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!

Psychologically damaged billionaire seeks playmate...

First things first... a warning; I've not posted many 'reviews' on the games I've been playing recently, but I have been writing them so there's likely to be a flurry of activity over the next few days while I actually pull my finger out and finish what I want to say ;-)

And what better place to start than the surprisingly good Batman - Arkham Asylum!


And it was quite a surprise. There's not a particularly good track record (in my opinion, at least) where comic book tie-ins are concerned, especially when the developers decide to go down the 'Beat-em up' route... just take a look at the Watchmen game for a bland and repetitive example. I'm not saying they're all crap... but you're definitely fighting against the current.

The first thing you notice when playing for the first time is just how fluid the game is. The way Batman moves and fights is incredible. Especially considering that, at the beginning, you're only using two buttons: attack and counter. Each hit or counter is animated based on a number of factors, mostly on what you were just doing and what your target is currently doing. Thug running at you with a metal pipe? Catch the pipe and smack him in the chest with it. Attacking you from behind? A swift elbow to the face should fix that. Then add the great slow-motion finishing moves and you feel like you are the BEST beat-em up player ever!

Of course, if that was all that the game had it would get repetitive and dull quite quickly... and to be fair, the game IS fairly repetitive. Fortunately, that's not all it's got. For example, once you start moving around the Asylum, it's not long until you find yourself up against a couple of heavily armed foes. Batman, it would appear, is extremely vulnerable to bullets and one or two machine gun wielding thugs can easily take him out if he's not careful. This is where the game really starts to feel like Batman... gadgets. Flicking into 'Detective Mode' allows you so see thugs through walls, checking their stress/awareness levels, what weapons they're carrying and pick out any features of the environment you can use to your advantage. You can then use Batman's grappling hook to move around above the thugs and take them out stealthily. If you want to be picky, you could question how the bad guys never take a moment to look up (knowing that they are up against Batman, after all) but the stealth takedowns and sneaking about really works well.

As the game progresses, your array of gadgets grows until you're blowing holes in walls (and thugs) with explosive gel; taking out several thugs at once with multiple Batrangs; Or just hanging thugs from the frequent gargoyles around the asylum.

The game isn't, however, perfect. Some of the boss battles, for example, can be quite painful repetitive tasks sometimes. I understand that it's going to be quite hard to make all of them different but when they get it so right for some of them, it seems a shame that they resort to some sloppy old school 'hit the vulnerable spot when it is visible' battles. There are other smaller niggles, but none of prevent this game from being quite special.

Also, having played both the Xbox 360 and the PC versions, it's nice to see that they have taken the time to alter the control scheme to work on the PC, and taken advantage of higher resolutions. It's still fairly obvious that this was written with a Xbox 360 controller in mind, but it doesn't distract from the game.