Reviews// [PROTOTYPE2]

The first [PROTOTYPE] game (reviewed here) has everything required to be a hit in the SPOnG offices. An expansive open world, awesome super-hero style powers for the protagonist, and a strong mission based story. Exactly the kind of thing that gets me excited about a game.

But it hit the shelves, and our desk within days of InFamous (reviewed here), and beyond the ostensible similarities, that was a less even match then one would have expected. InFamous' game-world traversal was more engaging, and the missions and the storyline more engaging. And the strongly mission-based nature of [PROTOTYPE] soon became frustrating, and shortly after that... repetitive!

I liked [PROTOTYPE], but I didn't love it, and my joypad hours went into InFamous instead.

Now, [PROTOTYPE2] has landed, and there has been a longer gap between it and the InFamous sequel (reviewed here), which in any event had failed to set out world on fire.

My first impression on booting [PROTOTYPE 2] was that the intro sequences were not as visually impressive is I had hoped or expected. They were rendered by the game engine, but they did not have the look of "The first must-own game of 2012" as Activision is billing the game. But there's more than shiny graphics to a good game, so I didn't let that faze me, and dived straight into it. Or dived straight into the long intro scenes, at least.

Alex Mercer, who (SPOILER WARNING) died at the end of the first game while saving New York from the Blacklight virus (SPOILER ENDS) is back, though not as our lead protagonist. That role falls to new guy James Heller, who HATES Alex Mercer, because he blames him for the death of his family.

So, when he encounters Mercer, he attacks him - and Mercer imbues him with similar powers to those he himself wielded in [PROTOTYPE] - namely the ability to run up buildings, glide for short distances and morph his hands into awesome killing machines. Mercer explains to Heller that Blackwatch and Gentek are using New York for testing biological weapons, and seeks Heller's assistance in stopping them.

From here on in, it's pretty similar to [PROTOTYPE] - too similar if you ask me. While there have been tweaks here and there, there have not been any significant changes to the gameplay, which means if you loved the first game, you may like this one.

But if you only liked the first game, the law of diminishing returns states that there may not be enough new and different here to capture your imagination or justify your pounds/dollars/euros.

Perhaps the most significant change is the loss of the MuscleMass power, wielded by Mercer in the first game, and the inclusion of the Tendril power. This enables Heller to collect and collide with all manner of things (scenery, people and vehicles) with predictably explosive results.

The general ebb and flow of this game is very similar to the first one: you are assigned missions by characters you encounter, each mission involves using your disguise capability to gain access to a facility, whereupon you kill, free or free and kill any number of targets, and occasionally consume them for their knowledge or assume their identity.

[PROTOTYPE2] is great fun, and there is much enjoyment to be had from increasing Heller's powers and making him an (even more) awesome killing machine. But exactly the same could be said of the first game.

There have been enhancements, to be sure! Improved environmental effects give New York realistic weather. The pulse which enables you to hunt and locate mission targets prevents annoying and frustrating hunting without resorting to simply pin-pointing your target on a map. And the three island structure (each of which is increasingly infected) gives the game more sense of progression than its predecessor had.