This is it, the final battle. After this, Prototype is done. There’s nothing left to play story-wise. But before I go into this final fight I want to cover a little bit of odd backstory that’s been given to Alex recently.
Hope, Idaho was a Blackwatch project. This gets a big “NO DUH!” from me. It’s been pretty obvious that the Blackwatch virus was purposely spread in this town for a long time. The goal was to create a virus that could kill along racial lines. The virus was an epic failure in that sense. The virus wiped out everyone in the town except for Elizabeth Greene. Somehow she survived. Even more, she bonded with the virus. It also turns out that Elizabeth was pregnant. This little tidbit just seems to be randomly dropped in your lap. I don’t remember seeing Elizabeth being pregnant in any of the flashbacks, but somehow Alex learned about it.
Elizabeth’s child, codenamed Pariah, was extremely dangerous and could kill just by touch. Nothing is done with this information during the remainder of the game. You never find out was has become of the Pariah project.
Alex Mercer used to work for Gentek. The purpose of Gentek was to develop stronger strains of the Blackwatch virus; they used Elizabeth Greene for that. General Randall decided that Gentek needed to be shut down. Alex disagreed with this so he stole a vial of the Blackwatch virus for insurance. Alex was cornered in by the military in Penn Station. Knowing he was done for he broke the vial and unleashed the virus. Alex was then killed. He fell onto the pool of viral material and that is how he absorbed it into this body. This started the spread of the virus. The spread of the virus in Manhattan is Alex Mercer’s fault. Good thing he’s out for revenge.
Story doesn’t make much sense, but that doesn’t surprise me in the long run and the final mission does nothing to change that. Cross sneaks Alex onboard the aircraft carrier, the U.S.S Reagan, disguised as Taggart. Since Taggart disobeyed Randall and caused the current confusion in the streets Randall executes Taggart on site. It looks like he’s about to execute Cross too when Alex reveals himself. I can only assume that Alex absorbs Randall since a flashback occurs, but you don’t get to actually see it happen.
Alex then starts yelling about how “You could’ve stopped this!” But I’m not sure who he’s yelling at. Maybe at the General, maybe at himself, or maybe at Cross. I don’t know and it’s not really explained, big surprise there. Suddenly Cross picks up Alex by the throat. Oh Noes! It’s a double-Cross! See what I did there? Cross turns out to be the Supreme Hunter that Alex fought earlier. Yeah, the one I claimed that Elizabeth Greene puked up. If this guy’s the Supreme Hunter, then how did Elizabeth puke him up? He was around before that.
To make matters stupider, this is your final boss fight. The Supreme Hunter wasn’t that challenging in the first place. He just tried to overwhelm Alex with minions. That is what really made him difficult last time, plus you were in a more confined place so dodging his attacks was harder. This time Alex battles him on top of an aircraft carrier and there are no minions around. The military is still in this fight, but that’s to Alex’s advantage. Yeah, this is a pretty easy fight.
With the military guys around I was able to keep Alex fairly well healed. I was also able to use a wide variety of weapons/attacks. The Whipfist, guns, and helicopters were all to be had during this fight. The Supreme Hunter brought nothing new to the table that I saw. This guy really could have used a projectile weapon or something. Avoiding his attacks was just too easy.
Eventually a time limit is introduced. Alex is given 1:30 to finish this guy off or else the nuke goes off. I threw missiles at him and the fight was done with 30 seconds left. Not a very exciting fight and with nothing major revealed there’s no emotional draw to the battle. It’s just another round of kill everything because it’s there.
The end scene has Alex attach the nuke to a helicopter and fly it out to the ocean. The bomb goes off in the ocean and Alex’s helicopter is caught in the blast. This would be a great place for an ambiguous end to Alex Mercer but that’s not to be the case. His remains wash up on shore where the virus instinctively eats birds and whatnot to recover. Alex is eventually shown as alive. Since this is a sandbox game this is obviously done so you can keep playing around afterwards. Not the type of thing I normally care about. The story is done, I’m moving on.
Story wise, the virus is taken care of “off camera” during the credits. It at least wraps things up for it. We never see Alex’s sister again so I have no idea what happened to her. I assume Elizabeth Greene turned her into a virus monster and she woke up and ate Dr. Ragland, who we also don’t know if he’s alive or not. There’s apparently a hidden scene with Karen Parker, but even her final end is left a little ambiguous.
And that’s the game. Final Thoughts are coming up next.
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