Phatose on 15/6/2009 at 17:05

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I've got the PC version and the cutscenes are strangely quite choppy. Annoying, cause there is a hell of a lot of them.


If you're just starting out, upgrades are easy to get. By late game though, you end up needing a lot of XP to buy the expensive high end ones.


It is however great fun - turn your arm into a whip, grab the helicopter, jump up to it, throw one pilot out and smash the other's face and then fly off. Once you get skyjacking and the whip grab, strike teams function as taxis.

WingedKagouti on 15/6/2009 at 17:43

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I've read a couple of posts elsewhere that claim Realtek soundcards (onboard or otherwise) can cause something like this.

So far, I've had little problems getting the game to play fairly smoothly on my PC that hovers around the minimum reqs, at minimum graphics settings of course.

Mr. K. on 16/6/2009 at 07:31

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I have the PC version and have zero problems with it, so choppy cutscenes will probably be a driver issue.

For the body surf, do a jump, press and hold left mouse button so when you do a flying kick it automatically does the surf too.

This game is awesome for what it is: a fun, mindless way to spend one hour or two every other day, kinda similar to Assassin's Creed. Fun in short sessions, boring in long ones. Reviewers have to speed through games, so it's understandable they give this kind of game lower marks, but for home users, if you enjoy this type of action it's a solid option. If you are unsure, wait until the price drops a bit and get it then.

gunsmoke on 17/6/2009 at 17:25

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Well, here are the PC MINIMUM specs



So, IIRC, the 3800+ was 2.0 GHz. And you are above that. Also, a 256MB 7800GT is the minimum GPU, and you are a full generation above that.

henke on 30/6/2009 at 20:00

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Picked up this game last weekend(for the 360) and I'm about 6 hours into it now. I hear it gets hair-pullingly difficult in the end so I figured I'd do a write up about it now while I might still have a kind word or two to say about it.

Having played Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, my initial reaction to Prototype was disapointment. It felt a lot like they'd just added new models and textures to Hulk. The basic controls are the same, even a lot of the Hulks specialmoves and animations seemed to be recycled. The basic enemy types were the same: grunt with assault rifle, grunt with bazooka, choppers and tanks. If you cause enough destruction a strike team gets called in and after you've dealt with these you get bonus points with which you can unlock skills. And seeing as I could never really get into Hulk and be bothered playing it for more than 20 minutes I was starting to regret my purchase. Luckily things soon picked up.

The new powers are a treat. Gliding especially. I haven't unlocked most of the powers yet although I have more than enough points to do so. I'm pacing myself. And the animations are superb(except for the running-animation of a grunt with an assaultrifle which looks like he needs to go to the bathroom), I don't know how much time I've spent just running into oncoming traffic just to watch Alex gracefully autojump and autoflip over cars. Infiltrating militarybases, and stealthily consuming armydudes when they walk out of sight so you can steal their memories and skills, is very satisfying and makes you feel like you're playing Sylar from Heroes. The story might not be great but compared to the story in Hulk it is Shakespeare.

As has been pointed out numerous times, the missions feel very difficult. However, it's hard to say if they really are more difficult than most games or if it's just the empowering feeling your get from the free roam mode that make the actual missions seem all the more difficult once you get to them. You'll, most likely, spend most of your time in the game in free roaming mode. And it's easy to forget that you actually can die once the missions start. Most of the missions so far I've had to retry a few times but every time I've eventualy realized that I can't just charge my way through the mission and expect to make it. It requires a lot more tactic than that.

Just now I finished a mission that requires you to sabotage a few machines. This is how it went...

First try: I find the nearest machine and beat the hell out of it blowing it up. Game Over. Whaaaaaat? *checking mission goals* Oh wait... I'm supposed to sabotage it, not just blow it up.
Second try: Attempt to sabotage it, mess up the QTE. Get hunted down and killed by choppers and tanks.
Third try: Take too long sabotaging it, and an alarm goes of. Choppers and tanks.
Fourth try: Carefully, precisely and quickly manage to finish the QTE sabotaging events for all 4 machines.

Second part of the mission begins. Time to gtfo of Dodge. I have to evade a whole bunch of choppers.

First try: Find a nice big flat rooftop, commence flying kicking choppers out of the sky. There's too many, I die.
Second try: Hijack the nearest tank, head down the freeway while blowing up all the choppers following me. Now I notice that they're respawning. No way I can outrun them in this tank either. Jump out and try to run for it but I don't last long on the ground.
Third try: Hit the rooftops and run for it, jumping and gliding between rooftops. I spy a narrow alley and glide into it, dropping down behind some containers. Looking up I see the helicopters flying back and forth over the alley, trying to get a bead on me. While I'm out of their sight I camoflague and walk out of there. Evasion successful.

The key to beating most missions is simply figuring out the right tactic. The stealth is unlike any I've seen before(I never did play Messiah) but it's not as well fleshed out as it could be. And the fact that you can run up walls and jump incredible distances right in front of guards and they won't notice you if you're camoflagued is just silly. I guess playtesting revealed that the game would just be too difficult otherwise but it's still silly.

The Good:

* it's fun. Did you know that IT'S FUN!? I think maybe someone mentioned it.
* You can play music from your harddrive in it and it will automatically pause when a cinematic comes up. Most 360 games dont seem to do this but rather just keep playing music straight through the cinematics making it impossible to hear the dialogue. Take note, 360 developers. :thumb:
* the human weapons and vehicles are actually useful and a lot of fun to use. This isn't like Jedi Knight where you ignore all the regular weapons just because you have superpowers. It's all very well balanced.


The Bad:

* You can't look straight up or down. When you try, the camera stops at about 10 degrees from a full 90 degree angle. In most games this wouldn't matter, but in a vertically-blessed game like Prototype where what's above and below you is often just as important as what's on the same level, it's kinda shitty.
* a grunt with an assaultrifle drawn runs like he needs to go to the bathroom I tells ya!
* the story is confusing. Luckily you can rewatch all the cinematics if you really want to try to figure out what's going on with the plot. (but you won't want to)


Overall: It's good. It's very good. I might even reach the standard of sandbox superhero games set by Crackdown.