How grandiose and detailed is your modeling of New York?

I grew up there, and I can tell you, as an avid videogame fan, it's the single best representation of New York I've seen. It's not a rote street-by-street imitation, it's the feeling of New York. More people, more cars, more noise and traffic and per square foot - not an abandoned rubber-stamp simulation of the city. Prototype's New York is alive. It's funny and heartening to see people going on about the screenshots of the game that have been released; people are saying, "there's no way that's gameplay!" But it is.

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Our world builders have put an incredible amount of detail into their work, and it shows. Anyone who has visited the city will instantly recognise it when they play the game; whether they're perched on top the Empire State Building or running through Central Park.

The city is open for exploration in any direction; including straight up, a prospect that in other titles is limited to a few vehicles. In Prototype the character can do this in vehicles or on foot. This isn't your typical free-roaming city.

A free, to explore is at the heart of the game. What will we be able to do in this world, beyond the main story?

The city is open for exploration from the beginning of the game, there's no artificial walling off of areas. So movement and exploring the verticality of the city is a huge option within the game.

The second key element is the war brewing in New York between Blackwatch and the forces of the virus. The player can directly affect the outcome of conflicts between these groups. For instance, destroying military bases can cripple Blackwatch while destroying the sources of the virus can stop the tide of infection.

The third factor is the Web of Intrigue as mentioned above. These individuals are scattered around the world and hold the key to Alex's past. Imagine you're Alex and the military is fielding some experimental weapon against you. In response you hunt through the Web to uncover clues on the location of the test aircraft. Or maybe you find the whereabouts of the chief scientist in charge of development, or even liberate the vehicle itself from a military base by using the right disguise.

Finally, there are the key events. Even when Alex is in free-roaming outside of a mission, missions can come to him. One minute you might be trying to cross the city in a free-roaming style, and the next you might be neck-deep in Special Forces, infected creatures or even worse descending on your location.

Will there be a mode, or a co-op mode?

There are plans for an multiplayer mode which allows two players to travel through the game experience together. You can team up to tackle missions which might have given a single player a hard time. Combine powers to expand your destructive capabilities, share vehicles — with say, one player on driving and the 120 mm cannon and the other manning the .50 cal of a Abrams tank — share clues, leads and info you've discovered in the Web of Intrigue. All in all, this is the single most requested feature for multiplayer: co-op. And we don't have any of the conceptual problems of having two Alex's — he is, after all, a shape-shifter who has absolute control of his genetic structure. All he needs to do is grow a duplicate!

What games, or other entertainment mediums have proved influential?

We've looked to for inspiration, mostly. Taxi Driver, Old Boy, Memento and others are huge influences on the feelings we hope to portray in the game. Just as with every other creative endeavor, there are dozens more influences too subtle to list here.

What we wanted to hit above all else was the themes of mystery, power and alienation. Memento shows what it means to lose your mind piece by piece, moment by moment, all the while continually trying to put it back together again — the character himself is a mystery. Taxi Driver paints the picture of a man on the edge, filled with rage and ready to explode — Travis Bickle personifies alienation. Old Boy posits a prisoner suddenly released, metering out revenge on those who kept him in a cage — his power is his single-mindedness.

In a certain ways, Alex Mercer is a conglomeration of these characters, and a whole lot more.

Are there any differences between the game on different platforms?

It’s too early for us to discuss this front. Watch this space.

Tell us about the combat in the game, how will it differ from the many other action titles out there?

Combat is a frenetic experience. You can be engaged by three tanks, two dozen Marines, a flight of Apache gunships and a pack of monstrous creatures mutated by the virus all at the same time. What separates Prototype is the choices that are open to you.

In the above situation, you could hijack the Apache, consume and become one of the Marines in order to use his Javelin missile against the Infected, activate any number of shape-shifting powers, blend into the crowd in a perfect disguise, pick up a car and hurl it at an enemy, lead the group on a wild goose chase across the city, lure the military into an Infected area or vice versa, leap into an Abrams tank and fire the .50 cal or the main gun and more... The game is a in the truest sense, filled with elements to be exploited by the player.

Prototype also has one huge advantage. Thanks to the shape-shifting and disguise elements, the pace of the game is directly controlled by the player. They can grab a disguise and in seconds and disengage from a firefight by blending into the crowd. When they're done, they can activate their powers, reveal themselves and attack the enemy again. I think you’ll agree that this is something we could only do with next-gen platforms, and that’s the reason we all find Prototype such an exciting proposition.

Lastly, is Prototype's story envisaged as part of a wider plot which will continue beyond the game?

One of our main goals in Prototype was to give ourselves enough creative headroom to leave the concept open to future exploration. The elements presented in the game hold enough secrets, concepts and conspiracies to support way more than we could ever fit in any one game.

It’s a great feeling to look at a concept you helped create and realise there are a thousand other stories you could be telling in that world. With the way Prototype has been progressing I’m certain you’ll be seeing more of Alex Mercer in the future.

There are plenty of interesting dynamics at work within the story. We wanted to do something new with our storytelling. It builds to a resolution more like a mini-series than a movie. Along the way the main character discovers many things, not all of them good, and not every conflict is clearly resolved. Some questions remain hanging over Alex's head even after the game experience is over. The deeper you dig (say, by completing the Web of Intrigue) the clearer the answers might become. But, as in the real world, for every truth there are a thousand lies.

Thanks for your time, best of luck with completing Prototype.

By Luke Guttridge