Prototype Hands-on Preview

All of a sudden the open world superhero genre seems crowded. It’s not as if there haven’t been any open world superhero games before (Crackdown, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, Spider-Man 2), it’s just that this summer seems rife with them. inFamous, Sucker Punch’s PS3-exclusive open world super hero game, has already revealed itself, scoring an impressive 8/10 in our review. There are rumours that Microsoft will take the lid off of Crackdown 2 at its E3 press conference next month. And, finally, there’s Prototype, Radical’s take on the open world superhero genre, due out in June. They’re like buses, really, these open world superhero games. You wait ages then loads turn up at once. The question is, is the real world big enough for the all of them?

At a recent Activision press event in London I got the clearest indication yet that the answer to that question is yes. Prototype might play a lot like Crackdown and it might look a lot like inFamous, but it does one thing better than both of those games: make you feel like a disturbed and dangerous superhero.

Alex “hoodie” Mercer, Prototype’s emo protagonist, can not only do all the open world stuff that you’d expect, like scaling skyscrapers like a squirrel on speed and leaping off of them like a monkey with wings, and can not only do all the superhero stuff you’d expect, like slicing soldiers with Wolverine-like claws and chucking tanks at helicopters like The Incredible Hulk, but he can consume his enemies, too.

Alex’s ability to consume is what makes Prototype stand out in the packed open world crowd. Not only is it a cool thing to do in of itself, but it sprinkles some variety on the traditional go anywhere do anything gameplay. Consume a soldier, for example, and Alex’s DNA will rewrite itself T-1000 style so that he looks exactly like that soldier. He’s then able to walk about undetected among the very people who are after his genetically altered derriere. In fact, given that there’s a detection system in place that shows you how close you are to being sniffed out, you might say that there’s more than a little Metal Gear Solid in Prototype.

Early in the game this mechanic demonstrates its usefulness. Perched on a city building, soldiers man every virtual sinew of the surrounding streets. The only way to get anywhere without getting into a scrap is to consume a soldier, assume his likeness and walk about like you own the place. While in disguise a few symbols on the HUD keep you informed of how close you are to being spotted. One symbol shows you the skin you’re able to morph into (you’re able to store disguises for use later), which changes colour to depict your level of detection. This, of course, is governed by your actions. Start doing superhero-like stuff and the soldiers will clock you and start riddling your body with bullets. Walk calmly and slowly, however, and they won’t blink an eyelid.

Of course, the biggest thrills will come from simply barging your way through the crowds in Radical’s virtual New York City, running up building walls then leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Prototype has a wonderful sense of speed and freedom, and it’s all down to the game’s refusal to allow realism to get in the way of fun. Alex will automatically leap over vehicles as he speeds down streets, and will automatically run up walls if you guide him to them with the thumbstick. Auto-lock enemy targeting (with the left trigger) makes the annoying camera a lot more bearable, and a simple light and heavy attack system makes combat a breeze. Clearly, Radical has tried to remove as many barriers to simply being a superhero in the city as possible.

Beyond that, Prototype might be considered a tad too generic. Alex’s emo design and gruff voice won’t surprise anyone, and his hard-luck tale is one we’ve heard a million times before. The game opens with a tutorial that sees him enjoying the use of many of his super powers, including razor sharp claws, a devastating ground pound and the raising of spikes from underneath the city concrete, in a packed Times Square. The city is devastated, overrun by feral zombie-like creatures spawned from a mutagenic virus. The Black Watch, a shady special wing of the military, is desperately trying to contain them. Then there’s Alex, a man for whom the word “upset” is a gross understatement. He’s angry at what’s happened to him and isn’t afraid to take it out on anyone who gets in his way.

Which isn’t something you’ll have to worry about much. By holding down the right trigger Alex will sprint, building up momentum to the point where he’s going so fast that the good citizens of New York blur into each other. In any case, why bother running on the ground when in the blink of an eye you can run up a building and leap off of the roof, landing right where you need to get to with a cool superhero slam into concrete. It’s a wonderful feeling, something anyone’s who has had to suffer the Tube at rush hour has fantasised about doing at least once in their life. And it promises to never get old.

After this 10 minute or so tutorial, Prototype does a Metroid and takes away all those cool powers you’ve just enjoyed messing about with. The game flashes back three weeks to the moment when he wakes up on a slab, thought dead by two lab coats. He’s not, obviously, and causes quite the stir when his eyelids open. From then on amnesiac Alex makes his escape, not knowing how or what’s happening to him. But he soon discovers that he’s able to do the odd extraordinary thing, like run up a wall and keep on running.

Prototype follows Alex’s journey to fill in the blanks in his memory. This “Web of Intrigue”, as Radical calls it, will be fleshed out over the course of the game as Alex consumes key characters. When he does, their memories and knowledge of what’s going on is absorbed, filling his brain with cryptic, unclear flashbacks. It’s all very confusing. It’s all very intriguing.

And of course Alex unlocks all those crazy powers as he progresses, too. This being an open world game, you can choose to follow the main story missions, take on side missions that give you the evolution points needed to upgrade or go off the beaten track and just smash the crap out of tanks and helicopters and put as many craters in the concrete as you can muster. Causing mindless, thrilling mayhem will, we imagine, be what consumes most of our time with Prototype.

Will Prototype be as good as inFamous? Does it even matter? Both games might be in the same genre, but they both have distinctly different mechanics – inFamous with its karma system and Prototype with its consume system. There are obvious problems, as with every game: the graphics don’t grab you and the melee combat feels, from what we’ve played, a tad repetitive and shallow. But what’s important is what’s good about the game is what should be good about the game: playing about in the sandbox. It’s what should ensure that, actually, the real world is big enough for the both of them.

Prototype is due out for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on June 12.