PS3 Informer

Prototype Review

The world can definitely be a scary place, and moreso for somebody who just awoke inside a morgue with no memories. What if this scenario happened to you? For Alex Mercer, it has become apparent that he was different and people wanted him dead...now he just needs to find out why. Welcome to our review of Prototype.

I guess you could say this would be a messed up way to get a second chance in life. The story starts off with you fully loaded with all of your abilities taking on an infected New York City, having to deal with military personnel and monsters, plus a few infected humans wandering around. Once that is done you zip backwards to where it all began:
your corpse in a Gentek lab facility and a squad of military officials feeding you a nice helping of M-16 rounds (which surprisingly does not slow you down). Now the story gets interesting. After you make a frog leap over a 20 foot tall building, catch a taxi cab with your hands and toss it at the military choppers that have spotted you, it is pretty apparent we are not dealing with an average human being. If you don't get the idea by now then this is the part where you learn you're a superhuman weapon and a pretty darned strong one.

Once you learn your various abilities, your first objective is to escape the copters and consume a soldier... yes, you are able to consume other people and become that person you consumed, taking in their memories. Later on you will be able to upgrade that ability with stealth consume, however lets get back to the fun stuff and that is free running. This is a sandbox game set in Manhattan, New York, but I bet you are thinking, "What makes this different from other sandbox titles that I;ve already played?" Well not only is it filled with action it is also a horror-based game where both infected humans and the military are on your case. You have double the enemies and carnage to deal with. The game is also somewhat open-ended, meaning you can play it the way that suits you best. You can either be really stealthy about how you work around the game, or you can go all berserk stomping your way through the city while forcefully finding out what you need to know. Either way, you will see a lot of gore as you fight both military and monsters, since New York is in a state of lock down and the military have orders to shoot on sight, no matter cop or civilian.

Your character can improve his abilities, and there are many that you will unlock. The first one is your sprint running which allows you to run up walls, over cars. This will get you out of tight situations really quickly and it comes with some nice upgrades such as speed and the ability to toss whatever you grabbed during your sprint. Combat wise, you have your basic punch and then your special attacks which can be put together to make powerul combos. While free running up walls and over buildings you will soon earn points to get the glide feature that you will you sore to areas faster for a short period of time. How do you earn points? Basically, by defeating enemies and finding collectibles during missions and events. You also have a shield, claws, blades, hammer fist, ground slams and many other features that you can unlock for Alex during your quest to find the truth. Not only will you have your own weapons, but you can pick up enemies' guns and drive military vehicles. There is even a helicopter available once you consume the right person with the knowledge required to fly it.

You will uncover more and more of the story as you progress in the game. Certain key people will have memories or information that you will need and you will have missions to consume these people so you can link your memories together. It is a really innovative approach and brings a stealth element to the game. However, you will be watched at all times so be careful what you do while in your disguise or you will be found out and hunted down. You have a meter with a shutter that will open yellow stating you are being watched and as the meter grows higher and hits red that means they know who you are and you will have to vanish until the heat is down but consume another person and you should be saved.

If there is a weak point to this game, it is that the controls will need getting used to, especially when running up the buildings. Sometimes you will slide off or lose your footing while running up certain structures. It is kind of hard not to hit civilians even with the lock on feature the chaos is just too great, even when driving I had a hard time maneuvering through crowds of panicked people. Be warned, it is a sandbox game and I say this because many have short attention spans and complain it is repetitive. It can be somewhat tedious at times, but with all the gore and action it is still a fun game. The graphics are amazing and the gameplay is genuinely enjoyable in between important storyline events. If you do feel lost, Image Comics had put out a Prototype Series so you can catch up on the back story of Alex Mercer. Considering how much fun I had with this game, I award Prototype 4 memory links out of 5. This game is already available in shops for the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles, and is definitely worth a purchase for open-world action fans.

Order Prototype from Amazon for $59.99