The latest entry in the free-roaming blast-em-genre has been revealed in the pages of the Official Xbox Magazine.

From Scarface dev Radical, Prototype will put you in the demented shoes of Alex Mercer; a genetically engineered hoodie who can (among other things) slash baddies in half and climb up the side of skyscrapers.

Put him in the middle of bustling New York (which looks almost as pretty as GTA IV IV's Liberty City) where a human-mutating virus has caused a battle between mutants and the military, and you've got something that's a bit like Crackdown meets The Darkness.

Alex's big bag of tricks include super-human strength, the ability to cover himself in scale-like shields and the ability to send matter through the ground, impaling baddies on giant spikes.

He can also shape-shift into the identity of his victims, which Official Xbox Magazine notes can be used to take the guise of an army officer and call in air strikes.

Vivendi is wheeling out the "living, breathing world" line for Prototype's version of New York; although we have to say the amount of NPCs visible in the screenshots is absurd. If they actually manage some decent AI for the pedestrians, it'll at least be technologically impressive - if not an utter miracle.

It's still a ways off (it's currently penned for winter 2008), but if Radical can emulate the freedom and outright fun factor of Crackdown, it could be a winner.

Oh, and is online co-op too much to ask for?

August 6, 2007