14)Prototype game PS3,xbox360 games reviews

Prototype for the PS3
Review by tapdancer01
"A very powerful, very detailed, very well made game"
Before I talk about about Prototype, let me say a bit about myself: I consider myself a hard core gamer and a video game connoisseur, I player RTS, FPS, and open world titles extensively. I recently rented Red Faction Guerrilla (very good game, btw) and was fortunate enough to see Prototype for the PS3 at BlockBuster. (I'm still waiting on inFamous, though
That said, I was very impressed with Prototype, and here's why:

Story:

The story is ambiguous at first: You're talking to some guy on a rooftop in New York City with a blazing city skyline in the background. Something aweful has happened but you don't know what. Then you flash back to 18 days prior, where the player character, Alex Mercer wakes up in a morg and then sees a few people get shot by some suspicious looking soldier.

The rest of the story is told through very well detailed and well made and extremely detailed cutscenes that you get to view once you 'consume' specific people, because one of Alex's abilities is to see the memories of people he has consumed. These cutscenes are tied together by the 'Web of Intrigue', which also allows you to view any cutscene you have unlocked at any time.

Given these two, the depth and detail of the story is obviously tied to how well you track down these specific individuals whom you must consume. Many of them can be had as part of the story missions or normal side missions, but it will take a concerted effort by the player to unlock them all. It's also convenient that if a memory-holding individual is killed, by being run over by a car or blown up by a stray missile, or even if the player kills them, they will not be permanently dead and the player will have future chances to consume this person.

Graphics:

The graphics in Prototype Ps3 are superb. The player character and all enemies are well detailed and, more importantly, there is no skip in frame rate regardless of how many character the game is rendering at any time. The game can easily render over 100 zombies/people/vehicles at any time, and usually does. Jumping from sky-scraper to sky-scraper is an inspiring experience when you can look down and see hundreds of taxis, tanks, people and zombies doing the tango on the city streets beneath. Or you can jump down to street level and see enemies and actions for several blocks in every direction.

The graphics also create a superb atmosphere of immersion. The first scene in the game where the player has control over Alex starts hot: You must immediately destroy a squad of enemy soldiers and tanks in the midst of a chaotic struggle between the military and civilians and zombies. The streets are littered with wrecked vehicles and corpses, people are running with zombies chasing them, buildings are on fire and smoking, there is a red-orange zombie slime covering the streets... everything about the game screams meticulous amounts of attention, detail, and atmosphere. It truly feels like you are watching the zombie apocalypse happening in real time

Gameplay:

The gameplay of Prototype PS3 is varied and challenging. The abilities of Alex Mercer are not unlocked all at the start, but must be unlocked by completing missions and 'purchasing' additional abilities using 'EP', which is earned by nearly every player action, from completing missions to finding blue orbs to killing random people on the street. The abilities of Mercer are varied enough to be customizable, enabling the player to choose how he wants to fight.

Enemies are varied. There are basic, light infantry enemies, infantry equipped with rockets, APCs, Tanks, Helicopters, Zombies, Heavy Zombies, special Heavy Infantry, flying UAVs, and special heavy zombie 'Hunters'. No enemy has one single weakness, so this gives the player a lot of freedom in how he chooses to fight. I chose to upgrade Alex's mobility above his attack power, so I generally used speed moves, dodging, and throwing moves* to defeat most enemies. And if you don't like killing enemies by hand, you can hijack armored or flying vehicles and use them, which is handy.

*you can pick up and throw nearly any object in the game

The missions are also surprisingly well varied. Story missions include killing specific targets, evading enemies, destroying enemy structures, sneaking into a base undetected, protecting a enemy convoy from zombies, and others. Side missions include races, landing on a target zone after falling from a building top, disguising as a soldier and helping the military fight off zombies, helping the zombies defeat the military, destroying zombie 'nests', infiltrating military bases, destroying military bases, and others.

Also, the difficulty curve is well done. I found the first half of the missions a breeze, but the second half were really challenging and very fun. The boss battles (of which there are three) are also very engaging. Additionally, side missions increase in difficulty as you progress, including even the races.

Lastly, Prototype has even managed to create emergent gameplay, which is amazing. Let me elaborate: One mission had the player destroy about 10 enemy helicopters before they count take off and escape the city. I brought my own helicopter to try and shoot them down, but the enemy AA in the area was so heavy that my copter was torn to shreds. After chasing down the first enemy helicopter and 'sky-jacking' it, the enemy AA again shot down my helicopter... so I jumped out, glided to the next helicopter and sky-jacked that one... and I did this for every single enemy helicopter... I downed every enemy without ever firing a shot or even touching the ground. This was only one of 50+ possible ways to complete that mission too. It it amazing.

Controls:

This is the only area where I was even remotely displeased. For me, controlling Alex felt really choppy and moving around was sometimes difficult, particularly the races because I would over-shoot the goals and have to back track, or I would over-shoot the tops of buildings and fall down to the streets. There was also a blue orb hovering between two smoke stacks of a factory, I tried to get this early on and it took me nearly 10 minutes. However, I tried that same blue orb after beating the game and it only took me 20 seconds to get it, so I'll say that the controls are a little rough to get used to, but otherwise very effective.

I saw another reviewer complain about controls over various moves being too similar. I didn't use all the attack moves, but I didn't have this problem. Every button had it's own function and, aside from occasional issues with the targeting system and picking up a particular item when there is a stack of 5 at Alex's feet, I never had any problems using any moves or differentiating them from each other. One button dodges, another jumps, one is basic attack, one is special, and pressing one after the other is usually a more powerful move. I found te layout to be intuitive and functional.

Sound:

Prototype also does extremely well in this category. The music was never particularly memorable, but there is always noise in the back ground... either idle traffic and idle chatter of a peaceful city, or screams of terror and explosions and fire of a city under siege. The background noise is surprisingly un-irritating and really contributes to the atmosphere.

Another thing that really impressed me about the sound was the variety of dialogue. Enemy soldiers talk a lot whenever they take actions, such as seeing the player character, calling in reinforcements, firing on a target, etc etc. I remember a mission where I shot down 10 enemy helicopters in a 2 minute period and not once did the pilot repeat the same may-day message... every pilot said something unique. One even said, upon me putting a missile up his tail-pipe, that he was going to attempt to auto-rotate to the ground.

Multiplayer:

None, unfortunately. :-(

Overall:

I cannot state highly enough how good this game is. It's not any one part, but all the parts together that make this game. The visuals, the audio, the controls, the gameplay, everything about this game works, contributes to the experience, and is detailed to a level that I have not seen in any game before it. Prototype is a modern masterpiece.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/09

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