Apropos of nothing, Holmes explains: “I did a degree in psychology and there was an interesting question of profiling. One of the questions for psychopaths was ‘Would you like people to fear you?’ and I think that in this game we’ve kind of proved that’s a fun thing to tap into. The Web of Intrigue system we have, these conspirators around the world, when you find one of these guys, he’s going to be begging for his life, trying to get out any way he can. You’re going to be like a cat with a mouse, patting it around and there’s definitely a sense of fun and power. It’s much more low key - the guy’s not going to be flying a helicopter gunship at you with a squadron of F-35s, it’s more like one guy who darts into an alleyway, running for his life and you can find the way you want to take him down.”
The disguise mechanic appears to work effectively, but as the old adage maintains, you can’t put toothpaste back in the tube. Once your cover is blown, all shades of shit kick off, although if you’re quick you can skulk into an alley and shapeshift into your previous form as if nothing has happened. While Mercer becomes more powerful as the game goes on, there are still forfeits for misbehaviour. “There’s punishment in the sense that when you create mayhem,” says Holmes, “the military are going to hear about it, they’re going to see it, and they’re going to send in strike teams to find you.”
“You can play the game however you want,” explains Bennison. “The point is there’s no moral code, but we do have a response system. Halfway through the game, if you harm a pedestrian and a cop car drives by while you’re doing it, the cops can’t do anything to you, but you know what they have? A radio. And the radio’s connected to the military and the big guys will come after you in a second.
“We don’t have this arbitrary star system where some god is watching you play the game, but it effectively does work that way.” Continuing the theme of player freedom, Holmes expands: “It’s really important to us that if a player wants to do something in the game he can do it. Something that frustrated me in the EA Superman game - the first thing I did was grab a pedestrian, fly straight up as high as I can, and you want to drop him right? But Superman won’t do it. That guy was created for comic books, to sell a wholesome moral vision of what his creators thought this guy was and what his values were.
“Superman’s a cool character, I grew up with him, I loved him. He’s a fantastic movie character, but put him in a videogame and it’s hard because you either have to go against the character or say to the player, ‘No.’ And our game is based around telling the player, ‘Yes you can, and here’s why you should…’ ” So that’s Prototype: a new game in which you play a New York-based amnesiac antihero in a hoodie who can shapeshift, run up buildings, cut people in half and throw cars at helicopters. And swear like an angry 12 year-old in a bus shelter.
Apr 21, 2008
