Mike Bantick
Friday, 29 May 2009 08:39
Opinion and Analysis
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In a week or so PROTOTYPE will be unleashed on Earth. The game is all about power, super human power. iTWire spoke to Chris Ansell from developer Radical Entertainment to find out what our fellow mutants could expect from a game centred around them.
Chris Ansell is the Director of Studio Marketing at Radical Entertainment. He knows all there is to know about Alex Mercer, the central character behind Activision’s up-coming game Prototype.
We began the interview by asking Ansell to encapsulate the story of Alex Mercer:
Ansell: PROTOTYPE is first and foremost an open-world action game, offering players the chance to be a lethal shape-shifter called Alex Mercer. Set in New York City in 2009, PROTOTYPE is a game that lets players consume and become ANYONE, unleashing a hundred new ways to kick ass that you’ve never seen before…against some pretty relentless enemy forces. And underlying it all is a deeply layered conspiracy storyline, presented in a completely new way via our web of intrigue system.
Alex is literally caught in a three-way-war between the forces of the military and the growing Infected legions who are intent on wiping out the city. By consuming specific targets [i.e. – people] and ripping their memories literally from their body, Alex will uncover the long dark chain of events and people that led to his own creation and to solutions that may bring the city back from the brink.
iTWire: It looks like the other characters in the story will also have significant roles as the PROTOTYPE story pans out. Give us an insight into the secondary roles in the game: Dana Mercer, Dr Ragland the Blackwatch organization and so on. . .
Ansell: The secondary characters all have their own important part to play, and Alex will be having to work out who can be trusted and who may be getting in the way of the truth. His closest ally is, of course, his sister Dana, though even she is absolutely terrified of Alex at first because of his dramatic abilities and obvious changes from the brother she once knew and loved. Dana helps Alex by employing her journalistic abilities to hunt down leads and connect the dots of Alex’s past. Dr Ragland is also a key player in the story; his work on genetics definitely has an assisting hand in the progression of Alex’s search for the truth.
We’ve really enjoyed throwing in some red herrings to the story and the outlying back-story elements of the game. For gamers who are true collector types, grabbing every single Web of Intrigue target to unlock the full and complete back-story will also have its own rewards. [Achievements / Trophies]
iTWire: On characters, New York City is featured as evolving over the course of the game; can you explain the role this iconic city plays in PROTOTYPE?
Ansell: New York City is one of the most recognized and iconic cities in the world. It was very important to us to set the game in a real place that everyone recognizes. We wanted to contrast this reality with the fantastic and horrific events that are taking place in the story. The virus sweeping across Manhattan is the source of the mayhem, and we felt it was more impactful to set this in a real location. The vertical and horizontal depth of the city lends itself perfectly to gameplay scenarios - action at every possible angle is something we're trying to accomplish and the city lets us achieve this.
The city will also undergo its own transformation, much like Alex, as the story progresses into the darker end-game scenario of a three way war. People will start to mix with Infected hordes, and it’s great fun to just sit back and watch the A.I. power these cool interactions and fights between regular New Yorkers and the Infected.
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