Heller’s diseased arms can assume five different forms, all of them deadly.After a tour of duty in the Middle East, all Sergeant James Heller wants is some time with his wife and kid, but fate’s not interested in his reunion plans. A second outbreak of the Blacklight virus reduces New York City’s citizens to pustulant monstrosities once again, and Heller loses his family. Now this one-time man of honor charges around a third-person action metropolis with but a single purpose: murder the man who ruined his life.
Easier said than done. Returning protagonist-turned-villain Alex Mercer infects Heller during Prototype 2’s opening encounter, turning your character into a shape-shifting mass of bubbling guts that can consume and simulate any human form. You’ll wear the faces of everyone from military brass to lab technicians as you infiltrate underground strongholds, foil ghastly experiments, and use the purloined memories of your victims to understand the ongoing conflict between Mercer and his erstwhile Blackwatch masters.
Turn your hands into claws that’d shame Freddy Krueger, then pounce and shred Blackwatch thugs.The narrative rapidly descends into a nonsensical mess, populated with dim-witted baddies who stupidly act against their own interests. Don’t despair: Heller’s a scowling one-note dope with an inexplicable hatred of computers and anyone with a triple-digit IQ, but he’s also an incredibly flexible one-man wrecking ball. When you’re not sprinting up gleaming skyscraper walls or gliding between rooftops, you’ll transform your arms into wickedly diverse melee weapons. You can reduce pizza-faced Brawlers to bloody ruins with razor-sharp claws, torpedo tanks with club-like Hammerfists, and yank helicopters from the sky using your Whipfist as a fleshy fishing rod.
You needn’t stick with a single favorite, either, as you can assign different powers to the two attack buttons at any time. And each death-dealer comes with its own deliciously satisfying special attacks: swing your giant can-opener– like blade arm in a wide circle to bisect anything within range, for example, or turn your outthrust tendrils into a black hole that slams nearby debris into foes. Not a single enemy can effectively counter brutal aerial options like ground-slams and cutting strikes, and eviscerating crowds of diseased creeps is always a blast.
This brute’s well above your weight class, but he’s not as tough as he looks.Heller’s transformation is far from complete, too. Over the course of the game, you’ll earn Evolution Points to spend on core upgrades, increase your competence with specific gear by consuming certain people, and unlock 38 performance-enhancing Mutations. (Just wait till you learn to summon a pair of Brawlers and order them around like oversized attack dogs. Awesome!)
If only the missions exhibited as much imagination as your options for self-improvement. Their variety is respectable: you’ll stalk infected as part of a patrol, race to retrieve dropped cargo containers, and rain death from above as a chopper pilot, for example. The trouble is, they’re all so darn familiar — a veritable parade of worn-out tropes. Even wholly optional side pursuits like infected lairs and multi-part Blacknet missions too often present little more than cookie-cutter clear-the-room mopping assignments and time-trial courses. The only real moments of inventive menace come when you face bumbling asymmetric freaks the size of Walmarts.
And yet, even when your objectives sound about as thrilling as a Sunday-afternoon grocery run, the sheer chaos Heller unleashes upon the distressed and detailed world of New York Zero while completing them keeps Prototype 2 from feeling like a chore. If you can turn off your brain and just enjoy the frenzied carnage, you’ll have a blast.
Hydra bosses sprout from the ground like diseased, skinless tentacles.PUBLISHER: Activision • DEVELOPER: Radical Entertainment • ESRB: Mature • MULTIPLAYER: None • ACHIEVEMENTS: Smooth Sailing • COST: $60
+ Gory melee combat with five upgradable weapon forms and customizable controls.
+ Lots of upgrades; large and attractive city; huge Goliath bosses.
– Bland mission designs based almost entirely on tired clichés; senseless story.
? Did Alex Mercer’s nose grow a few sizes since the first game?
