Prototype – Xbox 360
Picture this, the game starts with a character named Alex mercer laying on a morgue table, he wakes up and all hell breaks loose. He fights his way out of the GENTEK facility and escapes the military and settles upon a rooftop. From high atop a building Alex sees New York city is filled with mutants and he discovers he has abilities that give him enormous strength, speed, agility, weaponry and the ability to consume people to gain their appearance, memories and abilities. In order to regain his health he must consume people, take their appearance, memories and clothes. He searches out his sister Dana who will lead him on missions to find out what exactly happened to him and New York City. During the course of the game Elizabeth Greene escapes the GENTEK facility and takes control of the infected people becoming their master in the process. During the first face off with the military chosen one Captain Cross he injects a suppressant into Alex that takes away Alex’s power. Alex tracks down Dr.Ragland who develops a cure for him and a weapon to use against Greene.
A Leader Hunter kidnaps Dana and that leads to Mercer tracking down the hive. This leads to a Greene vs. mercer showdown and Alex injects the formula into Greene. Later on in the game Alex is contacted by an unidentified contact who explains the how the virus came to be and about Elizabeth Greene. Back in the 1960’s the government tested the virus in Hope, Idaho which was designed to target predetermined races. Something went horribly wrong and Greene was the only survivor her genetic code was rewritten. Blackwatch took her son and then proceeded to nuke the town. Alex finds out he was a doctor at GENTEK and took the virus as insurance but Blackwatch caught him and he dropped the virus in Penn Station unleashing the virus on New York City. Blackwatch shoots Dr.Mercer but the virus consumes his body. Alex and his contact assist the military in putting the Bloodtox biological agent underground in order to drive the hive above ground for a fair fight. Elizabeth Greene emerges from the sewers as a big ugly monster. Alex defeats her and then consumers her. Alex than goes after Dr. Raymond McMullen for answers, he tells Alex about his history with GENTEK and then when asked about Hope, he commits suicide. The leader of Blackwatch Randall is ready to destroy Manhattan with a nuclear bomb. The contact and Alex meet, the contact turns out to be Cross.
Alex has to attack a military base and consumer Colonel Taggart and then he can in get access to the USS Ronald Regan where the nuclear bomb is being held. Once aboard the USS Ronald Reagan Cross reveals himself to the Supreme Hunter it’s time for him and Alex to battle for once and all. Alex than destroys the Supreme Hunter and then takes the bomb and fly’s it over the Atlantic Ocean where it donates. The blast radius hit’s Alex and his remains wash up on shore, he than consumes a bird and the game ends.
As you can tell there is a deep and confusing story going on, I thought I understood everything until the end when the details emerged about Alex. The voice acting in the game is decent. If I had to sum up Alex in a sentence it would be someone who seeks answers and vengeance and he does not care who he kills.
The combat in this game is very average at best, I couldn’t tell you the name of any of the attacks, I just pressed the buttons on my controller and people ended up dead. My favourite part of this was just walking into a crowd of people at Times Square and killing them all!. This game hands out experience points (XP) like McDonald’s hands out Big Macs, just too frequently. The reason for the abundance of experience points is that upgrades are oversaturated. There are far too many upgrades that are completely useless in this game. I would have preferred less XP points and fewer kick ass upgrades instead of 100 upgrade options. We have a super human and a city full of people, how does he gain his health back? The answer is simply just consume any random New Yorker to regenerate your health bar and that gives Alex access to that persons memories. By consuming military personnel he gains access to their weapons, tanks and helicopters.
In the last quarter of the game the amount of mutants and military on screen becomes instantly stupid and frustrating. You die constantly wandering what retard level designer decided these final missions had to include the amount of AI on screen and because Alex became confused on what to do next because the user is too busy smashing buttons in order to try and stay alive.
I wasn’t bothered to play any of the side missions prototyped had to offer.
Overall the first three quarters of prototype was a good experience and the last quarter of the game is an utter frustrating experience which will surely cause you to curse a few times as you wander how you died. There are many points throughout the game where you go hell yeah that was fun and the next minute you are scratching your head. I don’t think Prototype is worth a purchase but if you have a gamefly, gameaccess or blockbuster account and you have nothing to play be sure to rent it.