Review: Prototype (PC)
Putting together an open world game can be a complex challenge for a development team. The stakes are raised several fold when you decide to use a real city for your open world environment, as you then have to put together a semi-realistic recreation of said city. Prototype uses its open world environment to the best of its abilities, but unfortunately, numerous flaws rough of the edges of what could have been a breakout title for 2009.
In Prototype, you play as Alex Mercer, or what you believe is a character known as Alex Mercer. Apparently, Alex is having a bad day, as he has died a few times, seemingly surviving each death. Yeah, Alex is not exactly what most people would call human, as he has been infected by a virus that alters his genetic composition. What does all that Greek mean? Well, Alex can use all kinds of deadly powers to take apart a conspiracy and mutation that is infecting the island of Manhattan.
From the start, Prototype presents the player with a fully recreated island of Manhattan, complete with several landmarks, and all kinds of missions and challenges to keep you busy for 15-20 hours. However, the problems start when you mobilize through the city and you notice an absolutely generic Manhattan. 90% of the buildings look identical, sometimes just using one of a handful of skins to make it seem a bit different. Yes you can find the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and other landmarks, but those few iconic structures are mired in a sea of repetitive textures.
It does not help that the engine that powers Prototype does not make things look all that great either. Some of the character models look well done, but again, there are so few character models in the city that you feel like Manhattan is inhabited by the same 20 residents over and over. The engine only becomes worse as more items end up on screen, leaving you with a chaotic, blurry mess during combat with a dozen or more characters. Mix in some issues with drawing distances, where a weird haze leaves you missing any kind of details that would be 50 feet outside your viewing range. All of these issues most likely come from a poor porting of the title from the Xbox 360 platform to the PC, as the specs recommended to run the title, far exceed things like Bioshock 2, and yet the latter runs so much more smoothly on the PC.
Prototype does mix in a few new game mechanics that I really did enjoy, one of which is the Web of Deception. As you move Alex through the environment, you will find red markers on your map that will show a person of interest. If you find this person and absorb their body into your collective, you will get a small piece of the story unlocked via a flashback. At first, the mechanic seems gimmicky, but as you unlock more parts of the story, you start to get addicted to finding these people so you can get a clear understanding of the story behind Mercer and how he came into his powers and infection. These little story tidbits flesh out the main story which is interesting, and surprisingly, the strongest part of Prototype. I constantly wanted to move the story forward to find out more about the experiments that the military had worked on and how they were responsible for the slow infection moving through Manhattan.
Prototype does offer a ton of side quests and missions that add extra value to title. You have racing missions, assassination missions, mayhem missions and more. I did complete a few of these side missions, but overall, they always felt a little generic, and after three or four, I was far more interesting in driving the story, rather than perform X-Y-Z task. You also gain access to a huge inventory of new moves, attacks and defenses to upgrade Alex in his path of destruction. You will need to complete a lot of side missions to get all the upgrades, as some cost a lot of experience.
Prototype does commit two brutal flaws that stopped me from looking at the title as a good game, and moving it into the class of average game. The first is that the engine for Prototype looks to be ripped right out of Radical’s Hulk titles. I mean when you put them side by side, the pathing and destruction look very similar in nature, barring a few visual upgrades for the Prototype engine. If you played Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, Prototype will feel eerily familiar. The other big no-no was the inclusion of an annoying boss mechanic where you fight a similar heavy enemy that you have faced several times in the game, but it ramps up the challenge ten-fold, and mixes in some horrible check pointing. My battle with the final boss could have been a twenty minute affair with proper checkpoints. Instead, it became a mind numbing four hour battle, with my character constantly dying. This kind of frustration should never be a part of a boss battle. Make them hard developers, not irritating to the point of making me want to pull my fingernails out to relieve some of my pain.
All in all, Prototype is a fun little diversion, which will hook you with a rather well written tale of mystery and deception. However, after you spend several hours with the title, you just start to wonder when you will find the end, only to be met with hours of futile trial and error to finish the game. You will get some enjoyment out of Prototype, but it is decidedly average at best. Prototype gets 2.5 out of 5 Aeropausonauts.
Check out Prototype and other PC reviews at Test Freaks.
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