Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Prototype2

Prototype2 is full of cheap shots. The game starts with Blackwater--I MEAN BLACKWATCH (subtle!) being referred to as “baby-killers”. Every other word of almost every line of dialogue is “fuck”. Collectible audio logs are almost all variations of “hey should we kill some civilians?” (yes). The bad guys are bad because their “tests” are “what happens if we release some monsters onto some caged civilians?” Oh, and a prominent plot point involves torturing an eight-year-old girl.

I almost had to stop playing at that point. Between torturing a child and the incessant, overwhelming amount of gore, the game was actually starting to affect me. I had dreams full of the red, gushing organic material that coats the Red Zone. I put down the game for a few days. Picked it up for another hour to finish it off, just to get a sense of closure. Haven’t picked it up again since.

Weirdly, the game features a priest as an informant/sidekick/confidant for a bit. One might think that could lend a degree of moral concern to the game. Nope. This priest isn’t concerned with your actions as much as he’s concerned with dispensing plot points obtained through questionable means: “Hey, sucks your family is dead. Check out this military conversation I intercepted!” Well okay, and then he dies and is replaced by another informant who dispenses missions. Then another informant shows up, but she dispenses plot points while sexily bending over to use her laptop, which appears to be placed at thigh level. It’s like, there’s a counter right there. I can see it. If you moved your laptop there, it would probably improve your posture a whole lot.

Anyway. Prototype2. Life is cheap. In case you couldn’t tell while you’re mowing down a crowd of civilians to regain health or pop an achievement.