I can imagine being a little disconcerted, waking up with creepy super powers that you’re not quite sure how you got. I suppose I can also imagine being a little pissed, which is how the main character Alex Mercer feels about the whole thing.

Since our last look at Prototype during this year’s Game Developer’s Conference, the co-op mode has sadly been cut, but hopefully it just means the game will be that much more polished when it ships later this year. Jump the cut to hear about features you will get to see…

At Sierra’s spring event we saw shape-shifting powers different from the ones usually shown off, like a snarly whip fist. Go ahead and whip the Infected right in half–that’ll show ‘em. This game is rated M and it knows it.

Another of these mutations, which you unlock throughout the game with evolution points, gives Alex blades for hands, which of course, means another pile of body parts.

Alex has also scored some new moves that aren’t specifically tied to a monstrous change in appearance. In one, you stomp an enemy and literally surf on the body until friction prevails, at which point you can jump off and make a targeted kick at a new victim. Another recently added feature is the “flying squirrel move” used for gliding in the air, giving you extra control when you get knocked off a building, or keeping you from being completely knocked off in the first place.

The demo took place partly during a mission to destroy rooftop “sniffers,” which are out sniffing for you. Seemed like a fairly typical “kill x” mission, to be honest, but there will also be parts where you’re infiltrating military bases in disguise, so variety seems insured.

“Disguise” in this case, means appearing to be your latest absorption victim, whether a marine or a pedestrian, via more creepy shape-shifting. It originally sounded like you would be able to carry at least a number of these bodies to select from, but the process has been streamlined to just include one.

If you do blow your cover, you can either duck out of sight and swallow another person whole with your sinister black tendrils, or, more comically, point to the next marine (in the demo’s case) over and convince everyone that he’s the Prototype. They’ll shoot him to pieces!

There are definite areas of spit-shine needed, even though the Parkour twists and vaults still impress us. Unfortunately no hands-on as of yet, but we’re interested enough in the game that not playing it makes us antsy– a good sign.

Tags: open-world, Prototype, Sierra

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