Crispy Outlook 2009: Prototype
Activision's open-world action game enters its final stage of testing, and our writers wonder just what was going on in the Petri dish.
1/29/2009 9:04 PM | 1 Comments | Page 1 of 1
Evan Narcisse: When I saw some members of the Radical Entertainment development team give a talk on
Prototype at the Game Developers Conference a year ago, it seemed like the game would be hopelessly generic when it came out. An amnesiac shapeshifter named Alex Mercer rampages his way through New York, looking for clues about what made him what he is. The gameplay on display -- vehicle jacking, free-running locomotion and familiar melee combat -- looked like stuff I'd seen before: Grand Theft Auto games, Spider-Man games, Hulk games and
Assassin's Creed all thrown in a blender. Throw in branching story paths (yet another well-worn game feature), and you've got a title ready for focus groups. The one X-factor could be the genetic absorption mechanic, where you steal the abilities and appearance of enemies. It's an original feature that could make
Prototype just different enough to be its own animal. After the Activision/Blizzard merger, I heard rumors that the game was being canceled, and that the engine and technology was being repurposed for a Spider-Man game. Actiblizzion appears to have little interest in original IPs nowadays, so I hope the reprieve and increased development time have allowed Radical to polish what's unique about its game.
Gus Mastrapa: Prototype scares me. The only open-world game, other than Grand Theft Auto, that really worked for me was
Crackdown. And part of the reason I dug that game is the way it put story on the backburner. I fear that
Prototype's plot may get in the way of the fun, especially when it comes time for doing missions and pushing the story forward. Those tasks are going to have to be really imaginative and well integrated into the story. And then there's the whole New York thing.
Grand Theft Auto IV raised the bar when it comes to world-building. If I had a game coming out that was set in the Big Apple, I'd take a couple extra months and change the setting to Indianapolis.
Outlook: Not shaping up.
Read more from the Game Trust in Crispy Outlook 2009.
