Prototype

Prototype is an action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective and set in an open world based on modern-day Manhattan. The game's setting remains mostly faithful to the real city and includes all of its famous landmarks, including the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, 40 Wall Street, 28 Liberty Street, the Conde Nast Building, the Metlife Building, One New York Plaza, and the New York Life Building, among others.

The player character, Alex Mercer, has the ability to shapeshift, allowing him to change his body to resemble anyone. His powers also play into the game's combat system, as Alex can "consume" others to regain health, absorbing their biomass entirely. This also allows him to take on the forms of the human enemies he absorbs, thereby allowing the player to move about the enemy as one of them. The disguise will only last as long as Alex remains inconspicuous.

The game's protagonist is Alexander J. "Alex" Mercer (voiced by Barry Pepper), a shapeshifter suffering from amnesia, causing him to forget his previous life, including how he obtained his powers. As he attempts to uncover his past and stop an outbreak of a virus called Blacklight, which has overrun Manhattan, Alex comes into conflict with two factions: the United States Marine Corps and Blackwatch, a Fort Detrick special forces unit dedicated to combating biological warfare; and the Infected, people infected by the Blacklight virus, which turns them into violent monsters. The main antagonist is Robert Cross (Jeff Pierce), also known by his codename, "The Specialist", a Blackwatch officer tasked with containing Alex.

Supporting characters include Alex's sister Dana Mercer (Lake Bell); Dr. Bradley Ragland (Phil LaMarr), who helps Alex throughout the game; Alex's ex-girlfriend Karen Parker (Vanessa Marshall); Dr. Raymond McMullen (Paul Guilfoyle), founder and head researcher of bio-research company Gentek; General Peter Randall (Gordon Clapp), the head of Blackwatch; Randall's second-in-command, Ian Taggart (Richard McGonagle); and Elizabeth Greene (Kari Wahlgren), also known as "The Mother", a former test subject that hosts the Blacklight virus. Brian Bloom has a minor role as a Blackwatch commander whose appearance Alex assumes at one point. Additional characters are voiced by Dave Fennoy, Dave Wittenberg, David Andriole, David Lodge, and Diane Hsu.

The game was announced by Vivendi Games subsidiary Sierra Entertainment on August 10, 2007, revealing it would release for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in the summer of 2008. The company revealed more information about the title over the upcoming months, including support for THX's neural 7.1 surround sound, being the first video game to support it, and the reveal of the voice cast in February. On April 8, 2008, Sierra announced the opening of the game's official website . On May 5, 2008, Sierra and Radical announced that the game would be pushed back to 2009.

On July 28, 2008, after the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games to form Activision Blizzard, the company announced that they would only publish five Sierra titles, with Prototype being one of the five titles retained alongside fellow Radical Entertainment title Crash: Mind Over Mutant. On August 14, 2008, Radical laid off some of their staff, which led to a fear that the game would be delayed again.

The game received "generally favorable reviews" on all platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Prototype was released on Steam as well as in retail stores and topped the Steam sales on the week of its release. The Xbox 360 version of Prototype was the top selling game of June 2009 in North America, with over 419,900 units sold. This made the game a Platinum Hit. As of March 2012, the game had sold 2.1 million copies worldwide.

GameSpot praised the game for its "intriguing storyline and protagonist" and "massive arsenal of moves and abilities", but criticized it for its "occasionally fiddly controls" and "dull scenery". The Escapist said the Xbox 360 version was a perfect "summer fling," praising the combat and movement systems as well as the unique mechanic of the Web of Intrigue. V. Club gave the same console version an "A−" ranking, calling the movement style "exhilarating" and saying it was a "mature, science-fiction superhero fantasy that somehow makes players feel simultaneously powerful and vulnerable."