Let me start off by saying this: I really like the gameplay of Prototype. It is fun for me. I may go into more detail on that later, but I am filled with so much rage right now that I need to vent my fury lest people be hurt. Probably the staff of Activision.
Prototype is a game that I have been looking forward to for quite a while. It just looked awesome. The running, the destructive parkour, the jumping, that seamless gliding. It looked to me like the ideal open-world game. You have fucking superpowers and you wreck shit. And you can elbow-drop tanks. As you can tell, I was on the Prototype side of the inFamous v. Prototype fan wank debate prior to their release. But that is neither here nor there. Before I really get started, I would like to say, at this point, I am midway through the game. But I cannot wait any longer. I have thoughts and they must come out.
My main gripe with Prototype is the back-asswards clusterfuck it has the audacity to call a story. I say story, and not plot, because the plot in concept is not terrible. It has a lot of elements that have real potential for compelling storytelling. But the storytelling is where it fails. It's kind of like they took a decent plot, put it through the patented Retard-o-Blender. Alex Mercer, the player character, has two sides. During gameplay, he spouts lines now and then that you would expect to here when running about. Not a lot of dialogue. Short, to the point, occasionally clever. Not witty, but clever.
Then we have the Alex Mercer off the cutscenes. This Alex Mercer is not a character. He is an Expositionary Plot Robot that says lines that, while true, have no bearing on anything. For example, one cutscene has him speaking to his sister. She tells him that he must go to Point X to get information on Plot-Significant Mysterious Figure Y McMullen. To which he replies, simply, "McMullen is the key." Yes, we know he's the key. That's why we're looking for him. You don't need to tell us and you especially don't need to tell your sister who told you about him in the first place. It's like he's informing the player of what her statement of "Find this dude, he's important means." If the player didn't get that, they are either too stupid to live and must be purged or are 5. And if they're 5, they shouldn't be playing this game because it's full of violence, gore and tosses the word "Fuck" around like it's a whiffleball at a dull family picnic. I must assume that this is because this is a mature game for mature gamers. Read that sentence again and add a laugh like "hurr hurr hurr" at the end to get the vibe I was trying to give off with it.
It's a mature game by the logic that "swearing is edgey and mature by virtue of swearing". Which is stupid. Yes, fuck is a strong word but it loses its edge if it's every fifth word. It's annoying and just makes me uncomfortable having my brother in the room as I play it. Because violence is a-okay. I don't expect him to suddenly contract a mutagenic virus that gives him giant razor claws and maul people all around New York City (although he totally would, the little jerk), but I'd rather not have my mom get a call about him dropping f-bombs around class. That'd be hard to explain.
Actually, it'd be very easy to explain, but I'd still be in trouble. Moving on.
The cutscenes, yes. They're disjointed and weird. Throw in the "Web of Intrigue" moments when you consume enemies who know things, and it just becomes a huge mess. Actually, I DO like the Web of Intrigue moments. They're stylistic and have real-life photos mixed in with the renders in such a way that it feels like it fits. It's meant to be jarring, like a rush of information all at once. It's cool, but the information you get from them is often repeated two or three times from previous Web of Intrigue moments or from the stupid cutscenes. In short, had potential, is currently pissing all over it. Good job, Prototype. Real classy.
On a side note, "Web of Intrigue" is something of a misnomer. Yes, it's presented in a web form (you select them from this weird viral web things... I didn't know virus colonies built webs, but I don't make video games for a living, do I?), but it's not intriguing. It doesn't do the job of making you curious. It's just... "Hey look! Interesting shit! Oh, now it's gone". There's also the Mother character who showed up once so far. I'd like to see more of her. So far, she has shown up in a few Web of Mild Interest moments with the exact same deadpan expression from slightly different angles. Boo.
None of the characters do enough to be likable. The only bits of dialogue that are even passable are when Alex is out and about and he's not talking to anyone then. Which doesn't make sense, really. I think it would've flowed much better if he had a cell phone or a walkie talkie and you kept in touch with the other characters as you're parkour-ing it up. Then maybe that one competent writer might have made it flow better. I mean, I can maybe understand how Alex wouldn't want to risk his conversations being tapped by the military (The Web of Odd Curiosity implies they do this a lot. Hahaha Patriot Act), but then it should've gotten a mention. All the cutscenes are hurried and rushed. If they took the time to draw them out a bit, it might've done much better. And maybe got decent voice actors for the MAIN characters, instead of the Web of Generic Wile guys and random soldiers. I heard Stephen Blum in there! He should've been that mercenary character that hunted Alex instead of those random soldiers whose heads I crushed.
Speaking of that guy, he is in my eyes the prime sinner of this game. He committed the greatest of travesty. He made the plot go in a direction that fucked with the gameplay. And I would never forgive anyone who did such a horrible thing (unless they were Stephen Blum). After your fight with him, he injects you with some weird cancer thing that strips you of all your cool powers you had acquired up that point and leave you with your most basic of abilities. This is dumb. This is where my rage began. The plot had bloated and overflowed with stupid that it screwed up my gameplay fun. I liked doing the side missions, especially where you infiltrate military bases and consume commanders. This fucks with my fun. You do NOT fuck with my fun. I felt the need to continue with the plot until I got my awesome powers back. This took something like 6 back and forth missions that involved WAY too much fighting for being depowered. Half of this could've been solved in ten minutes if Mercer stopped at a Verizon kiosk, consumed the teller and opened the pre-paid cell cabinet. It also would've given him something to do besides running back and forth between Harlem and Gramercy like an idiot.
Just when I had finally reached my limit, when I was about to put the game down, I finally recovered my powers. And not only did I recover all my old ones, but I got that huge kick-ass blade arm on the box cover and badass armor that made me look like The Guyver. Well played, Prototype. Well played. I continued to play, slowly becoming aware that the never-disappearing HUD was burning into my plasma screen. So I took a break. As I do from this review, right now.
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