Prototype Review (PC)

Playing this game on a PC, I had little trouble taking control of Alex.  It used the typical WASD controls for movement and the mouse for free look.  The game is configurable to use with a USB gamepad, but I prefer the standard WASD configuration.  The options for gameplay are pretty basic, consisting of Easy, Medium, and Hard settings.

Accessing your abilities is fairly straight-forward.  To access abilities such as morphing your arms into swords, hammers, or large claws, you can simply hold down R while using your mouse to select the ability.  These can also be bound to hotkeys for quick access.  Pressing E while near any human or a weakened monster will allow you to grab it, then press the Right Mouse Button to consume him/her/it.  Holding down SHIFT will enable super speed, SPACE jumps, and Tilde (~) will access the Memory Node screen, where you can connect memories together to get a fuller story and watch the ones you have access to.  This is integral to the gameplay if you want to get things done faster.

Once you have the Glide ability, you can press SPACE twice and then hold it to glide through the air.  This is by far the quickest way to get around the city without jacking a helicopter.  And yes, you can do that later in the game.  By default, pressing the number 2 will enable you to take the form of the last person you consumed.  This is much faster than bringing up your Ability Wheel and selecting your power from it.  At first, many of the abilities on the Wheel are locked, but you will soon fill it up as you go along.

Like I said, controls on the PC version are very easy to get used to.  From what I have heard from others who have played this game on Xbox 360, however, it is much harder to maneuver Alex through the streets with any form of accuracy.  Yet another reason why I prefer WASD to Gamepad any day of the week.  Now that we have gone over the ease of use when it comes to controls, next we have to go over the graphics… and whether your computer can handle it or not.  The requirements for this game are as follows:

	Minimum Specs My Specs OS Windows XP SP3/ Vista SP2 Vista Ultimate Processor Intel Core2Duo E4700 (2.6 Ghz) / Athlon X2 3800+ Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (OC to 2.2 Ghz) Memory 1GB 2GB DDR2-800 Hard Drive 8GB Free Seagate 7200.11 320GB Video 256MB nVidia 7800 / ATI Radeon X1800 Sapphire Radeon 4670HD 512MB GDDR4 Sound Card DirectX Compatible Soundblaster HD DirectX Version 9.0c 10 Controls Keyboard & mouse or gamepad Lycossa keyboard and WolfKing Trooper MVP Gaming Mouse Optical Drive DVD-rom Drive LG BD-RW Drive