Prototype XBox 360 Review

Prototype delivers the kind of game most fans of other sandbox games have only dreamed of: causing as much destruction and mayhem as possible without getting stomped down by the AI’s response for it. Back when GTA 3 came out and I started my first vigilante rampage, I always thought there needs to be a game that lets you take it to the next level without getting destroyed by the city’s Law Enforcement or Army. Prototype delivers it all hands down and gives you the tools to make a mockery of just about anything the AI throws at you. The best part is: it keeps getting better the further you progress into the game.

It needs to be said that Prototype is a pure-action sandbox game. It’s not slow or methodical in terms of how you move through the city. Your ability to leap from building to building, fly across the NYC skyline, and run up along buildings to dash off into a glide means you will move through the city quick, and it’s probably the first time I’ve seen a sandbox game focus more on the character(Alex Mercer) than the city created around him.

This probably explains why the visuals were not given the high polished treatment that other more recent sandbox titles have. Textures are pretty flat, bland, and dull in respect to the people, buildings, and cars of the city. Alex Mercer himself seems pretty well done, but the rest of the city feels like a VR simulation from Virtuosity (obscure movie reference?) where cars types identically overlap frequently and there appears to be only 12 – 15 unique civilian types in the entire game. You can easily walk amongst a crowd and see the same person in that crowd 2 or 3 different times.

Aftering playing the game and getting engaged into the story, the visual aspect takes a back seat to the amazing gameplay experience to be had. The civilians become cattle, and using them as weapons or sources for power become more the aim of the game, and not the fact that the woman you just grabbed to throw at the group of soldiers at shooting you is the same woman you used to consume for energy a few minutes earlier. Whether it was the developer’s intention to make the city’s populus to feel inconsequential to you or pure laziness on their part in not adding variety, it’s diffcult to say. But what I will say is the fun and enjoyment you get from the execution of this game makes forgiveness to these flaws much easier.

And as I said earlier, that’s what Prototype is all about: pure action, pure fun. You are death and destruction at the highest possible humanoid form. The game allows you to enjoy just about every aspect there is to it’s superhuman theme. You cannot go into this game comparing it to recent titles like Red Faction or inFAMOUS, cause the basis for comparison simply isn’t there. These are all stellar titles that each bring something different and enjoyable to the table.

Aside from the visuals and some questionable choices in detail immersion, Prototype hits on the rest of it’s 8 cylinders. The storyline while unoriginal, is completely enjoyable and gives you adequate reason to care and continue on with the story. The pre-rendered scenes are done quite well and the voice-acting is completely convincing and doesn’t ever feel too over-the-top. The game’s soundtrack when it does kick in is just amazing. The orchestral scores or ‘action music’ (as I like to call it) that strategically kick in during the game are so well done and adds a real dark, suspenseful, and haunting theme to the game. The detail in ambient noise and sound effects are all there and it’s pretty amazing the detail in audio that has been placed in the game. You could be running up building’s wall and hear the of chunks of brick being broken off as you scale the building and then hear the sound of glass being smashed as you scale windows on that same building. While they could have just used one canned sound effect for all the wall scaling sequences, it’s easy to see there has been detailed considerations made to ensure the audio experience isn’t lacking.

As a sandbox gaming experience, Prototype delivers on what it aimed for. Despite it’s shortcomings in a few areas, nothing lacking takes away from the fun that is to be had in this game. If sandbox games are not your forte but action is, you may want to give it a rent just to make sure you can enjoy the hybrid of the two genres present in this game. But for sandbox fans that have always wanted to be a free-roaming superhuman weapon in a city just begging to unleashing complete carnage and devastation (and this game is extremely violent)upon the unwary masses, you can’t do much better for your gaming dollars than Prototype.