Part 06: APPENDICES and MORE: Tables, Poster, and Gallery Primer

BlackWatch Gunships patrol the ominous orange skies of Manhattan. The Gallery of exclusive art showcases the development of the game, and is filled with developer commentary.

An early look at Alex's Hammerfist Power; an example of the impressive art that fills the back of this book.

Another early sketch showing the impetus for the flowing tendrils that Alex can protrude from his form.

!!WARNING!! Very light Spoiler information is contained below!

An already-chunky book was made morbidly obese with the addition of some final, and incredibly helpful information. In this final Prototype guide Blog, I run through the host of charts and tables at the back of the book, just what to expect when you unfold your Prototype poster (included with the guide), and as you’ve already seen by now, what to expect from the exclusive, art-filled Gallery.

Tables and charts: Hardly thrilling, but an imperative part of every guide, as they allow you to quickly ascertain game information in seconds, without plodding through an entire guide. Fortunately, the Appendices chapter grants you all the information you need, beginning with Evolution Points. The key to Upgrading Alex is to obtain as many Points as possible. To do this, it might be a good idea to provide a massive table showing every Point permutation possible. That’s what I did, so you can find out how many EPs you get for killing a BlackWatch Grenadier (75, by the way), for finishing a particular Event with a specific score total, for finding Collectibles, and for finishing Missions.

This thrill-o-rama continues with an Upgrade chart. The “Holy Grail” of Prototype information, this reveals when every single Upgrade becomes available, and the cost to purchase it. Need to know when you can Body Surf on a bloodied corpse? After Mission 4.04 of course, but it’ll cost you 120,000 Evolution Points. The awesomeness continues with the Events Table, literally showing when each Event is available. To finish, there’s a complete list (with icons and advice) of every Achievement and Trophy, too.

We went slightly bonkers on the Poster you’ll get with the guide, too. For starters, the whole of one of the sides is filled with a Moves list. Every single attack, combo chain, or maneuver is shown, along with the button presses you need. Flip the poster over, and you have a gigantic map of Manhattan showing where all the Collectibles, Hives, Bases, and Events are. There’s also a complete Web of Intrigue showing all Sequences, with locations for every one of your victims.

Finally, it would be a travesty not to add on a 40+ page art Galley, complete with dozens of never-seen-before pre-production sketches, renders, and paintings. There’s prototypes (ahem) of Alex, the various characters, as well as spectacular panoramas of New York under viral attack, the various viral powers that never made it into final production, and special, exclusive biographies of every major character, stuffed into the back of the book as they reveal some major plot points.

I hope you have as much fun reading this guide as I did making it. I’d also like to extend a special thanks to everyone at Radical, Activision, and Prima for making this book so informative.

Purchase The Prototype: Prima Official Game Guide from here.

Part 04: ADVANCE and OBLITERATE: Walkthrough Primer

From the very first moments of this initial Mission, the cavalcade of carnage is accessible, producing some truly disgusting dismemberment!

Not all Missions involve tearing your enemies to shreds. Here, Alex must remain in Disguise, and Consume a Military Commander without being spotted… too late!

As you progress through the Missions, the Upgrades you're able to purchase, and the enemies that attack you, become more and more impressive. And spiky.

As you’d expect, a large part of this Official Game Guide to Prototype is taken up with a highly-detailed Walkthrough. With 27 Missions (segmented into ten separate “Episodes”) to attempt, and numerous ways to complete each one, this chapter was designed for you to easily “dip” into a particular Mission you’re having trouble with, or to read from start to finish. With a well-designed tabulation system, you can instantly find the name of the Mission, which Episode it is in, and how far you’ve progressed through the Missions portion of the game. But the information overload doesn’t end there….

Whether you’re rampaging through the streets of Manhattan attempting a number of freeform activities, or simply finding a Military Base to infiltrate, you’ll soon be back and uncovering numerous revelations about your past, present, and future. The Walkthrough was designed to keep you posted about these occurrences, but without any major spoilers ruining the surprise. Of course, you need to tame your page-flipping hand, as the larger “Boss” like creatures are thoroughly detailed, with every possible killing technique shown, but as long as you have some self-control, you’ll easily navigate the Walkthrough, and uncover the optimal paths to take.

Each Mission begins with an Overview. Don’t know what the Mission entails? Then read this, and you’ll soon figure out exactly what you’re about to accomplish. Next comes a map of Manhattan; the same one you see in the game, with the same iconography the game uses. Surrounding each map are Waypoints, exactly as they appear in the game, but with the added benefit of an attached screenshot (so you can see exactly where to go), and the Objectives you complete at each Waypoint (so you can effectively complete the Mission without reading through the Walkthrough portion itself). Cunning? I hope so; but the real information continues throughout the rest of the pages:

The detailed Mission Walkthrough section is divided into screenshots and text separating out every Objective you’re given, thus allowing you to pinpoint the area in the game you need help with, and reading about it. Icons for the objective Waypoint markers are shown here too, for extra access. Then comes a variety of (mainly spectacular and large) screens, tips, notes, cautions, and flags when you’re gifted brand new Powers. At the end of each Mission, any new rewards are listed. Fortunately, a more comprehensive series of Appendices (at the back of the book) reveal every single Event, Upgrade, and host of Evolution Points you can receive. The Walkthrough was designed with you in mind, and with constant input from Radical and Activision. The results blend accessibility with entertainment and information.

Naturally, there’s much more to Prototype than a critical path; come back for Blog 05, where I rampage through all the “additional” gameplay elements you can take part in.

Purchase The Prototype: Prima Official Game Guide from here.

Part 02: ATTACK and OBFUSCATE: Upgrades Primer

The Upgrades chapter gives blow-by-blow accounts of your greatest attacks, such as this second hit from a Claws Combo chain.

Upgrade Powers such as the Whipfist introduce longer-ranged attacks, which can be useful when you're hoping for a ride from a helicopter.

Surf conditions are currently bloody, with a slight chance of disembowelment: The Body Surf is both entertaining and gruesome.

Part of the excitement of Prototype is rampaging through the streets, throttling the Infected, crushing skulls, and beating down anything that moves with a variety of sharp sinewy mutations and blackened tendrils. With this in mind, I went about this gigantic chapter (filled with close to 500 screenshots) by comprehensively benchtesting every single move in the game. This allowed me to separate every single one of Alex Mercer’s moves, and write about their effectiveness, either for combat or maneuvering. The results are a thorough and exciting romp through Alex’s madcap techniques, but never confusing, as the information is presented exactly as it is read in the in-game menus. Alex has a variety of Upgrade types at his disposal, and spending Evolution Points on the right ones is the key to ultimate enjoyment of the game.

By far the most deadly of Alex’s Upgrades are his Powers; if you’ve seen video of Alex tearing through enemies using a prehensile blade fused to his arm, you’ll have seen a Power at work. After a chart showing exactly when in your adventure each Power becomes available (and its cost), every one of the Power’s techniques receives attention, taking the form of a moves list like a fighting game guide. For example, with Alex’s Blade Power, all of the techniques he can muster, such as Blade Combo Chains, the Air Slice, the Blade Frenzy, and the special Consume animations he does when grabbing a victim are shown, with a screenshot for each hit in a Combo, or each technique itself. Then comes a Tactical Overview; essentially running through every particular technique and its effectiveness, along with when to use it in a combat situation.

The Blade, Claws, Shield, Armor, Hammerfist, Whipfist, Musclemass, and Sensory Powers all receive this meticulous going-over. Then comes Movement Upgrades, which are techniques that allow you to leap and glide from building to building without touching the ground, Diverolling to avoid ground attacks, Sprinting increases, and Jumping upgrades. Then comes information on Survivability Upgrades, increasing your Critical Mass, Health, and Regeneration. All of this sounds confusing, but the guide shines a light on the exact techniques to cherry-pick and use first, and which to save for a later purchase.

There are normal Combat Upgrades too. This provides a host of additional offensive moves to your arsenal, including the disgusting Body Surf, the always-helpful Flying Kick, and crowd-clearing ground pounding such as the Bulletdive Drop. Next comes Area Effect attacks, which include Devastator attacks; the strongest and most impressive offensive skewering available. Next are Disguise Upgrades, allowing you to quicken your Consuming, or even attempt Stealth Consumes without anyone spotting you. There’s even information on calling in massive Artillery Strike firepower, and fooling the enemy with a Patsy move.

The final sets of Upgrades to learn are those involving Vehicles; you’ll learn how to hijack a Tank, skyjack a helicopter, and learn the techniques needed to reach an airborne chopper to maximize your maneuverability. There are Upgrades to increase your effectiveness inside vehicles, and finally, a series of Upgrades for using the Military’s array of weapons, from Missile Launchers to Assault Rifles. Emerge from this chapter fully capable to challenge the most fearsome (and not to mention, mutated) foes!

The mutated foes in question are alluded to in Blog 03, which shows off the guide’s entities, from the shambling to the shredding, and including frightened humans as well as frightening and many-tendrilled beasts. Check back here for the information.

Purchase The Prototype: Prima Official Game Guide from here.

Look for the menacing Brotherhood of Steel member on this guide's cover, along with a variety of guide information on the back.

An example of a Walkthrough chapter; in this case showing the optimal route to collect Steel Ingots during your sweaty stay in The Pitt.

In early February 2009, I was lucky enough to venture into the Capital Wasteland and beyond for a jaunt through Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt. The fruits of my latest expedition can be digested today (May 26^th), as the Official Game Guide to The Pitt and Operation: Anchorage hits stores. Having charted the topography of the original game, we employed many of the same elements to this new tome, which couldn’t have been possible with out the help and continued support of Bethesda. I mean, who else would have found the secret Morse code radio signals that no one’s figured out yet, right?

   If you’ve seen the original (or chunky hardback collector’s) guide, you know what to expect: There’s an initial chapter devoted to the new enemies, Perks, and other gameplay elements that affect your ongoing game. For those excited by statistics, there’s a whole lot of them, listing abilities for the new enemies, weapons, and items. Later into the book there’s a complete Walkthrough for Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt, complete with those fabled flow charts, specific decisions you can make, and all the different outcomes listed. Naturally, we went a step further, too: 

  All of the new locations also receives a Tour inspection, which allows you to peruse through the full-color maps just like the first guide to pinpoint weapon caches, concentrations of enemies, and other places of note. Aside from detailed overview maps that show at least twice the data of your Pip-Boy’s World Map, there is specific and exclusive cartographical information for every place you visit. If you need to check out the crisscross of scaffolding of the Downtown suspended walkways in The Pitt, we show you where everything is, floor by floor. This means the book can be utilized in two ways, whether you’re investigating the Abandoned Apartments of Pitt Uptown during your Quest, or at your leisure. Collectibles also make a sporadic appearance here too; and they are duly noted in the Appendices at the back of the book.

   As an added bonus, this book has two Enhanced Encyclopedias. One shows every piece of armor, outfit, and headgear that you can find, and the other details every single weapon, along with a profile picture of the gun, knife, stick, or mangling machine in question. There’s a picture of each weapon in action (usually being forced down the gullet of a Super Mutant), as well as statistics, and where they are likely to be located. This includes every Custom and Unique Weapon too. Think of these as catalogs of impressive Wasteland warrior-wear and attack implements that you can view before you trek to locate them.

  I haven’t even enthused about the Gallery section at the back of the book either; this features exclusive, pre-production art from both Game Add-Ons, as well as some fantastic, non-irradiated versions of many of the in-game posters. Would you like a pristine advert for the Statesman Hotel or Radiator King, without any rips, dirt, or Raider blood? Then peruse the back of this book.

  We hope you enjoy checking this guide out. Now if you’ll excuse me, the Swamp Folk at Point Lookout are getting restless and preventing my Punga Plant picking… where did I put my Microwave Emitter…?

  Purchase the original guide HERE or the Limited Edition Collector’s Edition HERE.

  Purchase the Game Add-On Guide HERE.

This is the second (or the third if you count that heavyweight hardback collector's edition) official tome. Also check out an example of a Wasteland poster.