It’s hard to be satisfied with just one trip to New York. You might get to hit up a few tourist traps, visit a famous restaurant, and take in a Broadway show, but you won’t experience it all. Prototype 2 once again gives you free rein in the Big Apple, but Radical Entertainment is making the trip far different than it was in 2009. You’ve got a new tour guide in the form of James Heller (Prototype 2’s new leading man), and the city is in the midst of a far different season (including a mutant-overrun Manhattan). We spent quite a bit of time with both, and given the swath of improvements, we’re almost ready to book our return.

The first half of our experience with Prototype 2 was spent running through the game’s initial missions and story events. After his wife and child are killed in the wake of the Blacklight virus infection of New York City, Heller rejoins the army to exact revenge on the man he thinks is responsible — the original Prototype, Alex Mercer. Heller heads to Mercer’s domain — the city’s “Red Zone,” where the virus runs unchecked. Their first meeting is a short one, as Mercer easily overpowers Heller, but in the process, he passes on the superhuman-creating infection.

The removal of Mercer as Prototype’s protagonist made sense for Radical on multiple levels. It removes the no-win proposition of returning action-game heroes (i.e. having to start new players in the deep end with skills accumulated in the previous games, or annoying players with a plot event that strips hero of said powers). More importantly, it gives the developers an opportunity to give the game a sense of personality that Mercer couldn’t provide.

“The biggest breath of fresh air is the fact that Heller actually speaks and talks about what’s going on and provides some context for [you, the gamer],” producer Jon Lim explained. “It’s something we kind of shied away from in Prototype — and to be honest I don’t really know why we did — but I think it adds a lot to the game just being able to try to get into Heller’s mindset.” 

After escaping Mercer’s wrath, Heller wakes up at Gentek headquarters — the same location where Alex Mercer became aware of his superpowers in the original Prototype. Like his predecessor, Heller is able to utilize his newfound powers to escape. Upon exiting, Mercer lays in wait, revealing that he personally picked Heller to get revenge on the true culprits behind New York’s decrepit state — Gentek and the recipients of their biological warfare technology, Blackwatch.

From there, Heller kick-starts his investigation by first seeking out Gentek scientists and Blackwatch soldiers, then absorbs their memories about the outbreak. Using the new “Pulse” power, we were able to send out waves that reflect back to reveal where your next target is located in New York. When your objective is finally in view, Pulse can be used to show whether your target is being watched by others. Even though discretion doesn’t matter much in a game where escaping amounts to turning a corner and morphing into someone new, Heller can take out unwatched enemies with a new stealth absorption skill that can keep encounters from escalating in the first place.

Of course, a game like Prototype 2 is going to force you to fight frequently, and our first major battle came against a returning foe — the claw-bearing Hunter mutants. After dispatching a batch of the creatures (thanks to Prototype 2’s much more intuitive evasion system that spells out when it’s best to move), Heller gained the first of the game’s five offensive powers: the Claw.

Even if it was light on action at times, the first section of the game serves as a nicely subtle tutorial, revealing Heller’s skills at just the right time and clearly stating each purpose — a lesson the team learned from Prototype’s haphazard delivery of powers.

“I remember getting to the end of [Prototype’s] first boss fight and seeing a message saying ‘21 new moves available in the moves store,’” design director Matt Armstrong told us. “I remember my heart just sank when I saw that. I was like, ‘Really, we shipped with that?’” 

After completing the opening hour, we skip ahead to play as a fully-powered Heller — with free rein to add to the Red Zone’s chaos. Four of the five offensive powers return from Prototype, and they’re as fun as ever to wield. The Claw is ideal for human enemies, as Heller can pounce on and stab any unfortunate citizen in his immediate vicinity. The Blade allows Heller to easily plow through obstacles on the ground, be they cars, debris, or enemy soldiers. The Hammerfist makes for perfect crowd control, as it can push away (or destroy) anything within Heller’s radius. The Whipfist lets you get in close to the action, as Heller can pull in enemies from afar or pull himself toward bigger targets (like the many helicopters and tanks within the Red Zone). The new offensive power — the Tendril — somehow manages to be even crazier than that batch. It envelops any targeted enemy with a living substance that quickly attaches to any other nearby enemies and items, pulling them all together in a glorious implosion of death and destruction.

With that suite of skills, we were able to create insane scenes of carnage, like using the Tendril as a rubber band to fling Heller into a helicopter, swinging the Whipfist around to obliterate enemies in all directions, cutting a copter in half with the Blade, then jumping from the city’s highest building and speeding down to pound the ground with the Hammerfist. Heller also has a pair of powers that function independently of his arms, as he can tag enemies and civilians with the “Biobomb,” a rapidly functioning version of the virus that will cause the infected to explode and kill anything near it. Even more destructive is the ability to summon Hunters that will attack any enemy Heller points at.

Even though we didn’t get to engage in any boss battles — we were forbidden to attempt any missions in the Red Zone — we were able to enjoy Prototype 2’s key selling point: creating random scenes of epic destruction. Radical’s studio vice-president David Fracchia put it best when discussing the open-world genre, stating, “I know what I love [about the genre]. For me it’s the sandbox, the openness of it. Being able to just f*ck around with things…I can go anywhere and there are situations that challenge me or where I can create my own chaos.”

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PUBLISHER: Activision  •  DEVELOPER: Radical Entertainment  •  MULTIPLAYER: No  • RELEASE DATE: April 24, 2012  •  FOR FANS OF: Viruses, excess appendages