Review: [Prototype]

So far, Sucker Punch’s inFamous has been the game to get this summer but it isn’t out there on it’s own. Activision’s open world game, Prototype, has been compared numerous times to the Sony exclusive but, how does this latest superhuman adventure stack up?

You take control of Alex Mercer, a man struck down with amnesia and superpowers. After waking up in the morgue of GENTEK, Alex set’s out to discover who he is and what lead him to waking up on a slab in the basement of a genetic engineering company. As you can tell, this is a generic sci-fi tale and it’s not told all that well. Something that certainly doesn’t help matters. Your aim is to piece together your memory by attacking and “consuming” people within the game to try and figure out what happened to you and why you’ve become a monster. Like I said, the story could easily be taken out of a sci-fi B-movie and even though it can be good in parts it didn’t engross me in the way a good story should. I never felt that I liked a particular character or that I cared about them. The story and dialogue almost became background noise to my over the top rampaging and the needless gore.

The gameplay itself is fairly good. Prototype, if you haven’t guessed already, is an open world game with, Ninja Gaiden-esque, hack and slash combat.Unfortunately it doesn’t do either genre any justice. Whilst having free reign of a completely open New York City sounds good, it never actually feels like it should. I may have only visited the Big Apple once before, but the city in Prototype just felt like a generic mass of buildings rather than the sprawling urban tapestry that NYC is. In my opinion, a city as well known as this should become somewhat of a character, something that wasn’t achieved here. The free roaming elements are not that good and I often felt that the game might have been better had it been split into levels or missions instead.

The combat, however, is pretty good. It flows fairly well and you can pull of some pretty spectacular moves with a few button presses. Something that you should be able to do with a character who’s part genetic nightmare. The combat is combo based and this seems to have given the devs permission to burden you with a ton of attacks you have no real need for. Throughout my time with the game I used only a few attacks and never bothered to learn any of the more complex combo’s that I was given. I’m sure that those who do will have fun for a while but this appeal will soon wear off and you’ll go back to some of the easier options.

Besides the combo-based attacks you’ve also got a good few other powers at your disposal too. Alex can run up walls, pick up cars, you know…the usual. After learning of these new found powers I began to realise what this game was. It was Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, a game on the last-gen consoles. Sure, the textures had been given a bit of a resolution bump and there were a number of subtle differences but this game looks to have been based off one from a generation past. Something I could forgive if it had’ve been done right.

Graphically this game is far from amazing. It’s good, but not great. The city looks dull and generic, something that New York should not. The streets are lined with people, just a shame they all look alike. The one thing that annoyed me most (and I know it did a few other people) is the draw distance. Take inFamous, for example, the draw distance in that game isn’t brilliant and is probably one of the worst parts of the game. However, it’s good enough for you to not notice it eighty percent of the time. Prototype’s draw distance is terrible. Collecting orbs is especially hard when you can only see them from ten feet away. It’s far from bad looking, but it’s not a patch on many of the games on the market today. Think Mercenaries 2 (a game built on an updated PS2 engine) and you wouldn’t be far off.

That said, some of the cutscenes look great. The story might get a little intolerable after a while, but at least what your watching looks alright. They’re obviously CG cutscenes, but they’re done pretty well. It’s just a shame that the game doesn’t come close to the fidelity of those.

There are a number of other minor problems: Frame rate drops, characters looking alike, AI behavior being a little lackluster but they never really damage the experience. The game is good for what it is and it’s certainly fun for a few hours. It just seems that the devs drew it out longer than they should’ve and that the original concept was never fully realised. Personally, I recommend inFamous over any of the open world games on the market at the minute but if you’ve played that and want a fun romp for a few hours, i’d recommend giving this a shot.

7.5/10

Secondary Comments - By Chris Malley

I have to admit, when I first saw Prototype, I thought it blew inFamous out of the water. The game just seemed to have something Sucker Punch’s game didn’t. As time went by, I began to regret telling my friends that Prototype was the game to get, after playing it I know I was wrong.

It’s not that Prototype is bad, belive me i’ve played worse, it just didn’t have that spark (no, I didn’t mean that). Something about it just wasn’r right. It never felt like those making it knew what they wanted it to be. They tried to make it “cool”, it’s just a shame they made it cool for an audience younger than the target demographic. Blood and guts only go so far and sticking them in everywhere was certainly not the best option.

For a few hours this game is fun, it’s just a shame that it began to feel repetetive and something I didn’t want to play. Like pretty much everyone, I think inFamous is the game to get. That said, this is certainly worth a rent. It’s just a shame that it’s going to be sitting atop the NPD sales chart instead of inFamous.

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