If I had to sum Prototype up in one sentence, I would describe it as an open-world action adventure game with insanely over-the-top action and powers. It’s similar to a game like Crackdown, but with the insane-o-meter turned up by 10. In Prototype, you play as Alex Mercer. Alex Mercer is an insomniac who wakes up as he’s about to be cut open in a morgue, having been deceased. He makes a run for it, and during his frantic escape he discovers that he has gone far beyond the realm of a normal human being. He can leap tens of feet in the air, lift and toss heavy objects such as cars, endure a degree of damage that would kill normal men ten times over, and even consume other living things to restore his strength and take on their appearance.
Alex soon remembers that he has a sister and sets off to find her. From there, the game’s prose plays out about half naturally through the game’s story-centric missions, and half through special humans that Alex can consume and catch a glimpse of the game’s overall story through their memories. Finding these people is almost exclusively optional, but they do a lot to fill in the gaps that the game’s story missions don’t do a very good job of filling in. Still, it’s doubtful that anyone was picking up Prototype for it’s amazing plotline for obvious reasons. The action in this game is among the most psychotic ever presented in a video game. To find one word to describe Prototype’s gameplay, I would have to go with “empowering.” You truly feel like a superhuman imposing your will down upon the city of Manhattan. That isn’t to say that you won’t meet with worthy opposition. As the game progresses, tanks, helicopters, monstrous creatures and super-soldiers will all come at you in swarms. While it’s incredibly satisfying to destroy your foes, at times the action just gets so insane that it’s really difficult to even tell a lot of what’s going on, and target your desired foe. Still, utilizing your vast inventory of offensive and defensive options makes even the most dire situations manageable.
Prototype offers a huge number of upgrades and special moves to enhance Alex and prepare you for the challenges that lie ahead. You can morph your arms into lethal weapons, utilize a defensive armor or shield, enhance all of your movement abilities, increase your stealth abilities, become a better pilot with a helicopter or tank, enhance your proficiency with various firearms, and much, much more. The list of upgrades is staggering, and the number of abilities available pretty much ensures that not all of them will find their way into your regularly used repertoire, but they’re all a lot of fun if used in the right circumstances.
Prototype excels when the action is reaching a sublime peak, so the only design decision that really baffles me is the inclusion and forced use of stealth. As mentioned, when you consume a human you can take their form. This is useful for getting the military off your back when you are wanted, but you’re also forced to use it whenever you want to infiltrate a military base. But why? Alex Mercer is a complete monster. When he is capable of destroying the base structurally, why the hell does he have to sneak into the base in order to clean it out? It seemed unnecessary and quirky to me. Using stealth as an optional ability can be fun, but in a game like Prototype that lives and dies by its action, it’s annoying to be forced to sneak around.
The graphics in Prototype aren’t amazing by 360 standards. In particular, the character models don’t look very impressive and at points even get a bit blocky. The environments are fine, and some of the city’s high points are an impressive sight to behold, but overall the visuals fail to do anything breathtaking. The soundtrack and sound effects point supplement the action-oriented gameplay very well. The sound is crisp and satisfyingly brutal for most attacks, and the soundtrack is suitably adrenaline-pumping.
At the end of the day, Prototype is a really fun action game with a loose, almost sadistic edge to it. The open world is a lot of fun to just mess around with, and most of the missions presented in the game are pretty fun as well. Some of the extra missions feel a bit tedious and uninspired, but for the most part the game does a good job of keeping a pace appropriate to the over-the-top action. Prototype is a game that is just satisfying and a lot of fun to play when it’s playing to its strengths. The feeling of power and dominion over the declining city of Manhattan given to the player is on a level rarely, if ever seen before. And whether Prototype sings to your own personal tastes or not, there’s absolutely something to be said for that.
-Elias