Без лицензии на подвиги, но на выживание? | Prototype [ОБЗОР]

Без лицензии на подвиги, но на выживание? | Prototype [ОБЗОР]

Eyes closed, I saw shadows in someone else’s memory, In them the cold of truth is hidden, whose taste is slightly bitter, There the doomed were burned without earthly guilt, To them, hearing the crunch of bones, Dit hurried to meet. Under the mask of duty the executioners hid their anger, On their faces – darkness, only reason keeps the truth and pain. For decades human flesh has been imagining in the furnace, And the fear that someone from the elite has become greedy for blood. The city was waiting for “Hope”, but with a scorched soul, And thought – help is close, and experience will not amaze anyone. But instead of light, it was covered with an iron hand, And in a moment of trust in the military, the credit was exhausted. I felt how fear curdled their blood, and those rays, That turned the defenseless into dust, and everything around is burning. The prayers fade away – just a smoldering handful of ashes in the night, Everything was razed to the ground, and there are no tombstones to be found. The plan was to hide the traces of deeds at any cost, No one knew who was in charge , That soon he would repeat the mistake again Tens of years of suffering with a wounded fate She was in captivity, Remembering all these years, and this angers her. I witnessed how the doctors fell first, How the people around went mad, How the city seethed in chaos. No, I did not want it, but since I was given so much strength and swords, Then I will be the mortal punishment of all the guilty – their prototype. INTRODUCTION Do you know what happened throughout human history, when people had a particularly difficult time coming to terms with their fate, going through difficult times, or did not have the strength to fight this or that threat? There have always been simple, inspiring stories that explain the hardships of life, immersion in which, for the sake of not wanting to focus on the problems of one’s own life, was an effective way to come to terms with the current situation. And today, such a fairly common phenomenon is called escapism, or an escape from reality. For example, in Ancient Greece or Rome, at a time when wars never stopped, diseases and slavery were widespread, a huge number of people, wanting to find at least some logic and explanation in everything that was happening, began to invent and tell each other various stories, known to us as myths. They talked about gods – Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, artifacts – the Horn of Plenty, Pandora’s Box, the Golden Fleece, and of course about heroes such as Hercules, Perseus, Achilles and others, who were distinguished by their outstanding strength, performed various feats and fought monsters. And all this, at that time perceived exclusively as truthful information, not only helped to find an explanation for the difficult existence, but also inspired and gave hope for justice existing somewhere in this world. A little later, when persecutions of Christians began to occur in the Roman Empire, who were tortured and executed everywhere, a cult of martyrs and saints arose among them quite quickly, who also, despite the harsh reality and the evil that pursued them, found strength in themselves, remained true to their views and, thanks to their fortitude, won a victory over the oppressive enemy. And although no one was destined to see the result of this victory, for the oppressed masses such stories about steadfastly endured trials were a very powerful charge and a source of hope. And if we pay attention to the Middle Ages – that very time when literally every incredibly cruel act and every decision that defied common sense was justified by the will of higher powers, knightly epics, for example, about King Arthur, Roland or Tristan, which created a fairy tale about noble warriors fighting for honor and justice, were especially in demand and popular. And despite the fact that in reality the “knight” could most often be an ordinary bandit on a horse, people were pleased, and sometimes necessary, to believe that somewhere there was that very ideal defender. Well, and if somewhere there were vague and uncertain times for the majority of the population, when hopes and plans for the future became as illusory as possible, and disappointment in higher ranks approached the boiling point, legends were born among people about an “avenger” interested in their well-being. Robin Hood in England, Stepan Razin in Russia, Pan Twardowski in Poland, William Tell in Switzerland, etc. Their peculiarity was that the heroes often actually existed in a particular time period, but were unnecessarily romanticized, and they were credited with many more outstanding deeds than they actually did. But they fought for ordinary people, punishing negligent lords and insolent nobility, and therefore successfully instilled hope in those who were among the victims, humiliated and insulted. However, time passed, the gods and heroes of ancient times were forgotten, the many promises of religions were not confirmed, chivalry ceased to be held in high esteem, and in general people became much more educated and less willing to pick up new stories about a miraculous savior. Or was they? Surprisingly, even at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, people still needed role models and inspiration, as well as hopes for a happy future. And, as you have probably already guessed, the point is not at all that people actually wanted and continued to believe in fairy tales. No, the thing is that the problems of human life have not gone away, their nature has simply changed. And quite a vivid example of what was experienced in those times are the events that took place in the United States of America. The second decade of the twentieth century. The USA had just ended its participation in the First World War, which had pretty much battered the country’s economic system. The capitalist machine was gaining momentum, the population, in order to feed itself, was forced to move to large cities and adapt to new conditions, new jobs and a new life. Ordinary people felt like toys in the hands of corporations, politicians, the army. They were helpless and crushed, did not understand their future, did not know what to do next and were looking for moral support wherever possible. And they found it! A real outlet for Americans of those years were some of the first mass-published comics in the style of Westerns, in which there is a hero, there is a villain, there is good, and there is evil – everything is simple and clear, and much simpler than in the world where they were drowning in megalopolises and bureaucracy. And these comics were a kind of nostalgia for the Wild West, where everyone solved their problems, finding themselves one on one with them. A little later, so-called pulp stories were added to this genre of elementary reading, collected in thick collections from extremely cheap paper, the characters of which were detectives, adventurers, scientists and inventors – the same people as the readers themselves, but who broke out of the usual gray everyday life, achieved something outstanding in their craft, and, like knights or Odysseus, punished villains and restored order. The so-called “Great Depression” had a particularly strong, and at the same time negative, impact on the society of the United States . It was during this period, from 1929 to the end of the 1930s, that people who had not yet resigned themselves to and adapted to the new conditions of life, received a new blow, again felt crushed and did not understand at all how to live on. Reality was so disgusting and incomprehensible to them that the need for escapism was felt by, if not everyone, then the absolute majority of those living at that time. And yes, that’s right, comics and pulp heroes came to their rescue again. It was during this period that such characters as Conan the Barbarian, The Spider, Flash Gordon, The Shadow, Solomon Kane, John Carter and others, fictional characters known to many even now, became widely known and recognizable. And unlike cowboys, detectives and adventurers, the new heroes increasingly moved away from the image of ordinary people with whom Americans could easily associate themselves in the post-war period. No, the situation in their lives had become tense again, and so they again needed not just an object to follow or an inspiration, but a savior and a shaky hope that he could help them solve their problems. Therefore, although Doc Savage, Ka-Zar, G-8, The Phantom Detective, Buck Rogers and all those listed earlier continued to be fairly down-to-earth and realistic characters, the level of skills in which they were strong was already unattainable for the vast majority of readers. However, this was not enough, and in 1938, Action Comics #1 appeared on newsstands , in which Superman, known to almost everyone, and perhaps even hackneyed, first appeared. The quintessence of goodness, justice, honor, strength, courage, inner ideals and everything that people lacked in that not very happy period of their lives. In addition, it was Superman who became not just a new character, but literally a rethinking and combination of everything that humanity knew about the heroes and gods of Ancient Greece, about saviors, about knights, about defenders of the oppressed and about crime fighters. And yes, it was Superman who started the era of superhero comics, which, sometimes flaring up, sometimes fading away, continues to exist to this day. Nevertheless, such a long existence of this phenomenon, as well as the change of times, could not but affect how superhero comics continued to be perceived by society and what role they played within it. And if at the beginning of its journey it was an outlet and a fairly effective way to escape from the oppressive reality, often for quite adults and to some extent successful people, then by the end of the twentieth century, when all the hardest times and events were behind us, the attitude towards magazines with bright pictures began to rapidly change. Now their main audience was children – those same people who could still believe in fairy tales, hope for the existence of secret crime fighters, try to imitate them and become better, relying on the views and actions of their fictional idols. At the same time, comics themselves also began, and quite rapidly, to experiment with formats. And as the illusion of an ideal and fair world became less in demand over the years, darker plots began to appear, more brutal characters, antiheroes, ambiguous villains, and in general, stories often began to be built around negative personalities that earlier, during the “Golden Age” of comics, would definitely not have found a response among readers. And the question was increasingly raised: “What if Superman, or any other incredibly strong superhero, was evil?” And of course, in response, publishers such as Marvel and DC, which, although not the only ones, are definitely the largest, have repeatedly published corresponding stories, where through the prism of “evil” they have let go, if not all, then most of their most iconic characters. And when the opportunity arose, then, albeit rather rarely and less willingly, they began to show them in animated and film adaptations, preferring to sell classic images of superheroes, which guaranteed better acceptance by the audience. Well, and when video games began to be developed quite actively, then, naturally, first of all, not unfamiliar images were exploited, but the most popular and recognizable ones – Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, Ninja Turtles, Hulk and others. And all this led to the fact that among games: – Firstly, there are very few projects about famous and iconic characters, which is largely due to the complexity of obtaining a license, risks, financial deductions to the publisher and other nuances that few developers are willing to put up with. – Secondly, even if such a game reaches release, the characters in it are most often presented exclusively in a classic image. Heroes are good, villains are evil, antiheroes are rare and ambiguous. – And, thirdly, games about superheroes are rarely distinguished by their spectacularity and canonicity regarding the abilities and capabilities of the characters, which is directly related to technical limitations and the difficulty of implementing everything as described in comics, or shown in movies. Therefore, it is simply impossible to see orbital force, galactic speed or universal endurance in them. However, the demand for superheroes in games was and remains quite high. This is understandable, because where else can you not just watch from the outside, but literally find yourself in the role of a superman, well, or any other entity. And, understanding this, and also not wanting to face all the difficulties that would be inevitable in the case of using existing characters, developers simply created their own superheroes, accompanying universes, plots, etc. This not only allowed us to avoid all the legal subtleties, but also made it possible to adapt the characters’ abilities to the technical limitations that existed at the time of creation, and to tell absolutely any stories, build atypical moral guidelines, and not worry too much about the feelings of fans, because they simply did not exist. And despite the fact that even such games still do not have many, among them we can note Infamous, Freedom Force, Darkwatch, Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, Quantum Break, Control, Crackdown and of course Prototype. Yes, I finally mentioned it! And all of them are often perceived and felt much better than those created on the basis of existing franchises. And not only because of the previously listed reasons, but also because these projects did not need to prove anything to anyone, justify expectations, etc. All of these games were just games, and therefore were not perceived as something more. As for Prototype, the game was released at a pretty good time. Firstly, players had already acquired a sufficient number of PlayStation 3 and XBOX360 consoles, which already guaranteed not the lowest sales. Secondly, superhero themes were gaining popularity in cinema again, thanks to the release of the first films of the MARVEL cinematic universe. Thirdly, PC gamers had already formed a loyal attitude towards the Steam service, which is why they were much less likely to give preference to getting acquainted with pirated versions of games. Well, and fourthly, the game was actually a rather unusual combination of gameplay features, setting, genre and general atmosphere. In general, all this allowed the game to become, if not a bestseller, then definitely a successful and impressive project. But how it is perceived and played now, what it can offer a new player, well and whether it is worth spending your time on it today, I will tell you below. STORY And the first thing you should pay attention to in the game is the plot. And not at all because it is deep, multifaceted or makes you think about the eternal. No … The action of the game takes place in an alternative version of the world we are familiar with, that is, on planet Earth, in the United States of America, in New York – the very city that most often suffers from all sorts of disasters, attacks, invasions and cataclysms. And the main and only protagonist is Alex Mercer, or at least at the first stages the game diligently pretends that the player controls him. And literally in the first few minutes, by showing a video with voiceovers, as well as within the introductory and training mission, it lays all the cards on the table, directly talks about what happened and immediately explains the main goal, which the protagonist will adhere to throughout the rest of the time. And the plot looks like this … Alex Mercer comes to his senses in a morgue, where a couple of representatives of the medical community are going to perform an autopsy on him, but they run away in panic and raise the alarm when they realize that the subject of their research is still alive. At some point, they encounter armed guards, who eliminate them and try to carry out similar actions with Alex, firing a fair amount of bullets at him, but nothing works, Mercer turns out to be much more resilient and manages to escape, simultaneously discovering new abilities in himself, including increased speed of movement, significantly increased endurance and strength. After a successful escape and attempts to comprehend what happened, Alex realizes that he remembers absolutely nothing and the main goal he sets for himself is to understand everything that happened, restore his memories and find the culprit, thanks to whom he has changed so much. And in general – that’s all. As for the presentation, the entire narrative is built through Alex Mercer’s storytelling to another character unknown to the player for a long time, within which each individual mission is a kind of flashback to one of the eighteen days. And it is during this period that the main character will not only systematically move towards the finale, but also watch how New York is changing, because as Alex soon learns, the source of his new abilities is a biological virus that had a similar effect on him, and acts completely differently on all other residents of the city, simply infecting them and turning them into zombies. Therefore, if the beginning of the game in spirit really resembles some superhero comic book, where the main character hides his identity, and those around him have absolutely no idea about events and intrigues happening behind their backs, then in the end everything slides into the genre of zombie apocalypse films, where only a small handful of people manage to survive, and all the other previously intelligent representatives of the human race begin to pose only a threat. The apocalypse is really quite local and is limited exclusively to Manhattan Island, because the player will never get beyond its borders during the passage. But the delivery of useful information within the framework of the plot is carried out in three ways. – Firstly, Alex’s story itself is pre-directed CGI videos, where there is a place for close-ups, and vividly expressed emotions on his face, and smooth transitions to a voice-over description of events. – Secondly, most of the chapters of the story begin with a short cut-scene, within which the immediate tasks are explained, some details of the main storyline may be revealed, and there are also attempts to demonstrate the relationship between Alex and other characters, which, by the way, looks rather strained and unconvincing. – And thirdly, when the protagonist absorbs certain city residents, which I will touch on later, he is given the memories of this person, made in the style of a fast slide show with effects and voice acting, regarding the events that led to everything that happened in the city and with Alex. And it is at these moments that the player can learn the most information, since neither in videos, nor in cut scenes, nor as part of the passage of missions, such details are not available. Well, and the visualization format in the form of archival footage, which is accompanied by secret documents mixed with photographs of key places or individuals looks quite stylish. Cheap, but stylish. But as for the few characters themselves, with whom Alex rarely interacts, they are definitely present in the game solely for show, and if it were possible, they most likely would not even have been added. Why? It’s all quite simple. There is no actual character development, they have minimal screen time, the fate of most of them remains unknown, the antagonist is a collection of cliches, and in general, the characters in Prototype are not interesting individuals, but simply functions that move Alex and the player forward, indicate the next goals, but do not try to make the narrative deeper or less unambiguous. Is this bad? Well, actually, yes. And in most games, especially those with attempts at directing and staging, such a result would not cause any delight. But! Do not forget that this game is still a representative of the superhero genre, and it, like its original format – comics, rarely has depth, versatility, drama and other thought-provoking aspects. Therefore, yes, the plot in the game is extremely simple, without any revelations, it exists solely to connect the elements of the gameplay into a single whole, but for Prototype it is quite enough. COMICS However, I was not satisfied with this state of affairs! And so I decided to check – do comics exist for this game? Maybe the plot is revealed much deeper and makes the world richer in interesting events and characters? Why did I even think that comics could exist? And this was hinted to me many times by the advertising banners of DC Comics located all over Manhattan. Were my assumptions justified? Well, to some extent, yes. – Firstly, comics really exist. – Secondly, they really came from under the wing of DC Comics. More precisely, from under the wing of WildStorm publishing house, but it in turn is part of DC, so both statements are correct. – Well, and thirdly, in as many as six issues, which were published even before the release of the game, the same events are described that the player will see directly during the passage, but not on behalf of Alex Mercer, but on behalf of completely different people who are not even encountered in the game, well, and the antagonist. So can we say that comics expand the perception of the universe and reveal some characters? Alas, but no. They do not bring any truly new information , but even if we take into account the story arc associated with new heroes, it does not have any effect on the plot as a whole, nor on the events taking place in the game itself. In addition, the very characters that Alex Mercer interacts with do not even appear in the comics, and therefore they remain undisclosed, very superficial and “for show”. But if you suddenly want to personally familiarize yourself with the comics for the Prototype game, you can find them on my website, the link to which is in the description of this video, and in the description of the channel. COMBAT SYSTEM But is the plot so important in Prototype? As I already said, for this game, even in this form it is quite sufficient, because the main reason why people wanted to play it in 2009, and the main reason why it makes sense to join this project today is the gameplay. However, it is worth considering the fact that Prototype is an action game in a superhero setting in an open world, and therefore you should not expect any depth, variety of mechanics or anything that does not correspond to this definition from the game. The main, and in fact the only mechanics in the game are battles, and therefore it is the combat system that should be covered first. So, since Alex Mercer is infected with a certain virus, all of his superhero abilities, which allow him to be effective on the battlefield, are tied to the body’s ability to mutate, transform and adapt to new conditions at the genetic level. Thanks to this, the protagonist has enormous strength, allowing him to lift heavy objects, such as cars, and throw them a very long distance, jump high to overcome various obstacles, and run fast, which not only helps in moving in a straight line, but also makes it possible to quickly climb vertical surfaces. In addition, over time, Alex will even learn to fly, or rather hover, which, when combined with jumping and speed, makes him an incredibly mobile and adaptive character to constantly changing conditions. And of course, all of these skills, without exception, are needed by the protagonist not only when moving, but also in battle. And the battles in the game are a mixture of slasher, beat ‘em up and musou. The manifestation of the first genre is noticeable in the game with the naked eye. The player throughout the entire passage incessantly crushes enemies into pieces, uses cutting and chopping weapons, applies various combinations of blows, unique for each unit of weapons, and also combines this with elements of movement, which makes regular skirmishes with opponents unlike each other. And a special charm to this whole process is added by the fact that, in fact, Alex does not use weapons at all, but literally forms suitable tools from his body, or more precisely from his hands. And, firstly, this allows you to bypass and logically explain the long-standing game convention regarding where the hero carries all the weapons that he uses at one time or another, and secondly, it allows you to very quickly, almost “on the fly” change tactics, adapt to new combat conditions, or simply give preference to any particular style. There are five such styles in total: – First, you can give preference to claws, which are best suited for close combat, have a high speed of skill application, are effective against ordinary and not the most protected opponents, and also allow you to feel like Wolverine from Marvel comics about the X-Men. – Second, if the speed of combat is not important, and brute and penetrating force is a priority, then Alex’s hands can be transformed into heavy and fairly large fists, which are especially effective against enemy equipment, and the gameplay at such moments is somewhat reminiscent of playing the role of Doomsday from DC comics. – Third, if you want a slightly more classic slasher fight, that is, with the use of massive melee weapons, then in this case the most suitable option would be a blade into which you can transform one of the hands, as symbiotes often do – Venom or Carnage, again from Marvel comics. – Fourthly, when you want to feel like Mr. Fantastic or Plastic Man, you can choose a combat tactic using a whip, which not only helps you keep a safe distance from the enemy, but also defeat them with one move. dozens of simple opponents. – Well, and fifthly, if you want to rely solely on physical strength, you can activate the appropriate skill and just fight with your fists, throw something heavy even further, and also slightly less, but still effectively deal with enemies, as Luke Cage, Shazam, Hulk, or Wonder Woman do. But it is the combination of styles, and not the use of a single one, together with other abilities, including mass ones, that makes the combat system truly spectacular, flexible and truly reminiscent of a classic, primarily Japanese, slasher. But precisely reminiscent, since the “stylish” combo system, where the ingenuity of the combo attacks used is assessed, is absent in the game. As for the second genre – beat ‘em up, its manifestation is that: – The focus in the game is on close combat. – The battles themselves take place with bare hands. Yes, they transform into weapons, but they are not used, and sometimes they transform into fists. – Also, most of the battles take place with hordes of opponents, which are either not exhausted in the open world, or constantly replenish one or another arena. – And sometimes there are bosses, well, the goal of the game, to a large extent due to the plot, is as simple as possible – cleaning and survival. Of course, here it could also be noted that beat ‘em up is characterized by combos and various techniques, but their implementation, in my opinion, is still closer to a slasher. Well, if you try to find something in common between Prototype and musou – a genre that appeared thanks to the Dynasty Warriors game series, then there will be no problems with this either, since: – Alex Mercer literally mows down crowds of enemies, especially using claws or a whip, which emphasizes his strength and superiority over opponents, allowing the player to feel if not omnipotent, then at least exceptional. – There are really a lot of targets for attacks, and their ranks are never reduced, but only replenished as the protagonist moves within the city. – Often, the main character’s goal is to clear this or that open space. – Well, and in the process of this very clearing, elite, in other words, reinforced enemies, that is, conditional “officers”, periodically wedge in. Therefore, even despite the fact that one of the pillars of musou, namely the complete helplessness of ordinary opponents, is absent in Prototype, other elements of the genre in the game are quite easy to guess. As for opponents, unfortunately or fortunately, the project is not at all abundant with them. And in addition to the usual ones, which are simple infected, well, or zombies, Alex will encounter their slightly plump, but at the same time faster versions, as well as typical and more serious mutants in terms of threat, called “hunters”, who in turn have their own reinforced version – “leader” or “leader of the hunters”. In addition, the danger is posed by ordinary people – the military, who are armed with assault rifles, grenade launchers and RPGs, which, if necessary, Alex can pick up and use for their intended purpose. And as serious opponents on the part of people are their supersoldiers – the answer to the “hunters” from the infected, and military equipment – several types of tanks and a couple of helicopters, which can also be borrowed by the protagonist. And here the situation is twofold, since the firepower of helicopters and tanks is really noticeable, but if the controls of the former are as smooth, comfortable and intuitive as possible, and adjusting the flight altitude with the mouse wheel was an unexpected and very pleasant discovery for me, then driving an armored vehicle with a barrel does not evoke the same emotions at all. To understand what exactly I am talking about, you need to analyze how tank control is implemented in various games. – The first option is “Tank Controls”, or classic “tank” control. Its essence is that the movement “Forward” and “Backward” is carried out relative to the body, and to turn it is necessary to purposefully press “Left” and “Right”. At the same time, the control of the tower is carried out independently of the movement of the vehicle, for example, with a mouse or stick. Thanks to this implementation, you can easily turn the barrel 180 degrees, move relative to the image on the screen backward, but at the same time press the “Forward” button, since this is the direction in which the tank will move. – The second option is “Relative to Camera”, well, or “relative to the camera”. With this implementation, the tank’s forward movement will be exactly in the direction where the camera is directly directed, and backward movement will be carried out in the opposite direction. That is, when turning this very camera to the left or to the right, the tank will also begin to turn, which can be additionally assisted by the corresponding keys, but the turret will be controlled independently of the machine and the barrel will not be constantly directed in the direction of movement. – The third option for controlling the tank is “Turret-oriented driving”. And the peculiarity of this scheme is that the direction of movement of the tank is tied not to the hull, but to the turret. That is, the tank will move forward, backward, left or right relative to the turret, regardless of where exactly it is turned. Looking back? So moving forward will be reverse. Looking left or right? So, when moving forward, the tank will start to turn around with the part of the hull that is closer to the muzzle at that moment. Want to turn the turret while moving to shoot somewhere to the side? Well, the controls will start to be dynamically reassigned, the tank will go off course, start an unplanned turn or move in the opposite direction and most likely get stuck somewhere. And, as you already understood, Prototype has the third option for controlling the tank. And it is the most inconvenient of all possible. And no, this is important, because despite the fact that Alex Mercer relies solely on his own abilities for most of the game, a good third of the game is built on interaction with military equipment, so you experience discomfort from controlling tanks throughout the entire time. However, in order to feel more protected, it is not necessary to surround yourself with a thick layer of metal, because in addition to the weapons that the protagonist is able to form from his hands, his body is also able to adapt to the damage received. So, as a defense, you can use either a shield, which is formed from the left hand and does not interfere with movement, or armor that completely covers the body and does not allow the hero to fly, that is, hover. Depending on the situation, both options are effective, and therefore none of them becomes useless due to the appearance of an alternative. As for the bosses, there are only three in the game, one of which is encountered twice during the passage. And on the one hand, this is definitely a rather modest number, but on the other, they do not have time to get boring and familiar, and a meeting with each really becomes an event. Not that unexpected, but still an event. In addition, all three bosses in the game are radically different from each other, and therefore the fight with each of them, which in general does not cause any special problems, looks and feels unique. And in general, this is all that concerns the combat system in Prototype. Throughout the game, the player is offered to fight hundreds of opponents, periodically switch to someone more serious, constantly juggle their own skills, hijack enemy equipment, run fast, jump, dash in the air, fly and non-stop dodge shells flying from all sides. In general, everything is very epic and dynamic. Not without problems, of course, but I will touch on all of them closer to the end. GAMEPLAY However, no matter how important and priority the combat system is, the gameplay in Prototype is not limited to it. And the main thing that connects it and other mechanics is the ability to absorb almost any creatures encountered throughout the game. And it is necessary to resort to this for a number of the following reasons: – Firstly, absorbing any creature, be it an ordinary person, an infected one, or a hunter, restores Alex Mercer’s health. And the greater the threat posed by the target, the greater the percentage of vitality will ultimately be replenished. That is, every enemy in the game is a potential first aid kit and the most effective way of healing, since the second, namely collecting glowing spheres after the usual death of opponents or destruction of equipment – less effective, although it can save the protagonist from death more than once. – Secondly, absorbing hunters at certain points in the game leads to the discovery of new abilities, such as claws, which, although an inevitable plot point, is still necessary in order to become even more deadly. – Thirdly, absorbing certain military personnel who specialize in operating equipment or handling certain types of weapons, Alex will gain knowledge of their craft, which will increase his own skills, and in general, only after this will it be possible to climb into a tank or sit at the controls of a helicopter for the first time. – Fourthly, if you find and absorb specially marked civilians or military personnel in the city, the protagonist will receive their memories, which will complement the plot and picture of the world of the game as a whole, which I already mentioned earlier. – Well, and fifthly, after absorbing a person, not infected, not a mutant, but an ordinary and more or less healthy person, Alex gets the opportunity to take on his appearance. And it is through this ability that the stealth mechanics are implemented in the game. Yes, in addition to the fact that in the game the overwhelming majority of the time you need to move, fight and eat, some tasks involve stealth. Well, like stealth. You just need to take on the appearance of a conditional commander, enter the military base and absorb someone else. This is actually what the whole stealth is based on. However, the game does not at all prohibit jumping while in camouflage, running, knocking down equipment with your body, hovering between buildings, and no one, absolutely no one will suspect anything is wrong. It’s just that such training is in the army, nothing unusual. But so that life does not seem completely sweet, and so that there is a need to exercise at least some caution, in places of deployment of the military there may be special radars, flying scanners and supersoldiers, getting into the visibility radius of which there is a chance of being detected. And not because their behavior confuses the protagonist, but because they are set to detect carriers of the virus, with which Alex Mercer is literally saturated through and through. For this reason, when it is necessary, or desirable, to do something without a fight, the game becomes very comical and as conditional as possible. You can literally do anything near your opponents, and they may even show some concern, but while the disguise is active, no one will be able to reveal the protagonist. In addition, for the “stealth” mode, over time you can open special abilities, for example, “invisible absorption”, and this does not save the situation at all. You can literally absorb all the soldiers at the base one by one, given that they are all standing quite close to each other, but even the last fighter will not suspect anything. In general, stealth is really there in the game, some stages of the passage are tailored for it, but in general, its implementation is very, very primitive. Yes, it works, but primitive. And since we are talking about opening new abilities, it is time to touch on pumping. And it is quite simple, clear and quite consistent with everything that is happening in the game. Some of the abilities, as I already said, are unlocked for Alex after absorbing “hunters” or certain military personnel, which is largely implemented in the game in this way to make it possible to go through a particular plot point. But you will have to develop these abilities, as well as get completely new ones, yourself, by going through the “Main Menu” to the “Improvements” section. Here, all possible “upgrades” are divided into categories, subsequent improvements are unlocked after activating the previous ones, and the currency that is needed to “purchase” them is called – OR, or “development points”. To get them, you just need to complete tasks, destroy or absorb opponents, successfully escape pursuit, pass additional tests, or find so-called “secrets” throughout the city. And perhaps the only downside to the entire pumping system is that the game ends much faster than all available skills are acquired. On the one hand, this seems to imply variability, the ability to choose a certain direction for character development, and not try cover literally all possible improvements. But on the other hand, all this does not make much sense, since if you use the minimum required list of abilities available to the character, then this is more than enough to reach the final without any problems. And in the end it turns out that the overwhelming majority of the entire pumping system is not so much excess as a pleasant, primarily from the point of view of the visual component, but not at all an obligatory addition. And approximately the same can be said about additional activities, of which there are quite a lot in the game, especially considering its not the longest duration. Firstly, accidentally or deliberately, you can find those very “secrets” everywhere – glowing spheres, similar to those that fall from defeated opponents, but of different colors. There are two hundred and fifty of them in total and they are divided into two types – hints, the finding of which literally displays on the screen a text regarding the control or abilities of the character, and also adds a certain number of development points. And the so-called “Memory Objects”, the finding of which simply increases the amount of currency Alex Mercer has for pumping. And it would seem to be a standard mechanic of collecting, which is present in many open-world games, but in the case of Prototype it has several nuances. – Firstly, hints. Perhaps the developers’ original idea was interesting, but in practice the player does not receive any new information regarding the game, but literally what he has been using for several dozen hours. That is, the reward for finding such spheres is, to put it mildly, questionable. – Secondly, due to the fact that the game does not have the highest drawing range of objects, searching for these seemingly very noticeable spheres is quite problematic. And the main problem is that most of the time Alex either rushes at high speed along the roofs, or simply hovers high above them, and therefore, in order to see the sphere, you often need to intentionally stay closer to the ground, walk, or explore the buildings from the very base to the upper eaves. And not so much because this was intended, but because of the lack of confidence that the sphere really is not there where you do not see it. – Well, and thirdly, even if you spend an extra ten hours searching for all these collectibles and collect all two hundred and fifty, the player will not receive anything as a reward for his efforts. At all. Zero. Zero. And this is a really huge minus, since the very essence of such activities and challenges in games is based on rewarding the player for all his efforts and the time he spent. With a souvenir, a weapon, a skin, whatever. The main thing is that the player does not feel disappointed and understands that all his actions had at least some meaning, even if it is very insignificant . But in Prototype this is not the case, and collecting items is done for the sake of collecting items. And even the fact that development points are awarded for finding each of them does not make the situation better, since the need for them disappears long before at least half of all the hidden spheres are found. But, let’s be honest, only a few are engaged in collecting “secrets”, but additional tasks are completed by the overwhelming majority of players. And in Prototype there are none. At all. Instead , various challenges, or “events,” are scattered throughout the map, which are divided into categories that require either killing someone with a certain type of weapon for a certain amount of time, or completing a chain of checkpoints for a certain amount of time, or finding and absorbing several targets in a certain amount of time, or destroying something, or helping one of the sides win, or simply landing right on target while gliding. And depending on the result, at the end of each completed event, the player will be awarded either a bronze, silver, or gold medal, reflecting his achievements. And when all the challenges on the map are marked in yellow, they will open up the opportunity to receive platinum medals, for which, in most cases, you will need to re-pass each of them. And if we consider these additional activities separately, then at least half of them are quite exciting, cause excitement, allow you to enjoy the combat system once again, but… But if you look at them as a whole, and also take into account the role they play in the game, then alas – this is disappointment again. – Firstly, all the events are literally torn away from the main narrative. Whatever happens within them, it does not affect the game at all, which is especially noticeable if you start passing them after the end of the story campaign. – Secondly, some of the tests act against the logic of the game itself. Sometimes Alex helps the military, sometimes Alex helps the infected, sometimes Alex destroys both, and why and for what purpose he does this remains a mystery. – Thirdly, such tests as moving along checkpoints and landing right on target are, of course, funny, and they exist to a greater extent in order to diversify the endless mowing down of opponents, but they are very much out of the general rhythm of the game, and the strict time frame forces you to go through them much more times than you would like. – Fourthly, despite the fact that there are several variations of the tests, most of them boil down to the fact that you just need to chop someone up. First with one weapon, then with another, first some opponents, then others, first destroy the nest of the infected, then the military base… All this boils down to the fact that although the tasks at first glance seem diverse, but in fact they are very, very similar, which means you have to do more or less the same thing every time. – Well, and fifthly, even if you get all the gold medals, and even if you re-pass all the tests to get all the platinum ones, in the end the player will again get nothing. At all. Zero. Zero. Again, no suit, no new ability, no secret cut-scene, nothing. And this once again shows that the developers clearly forgot, or consciously decided not to bother when they filled the open world with various activities, but considered it acceptable to do without any rewards, for the sake of which players in most cases clear the game worlds from cover to cover, even if they are tired of this process halfway through. And that’s it. There are no more gameplay features or additional mechanics in the game. However, before finishing, I would like to clarify a little. The fact is that many people, when talking about Prototype, mention that the game has parkour or parkour elements. But this is an erroneous judgment, since the game has neither one nor the other. Parkour is the most rational use of the natural capabilities of the body, which is manifested through various jumps, rolls, hooks, runs along walls, “cat” landings, etc. Their main point is to overcome an obstacle efficiently and quickly, using honed skills and physical training. But this does not apply to Alex Mercer, who jumps to the height of multi-story buildings, runs along the vertical walls of skyscrapers, hovers in the air and lands from any height without breaking bones. This is not parkour, since all this is within the limits of human capabilities – it is impossible. This is a set of abilities to ensure superhero mobility, which does not take into account the laws of physics. Alex Mercer is not a parkourist, since he has no technique – he does not “learn” and does not “practice” movements. He simply uses his suddenly appeared powers. And if they are taken away from him, then the parkour skills of the game’s protagonist are zero. Otherwise, almost all superheroes have parkour skills, including Superman, Hulk and Flash. GRAPHICS AND STYLIZATION Immediately after launching Prototype, when the player only has a general idea of ​​what the game actually is, the first thing that catches his eye is a very stylish interface, made in black and red tones, with angular elements, almost stencil fonts and a rather unusual, but laconic design. In some ways it resembles the on-screen interface of the terminators from the films of the same name. The same color scheme, the same lines with unknown values, the same horizontal stripes imitating old TVs or monitors. Then, after starting a new game, the gamer is greeted by a cinematic CGI video, in which the main character spectacularly deals with his enemies, demonstrates his strength, part of their abilities and sets the mood for the entire subsequent gameplay. In general, a fairly correct and effective tactic for involving the player in the events being demonstrated. However, after this, the gamer gets into the game itself. And what does he see? New York. Manhattan. Manhattan is a miniature concentrate of the world, only live. Almost two million people live here, and every day millions more visitors are added to them: office workers, tourists, students, migrants. This is a place where at one intersection you can hear English, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Russian, and all this is not “exotic”, but ordinary city life. The architecture of New York, and Manhattan in particular, is like a book of a thousand pages: Gothic churches with pointed spires, glass and steel skyscrapers, 19th-century brick apartment buildings with fire escapes on their facades, modernist towers, art deco like the Chrysler Building, and all this mixed in with neighborhoods where restaurants and shops are opened by immigrants from dozens of countries. The streets are narrow and noisy in Lower Manhattan, wide and flooded with lights on Broadway, framed by parks in Uptown. Central Park itself is a separate city within a city – a piece of green life in the middle of concrete and glass. Manhattan is not just houses and roads, it is the energy of the crowd. The subway roars underground, yellow cabs are forever honking, the advertising screens in Times Square are blinding, and on the next street someone plays jazz on a saxophone. Here lives Wall Street with its skyscrapers and the tension of the stock exchange, Harlem with its clubs and African-American culture, Chinatown with the smell of noodles and spices, Little Italy with its pizzerias and wine. Manhattan is a constant clash of styles, cultures and eras. But… is all this in Prototype? Alas, but even at the very beginning, when the city is still quite serene, and there is no chaos and panic around, “Manhattan” is a gray, monotonous and rather dull decoration that only vaguely resembles the very city that served as a reference for the developers and artists of the game. And no, I’m not exaggerating. – Firstly, as for the architecture, the city is very compressed and monotonous. Its layout is extremely schematic, the blocks are almost identical in area and structure, and the facades are repeated over and over again, practically not reflecting the reality, which lies in the endless variety of styles. The roofs of the buildings are empty and implemented on the principle of “copy-paste”, the iconic areas of the city have almost no distinctive features. The elaboration of the interiors is completely absent, windows, shop-windows, doors – all these are not models, but only textures, and they are repeated to the point of indecency. Key buildings, such as military bases or nests of the infected – this is the same object that has one single scripted animation of destruction. Central Park is empty, and the playgrounds that are present in different parts of the city, due to the absence of children in the game, feel dead and abandoned. – Secondly – colors. The developers managed to create a desaturated New York, which is perceived as a gloomy “bio-trash” with a military tint and a gray-green range in controlled areas, and a good rotten red in infected areas. But at the same time, there is clearly not enough contrast, the picture feels “flat” from all angles, and the color does not lead the scene, but simply covers it with the same dull tone. – Thirdly, lighting and shadows. Despite the fact that the game has a dynamic change of time of day, which means that the light temperature in the city from hour to hour, according to the idea, should change, most of the time in the game there are absolutely no changes. Almost the entire daylight hours there is a feeling that the local sun does not have enough power, and therefore it shines, but does so with its last strength – dimly and with the same intensity. Due to this, the sky is almost always pale gray, buildings, even if they are of different colors, merge with each other, and the shadows, which can be clearly expressed only due to a powerful light source, are faded, trembling and do not emphasize the volume of objects in the game at all. – Fourthly, the drawing range. Yes, this is the scourge of many old, and modern games, because of which objects in the distance look much worse than up close. But at what distance? Usually, at the distance where you can’t see any small details with all your might, but in Prototype, as I already noted when talking about collecting glowing spheres, the drawing distance is much lower than in other projects. Although, maybe not lower, but due to the perspective from which the player looks at the game world, due to the fact that he sees the city as if in the palm of his hand, this is much more striking than, say, it could be when simply moving on the ground. Due to this, it seems that there are no shadows in the game at all, the buildings are completely flat, the streets are empty, and the city itself is dead from the very beginning. Why? Because even at a lower hovering altitude, all this is no longer drawn, and therefore simply not visible. – Fifthly, the content. If you walk along the streets of the city for at least five minutes, or maybe even less, then all the simplifications that the developers could make will immediately catch your eye . For example, residents. And they, as you can see, are constantly repeated. No, seriously, there are only a few appearance options for the entire game, which, due to the fact that there are crowds of people on the streets, create a feeling of the greatest possible hackwork. And if it may seem that this is a common practice. Then how about only one appearance option for hundreds of soldiers? Or one appearance option for hundreds of operatives? Sometimes you just walk the streets, where at every step there are solid clones. And transport? Yes, there are also few of its options, but this is not so striking until you find yourself on the streets, where there are simply dozens of identical yellow taxis. No, I understand that this is kind of a distinctive feature of real New York, but not to the same extent? Also striking is the primitive model of crowd behavior. It is enough to shoot once and half a block of residents run in different directions, for some reason explosions begin, some residents begin to show signs of infection, they begin to spit blood on the asphalt … At the very beginning of the game, from a shot in the air. In general, as you can see, the visual component of Prototype is far from ideal, and even average. And I’m not even talking about the textures, their resolution and the quality of the materials of the protagonist’s jacket, since this is far from the most important thing to pay attention to. And because of everything you’ve heard, it may seem to you that the game is almost a standard of how not to approach the process of transferring real cities to virtual space, that in terms of graphics and visuals everything is modest, to put it mildly, and that you won’t be able to get visual satisfaction during the gameplay. In general, everything is true, but it is important to note that for Prototype, everything I listed above is completely irrelevant. It matters for other projects, for me, for people like me, who play games, among other things, to admire and be inspired, but for a game with a clear bias towards slasher, beat ‘em up and musou, something completely different is important. It is important for her that the effects from the interaction of weapons and opponents are bright and juicy, that the combat animations feel cool and spectacular, that the targets are easy enough to distinguish from each other in the heat of battle, that the explosions stand out against the background of the events that are taking place, that the consequences of infection cause disgust and delight, that there is a sense of the scale of the chaos happening around, that the spread of infection is easy to read, and that the player feels satisfaction after each, even the hundredth, repeated skirmish with the enemy. And all this, largely due to the visual component and effects, on the implementation of which the developers at the time focused, works. And it works perfectly. But otherwise the game is really lackluster, but it won’t be those who play the way it was intended, that is, at breakneck speeds, jumping from enemy to enemy, moving between blocks in a split second and filling the screen with enemy blood, who will notice it, but me and other aesthetes who for some reason found the time to leisurely stroll through the streets, study the architecture and compare the game world with a real city. MUSIC AND SOUNDS But as for the musical accompaniment, things are a bit otherwise. And it is worth starting with the fact that its genre affiliation can be described as orchestral-cinematic. Most of the compositions have a bias towards tense strings, percussion and sometimes synthetic backings, which are if not a standard, then definitely an unspoken rule for background music of most dynamic, fast-paced and action-filled action movies, including their separate and such a common direction today as superhero movies. In essence, this is a standard Hollywood thriller in an audio version, which creates the feeling that throughout the game classic rhythms “about a threat” are heard: alarming chords, increasing pulsations, in battle – a more ragged tempo with aggressive blows, during running – an almost inaudible background, during stealth – muffled, drawn-out notes. And although all this is done according to already established patterns and without any special experiments, the music still reacts quite clearly to the changeability of the gameplay, adapting to it, not forgetting to change at the right moment and adding the player’s missing sensations at one moment or another. And such helpfulness and functionality of the musical design is both an undeniable plus and a minus for it. The fact is that despite the fact that all the compositions were definitely written exclusively for this project, there is no very pronounced main theme among them, hearing which, you can immediately say: “Yes, this is music from Prototype!” For such associations to appear, you will need to spend several dozen hours in the game, and even after that they will quickly disappear from memory after a couple of years. All the music in the game sounds monotonous, consists of the same slightly modified patterns and does not try to become that very element of the game that will remain in the memory after passing. It simply serves the same purpose as any other soundtrack in a typical SyFy series. But the sound design in the game is on a completely different level, and it is what helps to maintain and move the atmosphere until the very end. – First of all, the environment. Despite the primitiveness of the visual component, it is thanks to the sounds that the city in Prototype feels large and alive, because the entire basic set of noises that are characteristic of it are present in the game. Cars honk, sirens of special equipment sound, people make a noise, the echo from the blades of helicopters spreads between the buildings. And when the epidemic begins, all this is complemented by screams, screams, explosions, gunfire, and other effects that really create the very atmosphere of chaos happening on the streets. It is also worth noting that due to the biological nature of the threat, characteristic disgusting organic squelches, inhuman roars, strange pulsations and vibrations appear in the infected areas, which sufficiently work to create a feeling of disgust. – Secondly, the battles. Alex Mercer’s abilities sound fat and juicy: the claws cut with a squeal, the blade whistles like a guillotine, the whip gives a noticeable click, due to which not only the lethality and effectiveness are felt, but also the weight of the weapon. The blows themselves are meaty, with a clear emphasis on the “crunch” and “slap”. Of course, all this is very exaggerated, but it perfectly emphasizes the cruelty. And the explosions, gunfire and noise of military equipment may be very far from the real sound, but nevertheless they are loud, bass and you believe in them more than in the visual component. – Thirdly, the voices. In general, as for the voice acting, it is done rather stereotypically. There are practically no characters, the amount of dialogue is minimal, and therefore even such lazy work of the actors in the eyes, forgive me, “in the ears”, is not particularly striking. However, the main character’s voice, which the player hears throughout the game, stands out. It is delivered coldly, without emotion. The voice perfectly matches the image of Alex Mercer, even though it inevitably creates a feeling of a lack of charisma, but at a certain plot point this begins to play in other colors, and therefore ceases to be a minus. In general, if we sum up the sound component of Prototype, the music in the game is literally the most ordinary background illustration, which can be easily replaced with any other dramatic background, and which often even gets lost in the background happening, since in the game it is needed for only one single purpose – so that it is not empty. But the sounds are really what sets and sells the atmosphere of chaos in New York, where the sound mess sometimes gets in the way, but it is what gives the feeling – “Damn, this is a real mess!” DIFFICULTY But here’s what you can’t take away from the game, since it is the feeling that you are actually playing for a very strong hero, for a superhero. You chop up enemies, smash equipment, throw very heavy objects, jump high, practically fly, and in general experience childish delight from everything that is happening, without really thinking about any nuances and little things. And here’s the question – is it so easy to achieve such an effect when creating a game? Or is it all the result of many years of experience and getting your hands dirty in other projects? Well, it’s finally time to pay attention to the studio that was developing Prototype, whose name is Radical Entertainment. And no, this time I will not tell in detail about her entire path, highlight key projects and what happened to her in the end, because there will still be reasons for this. Today it is worth paying attention to only one fact. The fact is that back in 2005, about two years after the release of the movie “Hulk”, the studio released the game “The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction”. And this was the first attempt by Radical Entertainment to create a game about a superhero. And, if you pay attention, the Hulk, in their performance, has quite a lot in common with Alex Mercer from Prototype. He also runs on walls, also jumps high, also “floats”, also uses the force of his fists, also grabs enemies and throws cars, also jumps on equipment, fights mutants and other, but already characteristic for him opponents. So yes, it was the game about the Hulk that formed the basis of an independent project of the studio, which was not bound by contracts with Marvel, excessive censorship, the correct presentation of the hero and the license for the character. And I’m not saying that a number of game mechanics were taken and adapted, but that Radical Entertainment already had experience, and quite successful experience, in creating similar games. If you are a regular viewer of my channel, you probably noticed that I didn’t mention that I played Prototype for the first time before the review. That’s not true. My first encounter with the game was in 2010. At that time, I had the official disc edition, without localization in Russian, but this did not stop me from enjoying the game, completely completing all the tests, repainting all the event points on the map white, and also visiting every corner of the world where blue and purple spheres were hiding. My second contact with the game happened in 2017. At that time, I had already purchased it on Steam, and to “celebrate” the purchase, I completed its passage again, but without wasting time on additional activities, for the previously mentioned reasons. And so the third time I touched Prototype again happened shortly before the release of this video. However, realizing that I would not learn or see anything new, and repeating the same path in the same way could be quite predictable, well, or boring, a thought appeared in my head – I need to complete the game on a high difficulty level. And yes, I understand that at first glance there is nothing unusual about this. And therefore, one more clarification is required. When a player launches Prototype for the first time, only two difficulties are available to him before the start – easy and medium. And in order to open a high one, the game must first be completed on medium. And such conditions lead to the fact that the absolute majority of players who played Prototype, either at the time of the game’s release or much later, have never played the game on maximum difficulty. And almost all opinions regarding this project are based solely on how the game was perceived during the first playthrough, which is also true for all my previously said words about it. But it so happened that my experience in Prototype, thanks to the surviving saves after the second interaction with the project, was much richer than most. So, how does high difficulty differ from medium, and accordingly, easy? As you remember from my introduction, the superheroes that appeared in the middle of the twentieth century, became not just outstanding people, but literally gods among people who could do simply unthinkable things, achieve some incredible results, and the main thing that distinguishes them from simply trained individuals is that they achieve all this very easily. And games in which superheroes appear are primarily built on giving the player a feeling of obvious superiority over opponents, which will be such not because the player has some exceptional skills or many years of experience interacting with the keyboard or gamepad, but because the protagonist is by default several heads superior to all his opponents. And no, this does not mean that such games must be elementary, it means that the player must feel the strength and exclusivity of the character. So, playing Prototype on medium difficulty, the gamer will really feel all this. From the very beginning to the very end, Alex Mercer will be felt as someone who is truly capable of single-handedly confronting an entire army, easily defeating various monsters, gaining the upper hand over incredibly strong and huge opponents, and someone who can be called a “superhero”. Yes, at first he is not so strong, but nevertheless significantly stronger than everyone else, and the lack of any abilities does not prevent him from being effective and “omnipotent” against the background of others. But if you decide to go through the game again, choosing a high difficulty level, then the player will expect the following: – Firstly, all opponents in the game will receive increased damage and survivability, and Alex himself will receive significantly more damage from their attacks. Helicopters will begin to demolish half of the health with one missile, tanks will periodically kill with one shot, several hunters will be able to turn the protagonist into mince in a matter of seconds, and battles with bosses will cease to be exciting and spectacular, turning into a long and tense cycle of the same type of actions, more like some kind of grind. – Secondly, in addition to the fact that the opponents will become stronger, their total number will increase significantly, and where previously you had to control two or three conditional “elites”, now you will have to deal with three, four or even five. And everything would be fine, but do not forget that all battles take place in the open world, and therefore the military can easily intervene in a skirmish with the infected, or vice versa. And with such an unplanned addition of a third party to the conflict, the list of opponents will also be more extensive than it could be on medium or easy difficulty. – Thirdly, due to the fact that there are more targets to fight, and the threat from each of them increases noticeably, there is an increased need for each of Alex’s blows to be delivered not by chance, not “as luck would have it”, but specifically to the target for which it was planned. But this is becoming almost impossible. There are many enemies, they constantly change their location, all sorts of small things constantly get under your hand, and therefore you either have to put up with the fact that some attacks go “milk”, or constantly use the aiming function, which remains almost unclaimed at the average difficulty level. But even this does not always save, since the process of selecting targets, including automatic, is rather crooked, which, however, at the initially available difficulty levels is almost not noticeable. – Fourthly, in a game about fighting with bare hands and cold weapons, where literally everything is built on fighting enemies in close combat, at a high level of difficulty it will be almost impossible to do this. After all, health when receiving slaps, and it is impossible not to receive them, will melt before your eyes. All this forces you to use a new tactic – the tactic of endless jumps, regularly hovering over enemies, and the only effective weapon in such conditions will be a whip, since only with its help can you keep any opponents at a distance. Is it worth mentioning that diversity and variability are no longer the game’s strong point? – Fifthly, due to the fact that at a high level of difficulty the need for mobility and speed increases greatly, on a subconscious level you constantly hold down the character acceleration button, Shift by default. But here’s the problem – this button is one of several that must be used in the correct sequence to perform certain combinations of blows. And since it is constantly pressed, most of the blows simply cannot be performed. And yes, it is really difficult to release Shift, since it is worth stopping, and a couple of missiles will instantly fly at Alex, a hunter will jump and some tank will finish all this madness with its projectile, hammering the last nail into the lid of Mercer’s coffin. – Well, and sixthly, neither farming development points, nor discovering new abilities, nor improving existing ones save the situation. They, as I have already noted, do not make the protagonist significantly stronger, they make him a little more resilient, and his abilities are much more diverse. But this makes no sense if the player is forced to give preference to the whip and keep his distance, and therefore even at a low difficulty level, additional activities and collecting spheres do not open up and do not become more meaningful. And the most important thing that the player will expect at a high difficulty level, and what follows from all of the above, is the complete absence of the main feature of the game – the feeling of unlimited power. And despite the fact that the difficulty itself is not excessively high, and the game is still quite passable, that very thrill that should be felt when you literally play as a superhero, in Prototype under such conditions is not there. And, returning to the topic of whether it is possible to develop such a game the first time or for this you need some experience, I will incline my point of view to the second option, and I will also add that even with such experience, Radical Intertainment was still able to make a rather serious mistake, incorrectly balancing one of the difficulty levels it provided, which led to a discrepancy with the very essence of the superhero genre concept. And, as it seems to me, it is for this reason that, so that the majority of players would never encounter high difficulty in their lives, it was not made available from the start, because everything that Prototype is really capable of giving, it will give within the first and only playthrough. PROBLEMS AND CONS However, as you already understood, your chances of encountering high difficulty are quite small, and therefore it is time to pay attention to those negative aspects that are present in the game, and which, in my opinion, sooner or later absolutely any gamer who wants to touch Prototype for the first time, or again, will encounter. – And the first thing that may come as a surprise to someone is that the game is currently in a terrible technical condition. Yes, it was released only in 2009, but it is almost impossible to launch it without any problems on modern equipment . In almost 100% of cases, you will have to install a whole bunch of different patches, fixes, make edits to configuration files, maybe even disable extra processor cores, and do something else that is definitely not in the plans of an ordinary player. And due to the fact that depending on the system, the list of actions will be different for everyone, it may seem that there is no universal way to solve all the problems at once, but without making unfounded statements, I can suggest visiting my site, the link to which is in the description, where I have published a fairly ultimate solution, which will be enough to fix most of the nuances associated with the game. Otherwise, if any problems remain, you will have to look for a solution yourself, for example, in the “Community Center” on Steam. In addition, on my site you will find a Russifier, as well as the corresponding instructions. By the way, what’s funny is that in 2015, official re-releases of the game were released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but for PC there is still only the original version, which, interestingly, among players, despite all the problems that have appeared over the years, is considered more stable and optimized. – Also, returning to the gameplay itself, I would like to note a very unfortunate decision, which is associated with the process of hijacking enemy tanks. The fact is that if you try to do this without being disguised, then Alex jumps on the tank from above and tries to open the hatch with his bare hands. To do this, you just need to click the right mouse button or the key on the gamepad non-stop. And here During this process, which turns out to be quite lengthy, the protagonist can easily be thrown off the tank. And not by hunters or supersoldiers, but literally any rocket, any fired charge from an RPG or a shot from another tank. And this is incredibly annoying, since for this reason, it is sometimes possible to steal a tank on the fourth, fifth or even sixth try. But this is half the trouble, since during each such click, Alex continues to receive damage, and at the moment when he, far from the first try, still hits the tank, his health may already be at the very minimum, which naturally reduces the likelihood of survival after the tank is destroyed. – Also, continuing the theme that the game has obvious problems with targeting, it is worth noting that very often the protagonist picks up something completely different from what the player wants. Want to grab an infected? Alex grabs a car. Want to activate the absorption of the hunter? Mercer, like Spider-Man, grabs the wall and is ready to climb up. Want to grab someone while running at full speed? Well, quite often you won’t be able to do this, since Alex will simply kill the potential target with his own body. And, even on medium difficulty, such mistakes can easily lead to the fact that at a key moment you simply won’t be able to restore health, because Alex Mercer, alas, is not able to absorb objects. – Also, during the battle, especially in the later stages of the game, there are often moments when the character simply stops interacting with the environment. He runs, jumps, changes his weapon, but he cannot hit, grab or absorb someone, which is corrected by itself over time, and sometimes only after loading the last save, which happens due to death. – You can also add another oddity to this piggy bank, which is associated with the fact that when trying to choose a different weapon or a different type of protection, Alex continues to run with the previous one. Moreover, there may be several attempts to change in a row, but it will only work when the character completely stops, or all fingers are removed from the buttons pressed during the battle. It doesn’t happen often, again in the second half of the game, but due to its noticeable regularity, it catches the eye. – Another strange solution is the special vision mode, thanks to which the protagonist is able to identify certain targets or objects in the crowd. The problem is that yes, it works, but all the other enemies blend into the general background and become difficult to distinguish. For this reason, even knowing who needs to be grabbed or what needs to be interacted with, the player will inevitably grab someone else, either because he simply won’t see them, or because of the previously mentioned targeting issues. – In addition, even despite all the patches installed on top of the game, which actually fix the game’s problems and bring it closer to its original state, some errors can still occur in it. And one of them manifests itself in a mission where the doctor needs to be protected from the oncoming waves of enemies. And the nuance is that before the gameplay section itself, a cut-scene is played, which not only freezes itself, but also hangs the entire game as a whole. It is quite easy to deal with the problem – you do not need to watch the cut-scene to the end and skip it yourself, but the first time, one way or another, you will have to manually complete the process and re-enter the game. – And from the annoying, but not so critical things, I noticed the blinking of items in the character upgrade menu. You just start reading them, and the names are already gone, you just try to continue, and they are gone again. In general, not the best way to attract attention, in my opinion.

Игр про супергероев не так много, как хотелось бы фанатам комиксов или супергеройского кино, и дело тут не только в сложности разработки, но и в получении прав на эту самую разработку. Такие известные персонажи как Супермен или Росомаха оцениваются в миллионы, и договориться с комиксовыми гигантами – задача не для слабаков. Поэтому некоторые студии, например создатели Prototype, решают создать своих героев, чтобы обойти эти препоны. И в момент выхода такие проекты довольно часто становятся хитами, ну или как минимум крепкими представителями в своей нише, вгрызаясь в память игроков своей дерзостью и энергией.

И с годами интерес к супергеройским играм не угасает – людям нравится чувствовать себя всемогущими, ломать правила и творить хаос. Но не все подобные игры из прошлого выдерживают проверку временем. То, что когда-то было откровением, для новых игроков может оказаться чем-то посредственным и не заслуживающим внимания. И, да, Prototype в свое время тоже гремела, но может ли эта игра и сегодня зацепить так же сильно, как тогда?

Чтобы ответить на этот вопрос, я прошел эту игру незадолго до выхода этого обзора, и теперь, уделяя внимание абсолютно всем ее аспектами, отвечу на вопрос: “Стоит ли играть в Prototype сегодня тем, кто по разным причинам к этой игре до сих пор не прикоснулся, даже если в свое время очень хотел?”.

ТАЙМКОДЫ
00:00:00 Лирическое отступление
00:01:35 Вступление
00:14:36 Сюжет
00:20:13 Комиксы
00:22:04 Боевая система
00:33:19 Геймплей
00:45:52 Графика и стилизация
00:55:06 Музыка и звуки
00:59:48 Сложность
01:09:59 Проблемы и минусы
01:15:48 Заключение

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