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Protagonists

Alex Mercer

Alex Mercer/Dr. Alexander J. Mercer/ZEUS/Mercer

Voiced by: Barry Pepper (Prototype 1), Darryl Kurylo (Prototype 2)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prototype_mercer.png

"They call me a killer. A monster. A terrorist... I'm all of these things."

The protagonist, a man who wakes up in the GENTEK morgue with bizarre and horrifying powers and no knowledge of events prior to that point, aside from his name and that he was once a scientist. Confused, enraged, and determined to reclaim his past, he sets out to do so by hunting down his old colleagues.

Absurdly Sharp Claws: The first power Alex gained were four-fingered two-foot long talons.
Aloof Big Brother: The real Alex only cared about Dana as a tool for his purposes. However, after Heller consumes Alex at the end of Prototype 2 and absorbs his memories, Dana can be heard remarking that they used to play games, skate, and watch scary movies together. So, apparently, he wasn't always like this.
Amnesiac Dissonance: No matter how much of a monster you play Alex as, the man whose form he took was worse.
And Then John Was a Zombie: One of the most horrifying examples ever put into a game or comic. You thought the Alex Mercer you knew and played as is merely a superpowered Zombie Infectee? No, he is The Virus!
Anti-Hero: Initially a straight-up Villain Protagonist, but becomes this status by the end of the first game due to Character Development. Whether he's a Nominal Hero or an Unscrupulous Hero depends on the actions of the player.
Ax-Crazy:
- It doesn't depend on whether or not Alex goes after civilians, because either way, his target will be subjected to a great deal of homicidal fury which usually ends in his victim being killed gruesomely or eaten.
- The real Alex is this to some extent. Not only did he make an already deadly virus ten times more dangerous, but also he was willing to unleash it on New York City while his own sister was in the vicinity.
Badass Bookworm: In addition to being a former scientist, he absorbs the knowledge of anyone he consumes, and he'll consume upwards of thirty scientists completing the Web of Intrigue - though he doesn't exercise it much.
Bald Head of Toughness: Technically speaking, Alex's "clothes" are nothing more than biomass-mimicking clothing. Meaning that his "hood" is really his head.
Becoming the Mask: Played with. The real Alex died; the player character is just The Virus using him as a mask. But the virus has some redeeming qualities and is fiercely protective of Dana.
Berserk Button: Lots of things, but especially don't hurt his sister or throw innocent people into his path to save yourself.
Big Eater: Soldiers, civilians, infected, Hunters; he can and will absorb thousands of them alive (and in the humans' case, whole) throughout the game. One of the Achievements is even called Endless Hunger.
Blade Below the Shoulder: The Blade power, is more like the "replacing your arm with a blade" variant.
Blood Knight: He actually seems excited at the prospect of fighting a whole pack of car-sized flesh monsters. The player will likely disagree.
Body Surf: In his own way, it's entirely possible to go undetected in a military base or during a mission by stealthily consuming and stealing the identities of one soldier after another. This has nothing to do with the explicitly named "Body Surf" power.
Brought Down to Badass: Downplayed. At one point in the game, he's infected with an artificial parasite that feeds on him and negates his ability to create Shapeshifter Weapons. Alex still retains his Super-Strength, Super-Speed, Disguise power, and Healing Factor, however.
Can't Shift While Shifted: Played with; Alex can consume and become anyone while still disguised as his previous victim, but in order to make use of his Shapeshifter Weapons, he has to abandon his disguise and return to his Shapeshifter Default Form before he can start manifesting claws or blades. Except in the opening cutscene, that is.
Carnivorous Healing Factor: Alex can restore his health by grabbing and devouring enemies or random civilians. He can also absorb their memories and skills.
Civvie Spandex: When not armored up he wears a shirt, hoodie, jacket, jeans, and shoes.
Combat Pragmatist: Fighting fair is hard when you can kill a person with one negligent gesture, so he doesn't bother holding back his Super-Strength in serious combat.
Combat Tentacles: The Whipfist, Tendril Barrage, and Critical Pain Devastators.
Creepy Blue Eyes: His main distinguishing features are his unusually pale, creepy, reflective eyes.
Cursed with Awesome: All these incredible superhuman abilities? He believes they (along with his amnesia) were a side-effect of being afflicted with the virus when it was unleashed and wants them "cured".
Dead All Along: The shapeshifter tearing up Manhattan searching for his memories is just the sentient Blacklight virus wearing Alex Mercer's corpse.
Dead Person Impersonation: Courtesy of eating them and taking their form. An unintentional example of the virus taking the real, deceased Mercer's form.
Determinator: The Blackwatch only ever manages to slow him down, even once he becomes their biggest threat and they throw everything they've got at him.
Driven to Villainy: Nobody ever asked him whether he wanted the powers he has, or whether he wanted to be treated like a monster. That he acts like one is in some sense a function of his circumstances, at least at first. The trope is ultimately played straight, subverted, and inverted.
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: The only colors in his face are the red circles under his eyes; even his lips are pale. He looks like he last slept when he was dead.
The Empath: In a very messed up way, he absorbs so many people that their screaming in his head forces him to develop a conscience. He is extremely unhappy about that.
Enhanced Punch: Both the Musclemass and Hammerfist power boosts his already powerful punches.
Even Evil Has Standards: As ruthless and violent as ZEUS is, even he was disgusted when he learned what his creator did.
Evilutionary Biologist: The real Alex Mercer fits this to a T.
Extreme Mêlée Revenge: The default animation for consuming a Web of Intrigue Target sees Alex knock his victim to the ground, pin them, and then just punch them viciously, over and over until their faces cave in. It's so brutal it even sprays blood on the camera.
Face Stealer: The basis of his "consume and become" abilities, along with Brain Food.
Four Eyes, Zero Soul: The real Alex sported glasses prior to his death; the virus doesn't need them.
Freudian Excuse: In his character profile (and hinted at very obliquely in the game) is the story of Alex Mercer's horrible, poverty-stricken childhood being shipped around foster homes until his mother was released from jail. He would have preferred the foster homes, and eventually made his escape through his gift for science, viewing the high-profile job and excellent paycheck he received at GENTEK as owed to him by the world after his crappy life. When he learned that Blackwatch was going to purge the project, that was the final straw.
From a Single Cell: Even after getting nuked, all he needs is a few scraps of his body and some biological matter and he's back in business.
From Nobody to Nightmare: He went from plain troubled kid to scrawny scientist to Humanoid Abomination able to fight the undead and the entirety of the U.S. Army simultaneously. But the original turned out to be much worse than the viral abomination that replaced him.
Hates Being Touched: Quite minor, and for one scene, but Alex's reaction to Karen's welcoming embrace is to freeze uncomfortably and then shrug her off. Understandably, nobody else ever even tries to approach him with affection and he never approaches anyone likewise — except once, with Dana, trying to comfort her.
Heel–Face Revolving Door: The original Alex Mercer was an amoral, sociopathic Evilutionary Biologist who helped reverse-engineer a potentially world-ending bioweapon into a Super Serum. The amnesia that came with his infection, mixed with the shadow of a conscience that come with his Identity Absorption powers led to him becoming an (admittedly unscrupulous) Anti-Hero with humanity's best interest at heart. By the sequel, however, he had since lost his faith in humanity and restarted the infection in New York with intentions of replacing mankind with evolved infected with him as their god.
Hijacking Cthulhu: Is a viral abomination, but retains his human consciousness.
Humanoid Abomination: After The Reveal, it is revealed that he is a human-shaped pile of The Virus that took the original Mercer's memories, name and form. You've been playing as The Virus all along, with it thinking that he was Mercer. However, even after this revelation, he still wears Mercer's form and remains protective of Dana despite him not really being her brother.
Identity Absorption: His baseline and most useful ability, though it's not without side effects such as developing a conscience.
I'm a Humanitarian: He gains health, knowledge, powers, skills, disguises, and pieces of the Jigsaw Puzzle Plot by absorbing people.
Immune to Bullets: Functionally if not completely. Alex doesn't even flinch when taking gunfire, as if the bullets are merely passing through his biomass without doing any harm. Unless you're playing on Hard, it takes a lot of massed gunfire to even come close to seriously damaging him. In cutscenes, he's able to get up from being shot by five guys armed with assault rifles.
Instant Armor: The Armor power grows hardened biomass that covers the entirety of Alex's body.
In the Hood: He wears a hood for much of the game in his default form, and while his strength and speed are frightening it's his shapeshifting and stealth abilities that make him so dangerous to Blackwatch.
Jerkass: Selfish, vicious, violent, devoid of tact, almost hilariously bad at showing or receiving affection, and either borders on or is actively sadistic depending on the player. The original Mercer went beyond "just" being a jerk, but his influence is likely at work.
Kill and Replace: Or "Consume And Become", as he phrases it. No difference in context of the trope.
Knight Templar Big Brother: Mess with Dana and you better have a way out of Manhattan, because no place on the island is safe. You're not even guaranteed safety if you escape.
Lack of Empathy: The original Mercer did not believe morality was a part of his job, and had no problem altering an already dangerous bioweapon to become even more dangerous.
Lightning Bruiser: The only thing in the game that can keep up with him is an attack helicopter, which he can kill in two hits. On the Infected side of things, Hunters and Leader Hunters are technically faster, but suffer in maneuverability compared to his speed.
Lovecraftian Superpower: Strong enough to casually rip humans apart with his bare hands? Check. Produces a black and red fleshy substance from his body that can be molded into various weapons? Check. Heals himself by absorbing people's flesh into his own? Check.
Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Shield power. Although breakable, it regenerates after a few seconds on his back.
Mad Scientist: The real Dr. Alex Mercer, at your service.
Mind Hive: He keeps every one of his consumed victims' memories inside his head, and he says he can still hear them all screaming as he relives their deaths over and over and over.
Because everyone I've killed... They're in me. They are me.
Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: The certificate is on the wall of his apartment. And boy was he evil. Good thing we don't play as the guy who earned the doctorate.
Morally Superior Copy: He is an Anti-Hero at best and a Villain Protagonist at worst. Once it's revealed that he's little more than an Anthropomorphic Personification of The Virus taking over the city with a couple of the real Alex's memories, even he's disgusted by the original Alex's actions.
Muscles Are Meaningful:
- The Musclemass power bulks up his arms with hardened biomass and they do enhance his Super-Strength while engaging in basic hand-to-hand combat or throwing objects around.
- The Hammerfist power enlarges his arms enough that they become heavier than the rest of his body, granting him the capability to trash vehicles with ease.
Muscles Are Meaningless: That being said in Muscles Are Meaningful, he actually looks pretty gaunt and scrawny most of the time outside of the Musclemass/Hammerfist powers. That doesn't stop him from throwing cars around, knocking out helicopters with a single kick, and punching through steel doors two feet thick with ease.
Oh, Crap!: Seeing the two pathologists who were examining him get executed by Blackwatch, getting his cover blown infiltrating a Blackwatch announcement, and an unexpected Infected attack disrupting his plan to "interrogate" McMullen. Although, being Alex, his version of that last one is a little more M-Rated: "SON OF A BITCH!"
One-Man Army: Within the city are Blackwatch, a merciless paramilitary organization aided by the U.S. Military, and a virulent, devastating, Zombie Apocalypse causing virus, and both sides rightfully regard Alex Mercer as the single most dangerous thing there.
Person of Mass Destruction: General Randall sums up his awakening as; "He's eliminated fifty of my men and smashed through a two-foot steel door." Once his powers are fully upgraded, he's capable of single-handedly slaughtering hundreds of men along with multiple tanks and helicopters in minutes.
Plaguemaster: Considering that he's a sapient strain of the The Virus itself given human form, this is a given. To add to this, he can also spread his plague to others.
Power Fist: The Hammerfists power enlarges his fists with Super-Strength that can tear enemy vehicles.
Predecessor Villain: It was revealed that the original Alex Mercer created the virus and started the outbreak before his death, leading to the conflict in the game.
Present Absence: Doctor Alexander Mercer's actions kick off the entire main plot and provide the motivations for at least two major characters, despite him being dead before the opening cutscene.
Promotion to Parent: According to the backstory, Alex was actually more of a paternal figure to Dana than their actual mother ever was.
Psychotic Smirk: Alex never really smiles, but he's prone to these from time to time. Specific (and creepy) examples are after he thinks he's beaten Cross and when he gets the drop on McMullen.
Quest for Identity: His goal is to find out who he was before he lost his memory. Once he finds the truth, he immediately wishes he'd never learned it.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: His other goal. The virus is a grotesque sickness afflicting both him and his city, so he wants to track down who released it and make them pay.
Roof Hopping: Due to a combo of Le Parkour and In a Single Bound. Some optional events enforce this as you go around checkpoints scattered on nearby rooftops.
Shapeshifting: The entire basis of his powers that don't revolve around eating people.
Shapeshifter Weapon: He can scavenge guns from Blackwatch and the military, but most of his weapons come from transforming his arms.
Shockwave Clap: A variation with the Knuckle Shockwave attack; he pounds his fists together rather than clapping his hands.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: Maybe it's a side-effect of eating all those soldiers.
The Sociopath: Mercer is diagnosed as a narcissist and a sociopath in one Web of Intrigue cutscene and the lack of a Karma Meter - along with the sheer scope for the destruction that his powers have and the way they're fueled - means he'll be doing some awful things in the name of his goals. He rarely displays so much as a flicker of regret for the murder, mass-murder, mass-cannibalism, all kinds of destruction, collateral damage... However, subverted in that he does have regrets, even if only Dana and Cross ever see them. That diagnosis was more likely for the original Mercer.
Spanner in the Works: It turns out that a super-strong shape-shifting man-eating psychopath with an intense hatred for Blackwatch tends to screw up their plans. Funny how that works.
Spikes of Doom: The Claws' groundspike move, and the Groundspike Graveyard Devastator.
The Stoic: Alex is normally a fairly calm and subdued person, rarely raising his voice. The few times he does lose his temper, he really loses it.
Super-Senses: Infected vision and Infrared vision.
Super-Strength: Alex at a base level will kill humans in one hit and can lift cars. If you stack Musclemass on top of that, Alex can pitch cars over a city block and gib people in one hit.
Tranquil Fury: There are moments where the only thing that alerts you to the fact that he's very angry is the venom in his voice. One notable moment where he finally catches up with Karen Parker.
Alex: I know.
Taking You with Me: It's revealed that the original Alex released Blacklight when he was cornered by the Blackwatch. it seems he didn't believe in half-measures - if he was going down, he was taking potentially the entire human race with him.
Technically Naked Shapeshifter: His clothes are formed from his biomass.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Alex is a guy who believes in being thorough. To the point of coating the ground, walls, and scenery with viscera in his, uh, enthusiasm.
Tomato in the Mirror: Alex Mercer is hunting down the scientists behind the virus, including whoever caused the Penn Station outbreak. As it turns out, he's The Virus. And the man who designed it and caused the outbreak? Alex Mercer.
Unstoppable Rage: His ground state of being. He's an angry, angry abomination.
Unwitting Pawn: Every bad guy manipulates him for their own gain at one point or another. He doesn't like it.
Villain Protagonist: While his methods are gruesome, it's debatable how much of a villain he actually is — he acts initially in self-defense against Blackwatch then pursues revenge rather than causing destruction just for the hell of it. Then again, you are in control of a walking biological weapon willing to devour innocent civilians to preserve his own life, so it goes both ways.
The Virus: The source of his abilities. But not the way you think — "Alex Mercer" is the Blacklight virus taking the memories and form of the deceased scientist Dr. Alex Mercer.
Walking Spoiler: A particularly egregious example considering that he's the main character, but it's hard to talk about Alex meaningfully without mentioning the fact that we're not playing as the real Alex Mercer, we're playing as The Virus that took on his form.
What Have I Become?: Word for word in his closing narration. His conclusion is that he is "less than human... but also something more."
Wolverine Claws: The Claws power turns his fingers into blades.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: You can't help but feel bad for Blacklight-Alex a lot of the time. Surprise! You died. Surprise! You have no memory. Surprise! You unleashed a plague onto Manhattan. Surprise! YOU DID IT TWICE. (Although only the first time was intentional.) Surprise! You're not really you! Surprise! YOU ARE THE VIRUS. Surprise! The original guy was evil! Surprise! You have a conscience now! Surprise! That means you feel like shit about everything! Surprise! Your not-sister's been kidnapped! Surprise! The city's going to be nuked! The guy just can't catch a break. Granted, this is later subverted by that very same conscience, which makes Alex decide that he doesn't want to make all of the people who get in his way die a horrible death because of his Roaring Rampage of Revenge after all. Just certain people.
Would Hit a Girl: A few Web of Intrigue targets are women, which naturally requires consuming them. There is no alteration to the violence he uses when doing so. When he finally gets his hands on Elizabeth Greene, Mercer viciously beats her to death to consume her.
Wrestler in All of Us: Several of his normal moves. One of the default consume animations is a chokeslam.
Younger Than They Look: Alex looks to be in his late twenties and indeed, the original Mercer was 29, but the viral copy is only 18 days old by the end of the game. He is, however, also ageless; he'll never look any older, either. As long as he keeps fed and whole, he could conceivably live forever.

Alex in Prototype 2

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alex_mercer_2.png

"Humanity is stagnant. Dying. I would give it one body. One mind. Think about it—no more conflict. No more disease. No more suffering. Don't you see? I'm giving it a second chance."

In the sequel, Alex is no longer the protagonist and differs a great deal in characterization, stemming from some bad experiences in between the games recounted in The Anchor. As such, these are the additional tropes that apply to him in Prototype 2. Spoilers ahead.

Affably Evil: In the sequel to Heller. He even tries to recruit him and teaches him how to absorb memories from his consumption targets. Testimony from his Evolved indicates he's genuinely fond of Heller, and he claims he's disappointed in him for disrupting his plans. Even when he makes the decision to kill Heller, he tries to give him a quick death. It's only when that fails that the claws come out, and he never stops trying to convince Heller to join him. But even when he's about to be brutalized by James, he still gives him high praise. "Welcome to the top of the food chain."
All There in the Manual: The comic book story The Anchor explains the reason for his Face–Heel Turn; after stopping the nuke, Alex lost faith in humanity and took to Walking the Earth in the hopes that he could find something to restore said faith. Instead, Alex just kept finding more and more reasons to think that Humans Are Bastards, which culminated in a woman he had become attracted to stealing his money and shooting him point-blank in the face while openly declaring she only cared about herself. It was this that cemented Alex's change from fighting Blacklight to embracing it.
Attack! Attack! Attack!: While capable of dodging and using Speed Blitz in his boss fight, Mercer notably focus entirely on using his Offensive Powers in order to kill Heller and rarely changes his tactics.
Bad Boss: Berates and threatens his underlings during Web of Intrigue segments and consumes them all to boost his own powers in time for his fight with Heller.
Bald of Authority: Again, his "hood" is part of his head and he creates and leads a group of Evolved to infiltrate the ranks of Blackwatch and Gentek to serve his own ends.
Bald of Evil: Unlike the first game, Alex is now a full-on villain here.
Big Bad: He's the guy who kicks off the whole plot and is trying to Take Over the World.
Big Bad Friend: In the second game, as his sister, Dana, finds out.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: His goal borders on it, if not Insane Troll Logic. Heller is... unconvinced by his arguments.
Cain and Abel: The Cain to Dana's Abel after his Face–Heel Turn.
Dark Messiah: Have shades, given the reverence, most of the Evolved seems to hold him in. Many of them act honestly shocked that Heller is attacking them.
Deadpan Snarker: His response to Heller's threat during the Final Boss stands out:
James: You're gonna tell me [where Maya is], either on your own or after I skull-fuck you and drain your memories out the hole!
Alex: (chuckles) Scary!
Despair Event Horizon: The prequel comics reveal the reason for his Face–Heel Turn in [PROTOTYPE 2] is because he lost all faith in humanity.
Devour the Dragon: Before throwing down with Heller, he consumes all the Evolved present to boost his own power and go One-Winged Angel.
The Dreaded: Unsurprisingly, given all the chaos he caused and is still causing; at the beginning of the game, Red Crown's response to learning Alex is in the Red Zone is a very justified "Oh, shit!", followed by the ordering Heller not to engage; Heller doesn't listen.
Face Framed in Shadow: Unlike the first game, nearly all of Mercer's appearances have the upper part of his face concealed in shadow. Which only enhances his villainous goals underneath his newfound friendly and sociable nature.
Face–Heel Turn: From a protagonist Anti-Hero who saved the city from a nuke during the first game, to god-complexed entity wanting to consume all of humanity.
"Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: "Huh. Welcome to the top of the food chain."
Fallen Hero: By the end of the first game, he was at least a Nominal Hero, and the lightest shade of gray in the whole sludgy mess. However, he ultimately ends up turning against humanity.
Final Boss: He's the last antagonist to be fought in the game.
A God Am I: Debatable in the sequel in accordance with his plan. He even tells his sister that the viral monsters are "no longer bound by life and death", and his Motive Rant includes a proclamation that he will create a perfect "new world".
Graceful Loser: Though he throws everything he's got at Heller in the final battle, he faces death congratulating Heller for becoming the strongest of all the Evolved.
Hive King: In Prototype 2, he has taken Elizabeth Greene's place as the leader of the Infected.
Hoist by His Own Petard: He really didn't need to take Heller's daughter in order to fulfill his plan, and this was, in the end, what got him killed, not that his Evil Gloating helped.
Hypocrite: Played with. Mercer described humanity as selfish creatures who only think about themselves. Before the final boss fight, Mercer performs a selfish act himself by absorbing his minions in order to power up himself. However, given his Blue-and-Orange Morality and speech to Heller about giving humanity "one body and one mind" before their final fight, he probably doesn't see consuming his Evolved as a selfish act but as a way to redistribute the virus better. The fact that he was a Graceful Loser after Heller defeated him and was about to consume him also helps.
I Let You Win: Implied and downplayed. While he was certainly serious in his final fight against Heller, the way his boss battle goes gives a subtle implication that he was also testing Heller as much as trying to kill him. As seen in his boss fight after going One-Winged Angel, Mercer is capable of Flash Step, which even Heller would have trouble reacting to and countering as Mercer can Speed Blitz all over the area, especially when he creates a good distance between himself and Heller in preparation for a heavy attack, yet Mercer's attacks are notably telegraphed, spends the first two phases of his boss fight using one weapon respectively (only uses his Claw power to create ground spikes), and overall, doesn't use his other previous moves from the first game. Furthermore, he can also easily No-Sell and Counter-Attack any of Heller's moves, but only if the latter tries to attack him with the same power that he was using at the moment (e.g. Mercer uses a Blade power and Heller tries to attack him using the Blade power as well).
Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Hoo, boy.
- He infects Heller, which Heller views as a curse.
- Ordered his Evolved to sabotage a cure for the virus.
- Said sabotage involves retooling it to spread the virus even further.
- In fact, the second outbreak was entirely his doing.
- Murders Father Guerra in cold blood to screw with Heller.
- He's driven Dana off to the point where she doesn't see him as her brother any more.
- Nonchalantly consumes his disciples (including Sabrina Galloway) to boost his own power for the final boss fight.
- And finally, he tells Heller to his face that he intends to make Amaya the next Evolved so that she can create more.
Just Toying with Them: Does this to James Heller at the start of the game. Given his Super-Senses, it wouldn't be a stretch that he might've noticed Heller already sneaking up to him, as well as easily killing him when the latter runs up to him again when taking Mercer's Super-Speed and Super-Reflexes into account.
Karmic Death: He shouldn't have kidnapped and tried to infect Heller's daughter.
Killed Off for Real: Is consumed by James Heller in the final mission.
Kick the Dog: Killing Father Guerra.
Large Ham: He is much more "animated" this time around - gesturing grandly and making more of a meal out of his lines than his actual meals (which he seems to have given up).
Laser-Guided Karma: After he consumes his remaining Evolved, he is consumed in turn by Heller, with whom he shared his powers early in the game.
Last-Name Basis: He's nearly, exclusively referred to as Mercer throughout the game.
Manipulative Bastard: He has infected numerous individuals, called Evolved, with his strain of the Blacklight Virus and planted them in high-ranking positions in Blackwatch and Gentek to serve as spies. He also tries to manipulate James Heller into helping him out but makes a crucial mistake that clues Heller into his real motives — mentioning that together they will destroy Gentek and Blackwatch... but not the virus.
Motive Rant: Has one. Heller doesn't really care.
No-Sell: If you try attacking him using the same power in his boss battle, Mercer can easily Counter-Attack.
No Sense of Personal Space: In his cutscenes with Heller (and in contrast with the first game), he has a habit of putting his hands on Heller's shoulders or chest as a means of seeming more sincere, and gets very... close with Galloway just before the last confrontation.
One-Winged Angel: He spends most of the game appearing outwardly human, but when push comes to shove and after consuming the Evolved, his body becomes significantly more monstrous. Along with his old Shapeshifter Weapons distorting his form, his limbs become bloated and discolored, spines erupt from his back, he's covered in blood, and his eyes glow red.
Pet the Dog: Quite nice to Heller, at first — teaching him how to consume targets and gain memories from them and informing him that consuming the more monstrous Infected will give him new powers. He also never actually goes so far as to kill Dana even when she's trying to disrupt his plans wherever possible. Before his final fight with Heller, he hides both Dana and Amaya safely out of the crossfire.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: Compared to the first game, it's far more noticeable here as whenever Mercer uses his Offensive Powers, they showcase bright red/orange veins. That's also not getting into his One-Winged Angel form in his final fight with James Heller.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: His Icy Blue Eyes turn red after going One-Winged Angel in his final fight with James Heller.
Rogue Protagonist: In the sequel, his goals and mindset regarding the virus have changed.
Same Character, But Different: Compared to the brooding and stoic Nominal Hero of the first game, Alex is now a full-on megalomaniac and hammy Big Bad in the second game.
Shout-Out: In the sequel, the similarities to long-standing Resident Evil villain Albert Wesker (particularly his characterization in Resident Evil 5) are too numerous to ignore. Both are intellectual, with scientific backgrounds (though Mercer's are borrowed), who started an endemic with a weaponized virus, who wish to wipe the scourge of humanity with a bioweapon of mass destruction, and are extremely dangerous warriors augmented with the same virus they plan to use to wipe out the planet, and all of the aforementioned viruses result in veiny, bulbous, tendril, organic shapeshifting monsters. Both have a Femme Fatale businesswoman associate whom they betray towards the end of the game. They even have a similar mode of speech and a tendency to keep their red eyes hidden.
Snark-to-Snark Combat: In the final battle, Mercer and Heller hurl insults back and forth.
Alex: Hey! I'm using that! (said if Heller uses the same weapon as him)
Social Darwinist: He believes the "Evolved", especially himself and Heller, are at the top of the food chain.
Stepford Smiler: Mercer spends most of his appearances having a rather smug, but friendly smile on his face. But underneath all of that is now a power-hungry Humanoid Abomination hellbent on world domination through viral infection.
Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Went from a conflicted, guilt-ridden Anti-Hero at the end of Prototype to a megalomaniacal supervillain just in time for the next game.
Take Over the World: His goal in [PROTOTYPE 2] amounts to turning the human race into Evolved under his command in order to end all conflict.
To the Pain: Vows this against Heller after failing to kill him:
Alex: It would've been quick. But now... I'm gonna make you suffer.
Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Implied. Alex has given up fighting in favor of more subversive methods, including creating and controlling the Evolved. During the final confrontation between him and Heller, instead of attacking with his Evolved as backup, he absorbs them to make himself strong enough to fight hand-to-hand — and still loses. Also, when Heller becomes a threat to his plans, Mercer tries to consume him, only to learn the hard way that Heller can no longer be consumed. He settles for killing Guerra in retaliation.
- This is even reflected further in his final fight with Heller at the end of the game. Although he's capable of Flash Step and showcases a "Flyer Pack" version of Heller's "Pack Leader" devastator in the third phase of their battle, the rest of Mercer's abilities are essentially his old powerset from the first game being enhanced by his One-Winged Angel form, and even the latter is seen as a Super Mode version of his "Critical Mass" state. Also, he doesn't utilize his other abilities like the Claw power unless it's for the Groundspike move, Musclemass power, Defensive Powers (Shield and Armor), and other devastators, which plays a role in his defeat by Heller in the end.
Walking the Earth: He does this between the first and second games, as shown in the interquel comic. He was very, very disappointed in what he saw.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: His actions in the sequel are legitimately in order to end the stagnation and cruelty of humanity by killing most of it off and forcing the rest to become something... else. He's just... rather extreme about his methods.
Would Hurt a Child: Makes explicit his intention to infect Amaya in front of Heller. He doesn't see it as 'hurting' her, and specifically made sure she'd be safe during the final battle, but if it'll piss off his opponent and cause him to start making mistakes... hey, whatever works.
Zombie Apocalypse: His goal, expand worldwide.

Sgt. James Heller

Voiced by: Cornell Womack

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/prototype_heller.png

"My name is Sgt. James Heller, and I will destroy Alex Mercer."

Protagonist of [PROTOTYPE 2]. A marine who lost his family to the infection while he was away on duty. He returns to Manhattan, runs a series of suicide missions in the Red Zone, and is eventually mortally wounded. Mercer is impressed by his skill, however, and infects Heller with his unique strain of Blacklight. Now a newly super powered Heller vows to kill Mercer.

Absurdly Sharp Claws: The first power James acquires. In its base form, it has serrations on its back edge like a combat knife.
Anti-Hero: He's no white hat, but he's initially considerate of the civilian cost and disrupts Gentek's experiments on the populace. Then Roland, a Gentek scientist and one of Alex's Evolved, mocks Heller for thinking he's a hero despite killing thousands to get at him. Heller's response:
Heller: Did I say I was a fucking hero, you piece of shit?!
Appendage Assimilation: Gains new abilities by tearing off and assimilating the limbs of Blacklight Abominations and Evolved with those powers.
Badass Normal: Before his transformation, he fights his way to the middle of the Red Zone alone and kills a Brawler Hunter using only a combat knife. He also manages to land a few strikes on Mercer with no powers, though none of them actually harm Mercer along with the implication that Heller only managed to land those hits because Mercer allowed it to happen.
Batman Gambit: His long-running intimidation scheme for Galloway, which was useful for a while but panned out badly. In the various side-missions, Heller also manipulates Blackwatch, usually into exposing themselves to his attacks.
The Beastmaster: Gains the ability to call Brawler Hunters to fight alongside him with the Pack Leader ability. He later also gets the ability to temporarily add Juggernauts to this arsenal.
Blade Below the Shoulder: The Blade. Like the Claws, it has an army knife flavor in its base arm. Its size is even lampshaded in the game.
Boisterous Bruiser: While he isn't quite as amoral as Alex started out in the first game, he is much more vocal in his enthusiasm.
Civvie Spandex with a side of Magic Pants: As a shapeshifter and like Alex, Heller is technically not wearing clothing; his "clothes" are imitations that he created from himself.
Combat Tentacles: To an even more extreme degree than Mercer. His Tendril powers can be used in conjunction with Wreaking Havok, allowing for wholesale devastation of scenery as well as large numbers of Mooks.
Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Compared to the sullen, amnesiac, and somewhat easily manipulated former scientist Mercer who discovers he was never actually human, Heller is aggressively loud, retains his identity as a soldier, and trusts very few people that he doesn't have existing connections with while seeming happy to return to human life with his surviving daughter.
Cursed with Awesome: Even he seems to realize this.
Deadpan Snarker: Heller is an endless font of snark when he's not boiling with fury.
Dead Person Impersonation: Courtesy of eating them and taking their form.
Death by Origin Story: Or his wife anyway.
Death Seeker: So he can rejoin his family, or so he says. Until he finds out his daughter is alive.
Determinator: His first reaction to seeing Alex Mercer, super-strong super-agile notorious bio-terrorist scourge of New York? Pull out the only weapon he had at the time - a large knife - run up and slit his throat. He then charges Mercer and stabs him several more times, again without success. Even this did not deter him, and after chasing him across the Red Zone he still tries to stab Mercer, despite knowing it won't work.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Kills and devours Alex at the end of the game.
The Dragon: He was intended to be this by Alex Mercer. Didn't work out so well.
Dumb Muscle: Very much averted. Certain academically-inclined characters throughout the game, like Dr. Anton Koenig, poke fun at Heller's lack of intelligence and perchance for brawn, except Heller is shown time and time again to prove his own intellect given his military background (after all, you don't become a U.S. Sergeant just for kicking dirt) and being able to manipulate others to get the information he needs.
Empowered Badass Normal: After the transformation.
Emergency Transformation: He's unhappy about what Mercer did to him in order to save his life.
Eye Beams: The Medusa's Gaze power granted by the Excessive Force DLC, which One Hit Kills anything and everything.
He Who Fights Monsters: Present and invoked deliberately. To have a shot at taking down Mercer, Heller will have to become just as or even more powerful, and equally monstrous, which would be a hell of a feat. Due to the drastic changes in Mercer's characterisation, Heller does wind up defending New York from his hated enemy, though his humanity remains in question.
Hopeless with Tech: Apparent in Mission 3, where he has trouble even reading the keyboard and doesn't bother logging off the computer he was using. While the keyboard did have a "triangle" key and was thus no conventional computer, one gets the feeling that Heller had similar experiences in the past.
Hot-Blooded: James is very excitable, and often jumps into a fight without thinking.
Horrifying Hero: Really hits home when he's finally reunited with his daughter and she's just too terrified to even touch him since he's currently in Blade Below the Shoulder mode. She gets over it, though.
Humanoid Abomination: Same deal as Alex. Except that he retains his human memories/identity.
I'm a Humanitarian: Unlike Alex, Heller makes frequent, gruesome jokes about this ability and doesn't have the excuse of not actually being human, as Alex does.
I Hate You, Vampire Dad: He blames Alex for the deaths of his wife and daughter and isn't pleased to be infected by Mercer.
Immune to Bullets: With the "Bulletproof" mutation, he's immune to small arms fire, but not explosions or cannons.
Instant Armor: The Armor from the Excessive Force pack. Subverted in that it's just a alternate skin and doesn't affect gameplay at all.
Kill and Replace: Like Mercer, but his most prominent and lasting one was Lieutenant Riley, codename "Castle", who was Rooks' right-hand man.
Large Ham: He is both loud and extremely crude. His tendency towards Trash Talk results in a fountain of profanity, whether in battle or not.
Lightning Bruiser: In the final fight against Mercer, he notes that he's just too fast for an enhanced and powered-up Mercer to keep up with him. In the same fight, he also physically overpowers Alex. Also, in the first game, there were certain enemies who could catch Alex, like the Leader Hunter. Heller? Once he has all his speed upgrades, nothing can keep up with him.
Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Shield, which can now be dual-wielded.
Made of Iron: Even as an ordinary human, he's able to simply shrug off getting tossed into a tank and subsequently getting hit with a Megaton Punch with enough force to create a Kung-Fu Sonic Boom by Mercer.
Manipulative Bastard: Much like Mercer, Heller plays hail-mary with the Blackwatch command structure, and especially their field commander Rooks. Presumably, his own military experience facilitated the expertise with which he infiltrates Blackwatch. Likewise, he was able to milk Galloway for information for a long time, though that backfired badly when he stretched it too far.
Meaningful Name: It's possible his surname of Heller relates to the Hela Cell Line taken from Henrietta Lacks. The cells are notably durable, resilient, and constantly strive to multiply. Probably why Heller and his daughter have, in Mercer's own words, "annoyingly resilient DNA."
Papa Wolf: The sheer amount of hatred directed at Mercer, as a result, is truly frightening to behold.
Enough of your fucking weird, fucking rambling SHIT. GIVE ME MY DAUGHTER!
Person of Mass Destruction: Fully capable of destroying everything in the streets of New York in somewhere between an instant and a few minutes, by himself, somehow, after absorbing Alex and his immense amount of biomass.
Plague Master: An even better example of one than his progenitor, as he can infect his victims with a particularly vicious power named Biobomb. The afflicted are first engulfed in a mass of fleshy tentacles, then they are torn apart by the tentacles, which then proceed to impale unfortunate bystanders. He can also summon and control up to four Brawlers (depending on Mass upgrades).
Power Fist: The Hammerfists, which are able to generate spikes from the ground.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: His motivation for most of the game. He actually cools down a lot when he finds out Amaya's still alive.
Scary Black Man: Considering his powers, they don't come much scarier.
Shapeshifter Weapon: Mostly the same as his predecessor, but more organic-looking.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: Was diagnosed with both PTSD and Unstoppable Rage.
Shooting Superman: He goes after Mercer armed with nothing more than a combat knife when Mercer survived a nuclear explosion.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: Becomes noticeably much more vulgar after he loses his family.
Smarter Than You Look: He's gruff as all hell and not always eloquent, which makes him seem a bit like Dumb Muscle. However, he's at times witty (though he ascribes to Black Comedy) and the way he turns Blackwatch upside-down makes it clear that he's not unfamiliar with subversive tactics. Being a sergeant in the Marine Corps requires no small amount of intelligence. He also consumes a number of scientists throughout the game, gaining all of their memories.
Spanner in the Works: Unwittingly at first, and then later intentionally, screws up Alex Mercer's plans to take over the world.
Spikes of Doom: The Groundspike maneuver, now used in conjunction with the Hammerfists. His shields also become studded with spikes after a certain point.
Superior Successor: Heller is in many ways superior to Alex at his peak, once you factor in all the upgrades. He's explicitly faster, and stronger, and his powers are in some ways deadlier than Mercer's equivalents. The only thing Mercer has on Heller is that Heller lacks Mercer's extreme jumping prowess.
Super-Senses: Viral Sonar, enabling him to hunt down his targets.
Super-Strength: Even greater than Mercer's.
Unstoppable Rage: His wife and his daughter (well, not the daughter) are dead, so he embarks on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the man he holds responsible.
What You Are in the Dark: Decides not to kill Rooks when he is on the phone and only they are in the room because he sees how he does care for his family.
Whip Sword: Heller's Whipfist, while a Combat Tentacle, has serrations and is tipped by a blade.
Why Am I Ticking?: The Biobomb allows him to infect and convert citizens into Action Bombs after a short delay.
Wolverine Claws: The Claws bear serrations on their outer edges, similar to a combat knife. They can be used to perform a Deadly Lunge.

Civilians

Dana A. Mercer

Voiced by: Lake Bell (Prototype 1), Lindsay Ames (Prototype 2)
"Someone's gotta know what the fuck is going on here."
^{Click here to see her in Prototype 2}

Alex's younger sister and the first person he remembers after he awakes. A journalism student and spitfire with a sharp tongue and an inquisitive mind, she loves and idolizes her older brother, despite not having seen him in five years, and acts as his intelligence gatherer and data analyst.

Code Name: "Athena" in [PROTOTYPE 2].
Damsel in Distress: A few missions revolve around rescuing her from peril. Pretty understandable, since she's not the one with superpowers or military training.
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: But only because she's always in the dark. She'd probably look normal in good light.
- In the sequel, she takes issue with being called "pasty".
Et Tu, Brute?: Definitely her reaction in the second game when Alex imprisons her inside a bank vault with Amaya.
I Have No Brother: Tells Heller to kill Alex after finding out he had Galloway kidnap Amaya, as he is no longer her brother, and explicitly tells Alex as he stuffs her and Amaya in a bank vault that Alex is "dead now."
I Take Offense to That Last One: In Prototype 2, a bunch of drunken soldiers call her and Heller up and insult them, calling Dana a "pasty hacker cunt." Afterward, Dana gripes that she's "not pasty."
Intrepid Reporter: Only a student, but according to her character profile, she's naturally inclined this way.
Lady Swears-a-Lot: Though the entire game is hardly stingy with the F-bombs, she swears as often as the soldiers do.
Mission Control: You get most of the story missions for the first part of the game from her. Continues this tradition with Heller in the sequel after Guerra dies, for approximately the second half of the game.
Morality Pet: The only living being that Alex gives a damn about aside from himself. Also one of very few people in the game on speaking terms with stuff like ethics and sanity. Likewise, she is Heller's only friend and the only person he makes an effort to be nice to after Guerra's death.
Now What?: How she ends the second game. "What do we do now?"
Parental Substitute:
- Her character profile explains that this is the reason she trusts her older brother so absolutely; never knowing her father, Alex was the closest thing she had to a stable parental figure. Knowing this makes everything revealed about her brother roughly a bazillion times more depressing.
- Heller tries to convince her to take Amaya in if Heller is somehow not around. Though Dana's flustered, she and Amaya get along very well, and Amaya runs towards Dana when Heller's infection freaks out Amaya.
Plucky Girl: Not that it does her any good given the setting, but this college-age girl with no combat training and no superpowers insults Blackwatch soldiers to their faces and actually headbutts one who puts his hands on her. The fact that Alex splatted the guy a second later in no way lessens her sheer chutzpah. On the optimism count, she never turns her back on her brother, always helping him even when he's just gotten through explaining that he eats people, in the sincere belief that he's still in there somewhere and knows what's right. She's wrong on both counts — about her real brother. Her fake one, oddly enough, is less of a bastard and genuinely cares. In the sequel, though she's hardened a bit, she's probably the nicest character after Guerra's death.
Scarf of Asskicking: Sports one in the second game.
Theme Naming: Her code name, Athena, is the daughter of Zeus in Classical Mythology... the latter of whom just so happens to be the code name for Alex, although it's never actually used in the second game.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Rescued while unconscious, not seen again for the rest of the game. She shows up in the sequel as "Athena", Guerra's contact and Heller's second Mission Control.

Doctor Bradley Ragland

Voiced by: Phil LaMarr

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bradley_ragland.png

"My medical opinion's not for sale."

A pathologist who knows some uncomfortable secrets, content to run the morgue in a teaching hospital in New York. He once worked for GENTEK, but quit on ethical grounds some time ago. Dana sends Alex to him in the hopes that he can cure the parasite.

Black Dude Dies First: Averted. He survives throughout the entire game. However, his fate in the sequel remains a mystery.
Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Good, but worked with McMullen in the past. Randall states that they have enough dirt on him to ensure he'd keep quiet.
Only Sane Man: The only other character with a working sense of ethics.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Alex leaves Dana in his care, and they both are not seen or heard from again afterward. Unlike Dana, his fate is not alluded to in the sequel.

Father Luis Guerra

Voiced by: Ivan Basso

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/father_luis_guierra.png

A priest who runs the church in the Yellow Zone that Heller and his family once attended. He tried to meddle with Blackwatch's experiments but failed and barricaded himself in his church. Heller snaps him out of his Despair Event Horizon and Guerra provides him with intel on Blackwatch supplied by a contact called Athena. Alex Mercer and a horde of Infected kill him after Heller becomes a threat to his plans.

Badass Preacher: He's as compassionate as any priest should be, which does not mean he's averse to keeping an iron pipe close at hand should someone threaten his flock.
Dark and Troubled Past: The guy knows a lot more than he should oughta about guerrilla warfare. Apparently, he's had a lot of tattoos removed.
Meaningful Name: "Guerra" is Spanish for "war".
Mentor Occupational Hazard: He's killed by Mercer.
Revenge by Proxy: Killed by Alex Mercer and his Infected as revenge for Heller interfering with his plans for Whitelight.

GENTEK

Director Raymond McMullen

Voiced by: Paul Guilfoyle

"I want it on a slab. I need to know what makes it tick."

The Director of Research at GENTEK; Alex's ex-boss, who knows more of Blackwatch's secrets than is healthy due to his insatiable scientific curiosity. This fascination extends to Alex's abilities and eventually leads to his death.

Better to Die than Be Killed: Especially when your enemy will gain vital information by killing you in a certain way.
Dying Smirk: He smirks at Alex just before blowing his own brain out.
Mad Scientist: A subdued one, but he really wants to learn about The Virus, to the point that his curiosity gets him in trouble with Blackwatch because he keeps finding out things that they don't think he should know.
Villainy-Free Villain: Technically McMullen never does anything overtly evil. While's he definitely a shady character and responsible for Blackwatch's research program, during the actual game he's entirely focused on stopping the spread of the virus and bringing down Mercer. Especially ironic since the main things Alex suspects him of doing, infecting Alex with Blacklight and causing the New York outbreak, Alex himself is responsible for.

Karen Parker

Voiced by: Vanessa Marshall

Alex's ex-girlfriend and a scientist like him; her picture still hangs on the wall of his apartment. She helps him create a cure for the virus ravaging Manhattan. One of the viruses, anyway. Specifically, Alex himself; Karen was (possibly) forced into working for Blackwatch and the "cure" turns out to be a parasite designed to kill him.

All Girls Want Bad Boys: Somehow, Alex won her over with his charming personality. Granted, she is his ex, but we don't know what went down or who dumped who.
Boxed Crook: Downplayed, but WOI segments indicate she was detained by Blackwatch at or before the time the virus was released in Penn Station, and was given a choice of helping McMullen and Blackwatch manipulate Mercer, or... not.
Killed Off for Real: Not explicitly done ingame (though heavily implied), but in promotional materials for the sequel, they reveal that Mercer killed her.
The Mole: Pretends to be an ally to Mercer, but she is actually being used by Blackwatch.
Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: She was working for Gentek in the first place... however, she did attempt to talk Mercer down before Penn Station. She was captured by Blackwatch and given a choice between helping them stop the shape shifting, people eating monstrosity or being treated as an accomplice to Mercer's actions.
Scylla and Charybdis: Presented with the choice between being on the front lines of an attempt to manipulate and destroy an Axe-Crazy Humanoid Abomination on a bloody swath of vengeance and hoping that doesn't come back to bite her, OR refusing to help the sinister Black Ops group that erases entire towns and hoping for the best.

Spoiler Character!!!

Dr. Alexander "Alex" J. Mercer

Voiced by: Barry Pepper (Prototype 1)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alexander_j_mercer.png

"Morality was not my job. Modifying chimeric viruses was. I wasn't in field application, I was in engineering."

The former Head Researcher of Gentek and the creator of the Blacklight virus. He's also the original and true identity of Alex Mercer/ZEUS.

Abusive Mom: His mother is implied to have been this for Alexander in his childhood, given that she was released from prison after nine years of incarceration along with the fact that it was mentioned that he would've been better off in foster care.
Admiring the Abomination: He was fascinated with the Redlight virus' constantly changing and incredibly complex structure and engineered it into the 10 times deadlier strain, Blacklight.
Ambiguously Trained: Going, by the way, Alex Mercer is able to perform parkour, is capable of some fighting moves, and even manages to catch a car on reflex after getting blown up by a missile before performing his first consume in the game, Alexander is implied to have some fighting experience or martial training given his Dark and Troubled Past and former occupation as a head researcher to a company with ties to the paramilitary Blackwatch.
Awesomeness by Analysis:
- He was able to deduce that the research on the Redlight virus involves making biological weapons and not a "cure for all diseases" as he and the other Gentek scientists were led to believe, not that he cares as long as he gets to modify "chimeric viruses".
- Although perhaps it's also a result of being Properly Paranoid, he soon realizes that Gentek employees are being silenced by Blackwatch due to the nature of the special project with the help of Dana.
Badass Bookworm: He's an intelligent enough scientist to engineer the Redlight virus into the Blacklight virus and is implied to have fighting experience given the moves displayed by Alex Mercer in the game.
Brainy Brunette: He has brown hair and was the head researcher for Gentek.
Broken Ace: He was a very intelligent man who managed to forge his way into a respectable position as a head researcher in Gentek despite his poverty-stricken background. However, his Dark and Troubled Past left him with a ton of issues.
Came Back Strong: Subverted. Until The Reveal, it's believed that he was resurrected by the Blacklight virus along with a dose of amnesia. Turns out, it's the Blacklight virus itself taking on his form and memories as his dying body fell onto it.
Dark and Troubled Past: Alexander's childhood isn't a pleasant one. He grew up in abject poverty and spent his first 9 years in foster care until his mother was released from prison and went back to her custody at the age of 10. Unfortunately, life with his mother was worse to the point that it would've been better if he stayed in foster care and forced him to be a Parental Substitute for Dana.
Dead All Along: You thought that you were playing as him throughout the game as an Amnesiac Hero? Surprise! He died shortly before the start and his corpse happened to fall on the spot where he threw the vial of Blacklight and gave birth to the current Alex Mercer with jumble memories.
Defiant to the End: Even though he was cornered by Blackwatch and is unable to escape, Alexander refuses to die without a fight by breaking the vial of Blacklight and unleashing a zombie apocalypse just before he gets gunned down.
In the Hood: He wore this while trying to escape being assassinated by Blackwatch and at the time of his death.
Ivy League for Everyone: He graduated from Columbia University with a doctorate in genetics.
Lack of Empathy: In his own words, he's not being paid to feel nor that morality is his job. However, Dana's recollection of him being a caring older brother and his short, but pleasant relationship with Karen Parker implies he's not all unfeeling.
Lean and Mean: He's quite slender looking on the outside, and isn't a good person to say.
Posthumous Character: He died shortly before the events of the game, and he's only seen alive in flashbacks.
Promoted to Parent: Considering the implications of his mother being abusive, Alexander acts as a Parental Substitute to his younger sister.
Small Role, Big Impact: He only appears in flashbacks and died shortly before the events of the game, but his engineering of the Blacklight Virus and later releasing it upon the time of his death paves the way for the events of the entire duology.
The Sociopath: He's diagnosed as one in a web of intrigue.
The Unfettered: In his own words, he's not being paid to "feel" nor is concerned about the "amorality" of his work. All that matters to him is engineering the Redlight virus into something more and preserving his own life when Blackwatch comes around to kill off any liabilities, even if innocent people, including his younger sister, get caught in the crossfire.

Dr. Anton Koenig

Voiced by: Robert Morse

The lead virologist of Gentek, he's also in charge of its major projects in New York. Because Heller was infected directly by Alex Mercer, Koenig has taken a particular interest in him. He is one of Mercer's spies, having been infected with the same strand of Blacklight that gave him and Heller their powers, and was in charge of developing Whitelight - an upgraded version of Blacklight.

Blade Below the Shoulder: Like most Evolved, he can transform his arms into blades.
Humanoid Abomination: One of Mercer's Evolved.
Killed Off for Real: Dies very quickly.
Mad Scientist: Pretty much a given, especially with the track record of other Gentek scientists. He is elated when he sees Heller is infected but alive — such an intriguing subject! Being an Evolved, he has other motives for investigating Heller.
Manipulative Bastard: Plays Heller like a fiddle for a few missions, much like Karen Parker did to Mercer in the first game.
Meaningful Name: König (of which Koenig is an alternate spelling) means "king" in German. He's the head virologist of Gentek.
The Mole: For Mercer.
Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Given that he's the "lead virologist" at a company known only for creating some pretty deadly viruses.
Playing with Syringes: The Gentek modus operandi, but his enthusiasm is unusual even for Gentek. He literally has Heller Strapped to an Operating Table at one point.
Smug Snake: This guy perhaps has one of the worst cases of this, even amongst the Evolved. He tries to go against Mercer's orders and works to kill Heller simply in an attempt to gain his favour, and when the jig is up, he unabashedly admits he’s been taking Heller for a fool and underestimates him at every opportunity. Even his final words before being pulped into the concrete and consumed by Heller is asking Heller in a sneering manner if he wants him to beg.
Too Dumb to Live: His betrayal of Heller? "Send more men."
We Hardly Knew Ye: He's an evil scientist. He's an Evolved. That's all we get.

Sabrina Galloway

Voiced by: Melissa Disney

The Chief Financial Officer of Gentek, Galloway is in charge of Gentek's financial affairs. She is also one of Alex Mercer's spies, having been infected with the same strand of Blacklight that gave him and Heller their powers.

Blade Below the Shoulder: Like most Evolved, she can transform her arms into blades.
Femme Fatale: She tends to rely on sex-appeal in order to get her way.
Heel–Face Revolving Door: Works for Mercer, being a spy in Gentek, but then helps Heller against Mercer's Evolved. Finally shifts back to Mercer's side when Heller consistently shows his contempt for her and doesn't take her offer to leave the city together.
It's All About Me
Heller: Who's side are you on?
Galloway: Mine.
Humanoid Abomination: One of Mercer's Evolved.
Manipulative Bitch: She's quite aware she's no soldier and relies on deals and planning to survive.
The Mole: For Mercer.
Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Consumed by Mercer along with the other Evolved present in order to supercharge himself for the final battle.
Scarily Competent Tracker: Of other Evolved. She can track any of them, presumably by a method similar to Heller's viral sonar, except Heller himself and the untraceable Roland.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Tries to convince Heller to escape the city and leave his daughter behind. He doesn't take.
The Sociopath: Her motivations are her own advancement and Gentek's bottom line, in that order, and absolutely nothing is off the table in the name of aiding those two things. She hopes Heller stops Operation Firehawk before anyone "important" is harmed. Heller immediately replies "I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That".
The Starscream: Suggests she and Heller team up against Mercer, but is rejected.

Blackwatch

General

Blackwatch

Officially designated the 1st Biological Warfare Command, US Army Project BLACKWATCH is the government military force in charge of containing viral outbreaks. Each soldier is chosen not only for their combat and training prowess but also for their innate belief that individuals must be sacrificed to protect the greater population. Combine that with a lucrative pay scale and a brutal disciplinary system and you get a pack of extremely loyal, fiercely idealistic, and extremely ruthless killers.

Badass Army: Morally oblique they maybe, Blackwatch would've stopped the outbreak several times had it not been for Alex's intervention. These guys took on a Lovecraftian supervirus and won.
Badass Creed:
"When we hunt, we kill!
No one is safe!
Nothing is sacred!
We are Blackwatch!
We are the last line of defense!
We will burn our own to hold the red line,
it is the last line to ever hold!"
Comedic Sociopathy: Their Sociopathic Soldier tendencies are often played for Black Comedy in Prototype 2.
Create Your Own Villain: Despite existing to combat the various Redlight and Blacklight strains, they were the ones who started it all in the first place, having created the first of the viral strains in the sixties and tested them out on the citizens of Hope, Idaho, where it evolved into a zombie plague and ran amok. The scientists and soldiers present were so shocked by the terror they'd created that they formed Blackwatch to stop it from happening again in the future. This lesson didn't take sadly, their creation of and subsequent events surrounding Blacklight attesting to that.
Elite Mooks: Blackwatch troops are this in the canon, but in regards to gameplay they're just reskinned Marines with slightly higher health (enough to absorb an extra bullet on the hardest difficulty, for how much that's worth). They're actually substantially more resilient against military weapons than Marines are in the sequel, but again this doesn't go very far.
Faceless Goons: Literally and figuratively, Blackwatch troops have zero humanity. The sequel has some Blackwatch-aligned missions that put a (figurative) human face on them.
Flanderization: Blackwatch in the sequel is more or less a parody of their Prototype 1 incarnation (and well-intentioned extremists in general). Their first appearance post Heller's capture is a textbook war crime scene, lining up a group of civilians to be shot for the subversive crime of spraying graffiti. One soldier gets a medal for "consistent display and embodiment of the organization's core tenets" after he shoots a woman for no reason.
Gas Mask Mooks: Each one of them wears a gas mask.
Giant Mook: Super Soldiers. As shown in the concept art, they are a head taller than the average soldier.
Goggles Do Nothing: They wear night-vision goggles during the day.
Informed Attribute: They’re supposedly around in the first game because they’re elite troops who specialize in this sort of thing, but it’s never meaningfully shown and in practice, they’re just reskinned cannon fodder who sometimes show up in missions and sometimes don’t with no rhyme or reason. They're Flanderization into a rogue agency of evil scientists and Ax-Crazy gun-toting thugs in the sequel actually goes some way to justify their presence as they’re frequently shown conducting operations any conventional military force would balk at.
The Man Behind the Man: They’re the ones actually in charge of Marine operations during the outbreak.
Mission Control: A variety of mission controllers send orders out of the Red Crown Command building in Battery Park. A lone female controller, also going by Red Crown, takes over in the sequel.
The Mole: They’re absolutely chock-full of Evolved infiltrators in the sequel.
Mission Creep: By the time of the second outbreak they’ve expanded from a couple of battalions (supposedly) of specialists into practically their own branch of the military, to the point that they occupy New York outright and Blackwatch commanders are enforcing graffiti laws.
Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: While still cruel and extreme in their methods in the first game, they were largely in the right regarding their merciless, unforgiving attitude towards the outbreak considering that their enemy was just as intelligent, vicious, and ruthless as they were. By the second game, however, their good intentions are almost completely gone, having more or less completely devolved into Ax-Crazy thugs with guns that happily serve as Gentek’s henchmen and regularly assist them in conducting "experiments"(aka, unleashing infected monsters on unarmed civilians or just plain up kidnapping, torturing and murdering them) for the fun of it.
Repressive, but Efficient: They're actually pretty good at fighting the virus and come pretty close to saving the day in both games. They even manage to create and mass-produce a cure in the sequel. Their trouble is that they have no real way of handling the Prototypes.
Sociopathic Soldier: Literally a requirement; James Heller was rejected because he refused to shoot civilians. Desperate times demand desperate measures, though a lot of soldiers are extraordinarily eager to shoot anything that moves.
"I've gotta be fuckin' honest, if I had morals this would fuckin' bug me."
Stupid Evil: In the first game they accidentally release no less than two doomsday viruses on Manhattan in several days. The first was because they killed Alex Mercer for trying to leave them, and he’s trying to leave Blackwatch because they’re the kind of organization that kills its own employees. The second time is because they brought Elizabeth Greene into Manhattan apparently without any real security measures beyond locking the doors. The second game justifies it by having their leadership infiltrated by Evolved who are sabotaging their efforts to stop the virus.
Superpowered Mooks: Their Super Soldiers can go toe-to-toe with Mercer, Heller, and any of the stronger Infected in fistfights.
Took a Level in Jerkass: While their Prototype 1 incarnation was a thoroughly ruthless pack of killers, they were also Well Intentioned Extremists trying to prevent a Lovecraftian virus from destroying humanity. Their Prototype 2 incarnation is a bunch of sociopathic, often Ax-Crazy goons who gleefully Kick the Dog at every opportunity and care more about assisting Gentek in their experiments than protecting humanity from the Blacklight virus.
Training from Hell: Justified. All of the Blackwatch soldiers are hand-picked from various special forces of the United States Military and undergo further training in a disciplinary system that is described to be "brutal" to the point that they result in either a Sociopathic Soldier or encouraged their pre-existing traits. Of course, when going up against legions of Infected, especially the ones that are stronger and just as willing to kill everyone with extreme prejudice, you can't fret over the individual lives of civilians.
Unfriendly Fire: Done as a policy. One of their responses when getting patsied into shooting the wrong guy is "Do we really care if we're wrong?"
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Their methods are horrible and beyond war crimes, but their goal is to prevent the extinction of the human race.
Would Hurt a Child: One of the blackbox recordings in Prototype 2 features a Blackwatch soldier calmly gunning down an autistic child, over his mother's desperate cries, because he couldn't talk to the soldier on demand.

Captain Robert Cross

Voiced by: Jeffrey Pierce

Soldier: Is it true that he caught the last Runner on his own?

Randall: Not caught. Killed.

- Discussing Cross

A highly skilled and dedicated member of Blackwatch who believes wholeheartedly in what they claim to fight for: protecting the American people from the threat presented by the virus, whatever it takes. He leads a team of fellow veterans, the Wisemen, and has a reputation for surviving and winning battles with even the most powerful infected creatures.

Ace Custom: He's the only human soldier to wield an arm-mounted grenade launcher.
Ambiguously Human: While Word of God does confirm him as human, Cross is notably very quick and durable to be able to take hits from Alex Mercer of all people and not be ripped apart like every other normal human in the game. This allowed fans to theorize that he may have partially Infected himself in a similar manner to the D-Code Soldiers but with a strain from the Redlight virus.
Arm Cannon: Sports an arm-mounted grenade launcher that can shoot more than one grenade at a time.
Armor-Piercing Attack: Whether it'll be his grenades or baton, Cross can break the Shield power in one hit.
Badass Normal: He fights Alex Mercer to a very close loss and walks away alive thanks to being Crazy-Prepared. Even before that, he's known to be able to survive and won many battles against the most powerful Infected, with some of those battles implied to have been singlehandedly. This trope is also enforced by the developers because they needed a human foe for Alex to face and have a chance of losing.
Blood Knight: Randall tells him that ZEUS killed fifty men and smashed through a steel door as though these facts make fighting ZEUS a more appealing prospect. Apparently, they do.
Charles Atlas Superpower: Exaggerated. There's little to suggest Cross' insane reflexes and durability are the results of being infected other than him being just that good as a Blackwatch specialist.
Crazy-Prepared: As powerful as he is to be able to go toe-to-toe against Mercer, it's very clear that his foe is stronger than him and Cross would very likely be killed and consumed. So he uses Alex's flashbacks against him and makes him vulnerable for a shot of the "Cure" (i.e. parasitic cancer that blocks Mercer's powers). Unfortunately, it doesn't save him from the Supreme Hunter.
Deadpan Snarker: Aside from cracking wise during his fight with Mercer, he dryly notes to Randall that containing Manhattan is "slightly" more than he and his dozen-odd men can handle.
Defiant to the End: When he is about to be killed by the Supreme Hunter, he did not meet his end like a coward, instead readying himself and even intimidating the creature as it charges at him. Bad. Ass.
Even Evil Has Standards: Since Operation Firebreak was not what he signed on for, he pulls a Heel–Face Turn and tries to help Alex take down Blackwatch.
Good Is Not Nice: Cross might be significantly less insane than the rest of his division, but he's Blackwatch to the core. He'll throw men at Mercer to whittle him down, speak worryingly casually about helping Mercer eat his superiors, and while 'allied' with Alex tries pretty hard to get him killed. All for the greater good, but yeesh.
Guile Hero Antagonist: It may be a bit of a stretch to call him a hero at first, but he does manage to nearly defeat the Villain Protagonist Alex simply by talking to him and triggering his memories.
Heel–Face Door-Slam: Cross gets eaten by the Supreme Hunter well before he and Alex can stop Blackwatch.
Heel–Face Turn: Caused by the General's plan to nuke Manhattan.
Hoist by His Own Petard: An eventual example he plants a parasite on Mercer, who gets rid of it. Mercer then plants a similar parasite which grows on Elisabeth Green, becomes the Supreme Hunter, and kills and impersonates him.
Inexplicably Awesome: There's no in-game indication that he is anything more than human, yet Cross is the only human so far in the entire series to go toes to toes with Redlight/Blacklight-enhanced beings. In his backstory, he even managed to kill an infected woman similar to Elizabeth Greene (albeit weaker) all on his lonesome.
Inspector Javert: He's the soldier specifically tasked to capture Alex Mercer, but the motives for his Stern Chase initially avoid sympathy as they are dictated by Blackwatch. True to the trope description, he redeems himself when he teams up with Alex to stop Blackwatch from nuking Manhattan.
Lightning Bruiser: Though the shock baton admittedly represents much of his damage potential, this man can dodge every blow Mercer throws at him so long as he isn't set up for an attack with his arm-mounted grenade launcher.
Made of Iron: Exaggerated to the point of Super-Toughness. Cross is the only human character besides the Super Soldiers to not easily get a hole punched in him and/or ripped to shreds like tissue paper from Alex Mercer.
Manipulative Bastard: A close examination of Cross's late-game actions reveals that he plays Mercer like a fiddle.
Not What I Signed on For: Which prompts his Heel–Face Turn.
Shock and Awe: He carries around an electric baton that can seriously hurt Mercer.
Super-Soldier: Heavily implied to be this. But unlike the D-Code Soldiers, Cross would be infected with a strain of the Redlight virus instead.
Token Good Teammate: Unlike the other members of the organization, who are fanatical at best and Ax-Crazy at worst, he has certain lines, like nuking Manhattan even when it is obvious that it is recovering a step too far.
Sword Drag: Does one when staring down the Supreme Hunter, from its perspective.
You Fight Like a Cow: Likes to drop one-liners about the player's performance during his boss fight.
Cross: You might be fast, but I'm faster.
Cross: Slow. Fatally slow.
Younger Than They Look: He's thirty-eight. Really.

Colonel Ian Taggart

Voiced by: Richard McGonagle

The field commander stationed in Manhattan and Randall's second-in-command.

Dirty Coward: Or at least Randall and Alex think so when he finally snaps and tries to withdraw. But it's hard to blame him. Except, the two were right - he orders an evacuation immediately after Greene is killed, causing military positions to collapse despite Greene's death weakening the Infected. Then he attempts to brute force his way out of the quarantine zone despite this possibly spreading the virus.
"Get Back Here!" Boss: He spends most of the time running away from you in his tank, while occasionally stopping to take potshots with its thermobaric cannon.
Only Sane Man: In contrast to the above, he realizes right off the bat that both Blackwatch and the Marines are in no position to handle this threat, but Randall won't let him retreat.
Too Dumb to Live: If you don't consume him in time, he'll try to drive straight through a Blackwatch quarantine barricade and get blown to smithereens.
Villainous Breakdown: As the situation deteriorates, he tries to get Randall to deal with the problem at a distance. When Mercer comes for him, he panics and places his men between himself and the pissed-off Humanoid Abomination coming to eat him.
We Have Reserves: He begins throwing his troops into Mercer's path and certain death to gain time to escape himself. It fails, only succeeding in making Mercer really, really angry. He also wanted to perform Operation Firebreak on Manhattan from the very beginning in order to wipe out the infection from a distance, thereby exhibiting this trope for the entire population of Manhattan and other soldiers operating there.

General Peter Randall

Voiced by: Gordon Clapp

Alex: Even Randall's not crazy enough to nuke Manhattan.

Cross: You're wrong.

The current leader of Blackwatch, directing their movements in Manhattan. He has been in the organization long enough to remember Hope, Idaho, and the methods used to contain it.

Armchair Military: It's pointed out that Randall is out of touch with the reality of the outbreak. As Taggart puts it, Blackwatch has been preparing to fight the wrong war and Randall's tactics aren't adapting to the situation.
Cutscene Boss: When Alex finally catches the bastard, he grabs Randall, yells at him, and throws him down before casually eating him in a cutscene. Considering Alex's power by that point, the alternative was probably a Zero-Effort Boss.
General Ripper: Randall wants to fight the virus however he can. If that means shooting innocent people, sending his men to die in a hopeless war, slicing his own infected arm off with a butcher's knife, nuking Manhattan and blaming the United States Marine Corps, or putting the virus in a position where it would do a huge amount of damage when it escaped learning how to engage it properly, he will do it.
Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Randall believes that deliberately putting Elizabeth Greene in a major population center and waiting for her to do her thing is a necessary sacrifice in order to understand how to fight the infection properly. But the fact that he could have simply shut her away in a remote black site like her son, far enough away from human civilization and secure enough that even if Greene did escape her restraints, she wouldn't have been capable of nearly as much damage as she ended up causing in Manhattan makes his comment ring extremely hollow. Not helping is the fact that he tried to nuke the joint after Mercer kills Greene, then doubles down on his decision even when it's obvious that the infection has been placed at a major disadvantage with Greene no longer around to guide it. All in all, despite the claims of altruistic intent that he hides behind, his actions reveal him to be a delusional lunatic that caused the unnecessary deaths of an untold number of innocents for the sake of a wargame, and then tried to kill the rest out of spite.
Rank Scales with Asskicking: Not really. It's expected, since he's been fighting the virus virtually for his entire career and it was because of his orders and determination that Hope's infection didn't spread, but that was forty years ago when he had both arms. And indeed, when Alex finds him, he doesn't even go down with a fight.
The Unfought: You don't really fight him, but you automatically gain his memory node after the cutscene.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: He says outright that he believes all casualties of any outbreak and resultant purge are "sacrificial lambs" necessary to learn how to fight the infection and "save the world" and may or may not have deliberately engineered the catastrophe that was the Manhattan outbreak, just to learn how to fight the virus on a larger scale. That this outlook and method are balls crazy and result in things like nuking Manhattan only after Greene is dead and the infection is weakening (because she couldn't then be retrieved for further study) seems not to occur to him.

Colonel Douglas Rooks

Voiced by: Daniel Riordan

The commander of Blackwatch operations in NYZ.

Bald of Evil: He's one of Prototype 2's Big Bad Duumvirate and has not a hair on his head.
Dirty Business: He's not a very good person, at one point sanctioning rape since to do otherwise would waste manpower and supplies. However, the game leaves him a somewhat sympathetic figure and surprisingly the Lesser of Two Evils, without denouncing his underlying mission of sterilization and control.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Implied. After Heller confronts him and makes it clear he cares only about his daughter, Rooks kills his own men to let Heller escape NYZ with Amaya.
Karma Houdini: Despite being in charge of Blackwatch operations, and sanctioning very shady activities, Heller lets him live.
Pet the Dog:
- Cares deeply for his own family.
- Lets Heller take his daughter and leave, though more likely because he recognized Heller is impossible to defeat, rather than because he was being nice.
Pragmatic Villainy:
- Avoids shooting Heller when alone with the man himself, well aware that such an act would lead to a quick death, and Heller, at the moment, has no real interest in killing him.
- Kills his own men so Heller can escape NYZ with his daughter, because trying to fight him directly had thus far proven too costly and ineffective.

Lieutenant Clint Riley

Voiced by: David Forseth

Rook's aide.

The Dragon: To Rooks.
Flyover Country: He's from a Midwestern upbringing, though his accent doesn't reflect it most of the time.
Kill and Replace: Heller does this to him for a while.
Not as You Know Them: In-Universe. Rooks manages to figure out that something is wrong with Riley because he acts...off after his encounter with Heller and spends much of his time away from his side, and assumes he's a traitor. The truth is, in Rooks' opinion, much, much worse.
Number Two: To Colonel Rook.
Undying Loyalty: He hardly opens his mouth without having something good to say about or in defense of Rooks.

Red Crown

Mission Control for the military in both games. In the first game, it's the callsign for the military command, mostly in the form of a handful of officers who send those endless strike teams after you. In the sequel, Red Crown is the code name for Blackwatch's mysterious radio commander.

Ambiguously Human: In 2 it's not clear if Red Crown is an extremely high-ranking spook with creepy mannerisms or some sort of Artificial Intelligence.
Communications Officer: What they are in the first game, at least. There are a few of them, and you can find out a bit about them by turning on subtitles:
- The female officer is the "Marine Headquarters Communication Officer."
- The deep-voiced male is a "Marine Headquarters Officer."
- The man with the more high-pitched voice is "Blackwatch Headquarters."
Dissonant Serenity: In Prototype 2 Red Crown's voice never changes from a calm, level-headed tone, even when informed of nightmare scenarios such as Mercer being spotted or Heller attacking one of their main bases to foil Operation Firehawk.
General Failure: Red Crown is an utterly inflexible commander and her response to pretty much any situation on the ground is to Zerg Rush it no matter how untenable. "Brah Soldier" is already questioning her commands near the beginning of the game, and towards the end, her troops openly insult and defy her, at one point yelling at her to "shove it up your ass!" and evacuating when she demands they hold their ground and defend an explosives cache.
Greater-Scope Villain: It's revealed in the penultimate mission that Red Crown's authority supersedes even Colonel Rooks, the ostensible commander of Blackwatch's New York forces - she determines what he knows and where he can go when Rooks performs his Heel–Face Turn his ability to actually aid Heller is stymied by RC having other plans. But whatever those plans are, they extend beyond New York, don't intersect much with Heller, and she has no real connection to the story beyond sending mooks after you.
Mission Control: They're responsible for giving orders to Blackwatch and (later on) the Marine Corps during both of the NYZ outbreaks. Heller listening in on their radio orders is a frequent occurrence.

Marines

General

United States Marine Corps

The major military force in Manhattan during the first outbreak.

Artistic License – Military: None of the vehicles they use during the game are actually Marine hardware. Their uniforms do not reflect anything used in real life, and Web of Intrigue cutscenes show them wearing Army uniforms.
Earn Your Happy Ending: They're hailed as heroes at the end of Prototype (even if Alex was the one who did the crucial heavy lifting).
Everyone Has Standards: They have very clear lines in regards to fighting the infected and dealing with the outbreak compared to Blackwatch.
Interservice Rivalry: A decidedly unfriendly version. The Marines regard Blackwatch as "baby killers," while Blackwatch calls the Marines "amateurs" and "fucking dogs." ^note
Mission Control: They have their own mission controllers early in the game, who are gradually replaced with Blackwatch controllers. They're ordered around by Red Crown in the sequel.
Out of Focus: Although they’re still around in the sequel as the lowest of mooks, they don’t have any named characters besides Heller and disappear from the plot after the opening cutscene.
Punch-Clock Villain: The Marines are far less maverick than Blackwatch and more concerned with the lives of citizens.
Red Shirt Army: Blackwatch uses them as little more than cannon fodder to absorb the brunt of infected attacks; one Web of Intrigue conversation suggests that the only reason the Marines are there at all is to take the blame when Blackwatch nukes the city. It's even worse in the sequel, where literally all Blackwatch has them do is go on suicidal "patrols" either on foot or in open-air trucks.
Unwitting Pawn: They're this to Blackwatch, who not only use them as cannon fodder to battle the Infected but were also planning to use them as The Scapegoat to avoid being blamed for the eventual nuclear strike. It's not much better in the sequel as they're being used for suicidal "patrols".

Infected

In General

The Infected:

Elite Mook: Downplayed with the Walkers or advanced infected. They are much stronger than the regular zombie, but within the game that only translates to them dying from two basic hits instead of one.
The Goomba: The Regular Zombies are among the weakest enemies in the game, and the protagonists can destroy them by the dozen with ease.
Water Tower Down: The Hunter variant of the infected is incubated in water reservoirs. Since they are at their most vulnerable before "hatching", the easiest way to get rid of them is to destroy the whole water tower, often during helicopter-hijacking missions. You are left with scraps of metal, a tank covered with infected organic matter, and a Hunter's corpse. The alternative is to kill them with Alex's blade or a grenade launcher.
Zombie Apocalypse: They unleash this in both games.

Elizabeth Greene

Elizabeth Anne Greene/MOTHER

Voiced by: Kari Wahlgren

Alex: What are you?

Greene: The reason.

Alex: For what?

Greene: Everything!

The last surviving inhabitant of Hope, Idaho, a town that was destroyed after being used as a testing ground for a biological weapon, to prevent the disease from spreading. She appears "burnt out" and catatonic after forty years of experimentation by GENTEK. There is almost certainly no remnant of "Elizabeth Greene" left; all that remains is the virus in an empty human host. Unfortunately, it is both intelligent and very patient.

Ax-Crazy: Is basically The Virus in an Empty Shell human body.
Big Bad: One of the major antagonists of the first game.
Cute Bruiser: Though the "cute" part is up for debate, she hits Alex once and he's smashed across the room. This is a guy who weighs hundreds of pounds slapped aside like a cardboard cutout by a teenage-looking girl.
Decoy Damsel: GENTEK thinks they've contained her, and they're wrong. She's just waiting patiently to unleash the Zombie Apocalypse.
Disc-One Final Boss: Her death doesn't end the game or the infection, though it does slow the infection quite a lot.
Empty Shell: There's nothing human left in her anymore; all that remains is the virus in an empty human host.
Evil Matriarch: Her appropriate codename of "Mother" as well as being the origin of the Hive Mind invokes this.
From Nobody to Nightmare: According to the comic Elizabeth Greene was a completely normal teenager before her infection. Absolutely nothing stands out in her biology or personal history that might help explain why the virus had such an extraordinary effect on her.
Hive Queen: Without a Runner like Greene or other directing force such as the Supreme Hunter or Alex, the lesser Infected remain mindless shambling zombies. However, with a Runner, it can think...
Humanoid Abomination: She still looks like a 19-year-old girl. She and Alex share many similarities (strong, fast, resilient, power over the virus) but aren't quite the same. Only Greene was once human.
It Can Think: And it is patient. If it's four years or forty years, the virus will wait in dormancy as long as it takes an opportunity to present itself, and during all that time, it plans. One mission revolves around Greene using infected people who haven't started showing symptoms as unwitting spies, their connection to the Hive Mind allowing her to receive information from them. After she dies, the outbreak loses its momentum almost completely.
Latex Space Suit: Her clothing is outright modeled on fetish clothing and wet suits, resulting in a skin-tight latex body suit with a lot of straps in weird places.
Living Bodysuit: Is an Empty Shell the Redlight Virus uses as its avatar.
Older Than They Look: She looks nineteen. She's actually over fifty.
One-Winged Angel: Though it's possible she could have taken Alex in melee given the strength she demonstrates in the cutscenes, instead she dons a giant fleshy mass as armor and starts tearing everything around her apart. It takes a lot to bring her down.
Person of Mass Destruction: She’s entirely responsible for all of the death and destruction caused by the infection over the course of the outbreak, directly or otherwise, and when she goes One-Winged Angel in Times Square to face off against Alex and the military she ends up easily wiping out multiple waves of infantry, air support and armor columns all the while focusing the brunt of her efforts on killing Mercer.
Plaguemaster: The virus spreads on everything she touches, and the Hunters, Leader Hunters, and Hydras are her creations.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Or an observation cell. Then Alex accidentally lets her out. To be fair, she clearly could have left at any time, given the state of the room.
Super-Scream: In her boss fight, one of her attacks is a scream that sucks the color from the screen and sends shockwaves over the battlefield that will knock you down to critical health if you don't move your butt.
Transhuman Treachery: Greene used to be a normal teenage girl, but being infected by the Redlight Virus turned her into a monster with the desire to wipe out all of humanity.
Walking Wasteland: Everywhere she goes, the infection emerges, and her children follow.
The Virus: By some quirk of biology, her body was mutated by the original strain to create viruses; hundreds of them. Every single one displays very strange properties. Gentek's reason for holding her is to examine and try to manipulate the strains into doing useful things, such as enhancing human attributes, killing people in specific ways very very rapidly, strengthening immune systems, or eradicating cancer, among other purposes. She's insanely valuable to Blackwatch because she is the only living subject to display the ability.
Voice of the Legion: After she speaks, her words are repeated in multiple whispers.

The Supreme Hunter

After Alex removes the parasite, he attempts to kill Greene by using it on her, but her body rejects it. The result combines Mercer's and Greene's DNA and becomes something new: a creature with characteristics of both the Redlight and Blacklight viruses. It is not happy with its "father" for attempting to destroy it.

Antagonistic Offspring: It's the genetic offspring of Mercer and Elizabeth, yet it doesn't seem to care about either and even actively hunts down its father.
Dragon Ascendant: It becomes the de facto controller of the Infected after Greene is killed.
Evil Counterpart: To Alex — roughly humanoid, just as smart (or smarter), same powers, and an independent entity, born from the virus and Elizabeth Greene but not under her thrall, just like Alex. Unlike him, however, it wants to control and spread the disease and it isn't even a little bit human in body or mind.
Evil Is Bigger: It's over ten feet tall, with bulk to match.
Expy: It looks like a shameless carbon-copy of a Tyrant, even has the same plotline, right down to being fought as the final boss that requires massive firepower to finally kill.
From a Single Cell: Mercer reduces it to a puddle of goo, from which its hand and eventually its entire body regenerates.
Genius Bruiser: Its hideous appearance and lack of speech in its base form may make one think it's stupid, but it's anything but, pulling off a rather impressive Batman Gambit against Alex and the military, by taking the form, personality, and voice of Cross.
Humanoid Abomination: Especially when it consumes and replaces Cross.
Kill and Replace: It killed Cross and took his place.
Not Quite Dead: After its first encounter with Mercer, all that's left of it is a pile of goo on the floor. That proves to be all it takes to come back as the final boss.
Nigh-Invulnerable: In its final incarnation, it doesn't even take Scratch Damage from 30mm cannon fire, AMRAAM missiles, Hellfire missiles, Javelin anti-tank missiles, or Alex's Blade power (which can slice clean through a tank). It takes a truly absurd amount of punishment to actually put it down, usually involving throwing huge numbers of 500+ pound bombs and the Critical Pain Devastator to put a dent in its health. It also regenerated from the first fight, where Alex reduced it to a puddle. It claims that, if it absorbs Alex, it'd even be able to survive a city-destroying nuke.
Off with His Head!: Alex kills it by slicing its head off with the Blade.
Parasites Are Evil: The Supreme Hunter starts life as a parasitic cancer-like entity created to kill Alex Mercer; Mercer later re-purposes it for use against Elizabeth Greene, but after Greene's biology rejects the re-engineered virus, it mutates into a large shapeshifting humanoid Hunter obsessed with consuming its "father" - intelligent, manipulative, scheming and ultimately the final boss of the game.
Self-Made Orphan: First, it doesn't seem terribly distressed about Alex killing and absorbing Greene, its genetic "mother". Second, its purpose in life is to kill and devour Alex, its genetic "father" — implied to be at least in part because it resents him for not letting himself be eaten alive.
The Speechless: Other than making bestial growls and later taking the guise of Cross after killing him, the Supreme Hunter doesn't speak in clear sentences.
Superpower Lottery: It has all of Alex's powers, but is stronger in every way.

PARIAH

Of all the children born during Hope, Idaho's infection, only one did not suffer fatal defects within months of birth. Codenamed PARIAH by the military, the surviving child was forcibly separated from his mother, Elizabeth Greene, and moved to a secure facility for study and containment. He never appears in the game but plays a fairly large part in the Web of Intrigue.

Bishōnen Line: PARIAH shows no sign at all of infection with the virus, and yet McMullen theorises that he could bring about the end of life as we know it.
Blessed with Suck: Seems to kill anything he touches. As a result, he is kept either in a sealed cell or a courtyard surrounded by snipers and barbed wire.
Creepy Child: There are three pictures of him. One is him playing with a ball, one is him playing with blocks, and the third is him standing beside a mutilated corpse with a handful of blood. What is this kid?
Older Than They Look: He must be at least forty, but he looks no older than six or seven.
Person of Mass Destruction: It's theorized by NPCs that if Alex Mercer and PARIAH ever came in contact with each other, the results could be beyond catastrophic.
Sequel Hook: A hook is seemingly built up in the first game But averted in the second game; the sequel doesn't involve Alex looking for him. He is mentioned once as the assignment of Agent Barnes Griffin, and otherwise seems to have no bearing on events. But he's still out there...
Super Prototype: In a way, Alex is the production model of what PARIAH is naturally, and probably isn't even as good. His powers were artificially activated, whereas PARIAH's are natural; PARIAH is everything the virus is meant to be.
Walking Spoiler: It's almost impossible to talk about PARIAH without spoiling many of the Web of Intrigue's nodes.

Characters / [PROTOTYPE]

Edit Locked

Protagonists

Alex Mercer/Dr. Alexander J. Mercer/ZEUS/Mercer

Voiced by: Barry Pepper (Prototype 1), Darryl Kurylo (Prototype 2)

Alex in Prototype 2

Sgt. James Heller

Voiced by: Cornell Womack

Civilians

Dana A. Mercer

Voiced by: Lake Bell (Prototype 1), Lindsay Ames (Prototype 2)"Someone's gotta know what the fuck is going on here."Click here to see her in Prototype 2

Doctor Bradley Ragland

Voiced by: Phil LaMarr

Father Luis Guerra

Voiced by: Ivan Basso

GENTEK

Director Raymond McMullen

Voiced by: Paul Guilfoyle

Karen Parker

Voiced by: Vanessa Marshall

Dr. Alexander "Alex" J. Mercer

Voiced by: Barry Pepper (Prototype 1)

Dr. Anton Koenig

Voiced by: Robert Morse

Sabrina Galloway

Voiced by: Melissa Disney

Blackwatch

Blackwatch

Captain Robert Cross

Voiced by: Jeffrey Pierce

Colonel Ian Taggart

Voiced by: Richard McGonagle

General Peter Randall

Voiced by: Gordon Clapp

Colonel Douglas Rooks

Voiced by: Daniel Riordan

Lieutenant Clint Riley

Voiced by: David Forseth

Red Crown

Marines

United States Marine Corps

Infected

The Infected:

Elizabeth Anne Greene/MOTHER

Voiced by: Kari Wahlgren

The Supreme Hunter

PARIAH

Alternative Title(s): Prototype 2

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Voiced by: Lake Bell (Prototype 1), Lindsay Ames (Prototype 2)
"Someone's gotta know what the fuck is going on here."
^{Click here to see her in Prototype 2}