2.5/5 ★ – peacebrendanp's review of Prototype.

It took me just under 8-hours to complete the main campaign of Prototype, and while the first half of the game rides decently-high on the initial impression it makes, the second half of the game starts to undo all the potential that was built up in those initial hours. To be more granular, the first 3-hours the game is it's most interesting with a somewhat intriguing story, a plethora of powers, and a traversal system that rivals that of a Spider-Man game. The next 5-or-so-hours are at odds with itself; more mechanics start to get introduced, and the story ramps up, only to be undercut by those same mechanics which lead to some frustrating missions. The two strongest pillars of this game are it's traversal and art-direction. The traversal is akin to a Spider-Man game, in terms of how it feels to flow through New York City. This single mechanic makes the game engaging to get from point-A to point-B, without it feeling super boring in the open world. The traversal system does seem to keep the player from gaining a consistent momentum, though that may be due to the age of the systems this game was designed for. The art-direction is so fucking peak here, in my opinion. It has this washed out look from games and movies of the early aughts. The color palette is really appealing to look at. There is a dream-like essence in every frame with the bloom over-cranked. My biggest complaint is there was no rain or any weather really. However, the mood is still dreary with some phases of the world having a green and cloudy skybox that set the tone. The design of New York City goes through multiple changes throughout the runtime of the game as the virus takes over the population of the city. The visuals reflect this as the game gets nearer to it's closing hours, with more NPC's becoming infected, and the city becoming more ruined. The amount of NPC's on screen at a time is really impressive, and makes traversing the later hours of the game really fun. The gameplay loop has a lot going on, which means there is a lot of good and interesting ideas, but often they are never fleshed out in a meaningful way. This is especially so with the core combat mechanic, which should feel the most complete of all the mechanics of the game. However, it does not. When you are fighting regular, humanoid-type enemies, the gameplay feels the best. As a virally-infected-super-human, you should feel increasingly powerful as the game goes along; a game like this should feel like a power-fantasy. However, as you start to progress through the game, you will never be able to truly surmount your power against more aggressive foes. Hunters, tanks, and brute-type soldiers will all be able to juggle you and whittle your health down. There never really feels like a good way to combat, counter, or dodge almost any of these foes, except for hi-jacking a helicopter and trying to use the terrible tracking feature to blast them away. Because of this, the combat feels like taking a hammer to a moving train: you're going to lose, and it's not going to feel fun. What should be the higher levels of the combat system ends up feeling dull and flat because of this, resulting in a system that requires you to retreat and cheese your way through the scenario. It's really unfortunate. Especially frustrating is when you encounter a boss, especially the final boss, and end up with very few viable ways to actually combat them. It's annoying, and is not rewarding gameplay. The other gameplay mechanics are interesting. There is a semi-stealth mechanic, where you can camouflage as another NPC in the game. You can use this mechanic to infiltrate bases, or commandeer military vehicles. However, it ends there, and the actual detection mechanic is pretty hit-or-miss. There are infected hives and military bases that reward upgrades, but after destroying them, they seem to respawn and only provide a temporary world-buff, which I found disappointing. The soundtrack is semi-generic, but effective for the tone of the game. There are side-activities that awards upgrade points, but I encountered issues where there was a long delay in starting the actual activity, so I did not want to actually participate with those. The upgrade system just feels more like a long list of things that you can unlock, but not necessarily mechanics that work well together. Speaking of which, the actual controls to pull off some of these moves, are just awful. The story itself has some really interesting ideas, and serves the gameplay effectively enough. The mystery that is unraveled is ultimately unsatisfying, and there are a lot of jumps in the plot that make very little sense, despite the main beats being effective. Until the end, where a twist is revealed, but it's a shoe-horned in twist, so it falls flat and leaves not impact. The writing is fine, but is definitely reminiscent of video games written in 2009. Alex Mercer is a pretty uninteresting character, all thing considered. He plays the anti-hero, but lacks any depth or development as a character. I played the entire thing on Steam Deck, and it ran flawlessly. Ultimately, I am happy to have replayed this game for the nostalgia vibes, but there is a reason a lot of these older games can sometimes be harder to return to. A game like this from 2009 has a lot of ideas, and it's impressive to see how many ideas the game has. What is not impressive is how half-baked they all feel, and how the game gets in it's own way. Too many times did I have to restart a mission from it's last checkpoint all because there were elements out of my control that caused me to fail. My first 2-hours with this game, I wanted to rate it a 3.5/5. My next 3-or-4-hours, I wanted to rate the game a 3/5. In the final 2-or-3-hours, I struggled whether I should rate this game a 2/5 or a 2.5/5. My words matter more than the rating, but I think about these things as I'm progressing through a game often. It's because of the strong traversal and art direction that this game left me with a high impression. But, the more you play the game, and the more it introduces, it starts to feel like more of chore to get through. Either way, hopefully the second one is a better time. Console Played On: Steam Deck (SteamOS) Game Played: 03/2025 - 03/2025 Review Written and Published: 03/26/2025