Prototype is what Crackdown would be if you were a bad-ass instead of a superhero. Crunching cars beneath your feet, running up buildings, literally smashing peoples’ heads into the ground, and absorbing dead bodies into your own — just some of the things you will be doing as Prototype’s main anti-hero, Alex Mercer.

During GDC, we were presented with a brief explanation of the background and inspiration for Radical’s new game. Essentially, when players are given an open world to do whatever they want, they always behave badly. Radical have embraced that fundamental human desire to be naughty and designed a game that is gritty, disgusting, and fucking awesome.

As you can tell from this slide, the basic structure of the game is to “Kill guys and take their stuff”. It’s much more than that, though. There’s a war going on between the Infected and the Military, and you’re in the middle. You can play the two against each other, or help one side fight the other — whatever it takes to accomplish your goals.

Alex has no idea who he is (except that his name is Alex Mercer, apparently) and absorbs peoples’ brains to help himself figure it all out. He accomplishes that in many ways, all of which involve killing people in super-awesome expressions of love. We witnessed a man’s head getting forcibly squished into his own chest cavity, but we also saw such classics as the basic head-exploding curb stomp. Awwww, how cute…

Once people are absorbed, Alex’s biomass increases. This effectively let’s him smash things easier and grow huge claws and so forth. You can also assume the identity of the absorbed people to blend in easier or open special abilities. For example, assuming the identity of a high-ranking military official let’s the player call in air strikes!

Alex can also steal vehicles, including tanks and helicopters. Both hijacking maneuvers include spectacular gore-splosions, but Alex somehow manages to keep his white hoodie nice and clean. Of course, you can just avoid direct contact by tossing the tank at the helicopter, destroying them both.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Eric Holmes and Tim Bennison may have a little Prototype in themselves.

After the presentation, one of the Radical guys just sat there and played the game for 15 minutes while we all watched. It looked amazing, and they claim the graphics are far from complete. I asked about a release date, and they say they are really hoping for this year, but there is no official release scheduled.

Oh, they also let slip that there will be a full-blown cooperative mode, as well as the possibility of “other multiplayer modes” that they aren’t ready to discuss. Stay tuned and we will give you all the information as we get it.