Welcome to Heller!
Ok, so you’re a Sgt. in the US Military and a virus hits the isles of NY. Caught up in the pandemic you loose your family to a visionary, shape-shifting prototype, known as Alex Mercer (Prototype 1’s main character).
The first thing you would do is hunt this freak down, right?
Well that is exactly the aim in this open world, action-adventure Radical Ent & Activision.
The game begins with new protagonist Sgt. James Heller crashing into the highly infected red zone. But who would cause this? Yep, you guessed it, Mercer. You set off in chase to be met with in-game prompts that keep the action rolling, away from those mindless tutorials. When you do catch up with him, Mercer ‘infects’ you with the god-like powers, and after a little chat, dashes off, leaving you more than a little confused.
Shortly after you are captured by Gentek & Blackwatch (the brains & brawn monitoring the outbreak) to be tested on. A few prompts and a breakout later, you are free to explore the vast world, gain mutations, earn upgrades and track down that S-O-B Mercer and his army, one way or another.
Twists and turns develop along the way, with testing alliances, shocks and surprises together with a worthy array of enemies that come in all shapes and sizes. These are backed up by the new and more realistic AI to add in on the experience.
The main story also has additional side missions, although not essential, they do take the entire game time up to 15-20 hours. Whether you choose to find ‘Blackboxes’, destroy Lairs, wipe out Field Ops teams, or hack the Blacknet systems. Rewards are given to further strengths, defences and giving more insight of what is actually going on.
The development team have ploughed new aspects all through Prototype 2, the duel attack system, extra mutations, pack leader, hunting mode and especially Radnet.
Radnet is an online section separate to the main game. Weekly events, challenging friends and themed awards, all similar to that of Call of Duty: Elite (if you are COD savvy). Very cool, but this feature is currently only available through pre-order and new game copy’s of the Ranet Edition, and not purchasable in any other form.
I did have some movement issues at times and travelling from one side to the other did get slightly tedious even with use of the heliport. That aside, the awesome Sim City style cut scenes and the previously mentioned additions on a whole surpasses the original in this short, but great series.
I enjoyed loading up on Prototype 2, and if they release anymore I’ll definitely be gliding from the rooftops while dropping my devastating moves.
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3 & PC
Release: 24th April 2012 (Console) 24th – 27th July (PC)
PEGI: 18 ERSB: M
Disk & Download
For more info visit www.prototypegame.com