If you asked me to think back to the last game I had so much fun playing that I actually let loose with a sound generally reserved for the moment you go flying down a rollercoaster while playing it, I would have been hard-pressed to come up with one. After all, many games are fun, but there’s a difference between the kind of fun you have in a silent-but-enjoying-oneself kind of way and a loud, excited, unable-to-keep-it-to-yourself kind of way.
The latter type of excitement is exactly what I felt when I got my hands on Prototype.
Hit the jump and I’ll tell you just what makes this game such a wild and intoxicating ride (not to mention give you a glimpse of a delicious new boss trailer!).
Nothing about the game’s story has changed since Hamza got a look at it last April, but while what he got to see was a short demo introducing the player to the main character, Alex Mercer, and the plight befalling New York City as it explodes around you in a epic battle, I got to dig a little deeper. I was interested in the title as a straightforward sandbox game, but get this — there’s a deeper story too, and it’s well worth slicing countless people in half to get to it (not that that’s going to be hard!).
As soon as you get through the opening cinematic, you’ll find yourself in the middle of the city surrounded by military forces and people running around in a zombie-like state. I played this portion of the game on the PS3, and I have to note that despite the insane amount of things happening around you, there’s literally not a flicker in the framerate. That’s how it should be, but considering the game did suffer from some of this when it was shown at earlier events, it’s a thrill to see it running so smoothly. You really lose yourself in this world because of it.
As I said before the jump, controlling Alex Mercer is a thrill that I couldn’t seem to contain the fun of, so I often found myself yelling exultant phrases as I ran around town discovering what he can do. The movement is sleek, and unless you’re the most jaded gamer ever, I can’t imagine you wouldn’t experience the same feeling. Prototype benefits, in my opinion, from a very simple control set (there aren’t a lot of complex button combos). I got distracted from the mission because I was busy running up buildings and leaping in the air hurling myself at things.
Aside from the fun of controlling Alex, he also has a handful of special things he can do that make you feel even more tremendously powerful than you already are. By using powers such as stone-like fists, a twisting whip, the claws Wolverine wished he had, and blades, you can do even more epic damage (my personal favorite is slicing someone in half with the claws by doing a little jump and letting it make a clean incision from the head to the toes). There powers can be upgraded to become stronger as well, which is hilarious since they rock so hard when you get them in the first place.
You can also “absorb” any other people you see, which gives you two advantages: one, you absorb their energy, which you can easily use to keep yourself from dying at any time, and two, you can take on their apperance as a disguise to conceal yourself if need be. This can be very handy, but considering all the cool shit, you can do, it’s hard to be stealthy for long. I’d disguise myself and then forget and go hurtling up the side of a building, alerting everyone around me that I’m far from just being a random dude on the street. Oh well.
You’d think all this would be plenty to keep you entertained for the game’s 15- to 18-hour play time, but there’s tons more. Special attacks, for instance, like sinking your claws into the ground and watching them come out ten feet away (ten times their normal size) and destroy everything in their vicinity. You can even pick up objects and throw them (and by objects, I mean cars). Later in the game, you’ll be able to hijack tanks and helicopters and use them to your advantage.
Prototype vaults itself above and beyond in the sandbox category with a little feature they like to call the Web of Intrigue. Comprised of 130 separate memories, you will unlock these as Alex learns more about his past. I really like this feature — it reminds me of a visual version of the “Thousand Years of Dreams” feature in Lost Odyssey. This feature also gives you insight into your character, which is remarkable considering he would have been a blast to play even if you knew nothing about him, but the extra attention to detail here really deepens the experience if you’re interested (but you can also skip it and just focus on the action too).
There’s tons to do in this game, and between the balls-out fun of simply being Alex Mercer and the various missions and open-world exploration you have at your fingertips, I’m expecting Prototype to be a blast. You can find out for yourself when it comes out for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on June 9th.
