I’d never before played an import game. This whole thing was really kind of an accident. Wait – I’m not making any sense. Lemme ‘splain. No, there is too much. Lemme sum up.

I’d been wanting to play Prototype for a while, and when I found a copy the PC version on EBay for $20 whereas it’s retailing for $40, I jumped on it. It wasn’t until after I’d bid that I noticed the tiny text that said “Import Version”.

Upon installing the game, I immediately realized that the install screens were all in Russian. It was as if I was living after the Red Dawn. But with the help of the inkjet-printed instructions included with the game, I muddled through the install screens, making sure to select “English” as the install language.

After that, the whole thing was pretty easy, and I found that the game played pretty much as I’d expect the U.S. retail version to play. With a few exceptions.

I can’t log into GFW Live from the game, which means that I can’t log achievements. I’m not sure whether the achievements alone are really worth $20, but I find that I’m not bothering to collect things I otherwise would since I know my accomplishments won’t be logged. Yes, I’d definitely prefer to have the achievements.

Another thing I found is that I can’t map my mouse 4 and 5 buttons in the game. I can’t say for sure that this is because of the import version, but I googled the issue and found that other people seem to be using their 5-button mice with no issue, so my working theory is that my  import copy of the game doesn’t carry that functionality for some reason. My options are to use Logitech mouse software to map the mouse buttons to letters that I can map to game functionality, or else try out a gamepad controller. I’ll probably end up using the mouse.

Anyway, that’s my story.