Prototype
Back to reviews
Game
Reviewed: Prototype
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Radical Entertainment
Reviewer: Luis
Platform: XBOX 360 (Also on PS3 & PC)
Category: Action
ERSB Rating: M
Game
Description:
How does
climbing buildings and gliding around Manhattan
sound? How does
falling from any height
and not being hurt sound? How
about
being able to shape shift into just about anything that suits your
needs of the
moment? What about
being able to absorb
other people, mentally and physically to take on their look and know
all of
what they know? These
are the things
that Alex Mercer can do. He
is the Hero,
or protagonist of this story.
You
see, there is a virus that is tearing through Manhattan.
It is also tearing through Alex’s body.
To most people it kills them or turns them into a zombie. To Alex, however, it
grants him amazing
abilities, but it has also taken away his memories.
So while the military is trying to stop the
virus, Alex is trying to find the man that did this to him, and either
help the
military or destroy them. Either
way,
you are a threat to them, and they try to kill you on sight.
The
fun thing is that you can shape shift into the last
person you absorbed to fool everyone, even when walking right next to
them. You can take
on the look of
military personnel and walk right into a base.
You can also shape shift your body into different weapons
that can
either destroy a tank, helicopter, or super infected mutant.
All
these abilities make for a fun, yet gruesome game.
What Parents Need to
Know
Violence:
The
most important thing to know about this game is that it
is VERY gory. There
is a lot of
gratuitous violence, blood, and explosions.
The graphics are above average so some of the detail is
surprisingly
good. There is so
much of it in fact;
there is not room for anything else.
This game is played
in the third person, which is to say you look over Alex’s shoulder to
see
everything. The
sandbox term this game
uses, means that there is a boundary to where this world ends. This “world” however, is
Manhattan and it is
very detailed. Within
this world, you
can do almost anything you want, and the environment will react to your
environment. Since
it is an action game,
everything Alex does is dictated by the buttons your press. Every step, jump, punch,
or projectile comes
from your pressing a button to make it happen.
For an example about
what the violence entails, Alex has these moves galled “devastators.” Just like it sounds, they
devastate your
enemies. One in
particular causes Alex
to form his body into a ball and shape shift all of these arms out of
his body
that travel through anything within a 100 foot radius to do an amazing
amount
of damage. Everything
in the range is
either incredibly hurt or dead. Tanks
explode, helicopters crash, people are decapitated or sliced in half
leaving a
blood stain on anything that is around them.
Just an example of the detail and the gory violence you
will find in
this game.
The cut scenes can
be just as violent. In
an opening cut
scene, when Alex realizes he is all but indestructible, he is shot at
by a half
dozen Marines till their clips are empty.
There is enough blood pouring from his body for two people. He sinks down the wall he
was shot against
and lies lifeless on the pavement.
At
that moment, his body starts up again and he bounds down an alley with
amazing
speed and evades all the Marines.
Language:
Every
bad word that can be thought of is in this game, here
is a small list of what you will find.
F**k, s**t, crap,
bitch, hell, damn, and just about anything else that one could come up
with.
Sexual
Content:
There
is too much violence in this game to worry about
sexual content. There
is a scene that
has a girl in a bikini. She
does not do anything;
there is not any sexual conversation or innuendo.
It is a part of a flashback to remember a
past relationship that Alex once had.
Spiritual
Content:
While it is never
explained to what it means, the codename the military uses for Alex is
Zeus, which
is a Greek God. They never say why they named him that or what the
significance
of the name is.
There is one moment
in the game where a military general utters the words “The rest is in
God’s
hands.” Outside of this line, there is no room for any spirituality
through all
of the violence.
Misc:
After
all of my descriptions, the simple, singular point of
this game is for Alex to find the people that have done this him and
make them
pay
Reviewers Thoughts:
For
a bloody, gory, mindless entertaining time, this is a
decent game. The
story is not the best,
the graphics are not amazing, the controls can be a little awkward, and
the
difficulty level is not all that challenging.
It is fun, however, to watch things blow up. The one saving grace for
me in this game is
the ability to take over and control vehicles.
You can drive a tank and shoot whatever you want. You can also take over a
helicopter and fly
over Manhattan and have air fights with other helicopters. That was fun.
As for children, however, this is not a game intended for
a child;
please mind the M rating and the above mentioned content when deciding
if
Prototype is right for your family or not.
