Prototype 2 review

As a follow up to the 2009 title, Prototype 2 does a great job improving upon itself. The first game in the series had a lot of cool features going on like the ability to transform into other people and scale the skyscrapers of New York City, but it fell on its face when it came to its low quality visuals, awful mission structure and frustrating combat system.

However, Prototype 2 fixes most of those problems and actually makes a decent game out of a really cool concept. In this title, the protagonist from the first game, Alex Mercer, is now the antagonist and causer of the Blacklight virus, a virus that has devastated the city of New York. The new protagonist is named James Heller, and he is hellbent on avenging his family who died after attaining the Blacklight virus. The dialogue is fair and the pre-rendered cutscenes are stylish displaying in black and white with highlights of red. These short cutscenes are short and concise, allowing the players to get back into the action.

The control scheme is much improved on in this game, allowing you to perform stylish maneuvers much more easily than in the last game. When you can effectively dash up buildings and zip from one skyscraper to the next, it makes the map feel much smaller and easier to navigate. This comes especially in handy when you are caught in a sticky situation and need an effective way to escape.

Geronimo!

The combat is much improved on as well. First and foremost, the ability to defend yourself has been much improved upon. In the first game, you were subjected to getting juggled by an array of missiles and punches, but in Prototype 2, the shield can be your best friend. It never breaks and if you time the deflection at the right moment, you can send projectile weapons back at your enemies. You can also shield bash with it and flip your enemies around, exposing their backs for an attack. The improved defensive mechanics make it so you can stay in battle for longer and not have to constantly remove yourself to regain health.

As for the offensive side of combat, there have been some new additions to your array of powers. One of the powers allows you to extend tendrils from your arm and hold your enemies in air while you slash at them with your blades. Another attack is a chargeable black hole attack where a black hole spawns and shoots out tentacles that pull debris towards it, taking out anybody that is in the way. Instead of having a cumbersome weapon wheel, powers are now mapped to face buttons, which makes changing up your weapons much more smooth.

Bring it...

The mission structure isn't as tedious as the last game, providing a more enjoyable playthrough.You can just blow by the game by doing only story missions, but it is wise to do side missions, especially the Blacknet ones. Side missions will offer more mutation points and unique mutation upgrades. There are also bonus objectives for every mission that will award extra points upon completion. The games final boss is also an enjoyable one, forcing the player to use all of the powers and abilities that they've learned.



This game is a vast improvement on the first, but I still wouldn't recommend spending the money to purchase it. Although it does improve much on the first, it is still just a good experience. The story is kind of dull and there really isn't much reason to play through it a second time. It helps that the graphics make the game look like it should be of this generation of gaming, unlike the first one, but the visuals still aren't very awe inspiring. If you're a fan of open world games where your character has nearly unlimited power, save yourself the money and just rent this game.