Order PROTOTYPE

Have you ever read a comic book where the hero or a villain can turn their hands into stuff? Carnage from Spider-Man, Warblade from WildC.A.T.S., that kinda thing. Have you ever really wanted to be able to do it yourself? Thats what Prototype is. Basically, the player character can re-shape his body into weapons, armor and disguises, all of which he'll need because apparently every soldier on Earth and every parallel Earth in which everyone still thought 'give peace a chance' belonged on bumper stickers and not in politics is after him. And why are they after him? Well, thats pretty much the only interesting plot point. I won't say it in case you're one of the people who'll end up caring about the story, but most of the plot is pretty 'meh'.

A lot of people compare this to InFamous, and I can see their point. They're both good games and I hope are pioneering a genre I like to call "Super-Sandbox", in other words, GTA with super-powers. Its a great idea and has potential as massive as The Hulk. While I think the electric powers in InFamous are more versatile and allow for more control over who you want him to be, they're also less active. Its sometimes difficult to survive being surrounded if they know you're there. Not so in Prototype. You can butcher blocks and blocks and blocks of guys with guns, helicopters, tanks and monsters without much trouble. Maybe not as strategic, but it has a certain visceral quality to it InFamous lacks.

The other big difference is morality. In InFamous, you can be a hero or a bad guy (sort of). Prototype's...uh, player character Alex is under no illusions about his alignment and I find being truly chaotic neutral to be very interesting. Alex' weapons are easy to use but if you care about not killing pedestrians, good luck. Everything but bare fists are going to catch someone you may not mean it to. But the only reason it matters is if you want it to. There is no punishment or reward for doing good or bad acts so it really doesn't matter how you play. Blend into the crowds, kill all of them, whatever. I like that. The only downside is that, as far as I can tell, you can't be a good guy and I'd kind of like the option. Theres no pleasing me.

Disguises are good in theory but they don't really work when I need them to. If I just want to walk around and see the sights, its fine but sometimes I need to infiltrate a base, which is done in a weird way. You have to grab a soldier of mid rank, consume and become him, go into the base, disable the machines that can see through disguises except the flying ones, which give you away instantly even if nobody sees you destroy it, then grab the base commander. Hes always accompanied by other soldiers, so the second you grab him, the whole base is on alert and an attack team is en route. Then, you have to escape with him, unless some dumbass enemy kills him before you escape which they often do unless you're decent with evading while running up walls, get out of sight of aerial units, eat him, become him, go back and enter the base. I've observed the commanders for ten minutes and they never have times where they're alone, meaning you have to do all that for every base. Not a huge deal, despite this paragraph, but a pain, especially when the strike team are in top form and you can't shake them. But once you're in that base, its pure Prototype fun. Maybe fifty guys, all just waiting to be slashed, cleaved, bashed, sliced, eaten alive, shot or splattered against the wall. Its really fun, and its a lot of the game if you'll let it be.

So, buy Prototype? It would be pretty pointless to say I would since I already did. But I don't feel cheated and thats pretty good.Get more detail about PROTOTYPE.