Here are my full impressions after a couple of hours play, there are some mild spoilers contained within.
Anyway, if you've played Prototype, you will know what to expect.
Seriously, I mean you will know what to expect, I swear it is the same game. If there was 1 game I was to ever lable with the much overused 1.5 tag, it would be this.
Graphics: During the initial sequence they had added in some nicer shader effects on things like rubble and roadblocks. The framerate suffers with quite a few judders during this section, they have obviously piled on as many effects into this sequence to set the scene.
Once the game actually starts, the framerate recovers and we are back to looking identical to Prototype 1 i.e. like a late era Xbox game.
Very soon you are running and jumping all over the City as hystericaly Stereotypical black character, James Heller.
I've heard enemie radio put out this description for Heller out
"Bald,Black, Mid Thirties."
Well that should make him easy to find in the whole of Videogameland.
According to the trailers, James Heller is pissed of at Alex Mercer for killing his Wife and Child, he is going to do whatever he can to destroy him.
The only mention of anyhing regarding this in game is with a 3 Line Bio when you see miltary man Heller flying across the city.
JAMES HELLER:
WILL GET ANYTHING DONE
DISREGARD FOR OWN SAFETY
OBSESSIVE FIXATION ON DESTROYING ALEX MERCER
and then Alex Mercer mentioning it in passing.
Very quickly, Alex Mercer's Evil civilian NPC mudering is a commonplace occurance for the now superpowered Heller, who is just as likely to brutally kill a female passerby.
One of the first unintentionally amusing moments is when you meet Alex for the First time, who as usual, is skulking around in a big hoody and leather jacket with a giant glowing emblem on the back.
It was amusing enough that Heller tries to sneak up on him with a big knife , despite knowing that Mercer can jump, fly, make claws grow from his hands, catch missiles etc.
It was even more amusing when Mercer instructs Heller to "Put some clothes on"
and in the next scene, Heller turns up looking like he is in the Alex Mercer Fanclub.
During your city traversal (which has reused what appears to be 100% of the character parkour animation of the first game) you will often hear Heller shouting out such charming things such as
"UGLY MUTHA****A!"
"STAY DOWN BITCH!"
etc etc
gone are the days of Characters like Sonic or Dante breakdancing then posing at the camera with the exclamation "SWEET!".
Heller is a more modern protagonist, for a filthy, nasty post 9/11 world.
Fail a Race or a Challenge mission and you will either be greeted with a macho animation of Heller posing like an angry gorilla, biceps-a-bulging.
Finish the Mission and he will cheer "**** YEAH MUTHA****A!"
At least one of the Main quests is me being guided by Catholic Priest 'Guerra', who spends his time tending to the homeless, before you know it he is chatting in my ear telling me how to get into miltary installations and doesn't seem to have any problem with me murdering innocent people for the cause. A true Catholic Leader.
He doesn't even bat an eyelid when I groestquely slice homeless on the doors of his Church.
So far the Highlight of the game has been a very strange what seemed unintentionally funy cutscene with Heller being Instructed to access a computer
"press the ALT key" says Father Guerra
"THERE IS NO MUTHA****IN' ALT KEY !!!" shouts Heller the brusk Heller, now in the form of a scrawny scientist in a biohazard suit
"Is there a small blue square, for alternative function?"
this goes on for quite some time ending with Heller claiming "I HATE MUTH****IN' COMPUTERS".
The quality of the Dialog hasn't improved in the few hours I've played. Guerra's expertise for provoking rebellion and murder is explained like this:
"SO FATHER GUERRA, HOW DID YOU BECOME A PRIEST?"
"James, let's just say I had a lotta Tattoos removed"
Outside of the new story and new generic cityscape there have been a few improvements, when looking for a specific target to consume you can use a buOilt in Sonar to find your prey across the map. Clicking the Left Stick in sends a sonar wave of wavey orange filter across the world, when it pings back in the games normal colour you can see where the wave eminated from, even it is is the opposite side of the city. This is a much nicer way of finding someone without resorting to using mini maps and waypoints.
Stealth missions are improved a little, you can use the same Ping to highlight enemies which can't be seen by others, these enemies can be consumed without alerting anyone. It is possible to consumed an entire interior of a copy and paste warehouse without being spotted once.
There is a fairly comprehensive levelling up system too, which is an improvement over the first, you level up each time you kill someone, do a sidequest or if you consume specific highlighted characters.
Personally I'm enjoying my own racially stereotyped version of the plot, where I am a homeless Chinese immigrant, hell bent on seeking revenge for whoever caused the entire of Manhatten to be destroyed, the location of his family's restuarant.