Civilian casualties? Whoops...

If I were to try and define my alignment (in a D&D sense) when it comes to games, I think it would probably be 'Chaotic Good'... do the 'right thing' but my own way. So, generally speaking, when it comes to moral choices in games, I do tend to throw my lot in on the 'good' side. I've tried being 'evil' and it rarely works out... I just can't help myself... but Prototype certainly takes some strides towards making you think just a little differently about the good and evil involved.


To fully explain this, I do need to spoil the plot a little. None of it is particularly surprising, but there are some people who just don't like to know what's coming... if that's you, you might want to stop reading this post after the next two paragraphs.

You start the game a little into the future of the story... armed to the teeth with some serious mutant firepower and battling against tanks, helicopters, soldiers and mutant zombies. So, right from the start you are fighting against traditionally 'good' forces... what appears to be the US Army attempting to defend New York from a viral infection that's turning everyone into mutants. The number of abilities and methods of attack at this point are vast. Not only can you mutate your arms in to a number of different weapons to crush, decapitate and generally make life unpleasant for those less 'blessed' than yourself, but you can also run fast enough to run up buildings, jump high enough to clear smaller buildings and make moving from rooftop to rooftop easy (and fun) and if that wasn't enough, you can consume civilians and soldiers alike to replenish your health and then impersonate them!

After a short bout of this, you are taken back to the starting point of the story... the part where you enter the plot. Confused and lacking in both powers and memories you find yourself being hunted by military and mutants alike. As you play through the various story missions and side tasks, you unlock more memories by consuming key figures (of which there are 130 I believe). Each person holding a little piece of the information that makes up the main story. Everything you do also gives you evolution points that you can 'spend' to get or improve your abilities.

During the early parts of this story, most of the civilian population around you is still human and uninfected... and avoiding killing them while you are battling with the military is nigh on impossible. Soon you are racking up thousands of civilian and military casualties without any real reason why... then the story really starts to unfold and you find out who is to blame for your condition and realise that the military (or at least part of it) isn't entirely innocent. The problem is, you just can't help slaughtering all these 'innocent' people to get to the guilty ones... and it doesn't take long before you just stop worrying about it (if you worried at all) and start to enjoying it! Suddenly, regardless of the reasons behind it, you are one of the bad guys... and it feels good!

So life as a monster is fun and fast paced. The mechanics of the game work well and it doesn't take much to get you zooming around, slaughtering things in new and interesting ways. Assuming the identity of a base commander and infiltrating the various military bases (before slaughtering everyone in them) was a particular highlight for me, as was taking over the attack helicopters using your grappling arm. Like a lot of open world games, there is a delicate balance between have too much, or too little to do at any point in the game... Prototype certainly manages the balance fairly well, I don't think I ever found myself with nothing to do, but there is a certain amount of repetition involved. Still, if you're enjoying the game, repetition isn't necessarily a bad thing!