'Prototype' Hands-On Preview & Exclusive Mission Video


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Earlier in the week I took a trip down to Activision to get some hands-on time with Radical Entertainment’s Prototype. In addition to seeing an exclusive never-before-seen level, which you can see in the movie below, I got the chance to play with a fully upgraded Alex Mercer and cause some free-running destruction around New York City. June 9th cannot come soon enough.

The mission in this video occurs early in the game and sends Alex to GenTek in search of a mysterious woman that might have some information about Alex’s past. After a quick parkour-infused trip through the streets of New York, we arrived at GenTek. We’re not going to show you exactly how you get inside and the cutscene that follows, but suffice to say, you end up back on the street with some infected baddies to fight… but why just fight them? Why not lead them to another GenTek installation and bring the fight to them?

Earlier in the week I took a trip down to Activision to get some hands-on time with Radical Entertainment’s Prototype. In addition to seeing an exclusive never-before-seen level, which you can see in the movie below, I got the chance to play with a fully upgraded Alex Mercer and cause some free-running destruction around New York City. June 9th cannot come soon enough.

The mission in this video occurs early in the game and sends Alex to GenTek in search of a mysterious woman that might have some information about Alex’s past. After a quick parkour-infused trip through the streets of New York, we arrived at GenTek. We’re not going to show you exactly how you get inside and the cutscene that follows, but suffice to say, you end up back on the street with some infected baddies to fight… but why just fight them? Why not lead them to another GenTek installation and bring the fight to them?

You’ll be able to pick up guns, but you’ll mostly want to stick to your powers unless you absolutely need a rocket or grenade launcher for the situation at hand. Alex will get claws, power fists, hammer fists (think Hulk), a glaive-like blade, a shield, and a whip-claw that can latch onto enemies and vehicles from afar. You’ll also be able to take the form of any person you absorb, which will play heavily into the mission structure. Need to gain access to a secure military base? Find and absorb the base’s commanding officer.

Switching between Alex’s forms can be down by holding a shoulder button and hitting a specific direction on the d-pad, corresponding to his powers, which are arranged in a wheel. Switching takes a little bit of time so you won’t be able to chain things together as quickly as Ryu in Ninja Gaiden, but luckily, you can run up a near by wall or jump and switch while out of harms way. My favorite attack is the power fists. Charging up an attack and hitting a person turns them into a bloody mist.

You’ll be taking a lot of damage as soldiers pour bullets into you and infected monsters slap you around, but absorbing people or infected will act as a nice medkit. This will let you stay alive while a three-way battle rages on the streets of New York: Alex Mercer vs. Military vs. Infected.

It isn’t all bloody rainbows, however. There were a few things that stood out and took me out of my trance of destruction. The AI of the civilians and soldiers is a bit lacking. For example, if you absorb a soldier and leap off of a roof, landing next to three soldiers, it doesn’t raise their suspicions. I mean, aren’t they supposed to be on the look out for any super-human activity? This doesn’t mesh well with the admittedly cool ability to claim another soldier is Alex, resulting in the “patsy” being shot to death by nearby soldiers. If they are so jumpy that they’ll execute somebody based on “that’s him,” shouldn’t they react to a dude falling twenty feet and walking away?

On the civilian side, most of the time they will rightfully run in fear from the destruction, but there were several moments where I found myself moving from an area of total chaos to calm where soldiers, speeding cars, and destruction were still present. It’s a bit jarring. It’s nice that there are helpless civvies to cut in half, but I still felt like they should probably be running away from me.

I had one issue with the controls and that’s the way the targeting system works, especially while jumping into the air. It doesn’t seem to prioritize as well as it could. Sure, it’ll target a helicopter or tank before anything else, but I found myself locking-on to harmless pedestrians a bit too frequently. It’s a minor inconvenience, though, as lock-on targeting isn’t required for everything.

Prototype is a ridiculous amount of fun. If you are having a bad day this game is a giant stress reliever potentially making Prototype the feel-good game of the year. Prototype will make you smile for all the wrong reasons and something to play in a room full of friends. It’s packed with “did you just see that?” action and the story seems interesting enough to give the campaign some staying power. Thankfully, the city will remain playable after the game is finished if you want to finish all the side missions, snag all the collectibles, and max out your character. If that wasn’t enough, there will be a ‘New Game+’ mode that will let you restart the campaign while retaining your upgrades.

Prototype ships on June 9th for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

6 minute mission video: http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/694822/P...sion-Video.html

Only things I'm not that keen on are some animations/graphics. Waiting for reviews on this one!

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May/June are fantastic months.

This, inFAMOUS, Fat Princess and there's 1 more big game I'm looking forward to I think, but names escape me right now :pinch: Gaming Encyclopaedia get on it :p Is Ghostbusters not hitting June? Might be that.

Typically Summer = Dry spell, not any more. I suspect this will be a lengthy game also. inFAMOUS is rumoured to be at 20 hours main storyline and then 100 side missions.

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May/June are fantastic months.

This, inFAMOUS, Fat Princess and there's 1 more big game I'm looking forward to I think, but names escape me right now :pinch: Gaming Encyclopaedia get on it :p Is Ghostbusters not hitting June? Might be that.

Typically Summer = Dry spell, not any more. I suspect this will be a lengthy game also. inFAMOUS is rumoured to be at 20 hours main storyline and then 100 side missions.

There's quite a lot, some of the ones I can remember:

Operation Flashpoint 2

Bionic Commando

Fuel

I Am Alive

GH: Metallica

Valhalla Knights: Episode 2 (maybe the one you're thinking of?)

The Sims 3

Rock Band Unplugged

GhostBusters

Wolfenstein

That's the next 2 months almost anyway, lots of fodder inbetween, movie licensed crap etc.

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Daaayyyuuuumn!

More games than I thought.

Was I Am Alive not pushed to 2010 though? Think it was. Ubisoft announced it for 2009 release then delayed it to 2010 a day later I think :pinch:

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Ah yeah I forgot about that little tactic of theirs. End of July/August is dry from what I remember this year. Builds up again in September as usual (Bad Company 2, Battlefield Heroes and 1943, Dirt 2, Bioshock 2).

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Just watched the video..looks GREAT!!!

i hope there isn't going to be any repetition a.k.a Ass Creed, like helping civilians and gaining XP , then when you have enough XP you can to the next mission. But none the less it looks fantastic!!!! Are these the same developers who made the open world Hulk game for Xbox? Cause that ROCKED! :D

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