Prototype

Over the weekend I spent several hours enjoying Prototype. I was expecting a bit more of an “open world” game, one in which I could explore around the city and find all sorts of activities to do while ignoring the “plot”.  This game instead has activities which unlock at fixed intervals after each story chapter. This is not necessarily bad, I mean I am still enjoying the game and I spend each “after chapter” doing each of the newly unlocked activities. There are a few things that I wanted to make sure I took note of while I was in the midst of playing and being annoyed.

First the inability to look straight down, why the heck do they lock the camera before it hits the straight down angle.

Second, I think radical missed a very big opportunity with their collectables in the game.  Each landmark orb when found should have poped up a box, much like the hint orbs, that have a little blurb about the landmark. Also in the post “crackdown” world no game should simply hide a collectible without some sort of ‘tell’. Crackdown used a slight but distinct sound when you were getting close, other games allow them to appear on the map when you get within a certain range so you can find them later. Prototype is old school, the orbs have no real tell other than their blueness. *shurg*

Third the web of intrigue is my favorite thing in the game, and yet it feels tacked on and disjointed. There is no way to “hunt” these story bits down, the targets simply randomly appear and I consume them. What they should have done is give every non-story based web node target a schedule and walk pattern, then when you unlock an adjacent node you get information about that pattern. Example, Cptn Derrick Kaufman: Assigned to Battery Park bunker 1,  or Dr. William D. Weber: Currently Resides at 100 Park Ave.  Right now the system does not feel like I have any control over discovering these story bits and that is sad.

Good news for me is that while those three things annoy me they are not stopping me from continuing to enjoy the game.