Got it on Impulse Saturday.

The review left out how easy it is to abuse stealth.  Just walk into a moveable object to move it so you can't be seen while stealth comsuming a target.  Heck, it seems like it only matters that only nearby people don't see you and not ones far away even if they are facing in your direction.  Plus it is only you that needs to be hidden, your target can be in plain view.  Plus once you start no one sees you in the process of consuming even if they walk by.

I stealth consume the inside of entire military bases by pushing the trucks around to give me cover and they also force the gaurds to move.

Vehicle wise stealth is also easy to abuse.  I once took a tank and trashed over other tanks and several helicopters without being found out.  I fired one shot at a time and waited for my detection meter to return to zero before firing the next shot.

As long as you are not seen and can kill your target with one hit, you can kill any military target, human or vehicle.

Of course, being able to abuse stealth makes the game more fun for me so I think it is a good thing.

I agree about the balance, early on you can do what you want but latter you have to be a little bit more careful.  Especially when the military rolls out the combat helicopters, tanks and UAV drones that can detect you when you are in disguise.  It is very anoying to get blown off the side of buildings by heavy weapons.

Thank you Stardock for getting this awesome game on Impulse.

This only works in the beginning. Later there are those infection detectors on the ground and on the air that will start going off and then it won't matter if they have line of sight or not. I'm actually stuck on this one event where I have to infiltrate a base and I can't pull off a stealth consume on the commander, at all. The alarms go from yellow to red, and in yellow everyone starts walking around - doesn't help that the base commander gets his own escort.

It is a pretty enjoyable game, though. I didn't expect much from it at all really, but with the 20% off coupon and some fun looking gameplay videos I figured hell, why not - and I don't regret it one bit. Jacking choppers and blowing stuff up is just a lot of fun

Did you get to the mission in the campaign where you sabotage/hack detectors?  If so you can do that to any ground detectors afterwards.  Also, try approaching the base from different angles.  I find that there is usually a gap in the detector coverage that lets me go over a wall or drop down into the base.  If you have a military disguise it is just a matter of finding the commander at the right moment in his patrol.  You can jump, run, and glide as much as you want without exposing yourself as long as you have a proper disguise.  Inside the base is where my strategy works the best.

I prefer getting my choppers for free without having to fight for them and be detected.  If you get in a vehicle that triggers a kill event and leave the event, you stay inside the vehicle.  The trick is to get inside the vehicle and not right click to start the event.  I have found around three events that use the copper, so i just head towards them when I want one.  Of course, whip-jacking a chopper in the middle of combat is very easy and helps out quite a bit.

I find blowing up infected water towers is very easy with the gun on the choppers and rewardable at 6k EP a tower.  Just hold tab and sweep your cursor over any towers, infected ones will be automatically targeted.

Plus if you have a valid military disguse, you can take a vehicle without a fight and remain undetected.  This is very useful for when you need to knock out hives for events or just the EP reward.

Yeah, I've been doing all that. I don't usually go for stealth infiltrations so usually I just barge in, consume the commander, and then kill everything that sees me until I can get in.

But this one is timed and by the time I get to the base I'm down to about a minute-40 left. But I didn't actually know that you can sabotage those detectors quietly, and I did do the mission where you have to sabotage. So I usually ended up whipjacking a chopper and blowing them up with homing missiles which caused a slight fuss

I'll have to try the silent sabotage, that might just do the trick.

And yeah, I have 3 events done on Gold now that have the chopper next to them, it's great I love that thing.

Surprisingly those detectors cannot detect you when you're in the vehicle lol

So far I've only found two flaws with this game.

The first is the well known audio volume level problem.

The other is frequently commented about and that is the apparent lack of balance consistancy durring the game. In this problem the game's difficulty skyrockets in later missions to the point that the game becomes frustrating rather than entertaining.

I'm currently stuck on the mission where you have to lure the hunter leader to an abandonded base. Finding it and keeping following me is easy. What's frustrating is when the game throws everything at you all the infected and the military with their strike teams all at once.

As one reviewer said, it gets so chaotic that it completely ruins the original feel of the game.

I'm on the same mission The main issue with that one is that they haven't relaxed the requirements for getting into the base.

It's virtually impossible to end the alarm in that setting because the military keeps spawning like crazy with those hunters running around, so what I'm thinking is to leave the leader behind first, go to the base and stealth-consume the commander so that you're ready. Then go back to the hunter leader and make sure never to change forms until you get back to the base. Hopefully the spawning hunters will be busy enough with the other military until you can sabotage the detectors, and then the alarm should drop and you should be allowed to enter the base.

It definitely is chaotic.. I spent half an hour just at that base this morning killing and killing

One of the other frustrations with this game is a lack of clear instructions. For example: stealth, consume. Once you are behind the human and close enough do you press "E" to grab him, "F" for disguiize options, then right mouse to consume him.

Or do you press and hold "E" to grab, and while holding "E" press ahd hold "F" for disguize, then finaly while holding both "E" and "F" down click the right mouse button to consume it.

I may ultimately have to give up buying games via digital distribution. Too often you get no break in the price, and you definitely don't get the box, disc, or manual. Only occasionally do you get a manual in the form of a PDF.

I'm actually playing with a gamepad, since most games like these end up with the controls easier mapped to that. For me I hold the right bumper and when I'm close enough behind someone the consume icon lights up, and when nobody is looking and I can execute the stealth consume the B button lights up and that's how I know

You usually get hints in this game when something new comes up on how to do it, and you get the key combos in the Upgrades menu.

Spending money on ArmA 2 then saving for awhile... and I don't think it will be on impulse

I play the PC version using keyboard and mouse and in-game it says "[behind human]->[E]->[F]" which really doesn't tell you that's E then F or E and F

So true. That's how I used to have to kill them before the arm whip

I think the abilities/powers is the best thing about Prototype - it's so unique that it just stands out from everything else.

This thread, and the one the Relicnews forums has gotten me quite interested in this game. Is there a demo or some gameplay footage available somewhere?

And as an answer to the question of Zubaz's comic, i'd rather hijack the helicopter and use it wipe out an enemy encampment, but i have Mercenaries 2 for that

You can hijack them and use them to blow stuff up.

Sadly, there's no demo But there should be plenty of gameplay footage on Gametrailers.com, as well as a good video review.