Game Review: Prototype 2 Rules

By: Eric Thomas

I understand. Life can be frustrating. Perhaps you are tired of that idiot you work with. Maybe one of your clients is running you all over kingdom come. Maybe you are blaming the cop that wrote the ticket. Maybe your kids are driving you crazy, or your wife is taking her job out on you. Maybe frustration is like a crockpot that you are basting in.

Well if you are in this predicament, there is relief awaiting you in video game form, and it's called Prototype 2. This game is like a stress ball, in the event that a stress ball exploded when you threw it and took out several cars at once. Okay, it's not like a stress ball because a stress ball has never provided this much relief.

Some background, I loved Protype 1, but that was Pong compared to the sequel. This game is amazing. You are in charge of a mutated super hero who has superhuman strength, the ability to fly and parts of his body turn into metal freaking claws. You have God-like capabilities except none of the creating kind. You are flush with butt kicking, "laying smack down" variety of abilities. Oh, did I mention you can shape shift? How did I miss that? You can freaking shape shift!

Prototype 2 (like its predecessor) certainly owes a lot to the GTA series. It's a large open area that suggests New York City (I believe it is NYC, but it's unrecognizable) and you can pretty much do what you want. This concept has been overdone, of course, but Prototype 2 makes it more fun. It reminds me of the game Crackdown, but this is a good game. Crackdown seemed like a good idea done horribly.

The only flaw in the game is that you are almost too powerful. Armies of enemies are destroyed by holding down a button and releasing. There are plenty of game purists that will whine about this. They will say things like "difficulty curve" and garbage that won't matter. Yes your character is basically like playing with cheat codes on. You have to really screw up to die in this game at all. It has an "Easy" mode but I can't even imagine what that might be.

I don't mind it being easy. Life is a challenge and Prototype 2 is not and that is perfectly fine by me. It is a blast to play with a character that is this able to wreak this level of havoc. You know how in GTA if you cause enough mayhem they send helicopters and strike teams after you? Same thing in Prototype 2, but in this game you have the ability to climb the building you are standing next to (almost instantly) and wrestle the helicopter to the ground. It's a rush when you pull it off. The game announces the military is after me and I start climbing a building immediately.

Easily my favorite part of the game is the most inconsequential. Your character has the ability to pick up anyone on the street and throw them. But you can take that person to the top of a building, jump about 100 feet in the air and throw them, and they go really far. This adds nothing to the game, but I do it almost constantly. It's so fun to watch the person you just threw disappear into the horizon at an impossible rate of speed. The game is paused behind me and that is the first thing I am going to do after I push send on this blog. Again, it adds nothing but it's a blast.

Prototype 2 also has a story but I think it's stupid. It's the usual garbage about a virus outbreak in a major city (surprise! the government is involved? any corrupt corporations hell-bent on profits? you bet!) and it even is so audacious as to take itself seriously. The first 40 minutes of the game are a CHORE. You watch these seemingly endless cut scenes that are played out over a single keyed piano, suggesting a poignancy that just isn't around in zombie movies.

But this mercifully ends and you are back to heaving people off of buildings, and that makes it all worth it. Great game. Pick it up.