Darkcity
21-08-2007, 12:16:26
"More gameplay per square foot than you've ever seen;" that's the tagline developer Radical Entertainment used to describe Prototype at a recent press event. And from what we saw during the demo, that statement may end up being more than just marketing hype.
In Prototype, you play as Alex Mercer, a hooded, mysterious denizen of New York City. So mysterious, in fact, he doesn't even know anything about his origin. As Radical describes him, Alex is a "dark anti-hero." When he awakens in the city, Alex has no idea who, what, or where he is. All he knows is he has some truly freaky powers, and he's pretty much an unstoppable juggernaut.
Alex is the Prototype, a powerful shapeshifter walking the streets of modern-day Manhattan. To alter his appearance, all Alex has to do is "consume" a human victim, then he can assume their identity. It's effective, but probably not a talent you want to show off in front of your mom. While you have no clue as to who or what you are, you do know that a top-secret military branch of Black Watch Special Forces are currently rolling into the city to declare martial law at just about the same time you happen to be there, so you figure there's a connection somewhere.
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There's also another faction thrown into the mix: the Infected. The Infected are strangely mutated creatures that have taken up residence in NYC, giving you an even stronger suspicion that there's a common link to everything that's currently going down in the Big Apple.
While it begins as a mystery, the story behind Protoype focuses on real world issues of today revolving around disasters, distrust of the government, viral outbreaks, and conspiracies. It's this overarching conspiracy that you have to unravel in order to learn the true nature of your origin. As lead designer Eric Holmes puts it, "there are hundreds of 'Web of Intrigue' nodes to unlock during the game that will reveal the story."
New York City itself plays a big part in the game, and the layout and structure of the urban landscape evolves over time as the game progresses. The city is split up into dozens of zones that switch control between secure (controlled by the military), neutral (controlled by no one), outbreak (controlled by the Infected), and war zone (under heavy attack by all factions). Each zone will take on the appearance of its current status, so secure zones will be blocked with concrete barricades and chock full of military vehicles, while outbreak zones will look twisted and mutated, and be teaming with hordes of Infected. You have some say so over the status of the zones as your actions can determine who controls (or doesn't control) each section. Think of it as a three-way war between you, the military, and the Infected. Neither are willing to work together, and they're all badasses in their own right.
During the pre-demo slideshow presentation, words such as "kill," "devour," "psychotic," "isolated," "lonely," and "tragic" were interspersed on the screen, so you can understand the feeling and mood Radical is going for with Prototype. This is not the game to evoke a flowers and butterflies kind of feeling, unless those flowers are 40-foot tall carnivorous mutants, and those butterflies prefer to burrow into your skull, absorb you soul, and take your identity.
Gameplay is brutal, and as the Prototype, you're pretty much unstoppable as you careen around the city and run straight up the sides of buildings. Although he looks like a normal human -- albeit with stone claws -- in his regular form, Alex can run faster than a car, can jump amazing distances, and can fall from great heights without taking damage.
As mentioned earlier, one of Alex's many abilities is the power to consume humans and assume their identities. Consuming humans basically means you beat them to a pulp then suck their battered bodies into yours. In addition to simply looking like the humans he has absorbed, Alex also gains whatever knowledge they had previously. This means that if you absorb special military personnel such as a helicopter pilot or a heavy vehicle driver, you can then commandeer your own chopper or tank to hightail around the streets of New York and cause even more chaos.
During the demo, we only saw Alex driving military vehicles. When asked about the possibility of taking control of other vehicles in the game, Radical responded by saying that no final decision had been made as of yet, but since Alex is faster than a normal car, it probably wouldn't be advantageous to drive other vehicles, anyway.
In addition to assuming the identities of others, Alex has a few unique forms of his own that he can mix and match as gameplay deems prudent. These forms include a defensive stone shape that includes a shield to block incoming attacks, a disguise form that Alex can use to blend in with the cityscape, a hyper-sensory type that unveils aspects of the environment that normal humans would be unaware of, and a requisite attack form complete with various body-based weapons such as arm blades, claws, and hammer fists. All of these shapes are bio-based, and while Alex may become damaged in a fight, chipping away at the appearance of some of his accoutrements, they will regenerate and grow back at an amazing rate.
While his own body is his main weapon, the Prototype is super-strong, and as such, he can lift cars or rip light poles off of their moorings and use them as weapons. Although Alex is mainly a close-combat type of fighter, he does have a few attacks that can be used at range. Alex can simply opt to throw objects from the environment at his opponents, but one of the most impressive ranged attacks we saw during the demo was the ability to strike the ground with his fists and send a small forest of spikes shooting up from the ground several yards in front of him. Not only does this cause great damage to enemies, but it also sends anything on the ground where the spikes emanate -- such as cars and trucks -- flying high into the air.
In addition to his impressive array of martial artistry, Alex will be able to use various guns and rocket launchers as well, although none of those were presented in the demonstration we saw.
Built off of a modified version of the engine Radical used to create their last game -- The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction -- Prototype is looking amazingly good visually at this point, even with more than a year to go until release. It's easy to compare the cityscape in Protoype to the living city feeling of Crackdown, but Prototype looks even more densely crowded with cars and people, and Radical is definitely favoring a much more realistic look for the game.
One of the most impressive features of the game is the dynamic animation system, which appeared to react to various situations realistically and without any hitches. The animation was flawless as Alex scurried through the city streets, flipping off of car hoods, skirting around corners at breakneck speeds, and crumpling the tops of trucks as he jumps from one to another. The way Alex moves looks like Gymkata on speed, and he literally flips, flails, and throws his body through the streets, all the while cracking the concrete as he goes.
http://m1.freeshare.us/169fs344175.jpg
http://m1.freeshare.us/169fs345369.jpg
http://m1.freeshare.us/169fs345565.jpg
http://m1.freeshare.us/169fs344247.jpg
http://m1.freeshare.us/169fs344387.jpg
http://m1.freeshare.us/169fs344428.jpg
http://m1.freeshare.us/169fs344632.jpg
In Prototype, you play as Alex Mercer, a hooded, mysterious denizen of New York City. So mysterious, in fact, he doesn't even know anything about his origin. As Radical describes him, Alex is a "dark anti-hero." When he awakens in the city, Alex has no idea who, what, or where he is. All he knows is he has some truly freaky powers, and he's pretty much an unstoppable juggernaut.
Alex is the Prototype, a powerful shapeshifter walking the streets of modern-day Manhattan. To alter his appearance, all Alex has to do is "consume" a human victim, then he can assume their identity. It's effective, but probably not a talent you want to show off in front of your mom. While you have no clue as to who or what you are, you do know that a top-secret military branch of Black Watch Special Forces are currently rolling into the city to declare martial law at just about the same time you happen to be there, so you figure there's a connection somewhere.
<embed src='http://videomedia.ign.com/ev/ev.swf' flashvars='object_ID=956075&downloadURL=http://xbox360movies.ign.com/xbox360/video/article/813/813972/prototype_trailer_082007_flvlowwide.flv&allownetworking="all"' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' width='433' height='360' ></embed>
There's also another faction thrown into the mix: the Infected. The Infected are strangely mutated creatures that have taken up residence in NYC, giving you an even stronger suspicion that there's a common link to everything that's currently going down in the Big Apple.
While it begins as a mystery, the story behind Protoype focuses on real world issues of today revolving around disasters, distrust of the government, viral outbreaks, and conspiracies. It's this overarching conspiracy that you have to unravel in order to learn the true nature of your origin. As lead designer Eric Holmes puts it, "there are hundreds of 'Web of Intrigue' nodes to unlock during the game that will reveal the story."
New York City itself plays a big part in the game, and the layout and structure of the urban landscape evolves over time as the game progresses. The city is split up into dozens of zones that switch control between secure (controlled by the military), neutral (controlled by no one), outbreak (controlled by the Infected), and war zone (under heavy attack by all factions). Each zone will take on the appearance of its current status, so secure zones will be blocked with concrete barricades and chock full of military vehicles, while outbreak zones will look twisted and mutated, and be teaming with hordes of Infected. You have some say so over the status of the zones as your actions can determine who controls (or doesn't control) each section. Think of it as a three-way war between you, the military, and the Infected. Neither are willing to work together, and they're all badasses in their own right.
During the pre-demo slideshow presentation, words such as "kill," "devour," "psychotic," "isolated," "lonely," and "tragic" were interspersed on the screen, so you can understand the feeling and mood Radical is going for with Prototype. This is not the game to evoke a flowers and butterflies kind of feeling, unless those flowers are 40-foot tall carnivorous mutants, and those butterflies prefer to burrow into your skull, absorb you soul, and take your identity.
Gameplay is brutal, and as the Prototype, you're pretty much unstoppable as you careen around the city and run straight up the sides of buildings. Although he looks like a normal human -- albeit with stone claws -- in his regular form, Alex can run faster than a car, can jump amazing distances, and can fall from great heights without taking damage.
As mentioned earlier, one of Alex's many abilities is the power to consume humans and assume their identities. Consuming humans basically means you beat them to a pulp then suck their battered bodies into yours. In addition to simply looking like the humans he has absorbed, Alex also gains whatever knowledge they had previously. This means that if you absorb special military personnel such as a helicopter pilot or a heavy vehicle driver, you can then commandeer your own chopper or tank to hightail around the streets of New York and cause even more chaos.
During the demo, we only saw Alex driving military vehicles. When asked about the possibility of taking control of other vehicles in the game, Radical responded by saying that no final decision had been made as of yet, but since Alex is faster than a normal car, it probably wouldn't be advantageous to drive other vehicles, anyway.
In addition to assuming the identities of others, Alex has a few unique forms of his own that he can mix and match as gameplay deems prudent. These forms include a defensive stone shape that includes a shield to block incoming attacks, a disguise form that Alex can use to blend in with the cityscape, a hyper-sensory type that unveils aspects of the environment that normal humans would be unaware of, and a requisite attack form complete with various body-based weapons such as arm blades, claws, and hammer fists. All of these shapes are bio-based, and while Alex may become damaged in a fight, chipping away at the appearance of some of his accoutrements, they will regenerate and grow back at an amazing rate.
While his own body is his main weapon, the Prototype is super-strong, and as such, he can lift cars or rip light poles off of their moorings and use them as weapons. Although Alex is mainly a close-combat type of fighter, he does have a few attacks that can be used at range. Alex can simply opt to throw objects from the environment at his opponents, but one of the most impressive ranged attacks we saw during the demo was the ability to strike the ground with his fists and send a small forest of spikes shooting up from the ground several yards in front of him. Not only does this cause great damage to enemies, but it also sends anything on the ground where the spikes emanate -- such as cars and trucks -- flying high into the air.
In addition to his impressive array of martial artistry, Alex will be able to use various guns and rocket launchers as well, although none of those were presented in the demonstration we saw.
Built off of a modified version of the engine Radical used to create their last game -- The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction -- Prototype is looking amazingly good visually at this point, even with more than a year to go until release. It's easy to compare the cityscape in Protoype to the living city feeling of Crackdown, but Prototype looks even more densely crowded with cars and people, and Radical is definitely favoring a much more realistic look for the game.
One of the most impressive features of the game is the dynamic animation system, which appeared to react to various situations realistically and without any hitches. The animation was flawless as Alex scurried through the city streets, flipping off of car hoods, skirting around corners at breakneck speeds, and crumpling the tops of trucks as he jumps from one to another. The way Alex moves looks like Gymkata on speed, and he literally flips, flails, and throws his body through the streets, all the while cracking the concrete as he goes.
http://m1.freeshare.us/169fs344175.jpg
http://m1.freeshare.us/169fs345369.jpg
http://m1.freeshare.us/169fs345565.jpg
http://m1.freeshare.us/169fs344247.jpg
http://m1.freeshare.us/169fs344387.jpg
http://m1.freeshare.us/169fs344428.jpg
http://m1.freeshare.us/169fs344632.jpg