Prototype

Blog Post: [PROTOTYPE] a great game.

Death — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 02:33:00 GMT

I recently got [PROTOTYPE] and after I beat it I thought "I have to do a review" so I am.[PROTOTYPE] is an amazing game with excellent gameplay.The movement is so quick and agile,a good example you could be running up a wall next minute you could be hopping from building to building like an urban ninja on STEIROIDS.Now let's take a look at the main character Alex Mercer I like to think of him as Spider-man,Super-man,and the Hulk on crack.He's related to Spider-man in the sense of he is agile and stealthy.He's related to Super-man in the sense of this guy just can't be killed by anything like he could take being impaled by anything.Now he's related to Hulk in the sense of he has incredible strength because he is able to pick up car's,truck's,helicopter's,and of course people.Not to mention when he leaps off of huge building's on to the ground he can cause big crack's and release major shockwave's.Now his powers are definently something to be praised the dude can shift his biomass into a blade,a whipfist,claws,hammerfists,and major musclemass.Now he uses these unique weapons to destroy just about anything.Basically you don't want to (bleep) with this guy.[PROTOTYPE] is an amazing game I recommend this big time.

Blog Post: Prototype Was under rated.

Fernando_xpimentel — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 00:17:00 GMT

Despite the graphics and cheesey clothes, Prototype was actualy very fun. if you liked Infamous you would love Prototype, hands down. its similar to Infamous nut it's much more fast paced. i personally loved the game but I have heard a lot of trash talking. its a great game and hopefully the next installment of the game will be that and that much more.

Blog Post: The Zombiegamer's Protype Review

thezombiegamer — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 04:37:00 GMT

Prototype is a game. thats the only way i can express it. It was not one of my biggest disappointments such as gameinformer said it was. I beet the hole thing and it was a not so story heavy thrill. The powers are awesome and there are always new ones even after the game's amazing ending with a stellar creative final boss and those powers are cool. Almost every power alters your play style in a major way. A down side of this game is that even though its not story heavy it seems to try to be. Also some powers suck but are nessasary to obtain the awesome endlessly reasuble ones. Sadly there are fue of the great powers and more of the terrible, sucky, have to purchase to get to the good ones. I can tell Alex the games hard to like protaginist is looking over my shoulder as I give his game a 8 out of 10.

Blog Post: Game Over... continue? Prototype Review

Game Over... continue? — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 01:40:00 GMT

Here’s a link to the freakishly cool Prototype trailer…

Well? Good, eh? I though this looked amazing, and was looking forward to playing the game… but sadly, the trailer was as good as it gets. Prototype isn’t a bad game per se, but with such a cool premise it really could, and probably should, have been so much better.

Set in New York City where a mutagenic virus is slowly transforming it and it’s populous into pseudo-monsters (while oddly, not a block away, the good citizens of the Big Apple go about their daily lives… I’ve heard New Yorkers are oblivious to their surroundings but this is ridiculous!), Prototype tells the tale of Alex Mercer.

The story begins, as these stories often do, with a flashback from the above trailer to when Mercer wasn’t such an invincible bad ass. Waking without a memory is enough to ruin anybody’s day, but waking up in the morgue is even worse, especially when the army guys who were guarding your corpse start trying to re-riddle you with more bullets. But rather than winding up right back in the morgue as one might expect, Mercer realizes he has the ability to change his form at will and is now virtually indestructible.

So off goes Alex to uncover the truth about what has happened to him and hunting down those responsible. As New York City self-destructs around him and martial law is invoked, Mercer must deal with not only a hostile military force, but the horrors that the virus has left in its wake.

The story is one of my biggest disappointments simply because while it’s perfectly passable, with such a cool underlying premise it should have been so much better. On the whole it’s a poorly told tale that's poorly acted. Part of the problem with sandbox titles like Prototype is that you tend to lose the thread of the plot while you’re off mucking about, playing side quests and mini-games or generally just wreaking havoc. As a result an already thin plot becomes even more disjointed.

But let’s not mince words here, the primary attraction of this game is you are given control of a virtually indestructible super-human with amazing bio-morphing abilities and utterly no compunction about using them in a bustling metropolis… so let’s talk about those powers!

Mercer reminds me a bit of the T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day. He can shape-shift his body into different sorts of bladed or bludgeoning objects. His arm can become a massive blade-like sword or he can transform his fists into giant mitts that are slow but powerful enough to club tanks. There is even a wicked set of claws for quick attacks. I should also mention that you can use the weapons dropped by the army during your rampages and use said arsenal against them... but with so many cool powers why bother?

My personal favorite was the 'Whipfist' which is sort of his ranged-attack weapon. A long tendril will shoot from his arm with a spike on the end, sniping targets from distance... but he can also swing it around or even vertically to slice and dice anyone in his path. What's more, with the 'Whipfist' Mercer can hijack helicopters in mid air by pulling himself up to them almost like a grappling hook. I loved it when the chopper I was currently flying was on fire and going down and Mercer jumps out only to hijack the next one without ever touching the ground.

Mercer's new powers not only allow him to change his form at will, but also give him super-human strength and speed. He can leap tall buildings in a single bound... okay, not quite, but close. When sprinting he'll automatically vault cars or toss them clear out of the way. He can even sprint up the sides of buildings... and jumping off said buildings from a good height and hurtling down into a crowded street is a good laugh, although not for the people on the ground.

The controls can be a bit a of a pain and are fairly complex (other than mashing the attack button, which will only get you so far), there is a pretty high learning curve here. But even with practice they don't work particularly well. The camera can be a burden at times as well, especially in the crowded streets. But if you can look past these annoyances, controlled chaos has rarely been as amusingly brutal.

Now, I feel the need to impress upon you, gentle reader, just how over-the-top violent Prototype is... it's almost gleefully graphic. Using your powers result in incredible carnage: slamming down your 'Whipfist' will slice a foe (or bystander) right down the middle, the two halves falling apart. Your blade is adept at separating a person's top half from the bottom and using your claws leaves a pile of body parts on the floor. The giant 'Hammerfists' leave little more than a bloody puddle.

One of the more clever and useful of Mercer’s powers is his ability to absorb or consume, well, pretty much anyone he wants. By doing this he’ll not only take their form (you can absorb an enemy commander so you’ll gain access to a military base for example) but also their memories (absorb a pilot to learn how to fly a helicopter). You can also absorb innocent civilians if you’ve had a rough run in with the army and need a quick disguise or some health. But oddly, no one seems to notice when Granny Doris starts running up the side of a building or leaping over cars. I guess in New York that’s considered par for the course...

While the story may have left me wanting more, I was partially placated by the 'Web of Intrigue.' Basically, a great deal of the plot is told through flashes of memory of Mercer’s victims as he consumes them. Part of this is revealed while playing out the story, but other people who hold pieces of the puzzle locked away in their juicy brains will appear randomly throughout the city.

When Mercer absorbs these poor sods he soon learns of a larger conspiracy. What was a bare bones story gets fleshed out well in this regard, but there a couple of problems with it. First of all, there are a TON of random people you must consume. You don't always find them in order though, it's more of a jigsaw puzzle approach to telling the story which can be confusing.

My biggest complaint about this is that the randomly generated NPC's you need to consume spawn at the most inopportune times. You'll see the tell-tale orange profile icon pop up on the mini-map only to have it blink away seconds later because the poor sap gets run over by a tank or something. It's even more frustrating when you're bearing down on your victim, the chaos of battle all around you, and right before you reach him one of the army men shoots the ***. I can't tell you the number of times I nearly hurled the controller across the room in frustration.... the only satisfaction I got was hurling the corpse of my prey at the offending jackass instead.

Aside from checking in with the story occasionally and generally running rampant around town, there are a number of optional tasks and challenges you can attempt at your leisure for XP. Each challenge has different medals you can achieve: gold, silver, and bronze. Everything from taking out ‘X’ number of bad guys with a particular mutation to check point racing mini-game as you try and beat the clock. There is even a cool free fall mini-game where the goal is to glide from a distance onto the bulls-eye. These are fun diversions, but some of them are almost impossibly difficult to get the 'gold' medal. Rather than giving specific examples I'll just say this... Prototype is the only game where I've actually broken a controller in frustration... with my bare hands.

I've already mentioned that I thought the voice acting was pretty poor, and the soundtrack doesn't do much either. Graphically Prototype is decent, although draw distances are an issue, especially from height. There are also some lag issues during major fights, but considering how crowded the streets of New York are in the first place, adding mutated monsters and veritable platoons of army guys amidst the throngs of terrified tourists, makes that understandable.

Despite some pretty glaring flaws, I actually quite enjoyed Prototype. I had a lot of fun absorbing little old ladies then sprinting up the side of a skyscraper in a print floral dress... but got more and more bothered that no one seemed to care. I know New Yorkers have taken minding their own business to a whole new level but I just felt it was a bit off, and that, in a nutshell, is the problem with Prototype. Every time you feel like you are losing yourself in the game something happens that pulls you back. It feels shoddy. If a little more time and effort had gone into this game it could have been so much better, especially considering the promising premise. Factor in Mercer’s crazy abilities and it’s senseless violence at it’s finest, especially if you lean more towards the sadistic side;^) As it is though it's merely a fun and sometimes frustrating distraction that leaves us wondering what could have been...

Cheers,

Score = 7.25 / 10

P.S. Want to read more of my reviews? Go to Game Over... continue?!

Blog Post: A solid, fun game with some forgivable flaws.

S1r P3ndr4ag0n — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:35:00 GMT

What most people on this website seem to think is that this game proclaimed itself as the king of all games, or that it was a big-league release. its not, and it never said it was. Thing is though, at its core, this game really is solid. The vehicle controls are spot-on, as well as the player movement, though some of the crazier powers are hard to do, like X-B....

People get all hung-up about the plot, which is admittedly veeeery confusing. i pretty much skipped all the cutscenes though and started jumping off sky-scrapers and blowing stuff up with the thermoberic tank. the real fun from that is when the infected dominate the streets and you can plow down infected by the dozens. the devestators you can use are some of the craziest and most awsome powers ive seen in a game to date.

this is not the best game ever made, and there are flaws, but if the same developers make a sequel or continuation, it will be EPIC.

Now that you can pretty much get this game for about 15$, you really should buy this game. today.

Blog Post: The Modern Assasins Creed

Phaze — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 23:52:00 GMT

[Protoype]

What ever Happened to jumping around and blowing stuff up like a maniac anyway?

In anycase, playing Prototype was a strange and slightly, albeit Extremly disturbing walk through what was probably the big apple. But sadly i didn't have the slightest clue of what the story was about. My inturpretation of the story would leave to head scratching from the listener and the teller. So i'm not gonna get into that. A majority of my complaints come from the gameplay. And while jumping gliding and breaking & entering might all sound fun on the drawing board. The Controls really got to me. For example: The Cannon Ball Move was something that looked really really cool to do. But the Control componation was so hard to push all of them. You need to use both hands in a very akward position. And the atomatic jumping will get on your nerves. And the collectibles are hard to get strictly because of the gameplay that doesn't alow it. The Fact that the creators (who ever made this game anyway) of this made a special package that if you pre order Singularity you get a free copy of prototype, doesn't seem to do much good in it's favor. While I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel, i really hope they fix up the gameplay if they intend to make a sequel. And while there at it. GET A BETTER FREAKIN STORY!

Blog Post: spiderman: web of shadows 2

BRASCH — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:02:00 GMT

it's spiderman: web of shadows 2, minus the web swinging and pg13 rating. add in some gta and you've got prototype. it's a blast to play and you'll be surprised at how hard it is to put down.

Blog Post: A Badass Superhero

nathandrake — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:44:00 GMT

Prototype is one of those superhero games that most people might look away from. I did not look away from this game and was very surprised at what I found. This game is impressive from start to finish. the graphics are gorgeous and cutscenes look very real. The controls might take some getting used to at first and some of the minigames in the game like the tank minigame is boring, repetitive and sometimes very stupid. The story is good but not great. At some points in the game you may lose track of where the story is actually going, and sometimes you might even know what is going to happen. The sound is very impressive. The explosions sound very real and you should absolutely play this game with surround sound. The voice acting is spot on and highlights the character nicely. As you progress through the game you will be able to improve your powers and be more of a badass. This is a very impressive superhero experience that a lot of people might enjoy if they just give it a chance. Prototype is a 8 out of 10.

Blog Post: My usual Good vs. Bad review for Prototype (MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! You have been warned)

that_sterlin_kid — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 01:08:00 GMT

My usual Good vs. Bad review (MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! You have been warned)

I don't understand where all of the hate and negative feedback comes from, and really, I dont care. I have been following this game since its GameInformer debut in 2007, and I am far from disappointed. But why? Well I guess it's about time to tell you in the Good vs Bad review.

The Good:
- Though they aren't the best, the graphics in Prototype are great. They also make New York city look and feel like New York city. Little to no things are fake, from names of stores, to area locations.(Oh, and for those who wonder, "Does the blood actually look like blood, and not just a red mess?" The answer is yes!

- The story is very deep, causing the player to constantly think whats going to happen next, and who is doing what. Personally, I think this games story belongs with the best of them.

- There are many side missions which you can do either during or after you complete the story (yes, you can go back and do everything you missed once the final boss is killed. You don't have to start over.)

- There is a WIDE variety of powers, one of the widest selections I have seen so far when it comes to not just an action game, but an open world game. Oh and did I forget to mention that over 80% of the powers/moves you buy with EXP can be upgraded AT LEAST once?

- With all the powers you can have comes a challenge, and Prototype doesn't disappoint. You will constantly be up against many enemies at once, bringing you a not too difficult, but FAR from easy fight for survival.

- In open world games, transportation and how you're going to get from place to place seems to be a big deal, and though you can't drive cars in Prototype, you can sprint at the speed of one, and even faster if you upgrade it! You can also (SPOILER START!)>>>Drive around in tanks you Hijack from the military, and further in the game you can even fly helicopters.<<<(SPOILER END!)

The Bad:
- Though I just said this game isn't too difficult but far from easy, there are some points in the game that may seem incredibly difficult. With over 20 enemies shooting at you simultaneously with infected and tanks+helicopters, it's going to take patience to get through some points of the game.

Overall I would definitely recommend buying this game, especially if you have been looking forward to it for awhile. If not, definitely go for a rental and decide from there. It's an action-packed, pulse pounding, blood gushing, thriller! (9/10) (4.5/5)

Blog Post: Overrated

qmaster2012 — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:34:00 GMT

well, let's just face it, i got the game, i played it, beat in the same day, took me about 5 hours to beat it, what's up with that. Got all the secret levels and everything. not the best game i've ever played.

Blog Post: My Prototype Review

Chris Richardson — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:15:00 GMT

Prototype a top game that many gamers excited about which was a good game i have to start with the bad, apparently, the first announcement of the game was good but they delayed the game realease because there was a few ajustment and than it came out and it was totally terrible than the announcemment. The gameplay and all that was good but what we saw in the first 10 or 8 minutes of the game was totally different than what was release now.

Anyway besides that the gameplay its top noche and powers that you are able to use is incredible, you are basically a walking slaughter house and you can do anything. With your shapeshifting powers you can consume anyone and take there form and have all there memories, than you can turn yopu hands into bone slicing claws to a massive sword and leave destruction in your wake. As you progress throguh the game you get to have some stealth missions and what not cosume a soilder and take his form and sneak in a military compound, to killing thousands of infected with all your upgraded powers

Prototype is a good sandbox game with its flaws but the gameplay and campagin are really good and you'll have a good time

Blog Post: Prototype

Gamers Row — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:18:00 GMT

Another military expiriment!

Prototype is one of the greatest games I have ever played.Not as good as Assassin's Creed or Halo 3:Odst,
but still really good.

Playing Mutant Shift-Shaper Alex Mercer,you can go around and expore the huge Manhattan Island,consuming(kind of like eating brains.)to take their appearance and memories,to
help you uncover what happened to you and
recover you past life.

The main narritive story line is quick paced and fun, and stepping off of it...
a variety of sub-missions
(Mini-games using a specific power) and Consuming events
(kill the people to help the web of intrigue).

I do like how you don't fight only
certain people,seeing how you fight
other stupider,uglier zombie-like mutants
and a military squad called 'Blackwatch'.
But it does get annoying fighting off
super-strength monsters and getting shot at the same time.
One of my favorite parts is flying and driving.
Helicopters and Tanks are just super fun.
Getting into a helicopter is easy,but the
tank...not so much, seeing that you have to go through an annoying button-mashing game where enemies can either chip away at fire at slowly chipping at your Alex's health, or firing a explosive, while you can't do anything.

If you can get past those few annoyances, it's a great game.

Rating 9.25
Replay 3
Graphics: Really Good
Sound: Okay, Not Bad

Blog Post: [PROTOTYPE]: A Hands On Review

Shawn Gordon — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:31:00 GMT

When I first sat down to play [PROTOTYPE] I wasn't quite sure how I was going to feel about it. The trailers didn't really give me a good sense of the game style, only what the game was about - a man, Alex Mercer hunting someone down for turning him in to something. So, the story didn't come of as very unique. Any time I saw someone playing it, it came off as a general platformer: run, jump, attack, dodge, and shoot. Again, nothing stood out as stellar, yet there was a buzz about the game among players that led me to believe it was worth the money.

Yes and No.

You play as Alex Mercer, an apparent test subject who awakens in a morgue moments before being autopsied. Scared, confused and without any memory of who he is or how he got in a morgue, the player must seek out the information on the 5 "W's" but something is different - you're infected with a virus that allows you to alter your genetics at will.

It is pretty tough to try and explain in simple terms how the game both fails and succeeds and harder still, to explain that through it all, it's both somewhat unfulfilling but worthwhile fun.

The game isn't very original in any aspect and I feel that the large selling point was yet another game with an 'open' world. There are lots of 'open' games and each one strives to distance itself from the feeling of what it is - a platformer. I think that the new platformers are 'open': GTA, Spiderman, Fable, and Fuel. All with different elements but all also open. [PROTOTYPE] is a mix of those with exception of Fuel.

In many regards it actually feels like a darkly Spiderman, where Mercer is the anti-hero...the "Venom", neither good nor bad - just focused and singular. Those around him have no general value. There are however a few characters the Mercer seeks out, but it is always for his own ends. It also has a Fable feel, where good and evil are little more than a blurry mesh of perspective toward the overall goals of the game. Another similarity between Fable and [PROTOTYPE] is the manner in which abilities are obtained. The player doesn't advance in levels or have to repeat an action so many times before they are awarded a more advanced ability or version of it, but the player is encouraged to embark on side missions that not only reveal parts of Mercers missing memory leading him closer to discovering the truth about himself and the events taking place in the game, but gain experience points (called 'evolution points') to 'buy' abilities and buffs. This is done by consuming people - yes, you grab them and then basically eat them, and as a result can replenish your health, take their form and learn what they know - like how to fly a helicopter (it's very Matrix in that sense). Hooray for body snatchers.

The game setting is in NY, and yet looks nothing like NY. It is however bustling with people, police, cars, and soldiers who just assume shoot you dead if they don't like you. One of the games biggest downfalls is in the city folk. If the player run through a crowded street and pushes too many people or hurdles too many oncoming cars, they freak out and you have a pretty good chance of being hunted down until those after you lose sight of you. On the other hand if you pick up a car, walk through town and jump 15 stories you'll hear comments like "Wow, look at that!" and people go about their business. The AI seems to have a very skewed and limited scope of suspicious behaviors and it simply detracts from the game-play as a whole. I mean, it's allegedly NY, pushing, and running out in traffic aren't too uncommon; jumping over a small building.... that's much less common. None the less, players may roam around the city freely much like in GTA, but it becomes boring and uneventful (like GTA) quickly unless you take on the mini-missions. In the city travels players can run up walls indefinitely, jump ridiculously high, and glide for moderate distances - so the game takes on a feel of Spiderman.

Wall running and gliding is fun for a bit, and it is a fast way to travel unseen, but it can become cumbersome because players will spend just more time in vertical travel then horizontal. There are however, alternatives - like hijacking a tank or helicopter and just blowing stuff up for no good reason other than to rack up evolution points.

Where the game does itself justice is in the main feel - it plays much like Advent Rising mixed with F.E.A.R. It feels like Advent Rising in the way the story is told and F.E.A.R. in how the story unfolds. Actually, it's almost an identical story to that of F.E.A.R. - 30 years ago some tests were done on a woman.... yada yada yada. I could get into it to detail but why ruin the fun, right? Suffice to say, F.E.A.R. has a more "WTF" kind of climax.

Oh, and like F.E.A.R., the story is given to the players in 50 or so 10 second segments, but unlike F.E.A.R. it's told from several perspectives sporadically. It then becomes the player who has to go over the gathered story lines and connect the memories of other people to learn the whole truth. It's an aspect of the game I rather enjoyed (but I enjoy certain types of research anyway).

The graphics and physics engine for [PROTOTYPE] are about as expected. The models run as though there is a load in their pants, but... running isn't easy to model without at least someone thinking it looks a little off. I will say that the textures get a bit repetitive and the lighting seems a bit generic, however when there is action to be had it all happens so fast and fluidly that those details immediately leave your mind. On the plus side, at least the character faces don't look distorted and inhuman (unless they are inhuman and then that's kind of the point).

The game adds a few little nuances to project imminent power - such as when a Mercer falls 100 or so stories from the top of a building; he lands on his feet but utterly destroys the pavement beneath him sending a shock wave about 30 scale feet from the point of impact killing people and blowing up cars or other vehicles. When Mercer yokes someone up by their neck, they don't come up just a few inches, he's got them as far as he can reach and does so easily... Mercer appears as 'the quiet guy no one fucks with'. And, for a while these little details simply add to what fun can be had - ripping up A/C units, crushing skulls with your knee (one of several random 'consumption' actions), pulverizing the asphalt by dropping a thousand feet from the sky, throwing a person by their neck into a concrete slab... all of the things we dream of doing when we envision ourselves as some bad ass without being called 'psychotic ***' for doing it. Everyone wins.

All in all, the game isn't bad. It's not the sleeper hit, or instant classic that some would have you believe, but it's proof that developers are coming around and pay attention to the games people remember and want to play. On the other hand the fact that the game mimics a handful or so of other titles over the span of 3 to 5 years also means that Activision may be out of original ideas.

Don't rush out and buy [PROTOTYPE] thinking that the title is a 'must have', it isn't, but buy it if you like the new era of open platformers which give a dark style of story and game play without treading into unfamiliar game territory.

On a scale of 1-10... mmmm.... 6.75 - It's 'alright', good to rent and blow through quickly, it really isn't offering up a unique style of play, or an overly interesting or unpredictable storyline. And, it's not something that will embellish the 'wall of awesome.'

File: Prototype