Before trying any Xbox RRoD fixes, try this!

I was just about ready to send in my Xbox in for repairs when I decided to turn the Xbox on and leave it on for 20 minutes. As expected, the RRoD appeared and the Xbox title didn’t pop up – nothing different than usual. Then I waited 20 minutes to let it warm up, turned it off, and somehow wasn’t surprised to see the Xbox start up normally again. To make sure it wasn’t a fluke, I tried it the day after and it worked as long as I made sure I let it warm up first (otherwise I got a RRoD like usual or at least a freeze). So try it – but I’d recommend cleaning out the vents first. Also, don’t put it on the table vertically as it could make the components slide off the motherboard.

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Prototype for Xbox 360 review

I have to admit, I had given up on finding a game that could keep my ADHD mind interested enough to play it for days on end. But thanks to my boyfriend who added Prototype to my Gamefly queue, I was able to waste a few hours of my life without regret.

The game starts you off as some guy in a hoodie and an abnormally Final Fantasy-ish leather jacket with godlike powers that’s being chased by the military. I thought to myself “Wow, this is pretty trippin’… I run up walls at top speed, jump higher than a mutated grasshopper, glide like a flying squirrel on steroids, and best of all, I can slice and dice anything (or anyone) in my path!”

And the only logical subsequent train of thought had to be “I wonder how long this is going to last…” and soon enough I had my answer. All right. So after the intro you end up playing Alex Mercer at the beginning of his adventure with a significant reduction in available powers. This is the usual “Here’s a taste of what you COULD have if you keep playing the game” but I have to honestly say that the start-up powers aren’t that bad. By forcing you to have to learn your powers slowly throughout the game you definitely tend to remember how to use the moves more thoroughly as opposed to being thrown in the game with a huge arsenal and having to remember them all at once. In fact, at the beginning I only managed to use three or four powers because I wasn’t aware of all of the other ones I could have used.

So, without spoiling the game for anyone that hasn’t played it, I am going to give you a little review.

One of the first things that kept me going was the awesome powers available and the horrible things you can do with them. I enjoyed slashing or absorbing random pedestrians, policemen and helicopter pilots. It was quite satisfying to grab someone by the neck and then drag them up to the top of a building to then fling them off from the highest point down to their doom. I really enjoyed going down after the body as it was flailing through the air to see if I could find it before it hit the ground. It was quite addicting to bash through cars, trucks and playgrounds in shield mode while watching people flying up into the air or dashing through the streets hopping from car to car and quickly running up a wall and then go from building to building. Ok, honestly, I mostly enjoyed terrorizing the city instead of completing missions but who hasn’t spent hours on GTA stealing cars, crashing them and trying to kill as many people as possible?

I did like to infiltrate the police stations and learn needed skills by absorbing those people with a DNA symbol above them. Once you absorb everyone you need to then you can proceed to kill everyone else and take down their defenses for a while. Hijacking vehicles such as helicopters and tanks is actually very useful and enjoyable especially when you have to take down other vehicles.

As for the missions, they weren’t too bad. A bit repetitive but were still pretty challenging. As long as you keep upgrading or getting new abilities you should be able to finish the missions pretty quickly — but be ready to have a very sore right index finger. I found myself having to dash almost all the time, if it wasn’t because I was being chased by the military, it was because I was being chased by a zombie mutant (or chasing them in some cases). I often had to switch to my middle finger while holding down the trigger because of sharp pains shooting through my finger joints but at least the game didn’t cause any kind of physical damage like the infamous Mario Party thumb stick palm blister.

One thing some people seem to complain about is that it is hard to stay incognito while walking around the streets especially farther into the game. Often times the task force is deployed which results in Alex having to interrupt what he was doing and hide. I have to say I never had any issues myself since I always wandered around in the form of a pedestrian. You can get away with a lot before the police notice you. Just make sure you don’t absorb, or kill or destroy anything around any authorities. You can safely dash through the street and even hop on cars and run up walls without inciting much suspicion. Even if you do end up with the task force after you, it isn’t that hard to get away from them as long as you climb up as high as you can and then quickly drop back down in a relatively enclosed area like an alley and quickly switch to another form as soon as the icon tells you to.  Another complaint that people seem to have is that the graphics aren’t that great. I am actually pretty impressed considering you have a lot of things to explore.

All and all, this game was fun and has some re-play value. The story line was the usual zombie/secret weapon plot and didn’t bring much to the table that hadn’t already been brought by other games such as Resident Evil but it was good enough to keep me engaged. I might not have been as critical of the game as IGN, but I honestly enjoyed this game and was happy to have found something that maintained my interest for that long. I’m still more of an old school gamer — I definitely enjoy the classics from the Megadrive (Genesis) and Nintendo/Super Nintendo a lot more than any pretty face the next generation consoles have to offer, but I just can’ t just use my Xbox for movies and TV shows only. It would be sort of a waste of a 47 inch 1080p HD television if I didn’t play any games on it, wouldn’t it?

I wouldn’t buy the game, but it is perfect to rent — and quite therapeutic.

Product: Prototype for the XBOX 360

Graphics: 7/10

Controls: 9/10

Playability: 10/10

Sound: 9/10

Replay Value: 8/10

Average: 8.6