Prototype - Battling Giant Vaginas

I am now glad that I had to quit this mission two nights ago. I had no idea what I was getting myself into at the time. That this mission ended up being a massive boss fight was a revelation to me. That the boss fight was badly executed did not come as a surprise however.

So Alex protected this Bloodtox antivirus tanker thing with the intent of pumping the Bloodtox into the ground. Well now that it’s reached its destination you have to protect it again. This time packs of hunters come swarming over the wall to destroy the tanker. I hate fighting hunters; once they start their combo you can’t knock them out of it. Plus this game has no limit on the number of enemies that attack you. This means that 5 hunters can be attacking you at the exact same time. I would know, it happened to me on a regular basis. So I go to slice them with my  blade arm and I end up being the guy taking all of the damage. It seems that you just can’t stop hunters. This makes them stupidly frustrating to fight. It doesn’t help that most of my attacks carry Alex forward and right into a hunters range.

The one good thing about this mission is that the military will leave Alex alone, at least at this point. Every time they attack Alex a call comes through from HQ telling them to focus on guarding the tanker. It’s a nice change of pace since dealing with half-a-dozen hunters is really frustrating. What I found worked the best would be to run around and absorb the military guys until I had built up my big devastator attack. Once I had that I would unleash it and destroy everything in sight. Not a bad way to deal with things. Occasionally there would be a leader hunter running around and he would need some personal attention but his buddies were dead and that made him easier to deal with.

The hunter packs come in 4 waves from all 4 directions, once I’d dealt with them it would’ve been a great time to call the mission done, instead they tack on a massive boss fight. I was a little miffed about this. Guarding the truck was bad enough but now I had to fight a giant tentacle vagina. Yeah, something that looks like a vagina sitting on top of a spinal column with tentacles comes popping out of the ground and Alex has to kill it. It’s frustrating that Alex has to declare this giant vagina to be Elizabeth Greene, there’s no connection that this creature and Elizabeth is the same creature. We never saw Elizabeth go through any sort of mutation so there’s no reason to think that she became a giant vagina.

The battle against this thing is really annoying. Elizabeth can hit you from nearly every angle if you’re within her line of sight. It took some careful strategies to take her down. And then I realized it didn’t, it only took some lucky timing and one very basic strategy.

We’re still in a town so getting out of Elizabeth’s line of sight wasn’t that hard. Once there I could absorb all of the people I wanted. Occasionally a hunter or two (or three) would come down the street to annoy me, but they aren’t a problem in small numbers. Once I had built up my big devastator I ran down the street with my shield in front of me to unleash my tentacle devastator. Rinse and repeat for an hour. Literally an hour, this fight was long and frustrating. You have to always be on the go since Elizabeth’s attack can cause massive damage to Alex. There’s no real safe place to hide. The side streets were nice, but if a hunter got to me and I was in a weakened state he could finish me off pretty easily. Hunters always got a few hits in. Eventually the military shows up and join the fight, but they don’t leave you alone this time. Having to deal with helicopters and tanks at the same time as hunters can be hair-pulling aggravating.

Add to the heap Elizabeth’s big wave attack. Thankfully you know when this is coming. The screen goes black and white and everything slows down. This is the cue to climb a building and fast. I don’t think the attack can kill Alex, but it will wipe out all of his health making him easy prey for other enemies.

After hitting the dumb vagina enough times it actually spits the real Elizabeth out. So she apparently didn’t turn into a giant vagina, she just attacked you from within one. That is so like a woman. I was expecting a chase across town or something now, but Alex doesn’t give Elizabeth a chance to move. He grabs her, punches her and then absorbs her. Well there ya go, Alex just absorbed his mom. Now I get to be mad. Where was my grand fight against an enemy that I recognized? The giant vagina battle was lame; I wanted to fight Elizabeth herself in a one-on-one battle to the end. But I was denied that. She should have run across town until we reached a certain location and then we should have duked it out. The she could have died in a cutscene. But I was denied that. I had to beat up a giant vagina instead.

Once the fight is over the military pulls out. I was expecting another “escape the military” sequence, but that didn’t happen. Instead the military has decided to purge the island. I guess they figure that no one will notice that every living thing on Manhattan Island is dead, there’s probably some social commentary in there. There’s a cutscene where important reoccurring military guys yell at each other, but I can’t remember their names, maybe they’re not that important afterall.

I am so happy that this fight is finished, but I want to know when Alex is finally going to meet this secret contact of his. The whole game is told through a backstory where Alex is talking to the Contact. Maybe it will be in the next mission.