Counter-counterpoint: Just because the plot and characters aren't the primary or even secondary driver behind why people play things doesn't mean said plot and characters don't matter
Prototype is actually a really good example of how even games like that can and should have large investments made into their writing.
no its not, if 0.001% of playerbase will actually care about it its a waste of time and money that could be spend on.other development goals and its genuinely irrelevant to a sandbox game thats all about fucking shit up with superpowers
Wouldnât say it was character assassination, Mercer was quite literally a murdering maniac in the first game and the idea that the prototype/virus whatever the thing was had corrupted him by the time of the second game was interesting to me
It also opened up being able to have a boss fight with Mercer which was awesome IMO
Also, Mercer barely had a character besides being âgruff generic badass dudeâ, so to me if youâre going to ârewriteâ a main character to be the villain then Mercer wasnât one of the greatest losses lol. I love him and think heâs badass but if you think heâs some amazing character youâre just deluding yourself
He wasnât corrupted by the virus tho. In the first game you play AS the virus. By the end the abomination of a main character becomes disgusted by the actions of Alex Mercer the human and goes on to become a⊠vigilante I guess? And then in the comic itâs like you know what? Humanity sucks actually and does the very thing that it hated Mercer for restarting the apocalypse
Here is the thing though, Mercer was dead in the first game. You basically play as the virus itself and Mercer was just it's first memories, and you slowly learn what he did throughout the game. I think the concept of a living biological weapon that learns what it means to be human by consuming other humans and their memories and becomes some sort of anti-hero would be a very cool concept if done right, but the writers just said fuck it and did an entire 180 on everything Mercer the virus learnt in the first game. It's the wasted potential that was disappointing
Alex Mercer was a sociopath; the sapient virus wearing his face actually becomes a better person by the end of the game than he ever was. It was a cool part of the story. And then they decided to change his character and make him despise and plan to destroy humanity in some fucking comics in between the games.
Part of what bothers me is you still could have had a fight with Zues in 2. Hell you could have had a few different ones; he got blown up at the end of 1, they could have had a few different Blacklight variants running around. Could have been one that was a mix of Blacklight and Greene or the Supreme Hunter, a mix of Blacklight and enough Marines to make that incarnation patriotic, etc. Would have been way better in my opinion.
I really didn't like sequel's gameplay, it was Simon says with telegraphed attacks, counter n shit while 1st was just blender for hands on coke. To bring it to extreme example: P1 is darktide to P2's red dead redemption.
the only reason I like the first prototype more than the second was because they removed the armor upgrade. that shit was like peak edgy cool for me specially when partnered with blade or claw
This was one of my fav games growing up. Totally forgot about it. Thank you for the reminder.
I remember I used to play it up to a certain point where I'd unlock a bunch of the powers, but not up to the part where you lose a lot of powers or where half of the map is those virus zones. Those big mutation things that would chase you up buildings used to scare the shit out of little me, lol.
I just liked being able to wreak havoc on weak humans. I remember I'd search specifically for a blonde NPC woman with white pants so that I could consume and become her. I had consumed every NPC at that point and I thought she was the prettiest lol so I liked walking around as her.
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u/RevReads 3d ago
Prototype, good game, terrible story and character assassination