When Guitar hero came out in 2005 for the play-station 2, it was a revolutionary move by combining the experiences of; Guitar Freaks, DrumMania, and Dance Dance Revolution. By bringing these popular eastern gaming experiences to the West, Harmonix gave western gamers something unseen; a rhythm game with popular music and a new peripheral that was very stylized.

Overall: 6.5
Presentation: 8.5
Graphics: 5
Sound: 7
Gameplay: 6
Replay Value: 6

The heritage of Guitar hero could be one of the most impressive in sales and brand recognition even while being compared with popular series’ such as Halo and Mario.

Now, Activision and Red Octane has released some of the most popular songs that made Guitar Hero a household name. Many believe that the Rhythm Game Genre is an over-saturated market, but Nostalgia should not be underestimated.

Most of the songs in the original games were covers, and now Activision released them as master tracks. Also, there is the band play functionality, so older Guitar Hero Songs are compatible with the drums and microphone. Songs like “Smoke on the Water” and “Bark at the Moon,” delivers a nostalgic admiration for players who desire to imitate their favorite band.

The song list, like most Guitar Hero games, could be very obtrusive. Most players will enjoy certain songs, and not others. This is my main gripe, since some songs will appease some families, but not another. The mixture of Metal, Classic Rock, and Pop can seem cluttered.

Smash Hits is a great addition for those who haven’t played a previous iteration of GH, and the addition of the instruments will lure veterans of the series. Unfortunately, these additions we’re enough to keep my interest.

Presentation:

Great and charming venues and special outfits for each venue, with sharper visual style from World tour (models, guitars etc), and over-all the good known graphics from the Guitar hero series. There is even a nice reference for Guitar hero 2 and 3.

Technicality:

Even though there is no problem on the technical part of the game, the noting charts aren’t impressive and the new developer for the series, Beenox Studios, has no relation to any guitar hero games before. Extremely obscure note charts uncover rookie mistakes and the volume is quieter overall.

Sound:

Over-all a solid soundtrack with 48 tracks from 4 different games. One notable bad song choice. “The cowboy from hell” performed by Pantera. The sound quality is really bad.

Gameplay:

Weird note charts can be a real factor for this type of game and from its fun factor.

Replay value:

Good soundtrack over-all but no DLC support for Smash Hits, which is disappointing, and I don’t think the online component is a motivating factor.

Conclusion:

Guitar hero: Smash hits may seem like a song pack for the old games, that’s not an entirely false statement, but a great soundtrack, good visuals, and the ability to play as a band aren’t enough for most people. But the song list is good enough to bring fans of different genres to the game, although they might not enjoy every song.

The game is rated T for teens, meaning its alright for most teenagers to listen and or to play the game, there are some heavy metal songs with more violent songs, but if your kid/nephew/family member ever played a guitar hero game before, it should be fine. If you are concerned with the lyrics, then I suggest checking the set list although there is a censorship for swear words.

• Pantera – “Cowboys From Hell (Live)”
• Franz Ferdinand – “Take Me Out”
• Queens Of The Stone Age – “No One Knows”
• Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – “I Love Rock N’ Roll”
• Boston – “More Than A Feeling”
• White Zombie – “Thunder Kiss ’65″
• Blue Oyster Cult – “Godzilla”
• Helmet – “Unsung (Live)”
• Queen – “Killer Queen”
• Incubus – “Stellar”
• Ozzy Osbourne – “Bark At The Moon”
• Deep Purple – “Smoke On The Water”
• The Donnas – “Take It Off”
• The Exies – “Hey You”
• Avenged Sevenfold – “Beast And The Harlot”
• Rage Against The Machine – “Killing In The Name”
• Rush – “YYZ”
• Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Free Bird”
• Foo Fighters – “Monkey Wrench”
• Iron Maiden – “The Trooper”
• Nirvana – “Heart-Shaped Box”
• Lamb of God – “Laid To Rest”
• The Police – “Message In A Bottle”
• Wolfmother – “Woman”
• Kansas – “Carry On Wayward Son”
• Stone Temple Pilots – “Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart”
• Warrant – “Cherry Pie”
• Alice in Chains – “Them Bones”
• Danzig – “Mother”
• Jane’s Addiction – “Stop!”
• Reverend Horton Heat – “Psychobilly Freakout”
• The Sword – “Freya”
• Mötley Crüe- “Shout At The Devil”
• Pat Benatar – “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”
• Living Colour – “Cult Of Personality”
• Heart – “Barracuda”
• Kiss – “Rock And Roll All Nite”
• AFI – “Miss Murder”
• DragonForce – “Through The Fire And Flames”
• Slayer – “Raining Blood”
• Anthrax – “Caught In A Mosh”
• Extreme – “Play With Me”
• Judas Priest – “Electric Eye”
• Poison – “Nothin’ But A Good Time”
• Ratt – “Round and Round”
• Twisted Sister – “I Wanna Rock”
• Aerosmith – “Back In The Saddle”

What do you get when you have a virus catching up on New York City? And you’re the one that has stop it all, even though you are one of the first advanced subjects, well you kill, crush, blow up, tear up and fight against yourself, your family and the government, well, at least for the most part.

Prototype is an open world third person action game that features super-powers, gore, violence and over-the-top action segments, along with those lines, some really good mechanics but also some disappointing unpolished visuals.

Overall: 7.4
Presentation: 8
Graphics: 7
Sound: 6.5
Gameplay: 9
Replay Value: 6.5

The story involves Alex mercer, Codename: Zeus. Throughout the game you will find out what happened to your lovely city, family, and yourself. Although the mechanics to get the information are intriguing and technically great, the content, sadly, isn’t as interesting. The story is well paced and it features some interesting theories, but you wont be playing this game for the story.
The cut-scenes are not persistent enough. On one hand, there are some really impressive action followed by great dialogue, but other sequences look really uninspired and un-impressive.Subsequently, the inconsistencies with the sound and visuals follow. Some of the landmarks look fantastic, but rough edges are easily noticeable. The voice-overs could be a lot better. Granted, some of the sound mishaps are due to the less-than-stellar story, but its not an excuse for conveying Alex’s story so poorly. I believe the story is mediocre, but has it’s moments. The main props to the game are the gameplay and high level of violence. Some of the presentation offers shining moments, but it’s substance is the prevailing factor. So, delving into the gameplay itself; Prototype’s gore adds to the immersion aspect. It has multiple enemies with different weaknesses and powers. The quantity of power is over-whelming for a while, and the action becomes more constant as you progress.

Powers/abilities/upgrading system:

The main powers in the game (after the prologue) are basic yet impressive. While getting into the game early you will feel compelled to learn and adjust to the new mechanics that you will earn throughout the game and the ones that you will purchase on your own. By doing more missions, side-missions and killing everything in your way, you will get EP(experience points) that will provide you, for the most part, quite a handful of upgrades even after an hour or so.

The main mechanics that you are using in the game are so:

Running fast is the main part of the transition between getting to mission areas and to running away from the military. On top of that there is a mechanic in the game where you steal/consume an enemy, a soldier, a civilian and even a monster that will give you information about the story, what happened to you or to the state of the condition to the city. You also get a disguise that is essential sometimes to be inside military bases, clean areas that have genetic creatures in it and more. The main part for the disguise ability is to look like a soldier or a commander and basically to be that person. At least on the visual side, with that, you can and will have to fool and manipulate the military to get access to areas, vehicles and a lot more. its essential to learn how to be careful and not be recognized in order to finish missions, or just having fun blasting enemies and/or choppers etc. Since I don’t want to spoil or ruin the fantastic gameplay, I’ll leave the rest of the powers for your judgment since it has a lot of cool stuff and a great amount of variety to it.
The other main mechanic is the consuming people for information. This is the best part of the game on the presentation side of it, because you grab enemies with the B button and consume them with the Y button. It’s a fantastic approach to tell and show narrative and give something excellent to the gameplay, and I would love to see that mechanic come to fruition in other games.

Getting back to the upgrades system, there are several branches to evolve and these are the types:

Powers:

Improving your unlocked powers are a great way to upgrade and really nail some of the more impressive animations and moves that are, in certain areas, essential to keep up with the game. Whether its the claws that you use or a special shield, every power has its own upgrades and solutions for better damage, longevity etc.

Movement:

Improving your jumping skills, sprinting skills and even wall jump upgrades really help you, when needed, running away or relaxing.

Survivability:

This is for my view, an important section, getting regenerated health increased is super important when you have a massive army if you will that will be against you, and not just health evolution there are also extra powers that may arise when the time is appropriate to unlock and purchase.

Combat:

A solid amount of combat upgrades, whether its for your basic kicks, or putting a earthquake with spikes in it, slashing it to the ground, one of the best depth for its genre.

Disguise:

When you unlock the disguise ability, you will be able to sneak past enemies, and a lot more than that, having the ability to even get more health, and just being more effective, could be a critical ability over the enemies.

Vehicle:

Jacking vehicles are fun and satisfying to use, especially against the bigger enemies out there. Getting some extra ways to do it is always good.

Weaponry:

Purchasing and using weapons could be a good and a fast way to eliminate some more tough and persistent enemies lurking you.

The core gamplay is hack’n'slashing enemies, shooting them if you want to, and just pounce everything in sight. With that being said, there is a good variety of powers that you can use after a while, which will give you the strategic advantage over you enemies. Though it may seem easy at first, the game is challenging even on the medium (since the hard difficulty is locked at first), but after realizing and adjusting to what are your enemies weaknesses, you’ll do fine for the most part. There are missions where its more intense which could lead to some frustration, especially since there are a number of the “loved” escort missions, but at least they are varied enough and open for you to decide what to do with it and how to approach it.

Side-missions:

There are a handful of side-missions scattered through the game whether it’s the most standard racing through checkpoints (with the powers that you have it does feel fun), gliding to a specific point in the map with precision is fun and challenging, or consuming soldiers and doctors to find out about the story. While time is a factor, fighting against or with the genetic creatures or military for medals is fun. Having to kill X amount of people, areas for time is challenging but fun as well, most of the side-missions are fun but its more a personal taste than anything.

Pros and cons:

Pros:

Fantastic gameplay, great powers and excellent gore and violence. Superb consuming and disguising mechanics.

Cons:

Somewhat a boring story and characters, rough visuals and overall bad voice-acting.

Conclusion:

Prototype is a really satisfying to play. Gore, blood and splatters of limbs are just going everywhere, violence with weapons and cool powers give you the feel of a super hero, even though Alex is not by any means a super hero. Some rough edges, and un-inspired story could turn you off for this game, but the gameplay is superb. Fun missions, great side-missions and fun evolution to your powers is a great way to give you tough decision on what should I buy and use next. Overall, Prototype is a great game with decent story and really good atmosphere to who are you, what are you doing, and why.

Presentation:

The main problem is that the main characters are not that interesting. The story isn’t the best and the graphical aspect at some points isn’t that good either. But the idea of consuming random soldiers, genetic creatures and civilians to get information is brilliant, and I think if the content itself was more compelling, the presentation could have been a lot better.

Technicality:

The game works very good on the technical side, there are no frame drops and for such a busy and packed world, its impressive, there are no bugs, glitches or loading problems.

Sound and Visuals:

Some decent voice-acting segments, and some good graphic representation of what the world should have looked like, but for the most part, it seems a little un-polished and perhaps even un-inspired by the majority of the world.

Gameplay:

Having such a good amount of variety, really good feel and true powers are awesome. Impressive line of different enemies with different weaknesses and abilities is something quite unique to its genre. A really fun and satisfying game.

Replay value:

The game is about 10-9.5 hours of gameplay, it seems pretty straight forward with its content, but doing side-missions are fun is definitely gives the game some legs. Not too much, but better than nothing right?

Ratings: M (this is not even a teen game to give to nephews, its super gory and very violent and its defiantly not for kids in any form.)