Prototype 2 Review: A Decent Title with Enjoyable Combat

Prototype 2 Review: A Decent Title with Enjoyable Combat

Prototype 2: Limited Radnet Edition
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Activision
Action/Adventure

Prototype 2 is an open world action adventure game that takes place 14 months after the events of Prototype. One of your first options before you even start the game, is to select Prototype recap in the main menu. By making that selection you will be able to either refresh your memory or get caught up on what took place in the original title. The presentation of Prototype 2 is somewhat interesting as it tells the story of the main character, Sgt. James Heller. The storyline for James Heller and the overall game isn’t the greatest, but decent enough to keep you somewhat engaged.

You have an open world ready to explore so you don’t need to dive right into the missions. I recommend that you simply spend some time exploring around. There are plenty of hidden items for you to collect throughout the city and other random tasks for you to stumble upon. The city looks pretty good and is fairly well detailed, but visually it’s still not the greatest. There are plenty of military camps for you to hit and cause havoc should you choose to do so at anytime. It’s a good way to practice your combat skills. It’s also fun to look up some of the trophies and then try to achieve those.

The gameplay handles pretty well though it may take a bit of time to get comfortable with the controls of the game. A few times early on I found myself frustrated by the controls, especially when it came time to pick up weapons and fire them at certain targets. So expect a small learning curve there. Once you get it down it is a lot easier. I need to say that the handling of the character can also be a little difficult at times depending on what you are trying to do. I noticed that some of my movements weren’t always the best especially when trying certain jumps. I admit being a little bit picky about this as the overall handling of the character is fine, it’s just not the best.

I do like many of the combat abilities and skills that are available, especially as you get further into the game. You will be able to upgrade your character’s skills and learn the new abilities to perform. It can create a lot of good combat situations that are simply fun to play. This title does a great job making you feel super human as you roam across the city and that part of the game is simply straight-up fun. I also like the shape shifting ability as it handles easily when you are trying to evade the soldiers and strike teams. Consuming targets is also key in progressing with missions and you will need to hunt down certain targets to get their ID so you can infiltrate specific areas. I did find this to be a lot of fun. Unfortunately the missions aren’t the best and come off as rather bland. That’s why I spent many moments wandering around in the open world which I felt was the best part of the game.

In addition to the main game, for those of you who have the Limited Radnet Edition, there are other events that you can select to play in. These events are basically like mini games that give you an objective to complete. Some of them are not so interesting, yet they are still decent to try and you can go for high scores against your friends. For example, there is one event where you dive-bomb blackwatch troops and you try to get as many as possible to move on to the next round. Another event has you racing across the city collecting items trying to beat a specific time. Some of these can be pretty challenging and might grab your attention for a couple of rounds at least, especially since you can see your friend’s scores which gives you the opportunity to beat them.

Overall, I found myself enjoying the open world the most and found myself just wandering around a lot of the time. I also liked the attacking abilities although very few situations created a difficult combative challenge. That’s probably alright though as the always evolving attacking abilities will probably keep you engaged. Again, the story is just alright and your main character is only so-so. It doesn’t help when your main character’s dialog is always overdone with language to the point where it’s just…silly. I still found Prototype 2 to be somewhat entertaining.

Score: 7/10