Sierra Entertainment Unleashes PROTOTYPE™

[FantasyGhost]

Sierra Entertainment and Radical Entertainment Raise the Bar on Open-World Games

Sierra Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, today announced PROTOTYPE™, a completely new kind of open-world game, featuring a rich story line of conspiracy, deception and deadly shape shifting action.

Developed by Radical Entertainment, a critically acclaimed developer of open-world games, PROTOTYPE tells the story of Alex Mercer - a man haunted by his past, fighting a secret war in New York City. As the action spirals out of control, a conspiracy tied to his origins threatens the future of mankind itself. Mercer’s amazing shapeshifting powers allow him to become an exact replica and steal the skills or powers of anyone who crosses his path.

PROTOTYPE debuts on the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, Microsoft's Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system and PC in summer 2008.

“Radical Entertainment has a strong pedigree of critically acclaimed, best-selling open-world games, and Sierra Entertainment is excited to see them craft an original game that has already fired-up the imaginations of press and gamers alike,” said Martin Tremblay, president, Worldwide Studios for Sierra Entertainment.“PROTOTYPE represents the strength of Sierra Entertainment’s internal studios and our commitment to creating original and exciting games.”

“Radical Entertainment set out to create the most dynamic video game character ever imagined. From free-form movement to over-the-top combat action; PROTOTYPE can climb or wall-run across any surface, jump 30 stories high, and destroy anything that crosses his path,” said Kelly Zmak, president of Radical Entertainment.“Our team at Radical has built upon the technology that drove our previous best-selling games and now has the freedom to dream big and imagine a powerful character in a sprawling city like New York, cloaked in a conspiracy and ripped from today’s headlines.”http://www.mcvuk.com/press-releases/31031/Sierra-Entertainment-Unleashes-PROTOTYPEtrade

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[masteratt]

Looks like a more exciting Crackdown.

*puts it in the "i'll keep my eye on it" pile*

[FantasyGhost]

Here's some info from Sierra itself:

Prototype™
Released: 2008
Studio: Sierra Entertainment
Genre: Action/Adventure
Developer: Radical Entertainment
Number of Players: 1 - 2
Available On: PC, Xbox™ 360, PS3.

You are Alex Mercer, the Prototype™: a shapeshifter with amazing powers of combat, destruction, and deception. Consume targets for their form and memories to assume a perfect disguise, or instantly transform your body into an array of deadly biological weapons, cutting your way to the heart of the conspiracy forty years in the making.

Stalk the streets of New York City, searching for the life you lead before. Take the form of anyone in your path, using an arsenal of identities to confound, exploit or annihilate your enemies. Mankind is your mask.

Wage a secret war against factions with complex agendas of their own, out to capture or kill you. They are your greatest threat and the key to the secrets of your past. Confront them, find those responsible and make them pay.


Unprecedented Abilities and Control - Play as the most powerful and dynamic character ever created with innovative shapeshifting powers and over the top parkour locomotion movement.


Shapeshifting - Attack with brutal and devastating powers; instantly triggering hundreds of power combinations (Attack, Defensive and Sensory).

Disguise - Assume the perfect disguise by transforming into any character and assuming the victim's powers, skills and abilities.


Open-World Action Thriller - New York City is your hunting ground! Jam-packed, vibrant, fully interactive city filled with thousands of people and enemies out to destroy you.

Conspiracy Based Storyline - Delve to the bottom of a conspiracy that has haunted the American government for decades. Who is responsible for your condition? Only you can find out!

Multiplayer - 2-Person Co-Op Online Multiplayer.
http://www.sierra.com/en/home/games/game_info.prod-L2NvbnRlbnQvc2llcnJhL2VuL3Byb2R1Y3RzL3Byb3RvdHlwZQ %3d%3d.platform-global.html

[Carlos]

I want it! I want it! I WANT IT!

It seems like the game is going the way of 'The Darkness.' It looks badass.

[satriales]

Parkour and Shapeshifting sound like a great combination for a game. I look forward to seeing some gameplay videos.

Edit: This sounds awesome:

New York City. A hooded figure stands motionless in the centre of Times Square. It's morning and there are people everywhere. And we're not talking about the usual video game approximation of a crowd. It's a kinetic cluster of bodies merging and stirring through sun-bleached streets. The camera swings upwards revealing vast, intricately-rendered skyscrapers reaching towards a cloudless blue sky, turning white as the harsh sunlight hits their sides.

This is not the compromised parody of NYC we've seen a hundred times before in games like Spider-Man or True Crime - this is New York, as realistically, cinematically and lovingly rendered as it's ever likely to be. Car horns blare, sirens howl, people shout to one another and you genuinely feel like you're standing in a real city. You can almost smell the asphalt and the hot dog vendors.

And then fantasy takes over. The hooded figure springs to life, pushing violently through pedestrians, sliding across the tops of cars and sprinting up the sides of buildings. And then we see it - a gargantuan insect-like egg jutting out of the centre of the road, pulsating and oozing. People begin to panic and the crowds scatter like buckshot. And then the attack choppers come buzzing in, followed by trundling squads of squeaking tanks and platoons of soldiers. Something's about to go down in Times Square.

Mercer me

But before we tell you what happens next, let's explain the premise of Prototype. You are Alex Mercer, a mysterious science experiment gone wrong. Thanks to the genetic meddling of a shady organisation you are, to all intents and purposes, a shapeshifter. You look like a hoodie-clad twentysomething human but that's a clever disguise to help you blend into your environment. See, you don't really have a shape because you can be anyone you want by absorbing their DNA. Which, unfortunately, involves killing them.

But back to Times Square. For reasons the developers are yet to reveal, your objective here is to destroy the alien egg. And this is where you first discover Mercer's powers. Using his shapeshifting ability, Alex can morph his body T1000-style. So to protect himself from projectiles the egg's hurling at him, an organic armadillo-like shell envelopes him. It's natural body armour. Then he mutates his arm into a strange blade-like appendage - think Resi's Tyrant - and swings it at the egg. But, because this is a game and as such is designed to make your life hard, the army are after you. Complicated? Well, let's leave Times Square again.

Prototype's about a conspiracy. A big one that you have to solve. You do so by finding clues. The entire expanse of New York can be freely explored, and hidden in its darkest, hardest to reach corners are pieces of the 'web of intrigue'. These can be phone taps, documents, people... you know, Watergate-type stuff. And by piecing it all together - quite how this is done, Radical won't say - you solve the mystery of your origins and are led directly to whoever made you a shapeshifting mutant.

Time to explore more of Alex's abilities. A group of soldiers rush at you, firing their M4s and generally being aggressive. You calmly drop to your knees and plunge your hand into the pavement beneath you. Suddenly from directly under the marines dozens of spikes thrust upwards and skewer them, killing an entire troop instantly. So not only can Alex form deadly shapes, but he can stretch like Mr Fantastic and tunnel through the ground beneath him. But that was nothing - he has tanks and choppers after him now. Luckily you can 'borrow' enemy vehicles.

Just like in Mercenaries and Just Cause, Alex can commandeer vehicles by latching on to them, but he also has to complete Resi 4-style rhythm action sequences. Keep following the prompts and he'll run up a tank's barrel, prise open the hatch, jump inside, slice the driver to bits and take the helm. Same for a copter, only he crawls under the side, yanks out both pilots with his mutated arm and enters the cockpit. So no longer do you have to try and destroy the egg with melee attacks; you can batter it with a payload of hellfire missiles or some well-aimed tank shells. In one scene, you run up the side of a skyscraper, flip backwards and steal a chopper all in one move. It's mental.

Body moving

You can also steal people. Remember earlier we mentioned absorbing DNA? Well, here's how it works. Murder someone - an innocent bystander or an enemy - and you'll see their body turn liquid-like and slide up your leg. This means you now have their data stored and can basically transform into them at any time. This can be used tactically, for instance taking over the body of an army commander and ordering his troops to help you in battle. You can also use it to sneak into enemy bases, blend in with crowds and dozens of other uses, depending on your objectives.

Prototype will be largely free-roaming. Missions can be selected as and when you like, and there are side-quests to distract you from the main story mode, which only actually makes up a limited portion of the game. Radical's last two games are some of the best 'open world' titles around - Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and Scarface - and their expertise in creating believable, populated sandboxes makes their new game's play space vast, detailed and crammed with things to do.

There's nothing else like Prototype on PS3. It steals elements from almost every game imaginable, but they way it puts them together makes it unique. It has the acrobatics of Prince Of Persia, the immense world of GTA, the destruction of Hulk and the disguise system of Destroy All Humans. It's as amorphous as its lead character and one of the most exciting, original games we've seen in ages.

[Sephiroth_VII]

Nice game! Too bad it's multi-plat, but still very nice!

[LaLiLuLeLo]

Yes because we all know that being console specific determines just how good the game could possibly be.

[TrueVCU]

Nice game! Too bad it's multi-plat, but still very nice!


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[TrueVCU]

As for the game, I must ask why every brooding anti-hero is required to wear a hoodie?

However there is certainly something to be said for that "summon spikes on which to impale thine enemies" move. And that something is hellfuckyes :D

[LiquidEagle]

I like what I'm hearing about the ideas, but I'm really turned off by the visuals. Not graphics, but just the design of the main character & stuff -- very unappealing to me personally.

[yoshaw]

I like what I'm hearing about the ideas, but I'm really turned off by the visuals. Not graphics, but just the design of the main character & stuff -- very unappealing to me personally.

Yea, I agree with the un-inspiring character design. I'm sure you'd also agree the same goes for the new SlyCooper developers game. I'm missing the name off my tongue here. That one also has a very generic everyday guy design. Gaming world needs Nero's and Dante's for cryin out loud :smoke:

If I wanna see a guy in a hoodie, I'd walk down the block n meet plenty of 'em. Please, not in videogames!

[satriales]

I like what I'm hearing about the ideas, but I'm really turned off by the visuals. Not graphics, but just the design of the main character & stuff -- very unappealing to me personally.

Just kill someone else and take their appearance.

[OmniCloud]

Looks awesome....

Seems Infamous has some competition...

need to see more gameplay, but sounds like it could be cool...

[warmachine]

GC Trailer (http://www.insidegamer.nl/pc/prototype/videos/4035)

The trailer looks really like the game could be fun but it doesn't seem to be ingame or eben in-engine... -_-

[LaLiLuLeLo]

Sweet CG trailer. But that's all it is.