One of the basic lessons you can learn in strategy games is that most certain way to achieve something is to devote all your effort, energy and resources towards that goal. Radical Entertainment seems to share that philosophy putting it to practice in the development of Prototype 2. Remember how everything in Saints Row the Third was put there to make you feel ridiculous? Prototype 2 uses a similar devotion, focusing on making the player feel like a total badass.
Prototype 2
Developer: Radical Entertainment
Publisher: Activision
Release Date: April 24th, 2012 (360, PS3)
In the first Prototype we played as Alex Mercer during the outbreak of a huge virus that turned most people into mutated 'Infected.' Though the majority were basically zombies, some became near-bulletproof monsters with a thirst for blood. Alex Mercer proved himself an exception to that group after developing super powers through his infection. His most important power was the ability to consume people and thus giving him the power to change into them. Mercer is even capable of summoning his victim?s recent memories.
[img_inline align="left" width="320" height="180" Caption="Heller was awesome even without superpowers!"]http://chronogamers.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/proto2preinfection.jpg[/img_inline]
In Prototype 2, Sergeant James Heller was determined to kill Mercer after learning he was the cause of the outbreak that killed his wife and daughter. In the opening of the game, Heller finally had his chance. Even though Heller was completely human, he managed to hold his own against Mercer. After Mercer crushes Heller, he decided to gift him with a copy of his own powers. And that was where the game truly got rolling.
As the game progressed and Heller consumed more enemies, his powers developed in three separate ways. The most common route happened through experience points. After every level we were given a choice between a few stats such as speed or health regeneration. Then there are consumable upgrades - enemies who would upgrade one of your powers once Heller absorbed their DNA.
The only way to get new powers is to continue story missions. Usually abilities were unlocked about halfway through a mission, but only after fighting and defeating a new type of enemy. These are probably some of the coolest moments in the game, since the game will do something that would have been difficult for you before. One ability called Hammerfists, is when Heller gained super strength and his hands transformed into boulders. When we unlocked that, a couple tanks showed up. Before that point, I had no way of taking them out unless I had recently stolen a rocket launcher off a dead soldier. Before we could use the new power, the game paused almost as if to say "Have fun with your new toy!"
Prototype 2 gave us a lot of ways to cause mass chaos, with almost a dozen powers for mass slaughter. Stealing missile launchers or assault rifles is easy, if for some strange reason you grew tired of tearing, ripping, and cutting enemies apart. Hell, I even hijacked helicopters, ripped missile launchers off tanks, and summoned my own infected monsters to fight along side me. I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Prototype 2 excelled at giving me the feeling of being an unstoppable killing machine.
[img_inline width=320 height=180 caption="Form of...a turtle!"]http://chronogamers.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Dual_shields.png[/img_inline]
Similar to the skill development system, there are four types of cutscenes in the game. Most frequently we are told the story through Heller's phone conversations. This is to be expected since that type of story telling is one of the staples of the sandbox genre. Talking on the phone was probably one of the most frustrating times in the game. That sort of scene takes the player out of the never stopping action and puts him in the shoes of a guy who can barely walk while talking on the phone. I can't help but wonder why so many developers feel the need to take us out of the fun because their protagonist doesn't know what a hands-free phone is.
Phone calls were mostly held with Father Guerra. Guerra was a former freedom fighter, turned priest who ends up working as a spy for Heller. There were also some borderline comical conversations with Rooks, the commander of many of the black ops soldiers we consumed through the game. Rooks serves as a secondary antagonist, who frequently gave a boatload of information to Heller while assuming he was one of his trusted men.
The second type of cutscenes are second-hand flashbacks. Flashbacks happened when we consumed an enemy who knows something relating to the story. In the original game, flashbacks would give us backstory on the characters of the game and give Mercer objectives. In the sequel the only backstory given was through collectible audio logs found throughout the city. The flashbacks only really served to progress a mission by giving us a new target to hunt down and kill. These usually were told through a mix of quick clips of CG characters and stock footage. Flashbacks usually consist of minor characters having casual conversations about Heller's current target.
[img_inline align="left" width=320 height=180 caption="Heller goes emo in some scenes"]http://chronogamers.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/proto2blade.jpg[/img_inline]I have mixed feelings about the third cutscene type. These are computer generated and used only for main story cutscenes. They only played before or after some of the more important missions in the game. The thing about them is that the cutscenes look like the artist was inspired by Sin City or the Spirit. They were completely black, white, and red with a ton of bright lights and high contrast levels. I went through three stages of opinion on these cutscenes. At the beginning I enjoyed them simply for the difference between them and the gameplay graphics. Then they started to annoy me to the point of headaches. I was finally able to appreciate them once I realized how cool the cutscenes could be when done well.
The missions in Prototype 2 were fun activities revolving around killing stuff, chasing stuff, or sneaking into heavily guarded bases by consuming scientists or soldiers. I truly feel that the concept of consuming enemies and using stealth to get around had a lot more potential. Don?t get me wrong, the game isn't exactly easy. Hell, I?d even recommend playing on easy. The less difficult setting was more fun because I felt distinctly more badass. It?s hard to feel like an unstoppable mass murdering humanized weapon if you die and have to respawn often.
Fortunately the controls were not difficult to use. In most sandbox games we have to learn to drive with the game?s physics engine, or take our time climbing around everywhere. Prototype 2's travel system can almost entirely be running and flying. It was extremely easy to get into a fluid pattern of sprinting, flying, and murdering. This is one of the things I feel isn't being noticed enough with Prototype 2. The movement system keeps things simple while maintaining a distinct flow to everything, not forcing us to worry about spending an hour to reach the other side of town.
Radical included a feature called RadNet. Radnet is filled with challenges that unlock bonus videos, power upgrades, and skins. My favorite challenge was what I called human bowling. The challenge put a bunch of soldiers on the ground, almost like pins in a bowling alley. The goal is to take them all out in one dive bomb. So you have to fly over them and use the dive bomb at the perfect moment, angle and speed. I probably spent a good hour and a half on that one activity. Radical plans on releasing new challenges for a while, so I look forward to seeing what?s next.
Prototype 2 is not a smart game. It doesn't try anything hugely different from the first game. Though missions are reptitive and give us the same objective each time, I can't call it a bad game. The goal Radical set for the franchise was to make us have fun, and embrace the part of us that wants to be a god of death. The formula from the original title succeeds at what it attempts, and is only refined in Prototype 2. Even though the main story is a good deal shorter in the sequel, there are plenty of side missions, collectibles and even a New Game Plus mode. So yeah, I do recommend buying it.
+ Pure badassery
+ Real fun, even ? no, especially the side challenges.
- Didn't try much new from the last game.
- Story is shallow, just an angry man yelling at people before killing/eating them
Prototype 2 was played to completion using a review copy provided by Activision
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(Read my other reviews at http://chronogamers.com/)