Prototype/Newcastle Brown Ale

Game: Prototype, Activision, 2009, PC
Beer: Newcastle Brown Ale, 12 fl. oz., 4.7% abv
# of beers consumed during play: 3
Level Reached: Eh...Level?
Level of Intoxication: Buzzed

Game
Activision have had their ups and downs. In recent years Activision has been working hard to reclaim the good reputation it at one time had by finding talented development studios and absorbing them a-la "The Blob." One of their most recent efforts in that vein is the game known as Prototype. Developed by Radical Entertainment, it appears as if Prototype was copying off the quiz papers of the Grand Theft Auto and Crackdown games, as you are basically set free in the middle of a very faithfully rendered version of New York with lots of squishy, defenseless humans all around you. This is by no means a bad thing.

Gameplay
As mentioned above, this game basically drops you in the middle of New York, gives you super powers that were designed from the ground up to rend flesh and create death and havoc, and says "Have at, bro." This is the game that GTA would have been had your character been a genetic cross between Superman and Hitler. Prototype is a "sandbox" game, meaning you can go anywhere and do anything at any time. This is especially cool if you hate the human race and want to fulfill your fantasy of being this all-powerful being who tears people in half for being dicks and then tears the authorities into little pieces for coming to defend the dicks you just tore apart. I highly doubt that's a fantasy which belongs only to me.

You may have noticed above, where it says "Level Reached:" after which I wrote, "Eh...Level?" It's not that I don't know if this game has levels, or that I can't recognize levels within the structure of the game...this is because thanks to the ability to shoot people, throw cars into people, run up the side of the tallest building in the game with people in hand before throwing them as far as I can...


...running people over with a hijacked tank, shooting people with a rocket launcher, consuming people and assuming their appearance, infiltrating a military base so I can kill more important people, and jumping from great heights and landing on people, killing them with a radiating shockwave of force...I just don't give a shit about the levels.

When I said this is Superman meets Hitler, I wasn't joking. The game gives you all the tools you need to be a remorseless hyper-charged killing machine, and then doesn't put any structure in place to discourage you from indulging in your basest desires to become so. I'll put it this way...I killed a whole bunch of civilians, which caused the army to ride in and start attacking me. After cutting in half most of the infantry who were unwise enough to come within range of my attacks, I noticed a strike team of gunships closing in on my position to fire missiles at my body. Did I lay down and give up? Did I cry and run away? HELL NO! I grabbed one of the Army's trucks, ran up the side of a building, and threw it at the helicopter. It's official, Activision has found a way to put awesome in a box and sell it.



Of course, if you get tired of just killing everything you see in the most creative and amazingly hilarious of ways, there's always the missions to do, which advance the story, or the freeform challenges, or the "Web of Intrigue" which is just a bunch of poor saps shuffling around New York, waiting for you to find them and eat them so you can know what they know. Kill enough bad guys (in this case either the army or New Yorkers infected with some nasty virus) and you get points, use these points to unlock new abilities and upgrade your old ones. Don't worry, these points are plentiful, you'll be flying and using the absolutely insanely cool whip-claw in no time.

If ever there was a game to tap into the cathartic "kill-gasm" gameplay mechanic, this is it. Next time someone cuts you off in traffic, go home, load this game up and just cut a swath of destruction and mayhem across New York. I guarantee you'll feel much better.

Graphics/Sound
As is to be expected with a current-generation game, the graphics and sound are very nice. Shaders make everything--including denim jeans--look nice and glossy, and the textures are quite detailed, the millions of New Yorkers waiting to be eviscerated only look slightly identical. The buildings all look like their real life counterparts, and there's just enough variety in the vehicle models to let you forget its just a game. The main character's "body effects" look a little weak, but they get the job done, and certain other effects, such as the transition of a car from intact to blowed-up are a bit unpolished. The actual explosions and smoke are awe-inspiring and more than once I found myself causing a couple city blocks worth of destruction and then climbing to the top of the nearest building and just admiring my handiwork. The way people in the game cower at your might is great, it gives you a wonderful feeling of being most powerful, and gives you plenty of time to figure out new ways to change their animations from "cower" to "rag-doll."



The sounds are pretty much right in the sweet spot, although certain effects do sound like they've been recycled from similar games. The sounds of the city are well balanced and ambient, and there's a nice smooth transition in sound from "fine and dandy" to "full on panic" when you start to get rowdy. The weapons all sound very cool, and if you have a sub-woofer hooked up, you'll love to shoot the tank's main gun. The sound is deep and compact and hits with authority. I play this game with the volume up, because there's nothing better than firing a missile into a large crowd of people and feeling the resultant explosion rattle your kidneys.

One thing I noticed about the voice overs was that they dropped the F-bomb as much as possible, which instead of making the game feel more gritty and real, struck me as cartoonish and exaggerated. It's basically the equivalent of a couple of 10-year-olds with no parents around. The only reason this works is because the rest of the game is so over the top and without reserve, the curse-filled voice overs and cut scenes only serve to put the cherry on top of an experience that in all respects has been designed to tap into the player's most unrefined instincts. Freedom of speech and artistic license in this case are mutual bedfellows.

Story
To quote Wikipedia:

The game follows the story of Alex Mercer, an amnesiac who wakes up on a morgue slab in the basement of GENTEK, a large and influential genetic engineering company.

Say no more. I'm on the job.

The nice thing about the story is that the game developers basically give you a plot device that justifies finding people and eating them alive in order to absorb their memories. Later on down the line, a heavy occupation of military forces tie you (and what you are) in with the government. This helps tremendously by introducing military fortifications that allow you to steal tanks and helicopters. As the story progressed, I learned new things about...nothing, I got stuck just causing what can only be described as a one-man Armageddon. So basically after you learn you've become a something, something and the military code named you something, you stop caring because you've discovered a weird, irrational hatred of New Yorkers and about a gazillion ways to deal with their virtual existence, all of which end with them no longer moving. Story? Sure, it's in there somewhere.

Beer
Newcastle is one of those beers that garners a very devoted following. Not quite track suit-wearing, punch-poisoning, comet-riding devoted, but still, I know people who wouldn't think twice about going to blows in defense of Newcastle. I'm sure if you put Newcastle lovers and Guinness lovers in the same room and gave them axes, swords, and bows, you could get a Braveheart reenactment in fairly short order. That's the level of devotion these two beers seem to ingrain in people. I have to say I am a die-hard Guinness man, but under no circumstances would I refuse a Newcastle on pure general principal. The beer itself is very nice, it has a deep golden-brown color, and in the clear bottles, it's very pretty. It comes off with a strong grainy odor, and just a tinge of roasty scent.

The taste is one I could definitely get used to. It has a pretty nice roasted taste that makes me crave barbecue for some reason. There's some slight sweetness in there, along with a bit of a bitter aftertaste, which really keeps the beer from being too much of any one thing. I like it, but Guinness will still win out in a clinch. Newcastle is a bit bubbly which kind of makes me feel full and causes me to let off some pretty nasty smelling burps. The only problem I can find with that so far is that my cat won't come near me and my kids tell me I smell funny.

The speed with which I go through these is relatively slow, so I'm not getting trashed, which makes this a very nice beer to drink socially, and the 4.7% abv also helps in this regard, giving me a nice operational buzz without turning me into a blathering idiot. Drinking this while laying waste to the whole of New York is without a doubt one of the pinnacles of my week, and were I to have some buddies around to cheer me on and occasionally take the controller while I went for a piss or a fridge run, I'm sure the mirth contained therein would be multiplied in turn. As far as I can tell, there really isn't anything bad about this beer other than the carbonation which leads to offensive oral emissions. I mean it, when I let out a Newcastle burp, I feel like I should go get smogged. Oh, hold on, I think that's Greenpeace at the door...

The Matchup
I really cannot fault either of these products. The beer is very tasty and is particularly suited to spending time with friends without getting wasted, and the game-as long as you don't try too hard to play through the story-is full of awesome game moments and open-ended possibilities. While each of these items comes with a couple of qualities that stop them just short of absolute perfection (the bubbliness and rancid burps in Newcastle, the less-than-important story and slightly unpolished effects in Prototype) they both still manage to be an excellent way to spend a quiet afternoon off, particularly when paired with one another.

Cheers/Game on.