Radical Entertainment takes another stab, albeit in the same direction
Prototype 2 is the second release from Activision and Radical Entertainment, and although not a direct sequel it pulls its own weight...for a while. The kind little narrative that I wrote above may have been interesting, even exciting to read, but imagine doing that 200 times. Over and over again. Alas, Prototype 2 falls into the same hole that it's older brother fell into not 5 years ago: monotony. Although this time around the game moves at a much quicker pace, throwing easy to find collectibles and easily defeat-able enemies (even on Insane difficulty), it all gets a bit too boring at a point; I'd say the 70% completion point of the storyline. So let's delve a bit deeper into this barrage of blood and profanity, shall we?
James Heller is an Army Sergeant who returns from Iraq to find out that his wife and daughter have been pronounced dead. He then rejoins the military to fight against the Mercer virus in New York Zero and using revenge as a primary motive tries to hunt down Mercer, holding him responsible for what happened to his family. Heller eventually finds Mercer and is immediately infected with the Mercer virus, becoming a sort-of Alex Mercer spawn...except angrier and more African American. Mercer says that he is planning to take out BlackWatch and Gentek and wants a truce with Heller. Being skeptical, Heller pays a visit to his local pastor, Father Guerra to seek advice. Guerra give Heller the necessary information in order to hack into BlackNet terminals. Heller then goes on a mission to gradually consume BlackWatch personnel…until he finds himself in a conspiracy that not even he thought possible.
Many reviewers and avid video game players will hate me after I make this comment. I have no idea what happened in Prototype 2 story-wise. I had to have one of my friends tell me the story which is how I wrote the above paragraph. Queue the hate mail. But before you submit my name to a private "contractor", let me explain myself. I watched the first few cut scenes of the game: Mercer runs around and karate kicks a helicopter, Heller says a bunch of swear words, Mercer again destroys some soldiers until finally giving all the powers he possesses to James Heller. After those cut scenes I was genuinely intrigued so I watched a few more. What I found out, just through those cut scenes, is that what this game lacks in story depth, character development, etc. it makes up for in blood, gore, profanities and yes, fun. Now fun can only take you so far, but it is a refreshing thing when you can just go throw people over a mile and run to the top of the tallest building and drop straight to the ground so hard it causes a crater to form. But in my opinion, all that is easy to do. What is more difficult to do is to create a compelling story with characters that we actually care about and when they are removed from the story it leaves a hole in the game...and in our hearts. Well maybe not in our hearts, but you get the picture. Heller is a funny guy and he's fun to control, but I absolutely don't care for him as a person. There must be a profanity in every sentence he says and he's always, always angry. Even at the end of the game there is no limit to how over the top his personality is. Regardless, he is fun to play as and does say some comical things: he sucks with computers and anytime he is forced to fiddle around with one he always gets angry giving the player a well-deserved laugh. But that's ok because it's something we can relate to. And in comparison to Alex Mercer, I consider Heller a much better "anti-"hero. The reason that I put "anti-" in quotes is because I'm leaning toward the fact that Heller is actually a hero, despite his angry demeanor. Mercer is a vile and despicable creature while Heller, after all, has something to fight for which makes him just a bit more likeable. Just a bit.
The gameplay of this game is much like the first one - Heller starts out with one power (the Claws) and quickly progresses through the main story and side quests to receive the other four. Once the player gets the Hammerfists the game becomes extremely easy offering little to no resistance to someone that can remember how to defeat each one of the four or five possible enemies. In addition to the powers that are generally accompanied with the Mercer virus, Heller receives two "super" powers that can be activated by holding two of the main buttons (B+Y or A+X on Xbox 360). A new power, called the Bio-bomb, has been also added to Heller's arsenal which acts as a distraction when the player wants to consume or kill a target. Heller can also hunt targets by releasing a sonar-like projectile outwards from his body and receiving back a general location of where his target currently is. The game is also free roam allowing the player to go wherever they please in the confined New York Zero area. There are a number of collectibles to find and one can open up the collectibles menu to see a general location of where they are in their respective zones. As you progress through the game you receive upgrades in one of the five main categories of Heller's , receiving the last upgrade a little bit before the final stage of the game. All-in-all, this game is not difficult and if you have played the first one you know exactly what you're going to get. Albeit fun, at times it all gets a bit too familiar.
This game was in development since the release of the original Prototype and was finished early enough to be show cased at the Spyke VGA awards in 2010 which means it was in 2 years of idle stage before it was released. The graphical prowess that this game exemplifies it is sub-par at best. The interactive menu is cool and the explosion physics are nice but the shading effects and detection on some objects, particularly the helicopters post-explosion, are laughable. When a helicopter gets hit with a rocket and explodes it does not go on fire and shed its rotors and landing gear; Prototype 2 seems to think that is true and with every helicopter explosion comes the inevitable appearance of a grainy, grey elliptical blob that is supposed to signify the body of the aircraft - a lackadaisical effort on the graphic engineers' parts. The graphical development on the features of the main character is laughable as well. He's the main character so obviously he would get the most attention, right? Apparently wrong according to Activision/Radical because Heller's hands look like giant chocolate rolls with fingernails that look like they've been drawn in Microsoft Paint. Aside from those two semi-large graphical flaws, this game delivers standard graphics for the time period, comparable to any game prior to its 2012 release.
The campaign of this game isn't that long, and one could complete the game all in a week plus a weekend if they wanted to. The campaign consists of story missions given to the character by contacts and side BlackNet missions, which involve either hunting someone, running and retrieving packages that yet another drunk helicopter pilot has unluckily misplaced, or invading a BlackWatch base to learn more about the story. All in all there's probably about 20 or 25 hours of gameplay and after the first play-through the player unlocks Insane difficulty. Hard difficulty is a misnomer because it is not very hard at all. The game is extremely forgiving and you won't find yourself repeating many missions, if any. The replay value of this game stands fairly high due to the New Game+ mode, although nothing new is added with this feature.
Prototype 2 is a good successor to Prototype the original, although more new features should have been added. It's a fun way to entertain yourself and if you're achievement-/trophy-happy this game is a gold mine. Its similarities to the first title in the series, graphical anomalies and repetitive gameplay keep it from being a game one could come back and play a few months down the road. Besides the flaws it is a fun title and although the 20 hours are quick and short, they are worthwhile.