Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Ron Burke

Alex Mercer is having a really bad or a really good day – it’s all about perspective.  From Alex’s point of view, he’s been subjected to a horrible experiment that has mutated him into a killing machine, stealing his memories, and making him a fugitive.  From my perspective, Alex has become the most awesome ninja/ flying squirrel/assassin on the planet!  But this game doesn’t have a typical beginning – it starts where it ends.

Alex’s story starts 18 days into a city-wide infection event.  Standing on a rooftop and conversing with an unseen voice behind him, Alex details how we ended up at such a catastrophic end and his role in it.  You are immediately dropped into combat with the entire host of Alex’s weapons, powers, and armors available.  The city burns around you as you destroy twisted mutant enemies and human players alike, Alex cuts a bloody swath through his foes with ease…but that isn’t the true beginning to this story.

Waking up on an autopsy table, Alex scares the life out of his would-be morticians as he sits up, screams, and immediately rushes from the room.  Escaping some sort of military compound, Alex leaps over a nearby fence, exhausted, weak, scared, and confused.  Alone and unsure of what is happening to his body, he steps into the open world of Prototype.

Blur Studios is making a name for themselves – they truly are one of the best full motion video houses in the entire industry.  You’ll see their handiwork in the pre-rendered cutscenes that play throughout the game.  The bulk of the story is told via the in-game engine and it is honestly one of the only major knocks I have against the game’s graphic engine.  Many of the characters come off as plain and un-detailed when we get close-ups.  Now that we have that out of the way…wow.  Prototype looks fantastic.

Prototype pulls off something that another Activision product couldn’t do last year.  I’m speaking specifically about Spider-Man: Web of Shadows and the ever-changing city landscape.  In SM:WoS the city changed in stages, but the framerate suffered horribly.  In Prototype, as the mutant horde slowly consumed the city I saw absolutely no framerate issues.  In fact, the more destroyed the city, the more detailed and populated it seemed to be.  At times, scores of zombie-like hordes writhed in the streets, surrounded by larger and more feral monsters.  Fire consumed nearby buildings as the world descends into chaos.

There is one other area that does get somewhat tiresome – the animation system.  When jacking a tank, air-jacking a helicopter, or collapsing a building, it’s always the same animation.  Normally this wouldn’t be an issue, but during most combat scenarios you’ll likely jack two or three (sometimes more) tanks in a single skirmish.  By the third time you see it, you’ve seen it too much. 

Eventually you’ll get to the point where you can rip pilots out of their helicopters, taking over their rides.  The engine holds up pretty well with pop-in only really present when at extreme heights.  In terms of open-world games, Prototype accomplishes what all of them attempt – a stable framerate in a well-populated world.

On the audio side of things, funny enough, it’s main character Alex that sounds out of place.  Angst-filled and over-acted, Alex is the one character that fails to come across as genuine.  Beyond the voice acting though, the sound effects are well executed.  Explosions have a solid amount of bass; it doesn’t drown the voice acting out.

The beginning of the game gives a brief taste of all the powers that Alex will eventually gain through the course of the storyline, but it isn’t long before they are all taken from you.  When the storyline begins, Alex has only the ability to sprint and jump to ridiculous heights.  As the story moves forward you’ll collect evolution points that can be used to unlock other powers.  Each is tracked in the menu system with a short description of what the power does, as well the button combinations necessary to execute them.  Beyond that, the usual controls apply – the left thumbstick controls movements, and the right thumbstick controls the camera.

The game uses a lock-on system that allows you to gesture towards a target with the right thumbstick while holding a shoulder button. Locking on to an enemy becomes important when you are trying to throw a full size sedan at a nearby helicopter while dodging incoming zombie-like enemies.  Once you drop a soldier you can also take their weapon and use it – handy when you need a rocket or grenade launcher to help even the score. 

Selecting powers in the game is done via a radial dial system.  Holding down a shoulder button slows the game down, allowing you to use the thumbstick to select your various powers, armor type, and vision modes.  I’d explain how they combine, but it’d really spoil their reveal. 

Alex has a mechanic for recovering health that is far better than floating and spinning health crates – he can consume almost any enemy and scarf down their essence to restore his own.  Later enemies will need a lot more ‘persuasion’ before you can eat them, but you can also use the Halo-like mechanic of simply not being shot for a little while to recover some of your health.  Beyond the health bonus though, you can also assume that person's identity.  On your minimap hud there is a disguise meter with a camera shutter on it.  When the shutter is open you are being watched, and when it closed you are invisible to your enemies.  A small meter that runs up the side shows how close your disguise is to being compromised.  Staying out of sight for a while can restore your disguise to a usable status.  Your disguise isn't bulletproof though - the enemy can deploy Viral Detectors that can see your viral infection from a distance, sounding an alert to the soldiers nearby.  Assuming identities is key to blending in and acquiring some specialized powers, so you’ll be chowing down on your military enemies frequently. 

Amazingly, the two issues I have with the controls in Prototype are Havok engine related and occur almost exclusively in the tank.  Occasionally the tanks feel like they don’t really have any weight to them, being easily displaced by a car the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.  Pushing your tank around like it is made of Styrofoam is exacerbated by a somewhat unfocused targeting system.  When I have 20 zombie guys running around a huge tentacle that is throwing full size cars at me, I don’t want to have to cycle through all the peons.  It’d be nice if the targeting AI started at the biggest threats and worked their way down.

The storyline in Prototype is unveiled in an interesting fashion – via the people you consume.  As Alex travels around the world you’ll find ‘people of interest’ that have something to do with the virus or your infection therein.  Consuming them gives you a rapid-fire view of their experiences – some intersect your story, and some are merely how they became involved in the over-arching viral plot.  The sum of the memories and how they intersect is called the Web of Intrigue.  Each memory node is connected to other nodes by strands that represent the connection between the two subjects.  As you navigate between the memories you'll get the option to play their memories over and over again to help narrow down where your targets might be.  There are 131 Intrigue targets, so you'll be seeing this screen quite a bit – if you are inclined.  You see, there is enough storyline to go around, so you have to only consume a few of these folks to move through the 32 main story missions.  As you complete your missions you’ll get a synopsis of how much money you cost the military, how many casualties you caused, and how many civilians you killed.  It doesn’t really do anything, but it’s a fun stat to watch.  It isn’t all faded and scattered memories though; you can also take the abilities of the enemies you consume.  For instance, if you consume a Blackwatch Commander, you'll get the ability to drop heavy ordinance strikes from above on your enemies.  Similarly, if you consume a Blackwatch Armored Vehicle Officer you'll get the ability to hijack and drive enemy tanks. Often when you consume an enemy you'll get a full motion video showing you exactly what you are acquiring from them, such as the targets military APC training.

Often times combat is about using the right tool for the job.  Need to peel a target out of a tank?  Use a rocket launcher.  You can use any weapon you take from a dead foe, so feel free to steal anything they drop - they won't be using it anymore.  As you take down your targets you'll earn experience points. The points allow you to expand your powers, granting access to skills like the ability to glide in the air, dive roll to evade, sprint faster, jump higher, develop a shield, and far more.  As the story unfolds you'll unlock more powers, so don't be shocked at how short the upgrade list is when the game first begins.  In fact, throughout the game I felt several times that I was as powerful as I was going to get, only to see another 22 powers unlock after completing a mission.

Consuming enemies like the viral-infected Hunter give you access to powers like the Claw.  Vicious bladed claws spring from your hands with spikes extending from your shoulders, granting the ability to cause real damage to your enemies.  Eventually you'll unlock the Critical Mass ability which allows the player to consume beyond their normal amount of health, allowing you to deal additional damage to enemies.  You’ll eventually gain huge hammer-hands, increased muscle mass, and far more.  Each power, much like the aforementioned rocket launcher, has a proper use. 

In addition to the missions in the seamless open world, you’ll also find markers on your map that designate events.  Events are a great way to earn Evolution Points (xp) by doing things like point to point (racing from waypoint to waypoint), gliding (you get points for getting close to your target), consume events (eat military or infected in timed challenges), dismemberment (kill enemies with your powers in a timed event), hive destruction (exactly like it sounds), and other various events.  Ultimately you’ll have enough Evolution Points to complete the game without doing many of these, so they truly are optional.

Overall there are 31 main story missions, 131 Persons of Interest, and a deluge of powers that unlock over the course of the game.  The beauty is that the game is so well balanced that, despite having incredible powers of flight, gliding, armor, claws, and more, you are never completely overwhelming the enemy.  When they bring in attack helicopters, tanks, shock troopers with rocket launchers, mutant hunters, and more, you’ll find that you can still very easily die.  The great part is that this isn’t achieved via numbers, but instead a very subtle paper-rock-scissors game that occurs below the surface.  There was never a point in the game that I felt the enemies were just using numbers to overwhelm me. 

The collection element in the game is very optional in this title.  You can do the side missions or skip them.  You can take out the Web of Intrigue targets, or you can skip them.  You can try to stem the infestation of the city by taking out some of the enemy strongholds, or you can skip them.  It's very take-it-or-leave-it, and that's just how I like it.  I enjoy the side mission stuff, but not everyone will - now you have the option.

I do have to throw some major kudos to the developers for the best locomotion system in a sandbox title.  You can double-dash through the air, and then glide to your target.  You can run up the side of buildings, and you can leap ridiculous heights.  Combine these and you have a system that blows Spider-Man’s web swinging, even as great as it has been in the past few titles, out of the water. 

I always try to avoid the word ‘fun’ when I do reviews, but damn it – Prototype is just fun.  The combat is visceral, the movement is fluid and fast, and the storyline is just good enough to keep you going.  Wrap that in a great control system and tack on the feeling of ever-expanding power and you have a game that fires on all cylinders.  Few games manage to balance their end-game without resorting to cheap numbers games – Prototype manages to pull you in all the way until the revealing end.  I recommend it highly.

 

Gaming Trend Score

90

1. Graphics: 90
2. Audio: 86
3. Controls: 90
4. Gameplay: 92
5. Value/Replay: 90
6. OVERALL:90