Prototype (Xbox 360)

Paste Rating

7.2

respectable

Your Rating

0.0

Developer: Radical Entertainment

Publisher: Activision

Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC

Genetically alien spike appendages and the misanthropic antiheroes who use them for their only logical purpose

In the mind-numbingly passé world we inhabit, genetics companies spend all their time researching cures for Alzheimer’s and developing drought-resistant crops. One of these days they’ll take a cue from their far more interesting videogame counterparts—Prototype’s GENTEK, for instance—and finally get around to creating a human weapon capable of hurling taxis at passing assault helicopters, agilely sprinting up the sides of skyscrapers and morphing limbs instantly into any number of razor-sharp, certifiably lethal monstrosities.

Prototype, an open-world action game, marries Grand Theft Auto’s urban sandbox with the apocalyptic mayhem of Godzilla’s Tokyo visit. You play as protagonist Alex Mercer, a man who’s perturbed that his former employer GENTEK took the liberty of making him a genetic freak and wiping his memory, without ever bothering to ask permission. He's going to hunt down the person responsible and grab that person by the throat and demand answers (you know how it goes). Even though Prototype’s writing is nowhere close to as sharp as Mercer’s blade-arm appendage, the game offers a delightfully over-the-top power fantasy for those of us who always envied the Incredible Hulk’s fearsome strength but not his grotesquely bulgy, spinach-green physique.

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Watch the trailer for Prototype: