For the longest time I was stuck on a ridiculous boss fight in Prototype, so I shelved it for a couple of weeks. Of course as is usually the case, I brought it out to show it to a friend, and tore through the boss like it was no big deal, so I finally beat the story over the weekend.
A major complaint that I've had with the game, and indeed, many other action games as well, is that boss fights all require you to play the game in an entirely different way. In Prototype, you are typically the toughest thing out there, and you regularly square off against multiple opponents at the same time, while tearing them apart with brutal melee attacks. Then you get the boss fights, a number of which mostly involve you just running around, trying to get a heavy object to throw at them very hard. Becuse if you were to get within melee distant of them, they just use some attack that instantly stuns you. As I said, this seems to be a problem with most action games, not just Prototype. I was surprised to find that the final boss required tactics that were much closer to those used in the rest of the game, you can actually go toe to toe with him, although it requires some clever dodging, and timing. The entire fight occurs on the deck of an aircraft carrier whilst the military is throwing infantry, attack choppers, and fighter jets at both you, and the boss.
Anyway, the bottom line on Prototype is that the gameplay is ridiculously fun, and features a lot of guilty pleasure moments. Sometimes the violence is so brutal that it made me feel a little uneasy, particularly when needing to consume random bystanders in order to bolster my health. Still, the game is just fun, there's something about being cut loose in an entire city, with the power to throw cars, leap tall buildings in a single bound and just wreck all kinds of general havok. Your special powers are interesting, even if you do end up just picking whatever seems to work best, and stick with that through most of the game. Some of the upgrades are worth nothing more than a moments amusement. One of your melee weapons involves turning your hands into large dense balls, for a slow heavy strike, a special attack you can unlock for that weapon involves you hurling your arm with all your might, and sailing away as the momentum carries you, it's very amusing.
There are some basic stealth aspects as well, where you can consume someone, take their shape, and then infiltrate controlled areas, and whatnot, it's not very deep, but it's good for a diversion from straight up killing things.
Lastly, let's talk about the story. The premise is that there is some kind of supervirus that has been bred by a black ops agency for the last 40 years, you are infected with it, and somehow managed to control it, as such, you are a shape shifting monster with incredible powers. At the same time, the virus is now loose in Manhattan, infected people become crazy zombie like things, in addition to people turned by the virus, there are also things called hunters, which are hulking humanoids that can climb buildings, and don't like you, or other people that threaten their hives. The story rolls out in very traditional cut scenes, but these are kind of boring, the really interesting stuff all occurs when you consume specially marked people throughout the city, and absorb their memories. These people are usually either the military people in charge of sanitizing Manhattan, or scientists that worked on the virus. Either way, you get a lot of neat little tidbits about prior experiments with the virus, as well as getting to see bits of the story from other people's perspectives, it's very interesting.
Bottom line, you can elbow drop a tank, you can karate kick a helicopter, you can grab a car as you are flipping over it, and land on your feet with the car held above your head, you can impersonate a soldier, and then accuse random people of being you, at which point the surrounding soldiers will kill that person.
What else do you want?
A major complaint that I've had with the game, and indeed, many other action games as well, is that boss fights all require you to play the game in an entirely different way. In Prototype, you are typically the toughest thing out there, and you regularly square off against multiple opponents at the same time, while tearing them apart with brutal melee attacks. Then you get the boss fights, a number of which mostly involve you just running around, trying to get a heavy object to throw at them very hard. Becuse if you were to get within melee distant of them, they just use some attack that instantly stuns you. As I said, this seems to be a problem with most action games, not just Prototype. I was surprised to find that the final boss required tactics that were much closer to those used in the rest of the game, you can actually go toe to toe with him, although it requires some clever dodging, and timing. The entire fight occurs on the deck of an aircraft carrier whilst the military is throwing infantry, attack choppers, and fighter jets at both you, and the boss.
Anyway, the bottom line on Prototype is that the gameplay is ridiculously fun, and features a lot of guilty pleasure moments. Sometimes the violence is so brutal that it made me feel a little uneasy, particularly when needing to consume random bystanders in order to bolster my health. Still, the game is just fun, there's something about being cut loose in an entire city, with the power to throw cars, leap tall buildings in a single bound and just wreck all kinds of general havok. Your special powers are interesting, even if you do end up just picking whatever seems to work best, and stick with that through most of the game. Some of the upgrades are worth nothing more than a moments amusement. One of your melee weapons involves turning your hands into large dense balls, for a slow heavy strike, a special attack you can unlock for that weapon involves you hurling your arm with all your might, and sailing away as the momentum carries you, it's very amusing.
There are some basic stealth aspects as well, where you can consume someone, take their shape, and then infiltrate controlled areas, and whatnot, it's not very deep, but it's good for a diversion from straight up killing things.
Lastly, let's talk about the story. The premise is that there is some kind of supervirus that has been bred by a black ops agency for the last 40 years, you are infected with it, and somehow managed to control it, as such, you are a shape shifting monster with incredible powers. At the same time, the virus is now loose in Manhattan, infected people become crazy zombie like things, in addition to people turned by the virus, there are also things called hunters, which are hulking humanoids that can climb buildings, and don't like you, or other people that threaten their hives. The story rolls out in very traditional cut scenes, but these are kind of boring, the really interesting stuff all occurs when you consume specially marked people throughout the city, and absorb their memories. These people are usually either the military people in charge of sanitizing Manhattan, or scientists that worked on the virus. Either way, you get a lot of neat little tidbits about prior experiments with the virus, as well as getting to see bits of the story from other people's perspectives, it's very interesting.
Bottom line, you can elbow drop a tank, you can karate kick a helicopter, you can grab a car as you are flipping over it, and land on your feet with the car held above your head, you can impersonate a soldier, and then accuse random people of being you, at which point the surrounding soldiers will kill that person.
What else do you want?
This is on my list from Brycefly. Can't wait to grab a helicopter and kick it!!
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