In Prototype, you play as a character that wakes up on an autopsy table with no memory of how he got there. Alex Mercer has been infected with a strange virus that has the side effect of giving him a ton of super powers. Alex is a little upset about his new condition, especially since the military seems to be out to kill him, so he sets out to find those responsible for infecting him and the outbreak that is taking over Manhattan.

Prototype is the latest in the run of open-world games to hit store shelves recently. Like most sandbox games, Prototype aspires to offer the player a lot of freedom in how to play the game, and it succeeds for the most part. Prototype offers several things to do on the side as well as a healthy helping of core story missions to complete.

The game begins on the eighteenth day of the city’s infection. Alex Mercer has a fully upgraded set of powers, letting you get a taste of the things to come before the narrative flashes back to the beginning of the infection. Even though Alex only has a few powers available after this, the game is very generous with upgrades, both in quality and quantity. The full list of Alex’s powers is massive, with so many combo moves and abilities that you will be hard-pressed to remember them all in the thick of battle. However, the game lets you upgrade as you wish by spending “evolution points” on whatever powers you would like, provided you have enough EP to do so. Doing just about anything will net you points to spend, so you will rarely find yourself on the poor end of the gene pool. Destroying infected water towers is a particularly good way to quickly earn large amounts of EP.

Arguably, the thing that Prototype does the best is freedom of movement. From the beginning, Alex can easily run up the sides of buildings, run at high speeds, jump long distances, and fall from great heights without penalty. It isn’t very long before the Glide and Air Dash powers are unlocked, allowing Alex to soar great distances between rooftops. Once all of Alex’s movement abilities are unlocked, traveling from one side of Manhattan to the other is a joy. It is so much fun that hijacking helicopters or tanks just to get around becomes almost pointless, despite the fact that helicopters are technically the fastest way to get around. However, hijacking vehicles for extra firepower is another story.

As the infection spreads through the city, the military is working to suppress it. This back and forth struggle is represented by different zones that pop up around Manhattan. Red zones are overrun with the virus, often housing an infected building called a hive at the center of the zone. Military bases are found in the center of blue zones throughout the city. Despite the large number of powers available to Alex, he will need a lot more firepower if he wants to take down a military base or an infected hive. This is where hijacking tanks and helicopters comes in handy.

So how does a super-powered amnesiac learn to fly a helicopter? The answer is Alex’s absorption ability. The virus running through Alex’s system gives him the ability to rewrite his DNA to the point that he can “absorb” anyone he runs into and take on their form, sort of like a deadly human copy machine. Alex gains the memories and skills of everyone he absorbs, allowing him to pilot helicopters and handle various military weapons. This ability also ties into Prototype’s Web of Intrigue feature. While the game has several hidden orbs to find (in the same vein as Crackdown), the Web of Intrigue is a much more compelling collection-based activity. Basically, there are several different people scattered about Manhattan with knowledge of the outbreak. Each time Alex absorbs one of these people, he unlocks another piece of the puzzle about what is really going on. Finding these people is completely optional, but not doing so means you will miss out on a lot of the game’s narrative. The main storyline is very well done and completely understandable on its own, but the Web of Intrigue provides a lot more plot details utilizing an interesting piecemeal presentation. It gives the feeling that you are piecing things together just like the main character.

At first, Prototype doesn’t seem all that impressive visually. However, whatever it lacks in textures and polygons, it makes up for in numbers. At any one time, you can find yourself in a fight with several helicopters, a few tanks, squads of soldiers, and hordes of the infected all at once. Prototype is able to throw a ton of enemies your way and fill the screen with mayhem with very few hiccups to be found. When you are fending off several infected hunters while running up a wall to elbow drop a tank or kick a helicopter out of the sky, you won’t be thinking about anything as mundane as a blurry texture.

Another thing I should mention is that Prototype is out to paint the town….in red. Blood and severed body parts flow freely when Alex Mercer is around. There is nothing to stop you from carving crowds of people into bloody chunks, whether they are enemies or not. If innocent civilians get in the way, Alex won’t think twice about chopping them in half to get to his intended target. Prototype is tailor made for those who prefer games that revel in causing epic amounts of gory mayhem without any apologies.

Prototype is far from a perfect game. There are only a few different character models for the military, making large groups look like clones. Enemy AI seems to be unimpressed when somebody drops into the middle of the street from several stories up or runs along a wall, yet they freak out when you pick up a random person on the street by the collar. Computer-controlled helicopters will sometimes run into the side of a building inexplicably. Absorbing a base commander in full view of all the soldiers will raise the alarms, but coming back a minute later wearing that same commander’s form as a disguise doesn’t raise any suspicions. The difficulty of certain missions suddenly jumps up to a much harder level than those immediately previous to them. There are a ton of little nitpicks like this that I could bring up, but none of these things got in the way of having fun for me.

Despite all of its flaws, Prototype still manages to create a large sandbox that is a lot of fun to play in. Tossing cars about, slicing tanks apart with a giant blade for an arm, and unleashing a barrage of tentacles on your enemies never gets old. Prototype is a perfect example of a game that is more than the sum of its parts.

Final Grade: B

Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (360/PS3)
Release Date: April 7, 2009
I am a big fan of Pitch Black and its sequel, due in large part to the title character himself. Vin Diesel’s Riddick is a mysterious character who always seems to be several steps ahead of those around him. Assault on Dark Athena is partly a remake of the critically acclaimed Riddick game from the original XBox, Escape From Butcher Bay, but it also adds a completely new adventure, updated graphics, and online multiplayer. I can’t wait for another chance to step into Riddick’s sneaky shoes.

The Conduit (Wii)
Release Date: June 2009
The Wii doesn’t have very many first-person shooters in its game library, and the ones that it does have don’t control very well. High Voltage Software is trying to change all that with The Conduit. The game’s story looks to be a little generic (aliens invade Washington, D.C.), but the gameplay and graphics look fantastic. The game features a completely customizable HUD and remappable control setups, putting a ton of control over how to play into the player’s hands. The Conduit’s graphics are also looking much more polished than the typical third-party software the Wii normally sees. Here’s hoping that High Voltage can deliver the type of FPS experience we all wished for when the Wii controller was first revealed.

Dark Void (360/PS3)
Release Date: May 2009
Dark Void looks to be what you get when you combine The Rocketeer with Gears of War. The cover system from the latter is literally turned on its head as you can scale vertical structures while shooting at your enemies above you. You can also take to the skies and hijack flying saucers, and did I mention that you have guns mounted on your jetpack? Dark Void looks like a fun mix of aerial dogfights and ground-based gunplay.

Prototype (360/PS3)
Release Date: Summer 2009
In this upcoming sandbox game from Sierra, you play as a character who has gone through several of genetic mutations. These mutations manifest as several different super powers including shape-shifting and flight. Prototype has the potential to combine the sprawling world of GTA, the addictiveness of Crackdown, and the pure fun of messing around in Saints Row 2 into a single game, and I hope they are able to pull it off.

Puzzle Quest Galactrix (DS)
Release Date: February 24, 2009
I spent a lot of time playing the original Puzzle Quest. While Galactrix will be offered on many different platforms (including XBox Live), I believe the game is perfectly suited for portable systems. Galactrix forgoes the fantasy setting of its predecessor in favor of a sci-fi aesthetic. This time you’ll be swapping gems on a hexagonal grid in order to power up the weapons on your spaceship as you fight to save the galaxy. If Galactrix is anywhere near as addicting as the first Puzzle Quest, then it will be spending a lot of time in my DS Lite….unless my wife steals it for herself like she did with the first game.

Batman Arkham Asylum (360/PS3)
Release Date: Summer 2009
This is the first Batman game in a long time that looks like it could actually be good. It has a lot going for it, not the least of which is getting Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill to lend their voices to the game. It gives the game an immediate familiarity right off the bat (cue Joker laughter). Arkham Asylum is an interesting setting, allowing Batman villains other than the Joker to make an appearance if needed. The trailers for the game have looked fantastic. Hopefully the final product will live up to its potential.

Little King’s Story (Wii)
Release Date: May 2009
Little King’s Story is a simulation/adventure game with some similarities to Harvest Moon. You play as a small boy who finds a magical crown that allows him to influence people. Your job is to grow your village into a large kingdom. The art style for the game is colorfully charming, and the trailers for the game are rather amusing. There isn’t another game that looks quite like it, and I think it has the potential to be something special.

Resident Evil 5 (360/PS3)
Release Date: March 13, 2009
Resident Evil 4 is arguably the best game from the last generation of consoles. It was a perfect mix of action and tension with some really well designed boss fights. Resident Evil 5 seems to follow the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy, and that’s just fine by me. However, the addition of a co-op partner does mix things up a little bit, and the slick graphics will help to keep things from becoming stale. Resident Evil 5 has a lot to live up to, but so far it appears to be up to the task.

TMNT: Smash Up (Wii)
Release Date: Fall 2009
Little is known about this game so far, but the tidbits of information that have been released so far is enough to get this game onto my list. Putting the Ninja Turtles into a fighting game that is in the same vein as Super Smash Bros is a stroke of genius. In fact, this game is being created by many of the team members who worked on Super Smash Bros Brawl. Even if they can only cram half the content that was in Brawl into this game, it will still be a must-play title.

Damnation (360/PS3)
Release Date: March 2, 2009
Damnation is set in an alternate universe in which the American Civil War is still happening. The setting is very reminiscent of a Western, with the addition of steampunk technology to spice things up. This game combines third-person shooter mechanics with the acrobatic gameplay from something like Prince of Persia. Traversing large environments by climbing walls and jumping between ledges while using cool guns to take down my enemies sounds like an awful lot of fun to me.

Ghostbusters (360/PS3/Wii)
Release Date: June 16, 2009
Like Batman, it is easy to see the geeky appeal to a Ghostbusters game. Strapping on a proton pack to fight all those strange things in the neighborhood has the potential to be a lot of fun. Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis wrote the story, and their likenesses and voices will appear in the game, along with those of Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson. William Atherton and Annie Potts are also supposed to make an appearance. With most of the original talent involved in the creation of the game, it’s hard to say no to saving the world from those pesky ghosts.

Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams
Release Date: Fall 2009
The combination of immersive gameplay with a distinctive art style and setting became a recipe for success with the original Bioshock. Little is known about the sequel at this point, despite being slated for release later this year. However, the quality of the first game is enough to make me want to go back to Rapture (or wherever the sequel ends up taking place).

What games are you anticipating this year?

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