Firstly, we would like to extend a gigantic “thank you” to the folks at Radical and Activision for really putting together one hell of a evening just so our sorry asses could plop down in front of a television and play a video game. Turning the Rok Vegas nightclub at the New York, New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas into a war-torn New York City, complete with hot zombie dancers, was a stroke of genius. It also helped set the stage to get a little hands-on preview of Activision and Radical’s upcoming game, Prototype.

The first two levels we were able to try out was of the standard tutorial variety, coaching us through the various attacks, and movements you can perform as Alex Mercer in Prototype. It’s very easy to compare Prototype with one of Radical Games’ last title, Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, because it’s very close to the same experience—You’re given a character with almost infinite power and the keys to an entire city with which to destroy to your liking. Except the glaring difference is that Prototype seems to be a more fine tuned beast….and a lot more bloody.

The game runs smoothly and the animations are all incredibly fluid. One of the first things to catch our eye in these demo levels was how gracefully Alex leapt over cars and pushed people out of his way while running at super speeds. And the coolest thing about it was we didn’t even have to do any special button presses to perform these actions, the game did them for us. You just pushed the control stick in the direction you wanted to go, held down the right trigger to begin sprinting, and you’re off, hurdling and pushing your way past bystanders and traffic jams on your way to your next objective.

The only letdown to these initial demo levels was how linear they were. Basically being pushed down one street, given access to one specific ability at a time, and told to slay a bunch of military personnel.  Fun at first, but it really wasn’t a great showcase of Prototype’s potential. The game is an open world, sandbox actioner, and these initial two campaign levels didn’t really show that off.