Prototype AU Update

Prototype AU Update
Fast-paced and bloody. Is this the next step in open-world action gaming?
by Cam Shea, IGN AU


Australia, January 7, 2008 - IGN AU attended an event in Sydney today to get up close and personal with Radical Entertainment's latest open-world title Prototype. Following in the footsteps of the other games the studio has made in the genre – The Simpsons: Hit & Run, Scarface and Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, Prototype is the first to be based around a new IP, and it's clear that the team are pleased that the cuffs are off. Rather than conforming to the expectations of a license (and more importantly, a license holder), with Prototype Radical is letting its imagination run wild, and the game is already a riot of energy and destruction.




Check out this brand spanking new video diary from the guys at Radical.


At a basic gameplay level, the initial impression is Hulk: Ultimate Destruction meets Crackdown. This game has a similar sense of chaotic freedom and power. Rather than feeling artificially restrained, this is a game where you can run up the side of a building, then leap from rooftop to rooftop. This is a game where you can barrel down the street like a charging bull, knocking pedestrians aside and vaulting off the bonnets of any vehicles in your path. Hell, this is a game where you can jack a helicopter… while it's in the air.

While we were shown a mission from later in the game, the basic concept is that the player will be uber powerful right from the off. You will feel like a certified bad-ass the second you hit the streets of New York, capable of taking on anything. The balance, then, will come in the way the threats you face change over the course of the game. Indeed, while Prototype will open with players exploring a familiar snapshot of Manhattan circa 2008 (built from 11,000 photos the team took on site), the future of the city is most certainly a damaged one.

Before we discuss the path to martial law, however, let's quickly recap on the titular prototype, protagonist Alex Mercer. Designed as an anti-hero, Mercer begins the game as an amnesiac (ah, old faithful), the result of some highly potent genetic experiments. Over the course of the game you'll discover more and more about who you are and what was done to you, but for now all you really need to know is that you're highly classified, highly dangerous and the military will do almost anything to get you back.


That ain't blood... it's something far more sinister.

Of course, losing your identity and being experimented on isn't all bad… at least, not when you come out the other end with the ability to absorb the powers, form and memories of any enemy, not to mention the fact that you're packing some formidable offensive and defensive options. Soldier in your way? A tap on the D-pad and you can morph your arms into great gnarled trunks, ending with jagged claws, perfect for ripping anything fleshy in twain. Helicopter firing rockets at you? Again, a tap in a different direction and you can form a hard shield to block incoming rounds and projectiles.

There are a huge array of abilities you'll be able to use (the team call Alex the 'human Swiss Army Knife'), including skewering enemies with jagged spikes, and assuming a rock hard form so you can barge your way through traffic, a nearly unstoppable machine. The whole idea is to let you assign abilities to directions on the D-pad (with up for your attacking toggle, down for defence, right for disguise and left for your sensory ability) so that you can instantly switch between them. Combos and ability mixes will be the order of the day here, with an emphasis on speed. As Tim Bennison, the Executive Producer on Prototype, told the gathering: "This is not a slow paced game… so the menu system is designed to allow you to flick these combinations on and off, literally in mid-combat, in mid-jump, in mid-spike, you can transform, change, reconfigure your character… which affects what [abilities] you have available, then you can use that in your combat." Oh, and lets not forget there'll also be a massive array of more traditional weapons to play around with – none of which were implemented in the build we saw.




več slik na
http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/950/950254/imgs_1.html