Customer Reviews

PROTOTYPE

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(28)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

A big smile popped on my face within minutes of starting up Prototype, the latest open world action thriller from "Radical Entertainment", the developers behind "The Hulk Ultimate Destruction", and the "Scarface" video game. This game is incredibly fun, whether you are in a huge battle with explosions and bodies flying all over the place, or just simply jumping from building to building, taking in the scenery, I enjoyed every part of it, and I'll tell you why.

Story: The game tells a story that takes place over an eighteen day period in Manhattan. It is about a mysterious virus that has infected the population, spawning zombies,and monsters, and is slowly but surely taking over the island. You play as Alex Mercer, a man who has been infected with the virus, but instead of turning him into a mindless zombie, has given him powers that he upgrades throughout the game. He begins not knowing who he is, but over the course of the story, he will learn who and what he is, as well as unravel the mystery of what is going on.

The story is well told through cutscenes, and a feature called "The Web of Intrigue", which is Prototype's version of audio logs and journals. Throughout the city there are certain individuals, well over a hundred, that when you consume them, more on that later, you will gain their memories and see some of the things that character has done and how it relates to what is going on. This is a neat mechanic and you can get a lot of background on the story with this. For example, during some of the story cutscenes you will hear characters mention a 1963 incident with the virus in a place called Hope Idaho, but it is through the Web of Intrigue that you will get the real details of what happened there, so it is worth getting these Web of Intrigue targets to flesh out the story. You'll also find out interesting tidbits like Alex's clothes arent really clothes, but are actually a part of his body. The virus mimics the clothes. That is cool.

Graphics and Sound: The graphics are great. While they don't meet the graphic quality of games like GTA 4 and Call of Duty, they are still fantastic. Manhattan is very detailed, with cracks in the sidewalks and streets, graffiti on the walls, as well as trash and discarded furniture in alleys. The character models aren't the most striking, but they are still very good and get the job done. When you are in an infected part of the city, everything gets a red coloring over it during the day, and green at night. The effect makes you feel like you are in another world.The explosions were beautiful and some of my favorite looking explosions I've seen in a game. As for the sound, well, I wish I had a surround sound system. Just walking around the city, you'll hear the people walking around, cars going here and there, honking at other cars, but it is when the action heats up that the sounds get better. Explosions will rock your room, people screaming, monsters roaring, helicopters flying overhead, the scream of rockets coming at you, it is absolute chaos, and you can hear every sound, nothing drowns out the other. It is great. The voice acting is good, especially from Barry Pepper who does a great job voicing Alex.

Gameplay: The game is a third person open world action game. You have thirty one story missions,and a lot of fun side objectives you can complete for evolution points. Evolution points are what you use to upgrade Alex's various abilities, and there are a ton of them, well over a hundred, and you are unlocking new ones all the way till the end of the game. There are also 200 landmark orbs to collect, which are blue, as well as fifty purple hint orbs, that give you hints when you collect them. Pretty much anything you do in the game gives you evolution points. When you complete a mission, destroy a military base or infected hive, complete a side objective, or collect an orb, you are always getting evolution points.

There are various methods that you can use to kill your enemies. You can use the powers Alex has, hijack tanks and helicopters, when you learn to use them, pick up cars and different objects to throw at your foes, and you can use machine guns and rocket launches which are very fun. You can pick up people and use them as weapons also, either throwing them at others, or slamming them into the ground, causing a small shockwave. It never got old encoutering a military squad on top of a building, and picking up one of them and throwing them at their buddies, knocking them off and sending them screaming down to the streets below.

There are six kinds of side objectives you can complete to get a bronze, silver, and gold medal, as well as evo points. They are "Movement", which are check point races that I actually enjoyed, I usually don't like checkpoint races. My favorite, "Glide", that has you jumping from the top of a building and gliding to a target. "Kill", where you kill as many enemies as possible in a time limit. "War", which has you fighting on either the side of the military, or the infected, and trying to take the other out. "Military Consume" has you consuming certain military individuals or scientists in a certain location, as well as attacking a military base. And "Infected consume", where you consume an infected and learn the location of a hive and then destroy it in the time given. The side objectives are very fun and I spent a lot of time just doing those.

I was really impressed with the story missions, each one is fun and the game keeps the objectives fresh. Sometimes you have to go to a location and kill the enemies, others has you trailing a character to a certain point, and one had you chasing a beast, only to then have it chase you, while making sure you keep it's interest in you. Through to the endgame the story missions never got boring or repetitive. There is also an epic boss fight in Times Square.

Another aspect of gameplay is the consuming mechanic. Alex can consume, literally absorb them into his body, any civilian or military in the game, and take their identities. If you are being chased by the military and find a hiding spot, quickly change, and you'll hide in plain sight, giving the military the slip. You can also consume most of the infected. Also, you get health back from consuming individuals, so don't try to be a good guy and not kill civilians because it is impossible. They will always be around a battle, so kill with impunity and consume them when you need health.

Controls: The controls feel good and natural, and within minutes of playing I was hacking away, and leaping around with ease. It controls like your typical third person game, left stick moves, right for the camera. X button jumps, square button is your standard attack, triangle for you special attack, circle to grabe things and enter vehicles. The R2 makes you sprint, the L2 is your lock on button. The L1 opens up your powers menu, putting the game into slow motion so you can easily pick your power during a fight and not worry about having to get slammed in the middle of it. The R1 button will fire a weapon when you have one. Overall the controls were great and I never had a problem with them.

Alex Mercer: Here is my favorite part of the game, the player character. Alex Mercer is without doubt the most powerful video game character I've ever played as. When you begin the game you only have a few abilities, but as you upgrade you will turn him from an already powerful character, into a weapon of mass destruction. He will be able to change his body into various weapons. The ways Alex spreads death is awesome. He can use his plain fists for starters and do damage that way, but you can also turn them into different killing tools like huge razor sharp claws, rock hard small boulder like fists to smash fools into the ground, a whip that can kill from far away as well as hijack helicopters from afar, muscle mass which gives you extra strength, and a giant single blade. Each weapon has a use and you will use all of them depending on the situation, and when you kill somebody, 90% of the time they will be cut in half. The game is very gory and bloody so keep the kiddies away from this one. Alex will get what are called Devestator attacks which are super powerful attacks that clear the area of enemies. He also has a shield ability that deflects bullets back at the shooters, and eventually, full body armor that slows him down, but reduces damage, and it's cool looking to boot.

Getting around a city has never been so much fun. Alex can walk, run, and sprint, and it is the sprint that is the real beauty. Pull and hold down the R2 button to make him sprint, and NOTHING stops him. He'll leap over or off of cars, leaving them dented. Trees will break apart and not slow him down. He'll run up the sides of buildings and if there are fire escapes in the way, run right through them, he'll knock them off, sending them falling to the ground below. Crowds pose no problem, he'll plow right through them, knocking them down. Alex can also jump really high, and glide around the city. It is so much fun climbing the Empire State Building, then jumping off and gliding over the city. Also, no fall hurts him in the least bit, indeed, the only ones getting hurt are the poor fools unlucky enought to be around where he lands. Jump off a small buidling and he'll land leaving a small crater in the ground. Jump off a skyscraper, and he'll land with a thunderous boom, leaving a big crater where he landed, as well as knocking back cars and people with a shockwave.

Closing: There is a lot more I could write about this game. There was so much I enjoyed doing that didn't really involve any action from me. I would love going into an infected part of the city and standing on top of a small building, watching the carnage below as soliders, helecopters and tanks tried to fend off the infected, all the while civilians are running everywhere screaming and dying from the battle. It was fun just watching these events, and sometims a stray bullet or tank shell would fly my way. The battles I got in were some of the most intense, and jaw dropping battles I've ever taken part in in my entire gaming life. Rockets blowing up cars and people alike, running up buildings while the infected monsters chased after me, getting into some sweet tank battles as well as helicopter battles in the air, and seeing the aftermath of the battles, with wrecks and mutilated bodies filling the streets. It was awesome. If you love action games, give this game a shot, I don't think you will be dissapointed. This is by far the best game I've played all year, and my early nomination for game of the year. Thanks for reading my review and I hope it helps in your decision to play this game.

As ridiculous as it is to pay lip service to this ongoing grudge match between these two very different games, I thought it might be useful, now that I've played both, to address this question of game comparison through the lens of extensive gameplay experience.

I own both of these games on the ps3. I've completed Infamous (as the Hero Cole) and I'm probably 20 hours into my first playthrough of Prototype.

I purchased Infamous first because I wanted to support my platform exclusive, and because I was fairly confident that it would be worth playing, which it was. However, that said, once I started into Prototype, I can say with absolute certainty that, at least for me, there is no comparing these two games, but that if i am to compare, then Prototype beats Infamous hands down in terms of pure fun and playability.

The combat and pace of Prototype is unbeatable. They could not have designed the game more to my taste. A constant stream of EP (or Evolution Points) keeps the upgrades coming, and with new upgrade options making themselves available as the game progresses, there are countless ways to increase your skills.. most of which are both incredibly satisfying and essential to the gameplay as it gets progressively more difficult.

The controls, which take some getting used to (as with any involved control scheme) are totally solid, particularly considering the range of incredible the abilities your character has access too. I found that simply traversing "manhattan", once you've acquired the basic sprint jump, air dash and glide upgrades, is easily the best fun i've ever had getting around in a video game. ever. there is nothing quite like charging up a jump and gliding over the city.. using air dash to dodge and zigzag through the air, and then, coming down hard on an unsuspecting helicopter or just perching atop the city and surveying the action below. In my experience, no game has ever provided the player with such an intoxicating feeling of power, and certainly, Infamous is no exception.

While each mission is made up of several objectives, and dying during any one will restart you at the last completed objective, saving and quitting the game will unfortunately start you from the point before you accepted the entire mission, potentially costing the player some of the time they put into the game. At first this bothered me, as some of the mission objectives are difficult enough to warrant multiple attempts, but once I got rolling, I found that this design decision did not detract from the game.

While the graphics for Infamous are more stylized and refined, particularly in the cut scenes, the action, particularly during targeting and fight sequences actually looks better to me in prototype, perhaps simply because there is nothing even remotely as exciting, either in look or feel in all of infamous. Even at the peak of Infamous (ie: the very end of the game, when you acquire the skill to call lightening from the sky) the feel is still more measured and the fighting is just less exciting, often substituting spamming you with enemies over raw, adrenaline pumping action. While the story in Infamous, even with the nice comic-styled cut scenes, is hard to stay interested in, Amazingly, the story in Prototype, while hard to care about at first, becomes more enthralling as you get increasingly caught up in the action.

When I bought Infamous, I was sure that I'd made the right decision, and bought the superior game, and yet, as I played through it over the course of a few months, it felt more like work than play. I thought it was interesting, and kind of fun, but not addictive. That said, I bought prototype as an afterthought, on sale.. and after less than 2 days of playing it, there could be no question as to which I preferred. Prototype is just more fun, and this is not meant as a dig at Infamous, which I thought was a good game.. In fact, I can say without question that Prototype is my favorite video game ever. Period.

Prototype is fun. 100% action fueled fun. Get it.

I saw a trailer on youtube and myspace the day it came out and ordered that same day on Amazon. The game came friday, I started playing saturday. I beat it (that is I completed all the main missions) Monday evening with a total game play time of about 17 hours. But the side events they provide and just roaming the city still provides hours of entertainment. It's easily my favorite game on my PS3. Granted I only have about 10 games, but that includes Assassin's Creed, GTA 4, The Orange Box, Saints Row 2.

The game's graphics are only 720p, but the quality's still nice especially the cut scenes when he consumes people of interests. This opinion is based off playing it on a 52 inch tv.

The different amount of attack options make many of them hard to remember, so I usually pause the game and review the ones I can't remember that I'll probably use for a mission soon.

I'm very happy with my purchase of this game.

I'm surprised to see so many bad reviews. I took advantage of the PS+ for a month and downloaded some trials for games I was interested in. Prototype was close to the top of my list. I had just downloaded InFamous for free and found I had more fun in an hour with Prototype than I had in three hours with InFamous. When I saw it for sale for $20, I picked it right up and haven't regretted it since.

The intricacies of the game system have been explained in better detail elsewhere, but for my money, it's hard to beat Prototype for sheer bad-assery. At one point, my wife turned to me and said, "Did this game ruin other (sandbox type) games for you?" I can't say it has completely, but I sure wish InFamous would let me run up the side of a building, jump off and glide several hundred feet, before crashing down on an unsuspecting populace.

Some people have complained about the graphics, but I think they're perfectly serviceable. I can climb to the top of an immense building, look down and see the street, along with several of the collectible orbs. What else do we need? Really, if I have anything to complain about, it's that I often get so caught up in the mayhem, I lose sight of what my mission is supposed to be. It irritates my wife when I'm supposed to be all stealthily making my way into a military base, and instead I go running in at 45mph, set off a detector and blast off into the air before the military even knows what hit them. Oh, did I mention you can kick helicopters out of the sky?

Look, I haven't completed the game, so it's possible it'll run out of steam before the end. But I often don't finish these open-world games. So far, the story-line is interesting if not mind blowing, but the real draw here is the fun factor. This is my current go-to game when I have a few minutes to cause havoc. Of course, those few minutes often become hours, until my wife wakes up and asks me what time it is and I'm forced to recognize it's well past my bed-time. That, to me, is the mark of a great game.

Prototype is an excellent game with much more pro's than cons. Although there are quite a few cons, they are all extroardinary small compared to all the pro's. The story is superb and keeps you guessing whats going to happen next. The game play is filled with mayhem at every corner but only if you make it that way. There is a massive amount of upgrades that come at the perfect pace. The map is massive but at the speed you move, you can quickly travel all of New York within minutes. The soundtrack is amazing. It has a dark and suspenseful tone too it. Just like a movie soundtrack, it really adds to the game. This is definitely game of the year material. I would highly recommend it.

Ok, It is not on the top of graphics, have no spectaculars effects or awesome textures (like RE5), but who cares? Prototype is fun, seriously, very fun.
Prototype exploits the processing capabilities of the console in other ways: massive elements on the screen.
Is very impacting see a lot of citizens fighting for their life againts more and more infected ones. All sorrounding by the militia, shooting to everyone, with soldiers, tanks and helicopters, big uglies hunters chasing you... and you (yeah! you) unleashed, destroying everything.

Sounds crazy? believe me, It's crazy and very fun.
Recomend it? absolutly!

Sorry about my english.

I recently bought this game from my local game store, and i was immediately blown away by the frenzied gameplay and bloody action. Story is you are Dr. Alex Mercer, who has the ability to shapeshift, but it is unknown why you have them, so you must find out who did this to you. The story is nothing big, something you would maybe read in a comic book, it's as generic as can be. The gameplay on the other hand is great, it's fast paced, bloody and brutal. The different abilities you gain are fun to use, and they mix it up by having certain enemies weaker to different powers, some missions are repetitive, some are down right, curse word slinging, controller throwing, headache inducing impossible. when not playing the story missions, you can try your hand at the side missons, which range from "sneak into that base" to "glide to the target" and even one where you side with either the military or infected and take the other side down. One other thing i find a distraction, but a good one, is just free running through the city, nothing is more fun then running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop at full speed, or running through a crowded street with hunters chasing you and helicopters blasting everything around you. Graphically, the game is good, Alex's model is great to look at........in a manly way of course, and the city does look good, often cluttered, but it is Manhatten so i guess they got it right there. there is some pop up, but thats to be expected when you have an open city with something always going on in the streets. Most people have been saying get Infamous instead, i didn't enjoy the little time i spent with it due to it's slow gameplay, in terms of story, it might be better, but i didn't get far enough to find out, that and i don't like the electric powers, i'd rather shapeshift and slash infected people to bloody bits, but thats just me. The most important thing to remember is Prototype and Infamous are 2 very different games, aside from both being open world. If you like fast bloody gameplay and are looking for a good hack and slash, go for Prototype. If you like slower gameplay, and looking for an open world shooter with (probably) a better story, go for Infamous

Graphics:

Let's get one thing out of the way. While the graphics in this game are not bad (A little better than Grand theft auto 4) they don't compare to titles like uncharted or Arkham asylum. And the reasoning behind this is quite simple. A large portion or your PS3's processing power in working in the HUGE environments since you're pretty much free to go wherever (or as high) as you want.

Gameplay and Overall feeling of the game:

Mind-blowing. Imagine being in a GTA / sandbox type of environment where you can do almost anything. Leap buildings, run across walls, Hijack armored tanks, glide above a massive (very accurate) replica of New York City (Mostly Manhattan) and unleash pain at will when you detect foes below you, I could go on and on. Weary of battle? low in health? help yourself to an innocent bystander and literally suck the life out of them. Possibilities are endless. Oh, and by the way, how do you actually "suck the life" out of them? Well, just the way the T-1000 used to do it in Terminator 2, you can replicate people on contact and become them while sucking their life energy and making it your own in the process. It's a win-win. (Maybe not for the poor basterd you snatch off the street but it works pretty well for everybody else, a.k.a.....You. - In game jargon you're technically "consuming them"). And not only you can alter your appearance to look like your victims with the push of a button. You also own their knowledge. You know everything they knew which slowly but fascinatingly unravels the plot of the game via the "web of intrigue": A living organic map that connects your victims with each other, with special emphasis on the characters that have knowledge of the mystery behind your powers and maps their previous interactions with each other before their met their doom at your hands.

So, when military choppers with enough firepower to start world war 3 come after you, they quickly realize that's not such a good idea, when you catapult yourself into the air, storm the cockpit and do to the pilots things that one day you'll tell your therapist about. And guess what: you just "consumed" a military chopper pilot along with all his life memories including his ability to fly military choppers which is now.......yours. Without even landing it, guess who is flying the chopper now! (Just the way trinity used to do it in "The Matrix" but with LOTS more blood involved).


Becoming people is just so much fun I found myself spending hours just infiltrating military bases, and consuming weapons specialists, fighter pilots etc. And the more you do that, the more your skills in that particular discipline are refined.

I had a blast while being chased through the city by military squads just to turn around the corner, push a button, become one of them and seeing them run right past me and then get all confused. It would be right there and then when I would resort to one of several methods:

1. Use the Assault rifle now in my hands (comes with the body of the poor soul you just consumed) and shoot everybody in the back while laughing like a maniac.

2. One of my favorites, with a simple button command ACCUSE one of the soldiers of being ME in disguise resulting in the rest of the team shooting him, execution style, no questions asked. HILARIOUS.

or 3, reveal my true self and impale everyone in the vicinity with lethal spikes, blades, claws or whichever one of my mutant virus obtained powers I fancy at the time, just to see everybody scream for their lives in despair.


Most people compare this game to InFamous, which was released about at the same time and to my surprise is rated higher. I also own InFamous. I played InFamous for about 2 hours and it was OK. Both games are indeed very similar in it's concept but in my opinion Prototype is vastly superior. The InFamous guy was really slow. He climbs buildings and runs at human speed. The Prototype guy leaps buildings, glides to the point of almost-fly and runs at superhuman speed. Playing InFamous, was OK, but at times it felt a bit like a chore. Like I had to play through an annoying not really fun part, just to get to the fun parts people raves about on the web. Playing Prototype was an absolute blast of non-stop fun which I wasn't able to put down since the first minute I played.

i found prototype to be kinda open in terms of running room. if you enjoyed the slashing gameplay of bloodrayne you should enjoy this title. you can mess with all kinds of stuff . and you can even carry cars, and people up the building to launch at you enemies. i find it a good time playing . especially if you like slasher games

After being dealt a crushing blow from a craptastic game (Sacred 2) I went back to game stop and got Prototype.
THIS is what I call a video game!! Well worth buying because it'll keep you busy for HOURS and if you happen to have a friend come over, they will enjoy the game as much as you do! GREAT game 10/10

The storyline was really great with all the flashbacks and "real" looking pictures of people and events gives you a feeling of dread and sometimes leans on a creepy side (In a good way).
The fighting in this game is AMAZING!! Think of: A sandbox world (NYC) and give yourself awesome powers that make spiderman/batman seem tame pussy cats. this game simply ROCKS so hard. It's a MOST own for any gamer.
The music and sound is intense and you can easily get caught up running/jumping/flying from skyscraper to sky scraper with the music on high listening to the coppers above you and the street below...

amazing.