which military personnel use on the radio waves, with threads like "Tornado dog to red crown, target is lighted and sighted." I was half expecting someone to come over the comms with a piece of gold like "Papa bear to big smoke, 10-20 on the cheese whiz, over." but alas, I was disappointed.
Now for the biggest downfall in the game's vast arsenal, the gameplay. While I will go on record as stating that the game's entertainment factor is beyond fantastic, most of it is dashed under the feet of extremely overpowered enemies and horrid AI. The fact is you're playing as an extremely powerful scientific mistake, your strength surpasses anything on the face of the earth, yet each hit you take is equivalent to being shot in the face with a shotgun at close range. You're thrown about by every tank shell and missile fired at you and they fire at least nine million thousand at you per second. Most of every battle you get yourself into is spent on your back, your face, or dead.
The AI, as I mentioned, is even worse. While, at some points, the AI seems to be beneficial to your escaping from the authorities, other times it can be outright annoying. Disguised as a soldier and walking the streets of the infected neighborhoods of Manhattan, I can't tell you how many times it seemed like the tanks were following along with me and firing purposefully in my direction. I wasn't noticed as Alex, I was disguised, and being shot up by shells, missiles, and bullets.
The AI is weak, the storyline is predictable, and the gameplay is entertaining, but the enemies are far too rough. The game is amazing to play for a challenge, to give yourself a quick jolt of entertainment in the form of exhilarating movement and crazy awesome fight sequences, however if you casually game, don't expect Prototype to do much but punch you in the head repeatedly until you die, it'd probably be another to add to the lengthy list of things that are all Alex's fault.
Like any good superhero story, Alex Mercer's begins as an ordinary man placed in extraordinary situations and given great and foreign powers because of it. Granted, Alex is no superhero. His exploits across the island of Manhattan usually result in catastrophic bodycounts on both civilian and military sides. Either way, when he's around, someone is ending up sliced in two. You take the hooded anti-hero across the island, witnessing firsthand as the Big Apple gets a few bruises in the fashion of an rampant, infectious disease that's taking over people and buildings alike. As the story goes along, it's made clear that it's all Alex's fault. Pretty much -everything- is Alex's fault. That is, of course, except for the game's mechanics and storyline.
-The Big Picture- The storyline is mostly predictable. Alex is a rebellious employee for a big corporation who screwed the pooch big time when he released a crazy virus that starts crawling across Manhattan. Of course, everything goes wrong, Alex gets plugged by a few soldiers and ends up as the shapeshifting warmachine you see here. The virus basically took him over and is now using him as a vehicle. Yeah.
When you get past that crazy mess, you have the ridiculously overdone writing for the soldiers. The lot of which sounds a lot like random words thrown together to mock the codespeak which military personnel use on the radio waves, with threads like "Tornado dog to red crown, target is lighted and sighted." I was half expecting someone to come over the comms with a piece of gold like "Papa bear to big smoke, 10-20 on the cheese whiz, over." but alas, I was disappointed.
Now for the biggest downfall in the game's vast arsenal, the gameplay. While I will go on record as stating that the game's entertainment factor is beyond fantastic, most of it is dashed under the feet of extremely overpowered enemies and horrid AI. The fact is you're playing as an extremely powerful scientific mistake, your strength surpasses anything on the face of the earth, yet each hit you take is equivalent to being shot in the face with a shotgun at close range. You're thrown about by every tank shell and missile fired at you and they fire at least nine million thousand at you per second. Most of every battle you get yourself into is spent on your back, your face, or dead.
The AI, as I mentioned, is even worse. While, at some points, the AI seems to be beneficial to your escaping from the authorities, other times it can be outright annoying. Disguised as a soldier and walking the streets of the infected neighborhoods of Manhattan, I can't tell you how many times it seemed like the tanks were following along with me and firing purposefully in my direction. I wasn't noticed as Alex, I was disguised, and being shot up by shells, missiles, and bullets.
The AI is weak, the storyline is predictable, and the gameplay is entertaining, but the enemies are far too rough. The game is amazing to play for a challenge, to give yourself a quick jolt of entertainment in the form of exhilarating movement and crazy awesome fight sequences, however if you casually game, don't expect Prototype to do much but punch you in the head repeatedly until you die, it'd probably be another to add to the lengthy list of things that are all Alex's fault.