If Peter Parker said F*ck power and responsibilityI just wanna tear shit up!, he'd be a lot like Prototype's antihero-in-a-hoodie Alex Mercer. You see, the shape-shifting star of Radical Entertainment's (Hulk: Ultimate Destruction) outrageously gory open-world actioner has superpowers, but he's also super pissed, and deciding which moral path to take would only get in the way of his violence-fueled quest for revenge and answers.
It might sound challenging to get behind a character who'd turn his own grandmother into a pulpy puddle of flesh and blood, but it's actually quite liberating; it allows you to indulge your inner-evil and experiment with Prototype's way-over-the-top slate of corpse-carving abilities without worrying about whether or not you'll free a few innocent bystanders of their intestines. Alex's fists can morph into a variety of life-siphoning toolshammers, whips, blades, claws,and the game's at its absolute best when you're using these abilities without restraint to tear the city a new one.
Whether you're pounding a piece of military hardware into the pavement, pulling a chopper from the sky, or just cutting a blood-soaked swath through a crowd of infected crazies, letting the leash off Alex's powers is a blast. Exploring the city with his traversal abilities is also rewarding; scaling skyscrapers, gliding over the cityscape, and hurtling down the streets of Prototype's take on the Big Apple is just as satisfying as chucking a taxi cab into a helicopter. And, when you're not turning baddies into baby food, or using the city as your own personal jungle gym, Prototype allows you to "consume" targets. This neat little trick sees you taking the form of another personas they disappear into a thick mist of crimson plasma, giving you access to their abilities and memories. In fact, the latter is where you'll discover some of the more interesting aspects of Prototype's plot. Just playing through, and not consuming the minds of most of the 120+ info-carrying targets, will likely leave you disappointed in the story. Feeding on folks, though, will not only piece together a more cohesive narrative, but also grant you experience points to upgrade Alex's arsenal.
While Prototype does a few things very well, it lacks the polish we've come to expect from current-gen titles. Alex's powers and the gore-filled kills they yield offer some stunning visual treats, but simpler things sadly don't receive the same attention to detail. NPC, vehicle, and building models are too frequently repeated, the AI often behave as though they weren't programmed to do anything at all and, next to Liberty City, Prototype's metropolis looks like a blocky Hollywood back lot. Additionally, the game wasn't done any favors by arriving so soon after Sucker Punch's superior inFAMOUS, a title offering equally engaging gameplay, but also polished to near perfection in every other aspect of its design.
Still, when it comes to halving infected beasties at the torso, splattering a chopper's cockpit glass with its pilots' brains, and impaling a crowd of civilians by conjuring spikes from the pavement, few titles satisfy like this one. Also, if you look for itand you'll have tothere's a pretty good story hiding under all the gore. If you're the type who always follows the path of evil in titles that straddle moral ambiguity, you'll love donning the hood of Prototype's bad boy.
score 8.0 out of ten
verdict Although it lacks much of the polish we've come to expect from sandbox style titles such as GTA IV and inFAMOUS, navigating Prototype's worldwhile leaving a chunky bloodbath in your wakeas the remorseless Mercer packs more than its fair share of guilty-pleasure thrills.
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