At Sierra's recent Gamer's Week in the molten desert that is Palm Springs, we took refuge from the flesh-charring sun only to find a game just as blisteringly hot. That game was Prototype, the latest offering from Radical Entertainment (developers of Scarface, The Simpsons Hit & Run and, most appropriately, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction). We have to mention Hulk: Ultimate Destruction because of its resemblance to Prototype, albeit in a sort of larval form, because Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is kind of a proto-Prototype complete with huge bounding jumps and vast destructible environments. The point at which these two games diverge, however, is where Prototype derives most of its awesomeness from, because the premise for Prototype is as liberating as it is straight-up evil.

Malevolent Mercer

You play as Alex Mercer, the hooded dude with the brutal claw-hands you may have seen in the recently circulated screens, but that's about all you know about your avatar. See, Alex has amnesia and can't remember anything that has happened to him prior to waking up in the middle of downtown New York City. What becomes instantly apparent, though, is that Alex has some unique abilities that separate him from all the other slack-jawed pedestrians meandering about the city.


What intrigues us the most about Prototype was the way Lead Designer Eric Holmes described Alex: no memory, no mercy, no equal. Eric went on to describe that Alex is a shapeshifter capable of both weaponizing parts of his own body and consuming other people in order to somehow fuel this ability. He's also not the least bit concerned with other peoples' safety, which is not terribly surprising considering that he eats them by crushing their heads in his giant stone fists. Still, this wanton disregard for humanity paints Alex Mercer as a genuine anti-hero, a fact that has not escaped the folks at Radical Entertainment. They are keenly invested in making you feel like such an unstoppable force of nature that the common citizens of New York City's bustling urban streets are nothing more than pathetic fodder, and given what we've seen of Prototype it looks like Radical's investment is paying off.

But devouring the hapless bystanders of New York is only a fraction of what Alex can do, because a key feature of inhabiting his body is getting to use his blinding agility. Alex runs faster than a freight train and leaps around like a spider monkey with a serious Red Bull habit. The best thing about Alex's magnificent mobility is the adaptive animation system that causes Alex to dynamically react to his surroundings as he moves through the city. Bounding off of trucks and the walls of skyscrapers and twirling around lampposts, Alex executes stunning acrobatic feats in a seamless flow. It's difficult to get across how fluid these maneuvers are in words alone, so check out our fresh video so that you get the full effect. Pay special attention to Alex's ability to vault cars and knock pedestrians aside and note that all you need to do in order to achieve these moves is hold the analog stick in any direction, the adaptive animation system will handle the rest.