Prototype Hero Goes Bad in Sequel

Alex Mercer, protagonist of the gory actioner Prototype, has become the villain. (Don’t you hate it when that happens?)

Prototype 2 finds Mercer — still possessing all of the awesome power he mastered in the first game —  infecting a new character named James Heller with the Prototype virus. Heller is the antithesis of Mercer, a family man with an actual moral code. But when Heller loses his family and is infected with the virus, he turns on Mercer, and in the words of developers at Radical Entertainment, “sets out to murder his maker.”

I never played the first Prototype, but I wonder how gamers will react when the character they played as in the first game is now their assassination target? And how do they resolve a story like that without writing themselves into a corner? Kill Heller and leave gamers feeling that they wasted every minute they spent with this new game? Unsatisfying. Kill Mercer and repeat the cycle with Heller as the bad guy in Prototype 3? Yawn.

The dev diary above shows off this new plot twist, as well as an early look at gameplay. Radical also sent out this movie-style poster for the new protagonist. Prototype 2 doesn’t arrive until sometime in 2012, so I guess Heller’s revenge will have to wait.