Preview: Prototype

The scene of rampage, destruction, blood and gore and utter chaos are taken to new levels in this all out explosive action game due to arrive later this year.
Allowing you to experience the true meaning of power and fear, with the fate of New York city left entirely in the hands of an anti-hero with his own agenda, Prototype looks set to be the ultimate power fantasy experience in open world gaming. As it stands, Prototype is a game that eGamer is following really closely.

Name: Prototype
Genre: Action Adventure
Players: 1
Multiplayer: 2 player online co-op
Platforms: PC, PS3, Xbox360
Release date: 30 June 2009

Introduction and Story
Prototype is in high demand for 2009 and has sparked a lot of interest among most of us. For those of you who haven’t heard about it yet, Prototype is an open world action game featuring Alex Mercer as the main character. Not much is known about him at this point, but what we do know is that he gets experimented on and becomes infected with the ‘Prototype’ formula. The after effects result in him losing all of his memories, but gaining incredible powers. The formula turns him into a shape shifter, allowing Alex to transform any part of his body into deadly weapons. Before Alex can figure out and understand what’s happening to him, though, he discovers the entire army is on the lookout for him and will stop at nothing to get him back. Prototype promises a deep, action packed plot with plenty of twists and turns as Alex fights for survival, fights against other creatures and humans infected with the contagious virus and most of all his memories to find out how and why he has these amazing powers.

Gameplay
The basic gameplay is as a standard open world game should be so far, with the choice of freely cruising around the city, at will, to perform side quests or do as you please, but if you want to discover the plot, take on the main missions and drive yourself deeper into the game. The mission structure so far revolves around chase missions, destruction, information gathering and the interesting one of taking on the role of another person in the world using the Absorption ability which I will explain later on in this preview.
One thing we know about Alex Mercer is that he is an anti-hero. He does bad things to reach his goal and his destructive abilities portray that. This should usually come as good news to you because the play is free to cause havoc as they please, but this is not exactly the case with Prototype as it has something else on offer. Since the military are already on the lookout for Alex Mercer, Prototype will feature a type of ‘wanted’ level similar to that of Grand Theft Auto. Begin to cause chaos and you will find the military after you with their guns blazing. Show off more of your powers and other creatures infected with the virus will arrive to end you. These creatures are said to be quite tough and you might find yourself on the run instead of fighting these things head to head. Finally, create pandemonium and the ultimate force will be there to stop you; the secret military agents who specialise in hunting down infected and dealing with these anomalies. They are called Black Watch and have their own enhanced abilities which guarantee them to be difficult opponents to beat. However there is one final stage beyond this, a Black Watch commanding officer, who is more than well equipped, speculated as super-human and even on the same level as Alex himself.

As was revealed, Alex has a large arsenal of abilities available to him. Firstly Alex will be able to leap great distances, scale and run on walls, survive incredibly long falls and circumstance calls for it, run like hell. He will also have access to vehicles such as tanks and helicopters as well as the choice of using any weapon he comes across such as hand guns, machine guns, rocket launchers and much more. The most noticeable abilities are that of super strength and speed, but this is just the beginning. Alex will be able to gain many powers throughout the game, such as the Flight power which enables Alex to glide through the air for a quick getaway, or surprise attack. Another upgrade ability mentioned is one of Hardening which covers Alex in a large-brown suit of armour that grants him dramatic increase in defense, a hard shell that makes incoming fire bounce harmlessly off of him and the ‘shove’ ability similar to that of Assassin’s Creed, except this time you’re hurling vehicles out of the way. Yes, you read right.
Not only are there your upgrade abilities, but let’s not forget the combat ones. For starters the fighting style was inspired by the famous Tekken series and Alex will be able to pull off devastating combos, aerial attacks and brutal finishing moves to rack up the body count. Then he has access to the more supernatural abilities such as blade arms, raising enormous spikes out of the ground to impale enemies and firing black tentacles out of himself, in a very Venom-like fashion, to hit multiple targets surrounding him. What’s more interesting is that the developers promise that the abilities can be switched in the middle of combat as well as combined in your own way for devastating results.
By far the most intriguing ability that Alex possesses has got to be the Absorption. This makes Alex fire out blackish-red tentacles onto a defeated or unaware target, drawing the target  into his body. The player will be able to ‘eat’ almost any person in the city, thereafter transforming into them and gaining all of their memories and skills. This applies to the military as well if you’re planning an infiltration scheme. The catch is that players will need to track their targets to secluded areas or absorb them when they’re alone with no one around to see or save them, in order to fully utilise their disguises. Absorption can also be used as a combat technique to instantly kill an enemy and regenerate a small portion of health. There are plenty more abilities that haven’t been revealed yet but the developers promise a fairly large selection and easy controls to make the most use of them.
From what I saw of the ability selection sceen, you press the initiation button (up arrow for attack powers, down for defense and right button for sensory powers) and while in-game, a circular diagram will pop up on screen displaying the icons of the various moves you have acquired. Once this menu has been brought up, the game will shift into a type of ‘bullet time’ slowdown, allowing you precious seconds to pick your next ability. It’s amazing when it’s all moving, something you have to see and experience for yourself.

Graphics/Technical
Graphically Prototype is looking quite impressive at this point. The developers put in huge amounts of effort into creating a living city just like the real place. Thousands of pictures were taken in New York and then resurrected into the game. There will feature realistic day-to-night changes, a large scaled city with real landmarks and locations, plenty to explore and lots of player interaction. Similarly to Spiderman – Web of Shadows players will witness New York evolve from a peaceful city into an infected and destroyed one after a few thrilling events in the story. From where I stand, the developers have done an incredible job at creating a living city in a game and it may possibly be a breakthrough in the open world genre.

Highlights
- Play as Alex Mercer, a shape shifter and anti-hero, in a rampaging quest to regain his memories
- Melee combat inspired by the Tekken series and lots of supernatural destructive abilities that can be combined at your own free will
- Take on the military, infected and forces of Black Watch
- Large scaled city, reconstructed realistically, with plenty of opportunity for free-roaming, destruction and sight seeing
- Absorb almost anyone to gain their skills and memories as well as disguise yourself effectively
- Witness New York fall and turn into complete chaos

Prototype looks set to be a winner for 2009 at this point in time and we can only hope it lives up to our expectations of it, because this is one game that has gathered large interest with its innovating ideas, destructive action and thrilling story. Only time can tell, so look out for its release in June this year.

Credit to teamxbox for the screenshots