[Prototype]

Ok, time for my first review. This game is new, recently released on June 9th 2009 here in America from game studio Radical Entertainment. It was published and distributed by Activision. Activision gave us games such as Spiderman, Quake 4, and a multitude of Tony Hawk and even the popular Call of Duty series.

In [Prototype], you play as Alex Mercer, a man who wakes up at GenTek with no memory and a very strange power. Your escape from the building is inhibited by the Blackwatch personnel who rather quickly dispatch the complaining scientists. Unwilling to let you escape, you are violently gunned down... only to get back up!

The further you progress in the game, the more powers you discover, the deeper the plot goes of military conspiracy. A virus has been released on Manhattan Island, and you play your role day by day as the infection spreads. As time goes by, you will become targeted by military and infected alike. Alex is capable of taking a rather serious amount of damage even in early stages, but there are a pair of early level baddies that present both serious and annoying issues to the protagonist.

The Marine Rocket Trooper will often make your life more difficult by persistantly pounding your feet with rockets, which will do minor damage, but they tend to knock you off your feet and leave you to dodge further attack. They are especially annoying when you're running up a wall and a rocket blows up at your backside and you fall off.

The far more dangerous of the two is the Hunter. Resident Evil fans can stare this monster down and say he looks like a Licker that had far, FAR too many steroids shot into him. The creature towers over Alex by I'd say a good two or three feet, and is capable of actually killing him if the player isn't careful enough. TIP: When engaging a Hunter with anything other than Hammerfist, get in a nice 3-hit combo and then dodge. When the Hunter goes into a frantic "cat swipe" frenzy, you cannot hurt it further and should avoid it until it stops its rampage and you can beat it down some more. Do NOT attempt to go toe to toe with these creatures without Hammerfist as it is quite likely you will receive an unhealthy amount of pain.

Personally, I like [Prototype] because of the powers and intrigue. Simply put, I'm a big fan of heroes and anti-heroes who are massively overpowered in the scheme of common man. There are things that will hurt them, but it won't come from a typical military armory. The idea that Alex can grab anything organic from civilians, to military, to infected, and even the mighty Hunters, and CONSUME them just tickles my gore fan button. (Consume is used to restore health, absorb memories, and entertain anyone who likes the idea of leaving nothing left of their battle but a blood stain on the ground.)

The one thing that makes this game a pain is its movement control. Receiving gold medals on movement challenges is impossible for me because you'll be running up a wall, and hit a window pane and suddenly you find yourself running the wrong way. Now granted, on-the-ground movement is always fun once you begin to upgrade your movement speed. And Alex once more demonstrates his badassery by being able to leap off a building and bullet drop to the ground below and release a shockwave of kinetic energy the blows away anything within the blast radius. If you like the idea of dropping like a meteor and sending infected flying away ragdoll style, pound your evolution points into movement and combat.

[Prototype] is a nice mixture of action, adventure, shooter, free-roam, and RPG elements. You gain powers through game progression, and unlock those powers by using your Evolution Points (EP). EP come from consuming infected, military, civilian, and hunter targets, completing missions, blowing up hives and bases, and completing challenges. For high EP rewards, try to sneak into a military base and clear it out without setting off an alarm. There are hidden bonus EP rewards for performing a task without getting caught. Give it a shot!

If you like massive levels of carnage, if you like blood and destruction, if you like being able to tear out the throat of someone you've snuck up on and absorb his body and become him, I would fully recommend [Prototype]. If you don't have a lot of patience for delicate controls, freaky monsters, and sometimes enough hot lead filling the air to drown an army in, I would look elsewhere.

COMING SOON:
Red Faction: Guerrilla