My name is Alex Mercer and I have a gravely voice. To understand the following blog entry, you should watch the above narration to appreciate my tone and delivery.

I’m an amnesiac hero angry at the world, and I’m on a quest for revenge to find out what was done to me.  These powers, great and awesome as they are, are a mystery that makes me angry.  And in my anger, I will hunt and kill anyone who knows, because I am not a detective; I am a monster. A very angry monster in an open world GTA-like game with super powers. I am not Nancy Drew.

New York is devastated by a biological attack. Or was devastated, since my adventure takes place entirely as a flashback sequence.  The virus turns citizens into infected, mindless zombies.

I’m different. I absorb cells and body mass, this game’s XP currency.  With this new body mass, I can change my shape to appear as them or create various melee weapons such as claws, swords, whips, or a shield and armor. I make myself stronger with their acquired knowledge; kill a helicopter pilot and I become better at piloting a helicopter, or absorb a rifleman and I become a better shot. But most importantly, I regain health. And it looks vicious when I perform the different combos with different weapons. The combat is quick and visceral. Damage input and output is high. With the exception of a few bosses, you posses the power to quickly dispatch enemies and they can to end you as well.  Think of Ninja Gaiden or God of War.

But that’s not all. Unlike most heroes in video games, my powers are limitless. I do not have artificial constraints such as a “sprint bar” or “stamina”. I am not required to eat people every 10 minutes to prevent death. Gunfire barely hurts me. If I want to sprint up the side of a building indefinitely or dash through the air, I can at will.  The only thing that can stop me are the really big hits that stun me. I hate things that stun me. They make me angry.

You see, when I get stunned, the thing that hit me doesn’t hurt me that much. Be it a rocket, a giant monster claw, a tank, or a helicopter’s missile, I can recover.  But I never get hit by just one missile. I may be just one angry anti-hero but I fight an entire army of mutants and military at once.  I’m fast and agile and I can avoid most of their fire, but if one rocket hits me I pop up into the air.  Then every other militia man fires every piece of ordnance they have at me, and in the cloud of their rockets I float in the sky. As I hit the ground a half dozen angry mutants will continue to pummel me until I die or luckily air dash to safety.  That makes me even angrier.

In fact, sometimes I feel so angry, I feel like the Hulk.  Maybe it’s because the Hulk: Ultimate Destruction devs made this game. Maybe it is because my power set is very similar to the Marvel Villain “Carnage.”  Maybe it is because people run and scream in fear when I crash into the side walk after plummeting from the top of a sky scrapper.  I can do anything in this free roaming world. Pick up story missions, side missions, or collect people as part of the Web of Intruige.

That’s right. Instead of collecting coins or scrolls or flags, I collect people. Random people marked on the street with a Red symbol above their head. If I catch them and devour them, then I gain a 30 second cinematic revealing a small part of the conspiracy theory that makes up the plot of this game.  Optional it may be, but you have little hope of unraveling the secrets of Hope, Idaho and the plot unless you collect every single one of these people.  Tedious.

And there are stupid Location orbs to collect as well. I hate orbs.

If you like games like Assassin’s Creed, Infamous, or Spiderman, and also like combat from games like Ninja Gaiden, Devil may Cry, or God of War, then you will probably enjoy Prototype.  As Alex Mercer, I have more freedom and destructive power than any other game hero. But I also have some silly collecting mechanics and can be easily killed.

Prototype is a good game, but there are some frustrations that may make you angry.