Reviewish | PROTOTYPE

Boy Meats World

Welcome to Reviewish, where I kinda-sorta "review" games I haven't actually completed yet. See, I play games at my own pace - which is a nice way to say I play them very slowly. But after I play what I deem to be enough of any one game to get the proper feel of what it is and has to offer, I'm ready to put my not-entirely informed stamp on it. Enjoy!

There's really two types of open-world "sandbox" games you can choose from. There's the ones like the GTA series, where your charcater is just an average guy (in videogame terms) who is limited to how he can interact with his world and requires some sort help from vehicles or ladders to reach the higher points in the game's setting. Then there is the sub-genre that's populated by characters with superhuman powers that allow them to, one way or the other, explore their environment with just about full freedom and interact with the world in ways Niko Bellic could only dream of. On the PS3, this type of game has gotten a recent double-dose of awesome thanks to the exclusive InFamous and now the rather impressive Prototype. Aside from the fact that both games feature large cityscapes and lead characters that have received unbelievable powers against their will, the similarities between InFamous and Prototype end - and there's been debate among PS3 enthusiasts about which is "better", and that's a debate I want no part of. Each game is great and each game is fun, it's just that each game has their own vision. InFamous has "real-world" grit surrounding Cole McGrath and his struggle to figure out his new place in a city he'll either safe or doom, but it doesn't cross a certain line when it comes to how far it's willing to take its dark storytelling. Blood and gore are simply not part of Cole's experience, and that's fine - there's enough cues in Cole's adventures to make the death and dispair of Empire City's citizens to make the non-existance of blood acceptable. Just because there's no blood in InFamous doesn't lessen the blow when I round a corner and see two bodies laying dead in the street who I might have been able to save had I only arrived a little sooner. In contrast, Prototype comes on strong with a story you're told right away isn't going to end well and with its star, Alex Mercer, who is more than ready to accept the labels of killer, monster, and terrorist - Hell, he says exactly that as soon as you boot up the game. Where Cole may choose to be "evil", he has different standards than Alex, who spends much of his time finding new and exciting ways of reducing people (enemies, innocents, or otherwise) to a red paste without a single pause to consider the moral weight of his actions. Simply put, while Cole is driven by the need to find answers, Alex is more interested in vengeance regardless of cost. From here on out, the discussion about InFamous and Prototype end, at least on my part. InFamous still rocks... But this post is all about Prototype, and damn is it incredible.

Yeah, Prototype's main calling card is probably its over-the-top violence - but for a moment let me state that the game also has a rather nice grasp on how to tell its tale, and it does a couple neat tricks to not only foreshadow things to come but also tell the story in a shattered state that mirrors Alex's own fractured memory. Take, for example, when the game begins. You're playing 18 days in the future. Manhattan is in ruins. Mutants are flooding the streets, innocent citizens are running and screaming for their live while the military is killing any and everything that moves, Times Square is burning and Alex is right in the middle. At this point Alex is a near-unstoppable walking tank, crushing targets with huge augmented and armored fists, and using massive bladed fingers to rend limbs off soldiers. And let me not forget the 20-story leaps and the ability to glide long distance to provide terrible knee-drops from the sky that shatters concrete and send cars and corpses flying. Then, as Alex finds his target (a military commander in charge of the Time Square battle) the game flashes back to where Alex's story, and your game, begins. Alex wakes up on a cold autopsy table in a secret lab somewhere in Manhattan and after breaking out he has to escape pursuing special forces commandos. Suddenly it dawns on you that all the powers and strength Alex had in that hellish vision of Times Square don't exist yet. At this point, Alex's abilities are limited to being able to run quite fast, leap three times higher than an average person, and deliver superhuman punches - but that's about it. Getting past the opening sequence, the more over-arching method Prototype uses to have its backstory unfold is in the interesting and fun Web of Intrigue. Basically it's a clever way of combining storytelling with collectables, and it works quite nicely. Alex has the power to consume people - and it's visually disturbing if not out-right cool. Alex does this for numerous reasons, like to increase his health, but consuming someone also lets Alex share the target's knowledge. Consume a helicopter pilot and now Alex can pilot one on his own, for example. But the for special targets, the more important thing is that they know something that relates to Alex's current condition and the conspiracy behind everything that sending New York spiraling into Hell - and when Alex consumes one of these special target he unlocks another node on the Web on Intrigue. It's a very unique gameplay element, and it fits with Alex's own troubles with trying to get all the facts straight. The web itself is huge, and while it starts with only a few bits and pieces filled in, it starts to form a bigger picture once more memories are added. I like it.

Story's great, but how does it play? Thankfully, it plays quite well. Prototype was developed by Radical Entertainment, the fine folks that brought us quite possibly the best licensed superhero game of all time, Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, and they brought over plenty of what they learned from that open-world chaos fiesta to their newest title. I'm not sure I ever played a game like this where the star made me feel so damn powerful. I mean, I'm nowhere deep in the game yet and even with only a few powers and upgrades purchased I have a distinct feeling of being a complete bad-ass. I can only imagine what it's going to be like later on when Alex is bursting at the seams with crazy new powers and abilities. Prototype's controls can be a bit complex at first, especially once the combos and new control optionos start piling up, but it never gets to the point where the game is hard to play or simply broken. After the slight learning curve passes, you'll be causing unspeakable harm to people who may or may not deserve it in no time... I happen to enjoy the simple act of running around Manhattan, which involves a cool hands-off sort of parkour that sends Alex flipping and flying over obsticles in his way such as cars, barricades, and hapless people crowding sidewalks, only to jump over their heads and begin running up the side of a skyscraper. Sadly, I don't currently have the glide ability, but with improved jumping and faster sprinting, I have Alex ping-ponging and leaping all over the rooftops of the upper-west side. And should I have to dispatch any number of foes that stand in my way, the game's combat is actually really fun, and that's before I add the laundry list of weapons available to me later on.

But aside from running around and killing things, Prototype's other enjoyable portion is building up Alex's suite of powers and abilities (which is then used to run around and kill things). Whenever Alex killes a foe, discovers a collectable, succeeds in a side-mission, or completes a main story mission, he earns Evolution Points. These points are used to purchase new powers and abilities off of a list that slowly starts to unlock more and more choices as the game goes on. While new powers are always great to have, you can also purchase new moves to use in combat or that help movement like gliding or a handy dodge-roll. There's also a list of upgrades that adds to things like Alex's running speed, jumping height, his durability, and even down to stuff like skills he can use when in the disguise of someone he's consumed, like calling air strikes as a military commander. Many of the upgrades also have numerous levels available to them as well, so you might have three different speed upgrades to buy or new levels that make powers stronger and more deadly. It's really cool to see how you're changing Alex and there seems to be so much to pick through that you can really tailor Alex to how you want to play. For the moment, I've invested a lot into his speed and agility, not to mention the very handy ability to pick up people while I'm in mid-sprint. I did this because the idea of grabbing a target while running through a crowd and then consuming him or her on a rooftop seems too fun to pass up...

As you can imagine, Prototype's basic mission structures cover all the bases for a game of this sort from the go-here-kill-there objectives to racing to somewhere to every those pesky escort missions. It does seem like there are some wicked difficulty spikes at times, which is another thing shared between this game and Ultimate Destruction. I remember those defend-the-building missions being a real bitch in Hulk... So far though, Prototype is proving to be a very fun experience only flawed by some less than cutting-edge visuals and moments where the game gets ahead of itself, but for a game that has so much going on most of the time there is no slowdown whatsoever, and for that I am impressed... I understand it's not for everyone - some people will either dislike the gore or simply don't like this genre of game, but if you are a fan of games like the before-mentioned InFamous or Xbox 360's own exclusive gem, Crackdown, then there's no reason to miss out on the pure joy that is Prototype. Highly recommended!