Prototype Review
Thu Jun 25, 2009 at 05:37:00 PM EST
Prototype Review
What's up guys, Elite here. This is my first text review so let me explain how this is going to work. First, I'm going to give a brief info on the game and then have bulleted points for each major topic of the game (i.e. Story, Gameplay,etc.) Then after all of that I'll give my final thoughts of the game, give my score out of 5 stars, and recommend if it's a Buy, Worth A Try (Rent), or Let Die. So without further ado, here's my review.
[WARNING: I have not completed the game yet, so this is just my general impressions as of 5 or so hours of gameplay. Again, MY opinion.]
Today I'm gonna be reviewing Prototype for the Xbox 360. Prototype is an open-world sandbox-type of game developed by Radical Entertainment.The game is available on Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 platforms.
Story
You play as Alex Mercer, a genetically mutated human with no clue of how or why you are mutated. As you progress through the game, you try to unravel these questions. The game starts off showing a group of military men roaming the streets of a rundown, infected looking New York City. You have no clue what they are looking for, but it seems like they ARE looking for something.
They stumble upon a women, who looks to be in grave danger and is scared to death. She begs the military men to help her, but they, with what seems like no remorse, shoot her point blank in the face and keep going. All of the sudden, out of the darkness of the city streets, a creature appears and demolishes the crew. Fast forward a couple of cutscenes, the game puts you back two weeks before the so called infection. You watch as Alex Mercer awakens from what seems to be a coma in a lab of some sort with scientist and military men around him. In a fury of fear, hear unleashes his rage and breaks free from the facility, only to notice his new powers. But of course, he has no idea how he got these powers or who did this to him. Alex Mercer is now on a deadly quest to find out those answer, and even a few twist thrown in. He's thirsty for knowlege, and if provoked, blood.
Personally, I think the story is good, but also confusing at times. The game plays out through cutscenes and web's of intrigue. Web's of Intrigue's are thoughts and memories that certain people who are somehow related to Gentek (the company/military who is involved in this game) or know what's happened to you have inside their minds. You can actually go up to said person and consume, yes, CONSUME them and unlock their web in the WOI (web of intrigue) which triggers a cutscene and tells you a little bit more about you and their role in what has happened with the city and with you. Another part of the story is that your trying to figure out why the city is infected and where did the infection come from. See, once again, confusing. But interesting, very interesting. I won't tell you anymore about the story, you'll have to experience yourself.
Gameplay
The gameplay can be the best part of the game at one point, and then the most boring and frustrating part the next. The controls definitely take some getting use to, but they actually make sense for this kind of game. If I told you in this text review you'd probably disagree, but you just have to play it yourself to see what I'm talking about. The cool part about the gameplay is just how much of a badass you feel like when your playing. You just demolish everything in your past. What's also cool is after the game flashes back to two weeks before the infection, you have NO powers but basic punching and jumping, but you can actually use the XP that you gain from fighting to upgrade your powers and abilities. Almost giving this game a RPG-esque feel, but at the same time, not quite. Now the frustrating thing about the gameplay/controls is that it sometimes doesn't "stick". What I mean by that is that you'll be fighting some creature and then a whole wave comes and you'll try to lock on to the main baddy but end up moving around targets until you get to the right one, or you might end up jumping the wrong way,etc. It's really hard to TELL you, you have to experience it yourself.
The gameplay can get abit repetitive if you continulously play this game without stopping, which ultimately makes it very stale. This is the kind of game that you need to play for a couple of hours, then take a break and go do something else or playing something, then come back. That way everytime it feels new. Now, I'm not saying this is a bad game because of that, when in fact it is extremely fun at times, but just don't play this game from start to finish nonstop. You will finish the game stressed out and unhappy. Everything needs a break now and then.
Oh yeah, you can scale any building also. Not too big. (/sarcasm)
Graphics
Now again, this topic is a sortof 50/50 ordeal like the topic above. The graphics during the cutscenes are GREAT whenever it's actually cutscenes ran by the engine and the real live footage (there are scenes when it's actual footage, like recorded in real life, so you can't count those as graphics), but the actual gameplay graphics are decent. Not great, but not bad.
Overall
If you like feeling like a badass, destroyin' junk, and climbing off huge skyscrappers, you need to try this game. I bought it, and although it is a GREAT game, I sort of regret paying a full 60 bones for this game. But it is probably one of the best games you could rent right about now.
I give this game 4 stars out of 5. It's a "Worth A Try"