I come here, writing to you as a very sad guy.
In March I wrote a preview for the video game Prototype, blowing it up and licking its balls thinking it would be an awesome and revolutionary game. You can check out that old article on Prototype HERE.
I finally got my chance to play the game and after mere minutes of playing Prototype on the Xbox 360 I was sadden by the weak effects, and graphics. Buildings getting destroyed, explosions etc. looked like the old effects on a playstation 2. I almost wanted to throw my controller at the screen… “FUCKING WEAK” was the best way I could describe it. Other games on the 360 have looked 100 times better in the animation and graphics, and this game is getting advertising and viral marketing like fucking madness! Usually in the video game world when a game gets a shitload of marketing dollars than its something new or groudbreaking or even similar to old titles but still tweaked to be cool.
Prototype does not fit these categories…
If youve ever played Spiderman 2 for the PS2 then youve pretty much played Prototype. Its like taking guts of the Spiderman 2 game and using it for Prototype, except heightening the violence and changing the story. It has no real great gameplay mechanics… the term “clunky” fits best. The fighting is repetitive and gets old quick, even with “special abilities” but definitely looks cool when you slice a dude in half.
Like MANY games before it you start off having to earn all your abilities and play levels to gain “EP” to buy all of your moves. The moves are exciting to get and work awesome on regular ol folks but on any tough enemies or “bosses” you end up button mashing and not even developing much of a strategy.
Youve got your regular storyline levels and then side missions.. like usual..
All in all the game mechanics and game engine are NOTHING revolutionary, and the graphics are far from the best ive seen, but the premise of having super abilities with no restrictions and uber violence is appealing and satisfing after a shitty day. Consume people, slice them in half, crush em, smash em… let it all out. You have super powers in an open grand theft auto-like world and that idea is AWESOME, but not executed very well.
My diagnosis… Its worth a rental, but NOT a purchase. NO online play, no multiplayer, and gets repetitive. My earlier preview was flawed and I built it up waaaay to high, so I some-what blame myself, but check it out yourself and let me know in the comments.
The first hour I played this game, I was angry. I was angry because I fucking hate stupid games devoid of substance. I then started displacing my frustrations out on the people of the city. I sliced them, diced them, chopped them in half! I went through New York like the SlapChop in Vince’s hand. Just do it like this! You’re gonna love my nuts. The violence, the amount of gore, the amount of immoral shit you can do in this game is insane. I kinda liked it.
The game gives you freedom to do whatever you want with the game mechanics. If you want to go in the water, you go in the fucking water. If you want to do missions, go ahead. The story line is not brilliant, but shit you progress and there’s some sense of accomplishment. If you wanna just run around flying in the city doing all kinds of acrobatic moves, you can do that too. If killing people or hunting down huge monsters is your flavor, there’s that, as well. Other games out there just have so many rules to them it makes you feel constrained. The game developers really didn’t want to push anything down your throat. They’re cool if you take 90 minutes putting other things down your throat, then you can go ahead and put their vision in your mouth too.
Oh and by the way, I’ve always wanted to play a game where you’re Superman, but you can kill people with guns. If you’re one of those people who want to do silly shit in games because you think it would be funny if you could kill the referee in the wrestling game, see this game.
This game is not a game of wits. Ninja turtles the arcade game had more strategy to it than this game, but Prototype takes a lot of skill to pull off sweet moves like my gaming science has come to master. Just don’t expect much thought to go into it.
Graphics are horrible. Even with DirectX10 tools, the developers managed to pull off the most horrendous graphics in a while. I play it at 1920×1080 at MAXIMUM video settings and it still looks like Xbox360 graphics. Fucking nasty looking.
Story line is mediocre. Dialogue is hilarious.
I give the game a 6.5 outof 10.
I definitely got let down too bro. My buddy bought it, and just watching him play left something to be desired. Bummer
I’d have to agree with Zac on this one.
Dont expect too much and you wont be disappointed. LOL. and i think the reason why the graphics are so horrible because of the amount of environmental damage/people walking around. It would slow up the game if the graphics were any better. and nothing pisses me off more than a slow choppy game with good graphics.
The fun lies within the Gore and Freedom of play. Enjoy yourself. kill a couple civis. throw people off the tops of buildings. Or elbow drop a tank from the top of the empire state building. how ever you decide to kill… make it a fun one.
Its not anything special but, I agree with Zac and Troll its a guilty pleasure. Brutal kills, an open world to go nuts and you can go insane.
Not a great game, but worth some guilty pleasure playing.
P.S. I read the other article, and “licking its balls” is a fair assessment.
Yeah this game was a huge lose of a game. Especially when you compare it to Infamous which came out just a week before it. Not just the dated graphics are to blame, the story was so convaluted that by the time you got to the end its little plot twist it was saving didn’t even make sense. This game probably would have done better if Activision had spent a little more money so they could use their Spider Man license and make a video game about Carnage