In our younger years, and to those who are still young and young at heart, we’ve at one time or another wanted to be superheroes. Game developers recognize this and provide us with opportunities to live out that dream even in the virtual world. Now as games become more and more complex, Activision brings us Prototype. Can it address our heroic fantasies?
Prototype starts out with a preview of what to expect as the game ends which is a pretty freakin’ awesome way to start a game since you get a taste of what powers you’ll be wielding. You are Alex Mercer, you wake up in a morgue with strange new abilities like shapeshifting and running on the side of buildings. This is after a viral outbreak that starts to change Manhattan’s population.
Your final goal is to find out what happened to you no matter what happens and whoever you have to kill incidentally. You do this by killing (as said) and absorbing people who hold relevant information regarding the situation in Manhattan.
Prototype doesnt look extra impressive per se. Textures are not that detailed, polygon count is a bit on the medium to low side. However, if taken all together, makes for a fast paced awesome looking game. The visual details perhaps were a bit toned down (not significantly) to make room for all the crazy things that happen as you play the game (example: running on the side of a building then jumping to catch a helicopter as explosions surround you).
The game sounds amazing. In a crazy firefight with the military and the infected (people who move like zombies – well they’ve become zombies) explosions, shell impacts, zombies growling and people screaming for their lives give you an adrenaline rush. What really sets you over the edge is when you can still hear radio chatter from soldiers trying to call for a strike team back up.
The gameplay of Prototype is what really hooked us. It is simply exhilirating. You can go stealth by consuming people and transforming into them. Or, you can just wreak havoc around the city bringing buildings down and killing thousands.
The game is set in an open world where you can frolic in your superhero boots doing side mission and main missions. Side missions range from killing as many enemies as possible given a certain amount of time to racing in rooftops. The main missions follow the story of Alex Mercer . Both types of missions offer experience points that you will need to learn new abilities.
These abilities make for one crazy game. You can throw cars, lift tanks, hijack just about any vehicle (maliban sa mga taxi at kotse ng mga civilian, dapat military). You can also glide, run like the wind and turn your viral infected body into blades, whips, boxing gloves that will shame Manny Pacquiao.The only problem is there are soooooooooo many abilities and moves you simply cannot remember how to activate them all immediately, after long hours of gameplay though, you get used to them.
You also need to balance out the control of the city between the Military (who are quite abusive), and the infected (lahat nalang kinakain nila at pinapatay). So you destroy military bases and infected hives to do this. All the while, you will need to consume people and follow the story. You will never run out of things to do.
After you finish the game, you are allowed to keep playing and finish all the side missions, save the populace, destroy military equipment and turn Manhattan into your super heroic stomping ground. You are given rewards once you finish the missions so there is plenty of replay value.
If you are a fan of GTA type open world games, if you like wreaking havoc in densely populated areas or if you simply are looking for a really good game to pretend you’re a superhero in, this is it.
Pinoy Gaming Rate
[starreview tpl=16]