PROTOTYPE

PROTOTYPE

Nobody’s asking you to like Alex Mercer, not even the man himself. But we suspect you’ll overlook his moodier-than-thou image to savour brutal shape-shifting battles.

It takes Activision’s PROTOTYPE five minutes, if that, to work up the same head of steam that Sony’s inFamous requires over an hour to accumulate. Whereas Alex Mercer here literally goes for the throat before sucking the life out of his prey, inFamous hero Cole McGrath usually prefers to keep his distance. Cole must choose between good or evil. Alex just goes with evil because he was, in his words: “born for this.” Both guys are fond of chucking cars around – that would be a draw.

Two free-roaming violent quests featuring hoodie-heroes have appeared within a week of each other. Even beyond first appearances PROTOTYPE and inFamous bear striking similarities to each other and to the games that doubtless inspired them: Crackdown and Assassin’s Creed. Vertical exploration is where we’re currently at with the latest breed of videogame icons – skyscrapers are your new playground, and the area map is your friend. Flashing beacons indicate your next mission.

In the case of special ops soldier Alex Mercer, last thing he remembers was being laid out in a mortuary then waking up with a head full of wrath. Very quickly he learns to consume others and take on their identity and abilities. Since these others include bio-engineered mutants these new abilities range from driving tanks to slicing people in half using claws that would make Wolverine weep. They also allow for stealth in order to get close enough to enjoy some ripping and tearing in search of revenge.

PROTOTYPE is a very cleverly constructed game. It feels more contrived than inFamous since there are more specific pointers on how to get the best from Mercer, but this allows for the impact to be much greater if you crave spectacular destruction. Early instructions include throwing the biggest things you can find at helicopters and cleaving monsters with a blade that has magically appeared out of your forearm. Upgrades enable Mercer to sprint faster, glide further, punch harder and consume with less horrific crunching and gurgling so as not to attract attention. Consuming also gives Mercer access to a victim’s memories – a neat plot-dealing device.

Alex Mercer is frankly unbelievable to the point of being silly, but our issues with his catch-all capabilities vanished the moment we punched a tank into the air. Everything about PROTOTYPE is incredible. But it’s almost as if the design team wrote that word on the drawing board as the prime goal and vowed to hold nothing back. Oh, and this has to be an 18 Certificate if we want to get mean.

Expect gore, lots of swearing but unrivalled elation with PROTOTYPE while it lasts. On that note our only disappointment is that this is a one-player experience only and the fun can not be extended online with your pals.

A highly commendable…

4 out of 5