My 1st impressions of Prototype after beating it. Personally find the name to be a little on the nose for this game.
Now was it just me or was this game rushed? There was a lot that seemed missing throughout the game and it really felt like they were just trying to hurry it along and make the release date. A lot of the characters just seem to "disappear" with in the story with no real explanation later on. This could be due to it being in the "web of intrigue", but that's a rather sloppy way of doing it considering that its quite noticeable and doesn't make for good story telling. As well a lot of missions just feel like, "do this because I said so" and Alex is all like 'okay I'm going to do it", *he does it* repeat process. There is a story to this game, but aside from the beginning and the end it just felt like it was filler, and that they were trying to hurry with just the parts they actually did. Just so much of the story felt like it was there and you can tell there were parts missing, but you couldn't quite put your finger on it. It was really distracting and it left me with an unsettling feeling. But by all means the story doesn't damper the gameplay but it certainly makes playing the game more of a chore then part of an interesting story.
Not to say gameplay is without its flaws though. The lock-on system just doesn't lock-on properly. You can be facing your target, but it will lock on to the bigger target behind it, and when you do try to switch targets there are so many targets to choose from that you often stumble on the wrong one. This can get really frustrating fast as a lot of enemies only leave you with so much time to counter attack. As for the bosses they seemed like they were interesting, but just ended up dull and boring. The game certainly seems like it can get some great bosses out of its concept, but a lot of it just falls apart in practice. More often then not, you are faced with wave after wave of enemies that try to attack you while you're trying to attack the boss. The boss also give out a lot of damage to you, to the point you're playing a constant hit and run game otherwise you die and have to start the battle all over. This makes boss battles rather tedious and annoying rather than challenging which is a big let down to say the least. This is very apparent in the final boss battle which is just the biggest let down I've experienced throughout my gaming career. It doesn't help that it's a rather unfair fight either, considering he can pretty much OHKO you each time he touches you! And its timed too! So you're put into a rock and a hard place of playing hit and run, while trying to constantly attack him, making the fight more of a headache than an exciting last battle.
Really the best time you will have playing Prototype is just exploring the city and doing stealth missions. While stealth missions can get annoying, they offer a nice change of pace for this game, and if they focused more on stealth missions the game would have been a lot more interesting. As for just exploring the city, there is just so much you can do to kill time, like gliding around, hoping around builds, doing varies side missions, and mini games like racing around the city collecting orbs. If Prototype just focused on delivering just one of these kind of things that the minigames or stealth missions offered I'm sure it would be far better than what it is now, but for what we have is an unfocused gaming trying to do everything, and giving nothing of great value. It's a shame too because there is a lot of potential in Prototype that just seems like it was barely missed.
Conclusion: Prototype is only a shadow of what it could have been, it certainly was there, but it just never did flesh out. But for what it is, Prototype is still pretty interesting, and certainly brings something to the table, just don't expect it to be a grand venture.