Prototype 2 takes you out of the morphed shoes of Alex Mercer and into the Combat Boots of James Heller, a Sergeant in the military. While serving overseas, Mercer and the virus (Now dubbed "The Mercer Virus") is destroying New York and after taking a pleading phone call from his wife, returns home to find his wife dead and his daughter missing. And one simple patrol later, Heller is left in the street as Alex has infected him with the virus. And what a mistake that becomes.
As I began the story, I noticed the gameplay and the controls haven't changed dramatically and this places many fans of the game directly back in the old seat. Combat, while slightly modified, has become ever more destructive. While retaining most of the old abilities from the first game, many different fighting styles can be achieved with the ability to have two types of abilities at once (For example; the Claws along with the Whipfist, Hammerfists with Blade ect)
This does come in handy with larger opponents and espeically at a final kill strike. What truly defines this gameplay is the leveling system. Playing a game with a brand new protagonist on a sequel is a unique style that is left to few games (For example, Assassin's Creed 2, Bioshock 2, FEAR 2 ect) and what makes the leveling system brilliant is the composure of it all. While indeed, you do start out quite weak, the key to unlocking many of your hidden talents is searching for Free Roam World items such as Blackboxes, Lairs, Defence areas and so on. Doing so will boost your experience and also open side missions for you to unlock custom abilities such as 25% increase of health, more powerful attacks and even more. While the game starts out small, it is not overly difficult (even on Hard mode) nor overly frustrating, as the game gives tips in order to achieve your goals.
Other noteworthy facts of the game is the graphic and sound effect design; it seems Activision and Radical took into account from the low budget original and up'ed the anty for the sequel with extreme colouring (Cut scenes mostly being black and white), gorgeous scenery and extremely detailed facial movements within smaller gameplay moments.
What really stands out above the crowd is the voice acting. Heller (Voiced by Cornell Womack) brings a significant voice acting to the role. While sometimes overpowing and slightly melodramatic, the role of loosing everything he held precious allows you to overlook this fact. Mercer (Now voiced by Darryl Kurylo) brings the needed coolness to the role, while bringing about quite a great amount of emotional trauma that bubbles underneath the surface. Dana Mercer (Voice by Lake Bell) truly brings much needed light to the dark of the game with a captivating performance.
However the only issues mostly noticible is parts of the gameplay. While working your way through the campaign, some parts require you to unlock specific side missions. While these side missions take only short amounts of time, they have only four different types of side missions: Hunt and Consume, Defence, Time Run and Infiltrate. After a period of time playing the game, these missions do get repetitive.
Overall, the campaign is a delight, the ending quite decent and the entire game quite fantastic. For a game to start from the ground up, Prototype 2 is definitely worthy to have a place on your shelf. With the game having a conclusive ending, only time will tell if Prototype 3 is on the cards.
Out of 10, I gave Prototype 2 an 9.5/10
Good Points
+Brilliant gameplay/storyline/voice acting
+New style of gruesome death!
+Protagonist turn Antagonist? Nice!
+Different view to the infection of New York.
Bad Points
+Storyline could have been slightly longer....
+Side missions get repetitive.
Prototype 2 is out now for the average price of $88
No comments:
Post a Comment