Prototype by Radical Entertainment Prototype is next is a series of open world superhero games like Crackdown or InFamous, however, it has it's own distinctive visual and play style. Alex Mercer the protagonist has the power to consume people for HP, transform his arms into various weapons, he can also run up walls and glide as well as disguise himself as anyone. Powers and upgrades are plenty, and the Player can unlock these through getting XP from completing missions and side missions.
Story
Prototype stars Alex Mercer, a man who has amnesia, super powers in a plague infested New York City.
The story is told through cutscenes and flashforwards or flashbacks depending on where you stand. Most of the game is played as Alex tells it. To supplement the main
storyline, Alex can 'consume' or basically eat people with specific memories that help him piece together the sinister plot.
Review
While sharing many similarities to InFamous, Prototype stands out on it's own, in terms of gameplay, Alex has almost no range attacks, unless he hijacks a military vehicle, which the game seems to recommend. Prototype also uses a lot of gore, people spew blood the when they get cut up, a lot of blood goes everywhere as Alex consumes another creature. However much of it gets cartoony and unbelievable as it goes on.
Good
Playground style gameplay - Prototype is pretty simple, just go around killing stuff and blowing stuff up, relaxing mindless fun without the need to follow the story.
Different ways to complete missions - mainly either bashing through or using disguises to obtain military equipment
Free Roaming - Prototype almost does what Spiderman did years ago, swinging around and exploring was one of the highlights of the game, here Alex easily runs up buildings, hulk jumps and glides across the city, too bad the city textures look really bland and uninteresting
Bad
Loading Screens - are a No-no when it comes to open world games, it removes immersiveness and generally makes it feel more mission based. Prototype has one before/after every cutscene and mission
Wonky aiming system - the lock on system slows time down when you press the button, but since there are so many enemies around you at one time, it becomes really hard to pick the main enemy against all the other fodder.
Lack of focus - Prototype gives you many abilities, but the abilities don't really differentiate themselves, all attacks seem to work against most of the monsters, incidentally there's only one way to take down buildings and that is by hijacking military vehicles.
Enemies - Although Prototype is filled with many enemies, there's a question of when too much is much. You'll literally be surrounded by enemies when entering battle and sometimes you can lose up to 95% of your life in a single instant, with armour on and without knowing why. The game doesn't reward careful playing.
The monsters also don't have different weakness to your powers, basically the same attack that works on cannon fodder, works on stronger bosses and the military as well.
Poor storyline - While we can't fault the developers for sticking with a cliche storyline, they do try to tell it in a different way, getting pieces of it from missions instead of a linear narrative.
However, there is an irritating DNA/History montage before each cut scene, the cutscenes themselves are messy are purposely vague. While it's cool for awhile, having every single cutscene in this manner is extremely tiring
Cheap boss fights and missions - There are certain boss fights and missions that have the difficulty spike up considerably, however this is not due to the player not figuring out the move patterns etc. The boss might have tons of HP, even if you don't suffer a single hit, you'll take ages to wear it down.
Sometimes, the mission objectives have you repeating the same thing 3 or more times, go to point A fight monsters, checkpoint. There comes a point where repetition becomes not fun anymore
Crazy pedestrians - This one is just an AI rant, people/civilians run in front of your tank, when you are driving it, despite areas being closed down due to zombie outbreaks, there always seem to be tons of people walking around. This breaks immersiveness. InFamous does it the other way round, when there is an incident, people run away, leaving you to fight with the enemies. Here they just stand around like damsels in bad B movies.
SuggestionsOf course it wouldn't be fair to point out the weaknesses without offering suggestions.
1) The developers were on the right track with storyline events tied to consuming people on the streets.
- Add more side stories that tell what happened to the people in the city, rather than filling in the main storyline
- Use proper expository material more instead of the seemingly subtle pieces. Given that this is a zombie outbreak, government is evil type story and Alex acts mostly without remorse, there is no need for a subtle touch here. One technique used before was taking the pieces of a cutscene and adding to it as the game goes on until everything becomes clear.
2) Side missions that contribute to the story, destroying a base or a hive in Prototype is only temporary. While completing a similar objective in InFamous is permanent. Have Alex work for side mission only powers, help a doctor and the doctor will increase your health etc.
3) Focus the powers to the weaknesses of the enemies, Rock, Paper, Scissors style, claws for organics and hammers for metal etc. Weak points for the bosses, either obvious (glowing) like in Dead Space, or something which makes sense (e.g attacking the legs to fell the boss)
