Prototype 2 isn?t exactly what I?d call a great game, but despite its repetitive missions, overly angry protagonist, and surprisingly low difficulty, I still found myself having some fun with it. That?s almost entirely due to the awesome mobility the powered up anti-hero James Heller has. Giving me the ability to jump 300 feet in the air across a landscape of ruined New York City skyscrapers is pretty awesome. Being able to run up and down those buildings as easy as if I were running down the street is equally awesome. And then being able to jump from the top of the Empire State Building and landing on the ground in a shattering explosion of debris and bodies is pretty much the highlight of the game for me.
But then I had to play the rest of the game, which ends up being unfortunately dull throughout. See, Prototype 2 shines when you?re not really worried about your current mission markers, whether it?s the main story progression or the optional BLACKNET side missions you can go on. The fun you?ll have here, like a lot of sandbox style giant city games, is in the destruction and mayhem you can cause, and how cool you can look while doing it. I will say that I think Prototype 2 lacks the sheer variety found in better titles, like Saints Row: The Third or even the original Crackdown. But your super-powered main character is capable of doing some amazing looking stuff if you take time to play around with the world.
Needless to say, Heller is pissed, and he?ll let you know that at just about every chance he gets. Heller is so angry that he ends up becoming pretty annoying, along with most of the cast in the game. Seriously, the game could be subtitled The Yelling, because that?s about what 90% of the characters do in this game when interacting with each other. I?m sure it?s meant to drive home the gravity of a dire situation, but its way overdone, and loses any kind of impact. That?s especially true when Heller goes on a handful of tirades that try to incorporate as many uses of the F-word as humanly possible.
Besides the actual powers, there are optional mutations you can uncover by completing various side quests or looking for the in-game collectibles. These mutations aren?t entirely necessary, and actually help to make the game even easier than it actually is. But they at least help to give you a reason to complete these tasks. And that?s a good thing, because you?ll quickly learn that the side missions consist of just doing a handful of things over and over again, which unfortunately reinforces that dull feeling that the game would constantly give me.
But really, what kills any excitement I have for the game is slogging through the repetitive story and side mission content to propel a story line that I couldn?t care less about. If you?re a gamer that comes to video games for plot, characters, or story, Prototype 2 will be an immensely disappointing journey for you. Its gameplay really shines when you decide to not give a damn about what the game wants you to do, and instead try to seek out your own fun and mayhem. There?s definitely something to be said about a game that will allow you to hijack a helicopter in midair, eject from said helicopter, drop kick another one, and then snatch the rockets from a third to lay waste to a number of tanks and mutants below you. It?s just a shame about all the other stuff you have to do in between.
Finally Jack Black in controller form…what, no? It’s not him? Oh man…
A fight stick without a stick…what a wild time we live in.
A quarter of a century after the original game's launch, Atari is re-releasing one of…
To celebrate the 3rd game's 5th anniversary and the original's 25th (!), YSNET has transferred…
One of 2022's best games is slinking onto the Switch in this week's update.
This website uses cookies.