Prototype

Here we are again. 48 hours since my last review and you are back for more abuse. Obviously you have no shame. Oh well, not my place to judge. The midget locked in my basement pretty much cheapens any attempt on my part to take the moral high ground.

I was sitting here in front of my keyboard thinking that it was time to either write something or masturbate furiously. I decided to go for the former, but staying with the spirit of my choice I am going to review a game that is itself pure masturbation for gamers with a God Complex.

My left hand is already trembling with anticipation.

Prototype was released back in June of '09, developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Activision. If you are an avid gamer then you have most likely heard of Radical Entertainment who are the current developers for the Crash Bandicoot series, but more importantly they were the makers of the "Hulk: Ultimate Destruction" game for the original Xbox and PS2 (One of my personal favourites from the last gen of games).

One reason I bring up the Hulk: UD game is because of the eerie similarity in gameplay. Prototype shares the same feeling of being a super powered being running around an open city causing death and mayhem and even uses the same system of gaining points from all the shit you pull to buy upgrades, abilities and new skills from one of the pause menu screens.

This is not a bad thing however. The game feels very fluid and you really do eventually build up enough power to feel like you are a God among insects. You will sprint up the sides of buildings, run from roof to roof, jumping hundreds of feet forward then gliding through the air before landing with a satisfying crash into a crowd of civilians below, turning one of your arms into a "whipfist" and cutting people in half with one swing of your new phallic symbol.

I'm pretty sure there is a sex joke in here somewhere.

You are Alex Mercer, an amnesiac who woke up on a mortuary slab with the power to absorb any living thing into his body while becoming more powerful with each consumption. You are the ultimate predator, able to run faster than any car, transform any part of your body into a weapon, take on the shape of anyone you wish and learn all the knowledge from anything you consume (or...at least you can do all these things to the limit of the game creator's imaginations).

With these abilities you eventually become nearly unstoppable, even learning to use tanks and helicopters as well as any gun or other random weapon you can get your hands on thanks to the memories of soldiers you consume. You also get stuff like heat vision, giant claws, a huge blade that practically screams "Fuck you!" and even an armored form.

Sadly, while most people would be happy to suddenly become something like the lovechild of Spawn and Jackie "The Darkness" Estacado, our dear Alex spends most of the story whining about not having his memories and wanting revenge on the ones who did this to him.

Seriously dude? You're fucking complaining?

Speaking of  the story: A short time after you wake up, the city starts getting a little...messy. People start turning into zombie-like things, buildings start growing fleshy tumors and eventually monsters start popping up. The Military also comes along to add some flavour to this barrel of monkeys as well as a mercenary group named Blacklight showing up to the party who have mysterious connections to Alex Mercer.

New York basically becomes a free-for-all warzone with Military/Blacklight areas and Infection areas as well as a few civilian areas thrown in for shits and giggles. The way the story is told works pretty well, you kill, consume and otherwise destroy your way through to get more answers with the plot advancing as it would in any other action game.

One of the interesting aspects of the story which breaks away from the norm is how they used the consume ability as a story teller in itself. There are certain people in the game world who you can consume to get more information on either Alex or the Infection. Whenever you come across these individuals, their consumption will add to your "Web of Intrigue" and reward you with a short video that reminds me very much of one of my acid-flashbacks from college.

Falcon Punch!

Now that I have pretty much covered as much as I possibly can without going into spoiler territory, lets talk about the other things that matter. Controls are tight and responsive. After around 15 minutes into this game I was pretty much comfortable with how everything ran and there were very few framerate issues on both the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game (the only time I got even a minor framerate dip was when I had around 100 people on screen with blood/body parts flying in every direction and tanks exploding on all sides). The draw distance is very good as well, just slightly better on the PC but not by much.

The graphics are very decent considering how much can be going on at any given time, you will constantly have rockets and bullets flying around, tanks, helicopters and a silly amount of people on screen at once (Infected, civies or the other guys I refer to as "lunch"). Alex is detailed to perfection with his jacket flapping in the wind as he runs and dodges, transformations looking beautiful in their own weird "Guyver" way and explosions looking like...well lets just say that Michael Bay comes off as a sensible drama film director in comparison.

Tentacle Porn and explosions? I can die happy now.

Apart from Alex and 6 or 7 other characters, the rest of the cast is slightly lacking in detail. There are around 8 different models for civilians (all using the magic of colour swapping clothes to give you the feel that there are more....it doesn't work) There are only around 3 different models for the Military units (pilot, captain, soldier) and 2-3 models for the Blacklight troops (super soldier and regular).

Of course that is not really an issue since around 90% of the time things will be too frantic with too many bodies and explosions going on around you to even notice. Unless you really take the time to just stop and walk a little around New York away from all the fighting this is not something that ever really comes up to bother you. Speaking of New York, the city itself looks gorgeous. Though not as detailed as some people would want (but seriously, fuck those people and their spoiled expectations)

Are you really gonna be a prick about how detailed the windows are right now?

It is still a pretty damn fine rendering with all of the major landmarks/places you would expect and is one of the true stars of this game. Starting in pristine condition and pretty much looking like you would expect it to, then slowly deteriorating over the course of the game until entire areas look like they were taken straight out of a wannabe movie sequel to Apocalypse Now. Eventually you have a city in flaming blood soaked ruins. Just the way I like it.

There is no question here. If you like action and want to feel like a GOD then get this freaking game now. I'm not kidding, the game doesn't even try to be coy about it. Around 20 minutes in, Alex gets nicknamed "Zeus" by the soldiers. Stop staring at me with your dead unloving eyes and go play the game right fucking now.