Prototype

By Alan Bell

Radical Entertainment are a solid game developer, based in the Canadian capital of game development - Vancouver. Their stable of titles includes the recent Crash Bandicoot game, two of the best Simpsons-themed games in existence, Scarface, a bunch of other licensed stuff and of course Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. Largely ignored by many mainstream gamers (still sold pretty well), due to the attached license and all the baggage that such a thing brings to the table, Ultimate Destruction was actually an accomplished sandbox brawler. You really could destroy pretty much anything and feel right at home running around as the bumpy green giant, chucking cars around.

Now jump forward three years (nearly four by the time the game comes out, later this year). Imagine that same, well received game engine and concept, only now the Hulk is gone and these seasoned developers have spent time bringing their tech to bear on the much more powerful "next gen" hardware consoles, in the PS3 and 360. That's pretty much Prototype in a nutshell.

It's a free-roaming, sandbox affair (like Grand Theft Auto) where you play the part of a man by the name of Alex Mercer. Set in New York City (no fancy made up names here), you're a man in search of his identity; amnesia has stripped you of your memory but not your (very) special abilities. Can you use your latent shapeshifting talent and ability to absorb your fallen foes (complete with their memories and experiences) to help you figure out where you fit in to this crazy universe?

The story of Prototype will not be presented in the typical manner. In fact, exactly what the story is will vary from play through to play through, based on what you uncover as you progress. The reason for this is relatively straight forward, if a little unusual: when you consume someone you have killed in combat, you will be treated to flashback sequences - that character's memories. Those memories will reveal tiny portions of the tale from the viewpoint of that character and fill in one of the blanks in your own memory.

Alex's shapeshifting abilities are not limited to merely mimicking the forms of characters he has consumed (in itself an incredibly handy trick); he's also able to form various melee weapons (such as claws, hammers, sword-type arm extensions, etc), which will no doubt come in handy in the melee-centric combat parts of the game.

Keeping with the current trend for Parkour-style city navigation (most notably in Asassins Creed, but also in the upcoming Fable 2 and Mirror's Edge games, as well as the remarkable opening sequence from the recent James Bond: Casino Royale movie), Prototype is set to include simplified, elegant negotiation of Alex's environment. This simplified control is intended to take the focus of play away from navigation and free up controls for accessing Alex's powers and combat moves. Sounds cool in theory and certainly showed promise in Asassin's Creed. Will be interesting to see how Radical makes it play out here.

Combat looks to be an intense implementation, with over the top (think: Crackdown) super-powered moves aplenty. The military might be pitting helicopter gunships and massive tanks in their offensive against you but it seems that it's going to be at least an even match; you'll probably even have the advantage.

With a compelling narrative, open world gameplay and a cool twist in how the player interacts with non-player characters / enemies (something not seen since Omikron: The Nomad Soul), all based on a proven engine and developed by a solid team, it's hard to imagine how this one could go wrong. Stay tuned because we're paying extra special attention to this one - look for more information closer to it's September(ish) Kiwi launch.

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