Prototype Preview April 9,2008 - With the constant influx of sequels and licensed games these days, seeing a developer put out a new and original game is always welcome. This is particularly true when the developer doing this has traditionally been making licensed products. That’s the case for Radical Entertainment’s Prototype, the first original property from the Canadian development house. From the looks of it Prototype is looking to take open world gaming as far over the top as they possibly can.

The game is set in New York City in 2008. The city is in the middle of a viral outbreak. Citizens infected by this virus are turning into horrid mutants. The whole island of Manhattan has been sealed off by military forces attempting to contain the outbreak. This virus seems to be spreading with a certain method to it, so Blackwatch Special Forces, an elite group of soldiers specifically trained and outfitted for viral outbreaks are called in.

You play the part of Alex Mercer, an amnesiac who finds himself infected with this strange virus. Alex is able to leap great distances, run right up the sides of buildings, as well as running at a frightful speed because of the infection. While these are all cool things for anyone to be able to do, for Alex they are ancillary abilities. What the virus allows him to do is consume the biomass of anyone he chooses. Doing this allows Alex to change his shape and assume the identity of the individual he just consumed.

Consuming someone’s Biomass also grants Alex their abilities and their memories. You could drag an enemy soldier into an alley, consume their Biomass, and then simply walk right through a military checkpoint. This ability can be quite handy if you’re looking to do things on the down-low. Certain individuals have bits and pieces of the whole virus conspiracy as part of their memories, so if Alex consumes them, he’ll also learn a little bit more about what’s really going on, and how he fits into the whole scheme of things.

So Prototype is a stealth action game then? It is if you want it to be. This virus Alex is infected with lets him turn his body into a honed weapon. He could turn his arms into blades and slice and dice his way through a crowd of mutants, or armor himself up for a spot of human-esque tank action. This means that if you’re the type of person who’d rather approach a situation with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, you’ll be able to. The game is emphasizing the notion of “deceive or destroy” which is a rather apt summary of the ways you can play Prototype. You could deceive your way through the game and pit the various factions against each other, or just go in with guns blazing.

While Alex has all of these unique abilities, he isn’t limited to his virus-granted powers. He’ll have access to an arsenal of firearms and vehicles. Some of these will require some strategic identity shifting to be able to gain access to, but by and large, Alex will be able to use just about anything that his adversaries can.

Radical’s take on New York City is an ambitious one. They are looking to create a representation of NYC that is not only close to the actual city, but also viable in terms of gameplay as well. Only time will tell whether Radical can pull it of, but from the looks of it right now, they are close. New York City or any city for that matter isn’t a static, desolate place. It’s full of life and flow. Radical is trying to bring this into the game by implementing not only day to night transitions, but also dynamic flow to the traffic and citizenry of the city. It’s a trick that was also tried by RealTime Worlds in Crackdown, and though they came close to pulling it off, they missed the mark by a hair. Radical would like to deliver on this. We’ll just have to take their word for it until we can get our hands on the game for ourselves. What we do know right now is, from a visual standpoint, Prototype looks really good.

Prototype is scheduled to ship in the third quarter of 2008. It will be available for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC. We’ll have a review for you when the game is released.

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