22nd Entry - Prototype

Yeah, yeah. I know this is kinda old. But honestly, nothing new has come out recently that I have wanted to play. Fortunately, ODST on the 22nd will fix that.

Anyway, Prototype.


Prototype - Xbox 360

You're Alex Mercer, an amnesia-struck shapeshifter out for vengeance. Awesome. When i saw the trailer for the first time i could scarcely contain myself. Unfortunately, the one thing Prototype has taught is to never get too excited for sandbox games. Despite the multiple attemts to change up gameplay, it always ends up repetitive. Don't get me wrong, Prototype is very very good, it's just that what should be a refreshing and neat concept wears itself out rapidly.

Anyway, the story missions themselves are generally entertaining, aside from the one or two that are crappy escort missions. As much as I though I'd hate the brooding character of Alex Mercer, I actually was suprised to find i didn't. Quite the contrary, I found his attitude fit the game perfectly.

The controls themselves are simple enough, although in the midst of having tank rounds fired at you, the button mashing can be annoying. There are several powers you can shift between, from Whipfist, Blade, Musclemass, Claws, and Hammerfist, to the defensive Armor and Shield powers, to the useless Thermal Vision and Infected Vision powers.

Whipfist is the most useful by far, allowing you to annihilate groups of weak enemies in one or two button presses. It also lets you grapple onto helicopters from range, putting it in the #1 most awesome power spot.

Blade is what it sounds like, a giant blade erupting from Alex's arm. It kills everything dead. Including tanks. Pretty much all there is to it.

Musclemass is, as far as I can tell, useless, because why chuck cars ridiculous distances to kill helicopters when you can just steal them instead? A dumb power.

Claws are your first power, and slice through enemies quickly, but won't kill armored targets. Useful until Blade and Whipfist. Afterwards, totally useless.

Hammerfist is hilarious to use but in the end kind of just goofy and awkward. The only time I ever used it was to kill tanks by doing a people's elbow from 30 stories up onto them. Like I said, goofy.

Armor is awesome, it makes you near indestructible and extremely heavy, limiting your mobility. But when everything around you is crying from the death and destruction you bring, that doesn't matter one bit.

Shield is ok, Armor is better. Simple.

Both Vision powers are just a waste of upgrade points.

Now, I'm sure as you work your way through the game, you'll develop your own favorite powers too, but rest assured, some powers are simply bad.

After beating the main story (which actually has a well thought out and intriguing storyline) you'll do some of the events around the city. Eventually you will do the Consume events, which are fun. The Virus events are hilariously easy, and the Military consumer events are as well, until you hit the set of 7 "hard difficulty" ones. These are frustrating, unfun, and very unrewarding. Approach with caution. As for the rest of the events, War events are generally pretty fun, Kill events are easy save for a few, Glide events are stupendously simple and even kind of fun, and the foot race events made me want to burn my copy of Prototype slowly over coals.

Sandbox games aren't really my thing, but if you're looking for something to do for a few days, Prototype will happily fill the spot. Being a solid game, Prototype earns a 7.5/10.

Next entry will likely be a review of FEAR 2's new FEAR Reborn DLC, Fable II's DLC packs, or perhaps of the new XBL Arcade game Defense Grid. Maybe all of the above. Depends on the homework situation this week.

Until next time everyone.