Previews// [PROTOTYPE]

As I sat down to play a build of the nearly-completed [PROTOTYPE] at an Activision pre-E3 gathering, I was presented with an interesting challenge – don’t accidentally confuse the game with Sony’s own PS3 exclusive inFamous, which Mark reviewed just yesterday. Looking around the swanky locale in Hammersmith, I could see that other writers were trying their best not to say the wrong name either.

To be fair, there’s an obvious set of similarities here. Both titles are free-roaming adventures featuring a super-human person/creature/thing as they fight in a dilapidated city for their own survival and something or other. Not to mention that both games are hitting the PS3 (with [PROTOTYPE] also being released for the Xbox 360 and PC) in a mere month or so. It’s almost like a conspiracy, I tell ye! To the passer-by, the only difference is that one guy has a shaved head and the other wears a hoodie.

After playing the game for about an hour or so, I’ve found it a somewhat different experience to inFamous, despite the gameplay features and quirks that the two share. Naturally, the main thing that will set [PROTOTYPE] apart is in its storyline, and you’re given a pretty intriguing premise as you get to know the lead character, Alex Mercer. Standing atop an office block while a populated New York City scrambles in panic and disarray, you hear the words “Call me a monster, a terrorist, a killer… I’m all of these things”.

Poor old Alex has been the subject to human testing, as a lethal virus spreads throughout the country and turns the nation into a bunch of strange zombie creatures. As a result, he hungers for blood like the rest of the horde, but has somehow maintained his own conscience and free will. The game aims to piece together Alex’s forgotten past and the events that led to the experimentation. Ultimately, he’s seeking revenge on whoever made him into the monster that he is today.

Not that it’s any bad thing for the player, as you get to play with all the cool new moves and abilities Alex has gained since his time under the knife. A tutorial stage has you running from one location in the city to another, using different ‘forms’ to tackle various types of enemies. Facing some cops that are trying to stop him from progressing, Alex’s arms turn into huge black claws, which can then be used in combat to shred the enemy to pieces. Later in the stage I got to use boulder-type hands to knock out huge tanks and large scythe-limbs to take on the zombified horde itself, which felt no loyalty to me despite fighting its cause five minutes earlier.