Let me introduce you to Alex Mercer. Alex is a shadowy character, somewhat like a modern version of Altair from Assassins Creed. Alex wakes up on an autopsy table with two scientist types about to cut him open. He has no memories of who he is or how he got there. He promptly escapes and while doing so, discovers he has a wealth of powers at his disposal. Alex then uses his newfound powers to re-discover his past as he attempts to find out what happened to him. Alex is lead to a company called Genrek, which he used to be scientist for. Genrek are a medicine company who have created a virus that’s spreading through the population, mutating any human DNA it comes into contact with. Alex must choose to help the human race or leave them to the ravages of the virus. This is the basic story-line for Activision's Prototype.
This sandbox style game is set in modern day New York. The city starts off nice and sunny, but as the virus spreads throughout the city, your environment changes. Buildings, vehicles and humans are contaminated. Some buildings become so infected; that they become hives and quite literally spew infected mutants from them. As you explore the city you will have to deal with a multitude of enemies. The virus changes humans into mutant monsters who pretty much just want to wreck the place. They vary in size, from huge beasts, to normal human sized. The infected are not your only obstructions. You will also have to deal with the military that are trying to clean up the infection. This means soldiers, guns, tanks, attack helicopters and more.
To aid you in your search for answers you have a range of powers, primarily shape shifting. Alex can copy the look and abilities of anyone he comes across. He absorbs them, giving him access to their memories, providing clues about what's going on. Alex has a range of attacking options stemming from his shape-shifting powers. He can transform his right arm into a massive bone blade for cutting through armor and cutting through enemies. This is his most powerful attacking weapon. Other options are transforming both hands into large claws for slicing and dicing, or hammer fists for pounding objects into oblivion. Alex's whip-fist attack can be used to cut through large crowds of enemies, grabbing and dragging enemies to their death and zip lining.
Defensively, Alex can transform his left arm into a bone shield to block attacks, or he can transform his whole body into an unstoppable biological tank and plough through enemies. When dispatching enemies their weapon will be available to pick up, adding yet another dimension to the attacking play. From what I’ve seen it looks like there's 1001 ways to kill your enemies. Attacks can also be combined to produce a series of devastating moves. There will be 750 unique combinations of attack. You can throw enemies into helicopters or just repeatedly throw them at the ground or maybe throw a car at them. It looks like an extremely enjoyable combat experience. Alex has different visions in addition to normal view. He has thermal vision and infected vision for clearly targeting the military and infected humans respectively.
