Prototype takes place in a monster infested Manhattan where the US military has declared martial law to try and retake the city and prevent a deadly virus from spreading. You get to play Alex Mercer, a man who has been infused with a deadly organic virus that resulted in a loss of his memory but has turned him into a living weapon of unrivaled power. Getting to play around in the open sandbox of Manhattan is quite fun, and from the same team who brought you Hulk: Ultimate Destruction for the PS2, it’s a shame this game isn’t as fun, and yet still suffers from the same pitfalls as its giant green “predecessor”.
Mercer is able to run up buildings, leaps from skyscraper to skyscraper, and can turn his arms into all variety of mayhem inducing weapons. Although you start the game with only razor sharp claws, you can later purchase a whip-like tentacle, rock fists (a.k.a. hulk-hands), a giant blade, and a few more. Your agility gets upgrades as well, by being able to jump higher, further, gaining mid-air boosts, and the ability to glide for a short while. Eventually you can use your helpful little virus to form a strong shield, and later on a whole suit of armor.
Knowing that gamers love spending points, everything the player does grants him experience points that can be used in purchasing all sorts of upgrades. From weapons, to health, and even super powered finishing moves that destroy everything around you in a slow motion, camera spinning, rain of destruction. Sadly, the only weapon you really need is the whip fist, which is most helpful because you can grapple onto helicopters, hijack them, and clean up the mission from the skies with rocket pods. Most weapons are ancillary and although they have really cool uses, are never actually required to beat the game.
No regular human can withstand more than one hit from you without being torn asunder, even tanks can be taken out in one shot from certain weapons, but there are some monsters thrown at you that will be more of a challenge. There is a lock on feature to help you keep your eyes on a certain enemy, but most often it targets the least dangerous thing around, like a car, or a helicopter miles away that hasn’t even noticed you, not the monstrous beast who is pummeling you into the ground.
Mercer can also absorb people to take on their likeness to blend into crowds or sneak into military bases. The stealth aspect is rather broken, as you can easily perform stealth absorbs right in eye shot of a squad of soldiers staring straight at you. Absorbing also lets you learn and upgrades new powers, such as your skill with firearms, or the ability to call in military air strikes. Using absorption as a plot device presents the web of intrigue, in which you must track down a variety of people who have information about Mercer, and by consuming them, you gain a glimpse at a much larger picture.
There is an impressive amount of stuff going on at any given time, as the military can be seen fighting against hordes of zombie like mutants as civilians flee for safety. The frame rate can get a bit choppy but it will take quite a bit of mayhem taking place at once for that to happen, but it is rarely an issue for long if at all.
The story in this game is absolutely contrived. The more you learn about it, the less interesting it seems, although I adhere to a strict policy of not accepting any major plot devices that stem from Idaho. The movie scenes lack anything that might be considered visually pleasing, and when you get to see the character models up close, they are awful. The ending movie sequence takes about 2 minutes and is hellishly unsatisfying.
The enemy variety is very scarce, as soldiers pose no real threat at all, and the larger monsters only have one real attack, and that’s charging at you swinging their fists in front of them, like an angry gorilla suffering from brain damage, and this goofy looking attack can finish you off quicker than you might expect. One boss looks remarkably like a giant version of female reproductive organs that’s attacking Manhattan.
The game has a boss that you fight halfway thru the game, which comes back later as the games end boss, despite it having any lack of character or personality. I wasn’t mad at this boss, it wasn’t a part of Mercers plans for revenge, and it was just a big brainless monster that showed up in time to let the real bad guy escape. The final battle has a timer, which forces you to use certain battle mechanics to squeeze in enough damage before the clock hits zero, suddenly forcing you to play this game a certain way.
There are a host of mini games and challenges, but do nothing to flesh out the game world in any way, and can easily be more frustrating than challenging.
This is basically Hulk: Ultimate Destruction for PS2 but they’re replaced certain powers for others, but the trade-off seems to be for the worst. Instead of a robust grappling system, we can ride in tanks and helicopters. Hulk: UD had a handful of locals to destroy, Prototype only has one. A Green protagonist has character and an interesting back story, whereas Mercer wracks up the clichés with a gravelly voice and amnesia. Both games suffer from bad camera work in tight places. At times you can be surrounded by so many enemies that it becomes unclear where the most danger is coming from, and results in Mercer getting juggled to death by unseen forces, a problem in Hulk: UD as well. The best parts of this game were developed on the PS2, and the problems weren’t even addressed. MERCER SMASH!
This game is the epitome of rental.
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