If you don't receive the magazine Game Informer, I strongly suggest you out and get the latest copy. The cover is for the upcoming 360 & PS3 title, Prototype. A game where there are three sides to a war, the government, a "vicious mutagenic viral epidemic" and you. But you aren't just you, you are something else.






It starts off with a cliche story-line, you wake up on a lab table with amnesia but also special powers. Are you human and just given powers or were you born with them? Well anyways, in the game you can shape shift your arms and body into grotesque limps of disturbing violence or big plates of armor to protect yourself. It is another one of those do-anything-you-want games where you can jump on an Apache, rip out the pilot and take over.

One last power is the ability to absorb others. This means you can shapeshift your arms in many ways depending on what is absorbed. Also, the people you absorb, you get their thoughts and abilities. Say you need to find a secret base, absorb the right person and you will know where it is. Or with the above mentioned Apache helicopter, absorb a pilot and you now know how to fly it or other military vehicles. With this absorbing you can also take the shape of the last person you killed. Absorb a military genral and then use his looks to sneak past an army waiting for you around a corner.

Part of the GI's demo they took shape of a general and turned a corner where soldiers were waiting. After passing, he came up to a solider and punched him, clueing the other soldiers in that this soldier is the prototype. As they shoot the soldier, it allows you to slip by. That is pretty slick!

One problem comes up. They have a control method that allows you to do a lot of unique things, but you don't really do it. See when you approach say a cab, your character will automatically jump the cab or bash into it depending on your character's shape. Or run through a crowd but never lose pace as your character automatically pushes people out of the way. Last example, if you want to scale a building, run to it and he will being to jump up on ledges and such to move to the top. This is how I read it...I might have miss a detail or two, sometimes you just get distracted....

Yeah that part doesn't sound like a problem at all, sounds good in all but what if you dont want to do something? What if you want to hide behind the taxi? I could forsee some issues like this appearing in the title unless they really fine-tuned it. This is the same problems I found with Gears of War (or as i like to call it, GLITCH of Wars). You want to do a roadie run away but of course you jump on the wall and it won't let you jump off but instead do a series or spins around the room from wall to wall. Granted it looks wierd and sometimes makes you live a bit longer but it generally ends with a death (or I just suck?).

Let's hope this game ends up well cause it looks sweet! Much rather have this than GTAIV, I mean who really plays that game, fo cereal?

If you want to read the text on the game from GI without buying the magazine, go here.