Alex Mercer vs real life Earth

[Sarevok]

I have just finished playing Prototype. Alex Mercer is probably the powerful character I ever controlled in a videogame. For those unfamiliar with Prototype the lead character is a biological horror with incredible abilities. He has 2003 Hulk level speed, durability, T1000 like shapeshifting and ability to consume people like the Thing to gain their memories and skills. By end game he has the sum total knowledge of dozens of scientists. He has the tactical skills of hundreds of marine, army and elite special forces soldiers. His assimilated skills make him skilled with all weapons from shooting the M16 rifle to commanding main battle tanks and handling helicopter gunships. In combat Alex can also create lethal weapons out of his own body. Like transforming his arm into a blade that can slice through a tank or create tentacles capable of dragging an Apache helicopter to its demise. When not fighting he uses humanity itself as a mask by transforming to look like anyone he has consumed in the past.

A wiki article with additonal details on Alex Mercers background and abilities http://prototype.wikia.com/wiki/Alex_Mercer

Now lets say we have end game Alex Mercer. He is transported into our world. There is no Blackwatch or fellow bio monsters like Elizabeth Greene or Pariah to stop him. His goal is to take over the world. The military of all UN member nations are alerted 2 weeks before his arrival. Alex is teleported to a random location after this time period. However to limit this from being a curb stomp he may not create any further Blacklight infections. Furthermore he must take over Earth. Nuking it to hell by shapeshifting into Putin and ordering WW 3 does not count. Can he be stopped ?

[Bottlestein]

^ While I've only played very little of the game, I don't think it should really be difficult to kill this guy. For instance, can he survive bombs or artillery?

[Molyneux]

I think it's a little out of character for end-game Mercer to want to do that...but fine, all right.

If he can't infect anyone else, but can consume and imitate anyone he wants, I'd give him maybe two years before he has complete control over at least one major government. Significantly more if he lets his secret out, of course, but there isn't really anything the modern military can do to prevent him from, say, eating Obama.

He's hilariously overpowered; the man survived a point-blank nuclear detonation. I think it's safe to say the Earth is fucked.

[Mr Bean]

^ While I've only played very little of the game, I don't think it should really be difficult to kill this guy. For instance, can he survive bombs or artillery?

The real question is can he be found in time since he can "eat' anyone even people in MoPP gear take on a their looks and gain access to their memories.

The real question is how much does Mercer gain? Does he have the full knowledge of the forty odd scientists & hundreds of soldiers he ate. Does he have in other words 500 lifetimes worth of experiences to draw on?

[Sarevok]

^ While I've only played very little of the game, I don't think it should really be difficult to kill this guy. For instance, can he survive bombs or artillery?

Sufficient firepower can and will bring Zeus (codename for Alex Mercer issued by military) down. In the game there was one WoI entry where military protocol for dealing with Zeus level entities is detailed. The plan is for special forces to detect him and then keep him busy while air, artillery and heavy armor are brought to bear. In the game Apache gunships and artillery strikes do heavy damage and I imagine in real world a B1B lancer bombing run would kill Mercer if he is caught out in the open. The challenge is to locate him and contain him long enough to bring the hammer down on him.

[Sarevok]

^ While I've only played very little of the game, I don't think it should really be difficult to kill this guy. For instance, can he survive bombs or artillery?

The real question is can he be found in time since he can "eat' anyone even people in MoPP gear take on a their looks and gain access to their memories.

The real question is how much does Mercer gain? Does he have the full knowledge of the forty odd scientists & hundreds of soldiers he ate. Does he have in other words 500 lifetimes worth of experiences to draw on?

He does in this scenario. I was pondering about this scenario since the ending of prototype left so many open possibilities. Mercer is one of the few candidates that could create a one world government. What would life under such a powerful and wise ruler be like ?

[Bottlestein]

^ I thought the OP's phrasing meant that we knew when he was coming, and what all of his powers were.
I guess if we don't know that he exists or where he is, then he can consume people. It's impossible for a single individual to take over the world, so he'll still fail, but he can consume someone reasonably politically influential. How well can he deceive? For instance, when he emulates someone, does he get injured like that person gets injured? If not, he'd have to consume someone who was both politically influential and private, which is borderline impossible. I can see him (if he landed in the US), as rising to the rank of maybe a Representative, if he plays his cards right.

[Ford Prefect]

Can he be stopped ?

No. He might not be able to succeed, but it should be basically impossible to find him, and on the off chance that someone finds him, they won't be able to concentrate enough force to actually kill him before he disappears again. Without Blackwatch's ridiculously good viral sniffers or the D-CODES, we can only detect when someone spots him dropping from the top of the Eifle Tower and flipping twenty cars into midair.

[Vendetta]

How well can he deceive? For instance, when he emulates someone, does he get injured like that person gets injured? If not, he'd have to consume someone who was both politically influential and private, which is borderline impossible.

To all intents and purposes, he's a perfect physical copy of the person he's consumed. Without actually trying to chop bits off, you wouldn't know it was him.

[Darth Hoth]

Assuming that Earth is forewarned and take the story seriously, the national militaries would make protecting the political/military leadership their top priority. As well as implementing failsafe protocols to prevent infiltration.

If no holds are barred (read: politics are turned off, the US, Russia and Europe agree to joint rule by a junta whose sole aim is to take down the alien regardless of consequences), destroying him should not be impossible, although it might require huge collateral damage. Find him, do your best to quarantine the city/area/whatever (it will not be enough, but will make things more difficult for him), then carpet-nuke the area. Unless he can morph into a supersonic jet, he should not be able to avoid the strike with bombers already in the air and spread out over the country he is currently attacking.

Realistically, it is probably impossible. How tough was the guy, again? Artillery could kill him; what would a hand grenade or AMR do?

[Ford Prefect]

How tough was the guy, again?

At his absolute weakest he took a Hellfire ATGM to the back, instantly shrugged it off, caught a flying car and used it to kill the attacking gunship. That's his best actual 'durability' feat in a cutscene. Then there's that scene at the end of the game where nuclear weapon turns him into a smear and he regenerates from it.

[MKSheppard]

Realistically; we just need to get him inside the fireball for a nuclear device and that's it. Have fun regenerating from free-floating carbon atoms.

[Sarevok]

Realistically; we just need to get him inside the fireball for a nuclear device and that's it. Have fun regenerating from free-floating carbon atoms.

Actually he can and does regenerate from free floating carbon atoms after getting nuked at the end of the game. He is not shown capable withstanding a direct hit from a nuclear weapon however. In the game his first instinct was to get away from the nuclear explosion as quickly as he can. I imagine if the US still has air launched nuclear missiles that can hit a fast moving ground target it should be able to kill Alex Mercer. ICBMs and bomber delivered nukes have less chance because he can survive being deep within the blast radius. You have to get the nuclear device within a few meters of him to be completely sure of a kill

[Ford Prefect]

Shep specified the fireball, which is more severe than the nuking that Alex takes in the game, and he does regenerate from a smear which eats a crow.

In any case, the fact that the only real plan for stopping him completely involves catching inside the fireball of a nuclear explosive should indicate how impossible actually taking him out will be. I mean, it's easy to just say 'nuke him', but we're talking about a guy who can perfectly disguise himself as anyone and take on their identity. He can't actually take over the world, but he's basically impossible to catch. And by 'catch' I obviously mean 'kill'.

[Shroom Man 777]

I just realized now that the Prototype guy you played is, in fact, a playable equivalent of The Thing from John Carpenter's awesome movie. I mean, imagine, the fact that he can turn into anyone by eating them means that if you're ever stuck with him in Antarctica, you basically end up with Kurt Russel and that black guy going crazy and killing each other - except this time, dynamite sticks and flamethrowers won't cut it.

It's a pity they took that concept and stuck it as a smash-em-up third person free-roaming shooter. Bah. Could've done more!

[Xon]

Mecer is also hilariously fast. One of the major gameplay themes in Prototype is the insane levels of parkour Mercer is capable of. Not only is he able to go hand-to-hand with MBTs, survive multipule tank rounds, he can out run tanks.

There is also a very good chance Mercer is biologically immortal, so even if it takes centuries he could build civilization to take over the world that way.

[Stark]

Is this thread just a big shrug no-limits? On SDN?

Get this guys - the thing you can't kill wins.

I bet you didn't see that coming!

[Xon]

Oh, Mercer has limits. They are just utterly insane limits well beyond what should be posible with organic compounds.

Honestly, the best responce policy to something like Mercer showing up if you know his abilities would be to give him a job and allow him to achieve his goals as peacefully as possible. So what if Mercer spends decades playing janitor, Elizabeth Green spent 60 years staring at various walls watching the paint flake off.

[Ford Prefect]

he can out run tanks.

There's a statement from one of the devs that he's supposed to be faster than 'any car'. How far can you stretch the definition of car? Does Thrust SSC count?

[Stark]

Biowarfare would probably work; but hopefully you'll work out how mass-from-nowhere and homing bits of carrier deck work. Luckily he's dumb as all shit.

[hongi]

I haven't played the game so correct me if I'm wrong guys, but Alex Mercer survived the nuclear blast by being in a helicopter some distance away from the actual point of detonation, and presumably he dropped into the water and that provided some insulation. Sure he survived as a scrap of flesh afterwards, but if he was any closer, I'm sure he would have been incinerated.

[Ford Prefect]

Biowarfare would probably work; but hopefully you'll work out how mass-from-nowhere and homing bits of carrier deck work. Luckily he's dumb as all shit.

Obviously Blackwatch produced the cancer parasite thing and Bloodtox, both of which were effective. Of course, Blackwatch was actively experimenting with that family of virii since the 60s, while the real world has precisely zero samples and will get precisely zero samples. And Mercer only took like two days to become totally immune to Bloodtox.

Luckily he's dumb as all shit.

[Xon]

he can out run tanks.

There's a statement from one of the devs that he's supposed to be faster than 'any car'. How far can you stretch the definition of car? Does Thrust SSC count?

In-game it is only slightly faster to use a helicopter to get around than it is to run. However, NPC helicopters are vastly more nimble and faster, so I guess Mercer masses a little more than a standard human.

Biowarfare would probably work; but hopefully you'll work out how mass-from-nowhere and homing bits of carrier deck work.

Conventional biowarfare would do somewhere between jack and shit to Mercer. And he is really closer to a magical Shoggoth than a virual mass no matter what the in-game dialog suggests.

Luckily he's dumb as all shit.

I'ld go with gullible in the extremes and justifiably arrogant due to being almost indestructable. But dump or stupid, not really.

[Molyneux]

I just realized now that the Prototype guy you played is, in fact, a playable equivalent of The Thing from John Carpenter's awesome movie. I mean, imagine, the fact that he can turn into anyone by eating them means that if you're ever stuck with him in Antarctica, you basically end up with Kurt Russel and that black guy going crazy and killing each other - except this time, dynamite sticks and flamethrowers won't cut it.

It's a pity they took that concept and stuck it as a smash-em-up third person free-roaming shooter. Bah. Could've done more!

Yeah, he's The Thing crossed with Superman.
The only limit we've really seen is that he doesn't seem to know how to spread himself across more than one body - though I'd guess that that is game mechanics more than anything else.


And as far as Mercer's intelligence goes - cut him some slack. Spoiler

He's, what, three days old tops at the start of game? And he seems to get, if not smarter, at least more experienced as the story progresses and he eats more and more people.

[lordofchange13]

is zeus abille to make other people like him self? if not he chould just eat some big world leader and conquer the rest. in the end of the game did the nuke actully hit him or was it just a shoke wave? as long as a world goverment didn't know about him before hand, he chould acomplish anything! emagine a person with all the worlds greatest minds put to gether along with running up building and being omost invinceble, what limits can there be?!?! mmuuhahahh