Review by: Tony Mitera

A recurring theme in gaming is morality systems—allowing you go down the good or bad path. It is an aspect that Prototype refreshingly lacks; as though the protagonist Alex Mercer isn’t exactly a bad guy he’s not above killing a man and consuming his entire body for one cause or another. Simply put, Prototype puts you in the shoes of a ridiculously powerful man on a violent mission to find his identity, tearing through both those at fault and innocent bystander alike as you come closer to the truth about who you are and why you are able to turn your fists into large hammers.

Our boy Alex is having a pretty rough go of things, both from his suffering from amnesia and also from having found himself on an autopsy table during his own examination before rightfully bolting out of the place. From the very beginning Alex realizes that he is a changed man, infected with some sort of mutation that allows him to shape his body at will. This allows him to run up the side of buildings, leap tremendous distances, and mold his limbs into various weapons. At the press of a handful of buttons you can change Alex from a normal man wearing a hoodie to an armor-plated monstrosity with a massive double-sided blade for an arm. Or a meek Chinese woman, depending on the situation at hand.

One of Alex’s new powers is the ability to utterly consume any human being he chooses, which not only replenishes his health but also stores their form in his disguise slot. This allows you to cause havoc and get the military on your tail, only to turn a corner and change forms to lose your hapless pursuers entirely. Both your normal form and your current disguise have their own “heat” level, which is raised by acting suspicious while under the eye of the enemy, so the ability to switch between them as needed is key to not only infiltrating places Alex can’t normally go but also effectively escaping once your cover is blown.

This is something that will happen quite often, given that for the most part it is difficult to rip a man into shreds without someone noticing. As Alex kills his foes he gains Evolution Points, which are spent towards gaining new abilities or upgrading existing ones. At the start Alex’s ability selection is relatively normal, such as super strength or the ability to sprint faster, but soon enough you begin spending points to make Alex glide like a bird, suplex giant mutated beasts, or effectively turn himself into an air-to-ground missile. The list of potential upgrades is long, yet easy to access and control, and lets you adapt on the fly to whatever situation you find yourself in.