Gameitall The original [Prototype] game had a lot of great things going for it. It was a 3rd person, open-world action adventure game that focused on movement over everything else, to this day I’ll pop in the original just to have fun jumping around from building to building while destroying army bases with shape-shifting abilities.
When [Prototype 2] was announced, Radical Entertainment wanted to make a bigger, badder game with a surprise twist right off the start. The results is a giant blood bath of a game.
[Prototype 2] takes place one year after the events of the original, this time the Blacklight virus (now known as the Mercer Virus) has been released once again into New York City. As Sergent James Heller you return from Iraq to find your wife and child dead, filled with murderous rage for Mercer, he gets transfered to the Red Zone in hopes of killing Mercer.
Those of you who have played [Prototype] would know that this task usually involves tanks, helicopters, and a lot of rockets. So Heller fighting Alex Mercer with a knife doesn’t seem to bode well. Mercer infects Heller with the Blacklight virus, creating another version of him. Between fighting Blackwatch and Gentek, as well as mutants under Mercer’s control, Heller must evolve, consume and kill everything that’s that stands in his way for revenge.
There are definably more to [Prototype 2] than it’s predecessor, while locomotion has not changed in the game aside from how the jumping button is no longer a charge move, combat has taken a change in the right direction. In the original, Alex could only do about 3 hits at a time and alternated between quick and heavy attacks. Heller though can chain multiple hits and even has the power to equip two powers at the same time.
However these powers are not new to fans, the basic Claws, Blade, Hammerfist, and Whip make their return with one extra attack, the Tendrils, which can make the enemies stick to walls, stop in their tracks or make ruble fly at them. Aside from this there is the Bio-Mass Bomb which activates the same power of your tendrils in a small detracting explosion, and the Pack leader upgrade allows you to summon more creatures.
Each of your shape-shifting weapons come with their own unique charge attack that can be upgraded by consuming monsters or VIP’s, these attacks can clear a room of bad guys in one go, and are extremely useful.
The game looks great graphically with a huge improvements, glass on the buildings actually reflect light, the clothes don’t stick to people, and the cutscenes are gorgeous in an Sin City kind of way, where everything is black and white except for blue lights (for Blackwatch personnel) and red mutations. Of course the Animation looks great while Heller is running over buildings, and slicing open his opponents.
The script though, could have used more work. For instance the word F**k is so overused in this game that it is ridiculous, and in some cases turned me away from the game. There is actually no need for the over amount of swearing that the game has, even for a M rated title. Not to have double standards when it comes to swearing in video games, but with games like Bulletstorm, Shadows of the Damned or even Killer7, the swearing felt like it was in the right place for those titles, [Prototype 2] not so much.
Heller himself feels like a giant douche-bag, throughout the first half of the game, I was wishing I was playing as Mercer again so I didn’t have to hear the stupid lines about how he’ll sic the infected on the scientist. It took the last half of the game to make him likable, and one mission entirely redeemed him. However Blackwatch troops still pisses me off with their use of the word ‘Brah’.
In all, [Prototype 2] is everything we would expect from a sequel, it’s a big improvement over the original, but there are flaws, a big one at least with the characters. If some gratuitous violence is what your looking for, then you will not be disappointed
[Prototype 2] – 8 out of 10
Pros – Gameplay is fast paced and fun, lots of side-quests and replay value, great art style.
Cons – Annoying cast, easier then the original, dumb A.I.
