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Alex Mercer, he broods, he's frowny, and he certainly won't be on anyone's Christmas Card list, in New York at least. He's wanted by the police, by scientists, and by mysterious wriggly things which want to chew his face off.
Despite this, Alex Mercer must be - without a shadow of a doubt, the happiest man on the face of the planet.

Let me begin by explaining why Prototype is one of the most well thought out pieces of game design in history, and how it will visibly influence the market for years to come.



That's right, in the same way that Metal Gear Solid put a stealth section in every game, and Gears of War put knee high dynamic cover in everything else - Prototype's patented 'Tentacle to the Face' move will be in pretty much every game made from now on, including the next Mario Party.
Do I exaggerate? Not quite, but Activision realised something when making this game. The best games are about wish fulfillment.
Games like Halo and Final Fantasy work because we really wish we were gruff cyborgs/angst ridden antiheroes, armed only with a selection of big manly guns/big choppy sword - and on a mission to save the universe/electricity bill

Activision therefore set about making a game that is almost completely about wish fulfillment, all the things that you've always subconsciously wanted to do - but never had the superpowers to achieve. Here are a few examples,
You can:

• Flying kick a helicopter out of the sky.
• Drop Kick a tank through the pavement.
• Use people as surfboards as you grind their faces to pulp on the road, then subsequently kick their friction burned body into their comrades.
• Pick anybody you don't like the look of off the street, retire to the rooftops and devour them in a gruesome manner.
• Pick up anybody you do like the look of off the street and become them.
• Turn to super cool looking metal, shrugging off bullets as you stalk implacably forwards.
• Hurl taxis to destory buildings.
• Hurl people to destroy buildings.
• Hurl bits of buildings to destroy buildings.
• Morph yourself to alternatively crush, impale, tear in half, slice and erotically whip your opponents - and any civilians in a 50 meter radius.
• Drive a tank down the pavement.
• Drive a bigger tank which fires nuclear mortars and has a snowplough down the pavement.
• Hijack a helicopter in mid-air, then crash it into the pavement.
• Fly.
• Fly for a bit, wait till you get really high, and dive head first into the ground, causing what I like to call the 'Hiroshima' effect.
• Run up, over or through everything at the speed of sound - including buildings, traffic and civilians who bounce out of the way like cartoon bowling pins.
• Kick a man to the freaking moon.

And so on and so forth.

As you can see, early during development they obviously sat down and drew up a list of pretty much every single deranged fantasy they could think of, and proceeded to build a game around it. What a terrific way to approach game design.

The concept isn't the only solid thing about this game. The controls work surprisingly well, despite the frequently mad speeds you find yourself hoofing around at, and the minor time slowdown you experience when shifting targets or weapons keeps the game from becoming a disconcerting bundle of tentacles and blood.
The game progression is pretty good vise-vise acquisition of powers, as you gradually become more hilariously overpowered throughout the course of the game, to the point where the Hunter face chewing monsters who gave you such trouble earlier on will be dispatched later by the dozen with little more than a sneer and a naughty word.

The story is passable at best, present more to allow for the presence of a zombies vs super soldiers situation than any real attempt at a good story. On its own, i'm afraid it would be the death of the game, as while wish fulfillment works for a while - the greatest games are story driven, and the unanswered questions are one of the things that lend you purpose and keep you immersed in the fantasy. This comes in the form of the Web of Intrigue.

The Web of Intrigue feature is a surprisingly well thought out little feature. Seems that as well as having pretty much every super power worth having, Alex Mercer can eat brains and learn his victims memories and skills.
These memories come in the form or scattered 20 second video clips, done in a fantastically post modern/stream of consciousness style. These answer tiny bits of the great questions which crop up throughout the game, and together add the plot and mystery which the plot otherwise lacks. The way you acquire them from helpless victims wandering around the place is a great variation on the 'hidden packages' theme seen in most sandbox games - a method of narrative delivery so well suited to the medium that it will no doubt be pirated by every free roaming sandbox game which follows it. Pick up Yuppie, nom nom nom.

The rest of the game? Well as this is a review, the graphics are okay, but only really impress when the screen erupts into chaos (which it does frequently - so good shot there.). However when you're wandering around on the ground it's hard to escape the fact that there's not quite enough detail to sustain the illusion, and civilians spend most of their time either walking, screaming or being eaten. None of the vibrant, living world we were shown in GTA 4. Perhaps not feasible considering the grunt required for the game, but definitely a benchmark missed.
The sound is similarly average. The music complements the mood of the moment well - but there's little inspired musical direction there, combine this with the uninspired dialogue and voice acting and we're faced with another real missed opportunity for this otherwise great game.

Maybe I'm being picky, at least you can punch a man so hard that he explodes.



To summarize, this game could well revolutionise the games industry, as developers jump on the wish fullfilment bandwagon, and hopefully come up with some wonderfully ludicrous, yet lucrative games. Prototype has set a benchmark in this respect and it'll be good fun to see who tries to top it.
The game plays well, is tremendously cathartic - and there's enough of a variety of activities and combinations of powers to stop the game getting too repetitive. The story may not grab you but the web of intrigue will have you hunting around for those last few unsuspecting scientists for days to come.

This excellent game really deserves a 9/10 for just that. But the average sound direction and graphics push it down a notch. If this had GTA 4s graphics and Halo's soundtrack then to be frank I would be far too busy replaying the game for the hundredth time - riding on the euphoria of one prolonged orgasm - to write this review.
As it is, having finished it I dip on now whenever I feel the urge to hurl a tank into a pond or drop kick a pensioner through a soldier.