I’ll admit, my genre-savvy brain went “Mercer goes insane from all the conflicting and oftentimes hostile voices in his head (you know, from all those delicious Military Rubens he’s eaten) and asks to be mercy killed in a boss fight either at the end of or midpoint of Prototype 3” I like your ending better, as it surprised me. I need to be pleasantly surprised more often by (specifically American) media.
I really loved prototype as a kid. I still think in a weird way it was the peak of parkour sandbox games to this day. The second game messed up that fun parkour though by making it feel so slow, and also messed up the plot. Your reimagination of the plot was interesting. Really makes you wonder how some hack writers can get into such powerful positions huh.
My issue with nihilism in general is that people try to argue that it’s “realistic” because it hyperfocuses on the negative, factual aspects of humanity. But fundamentally, that is incredibly unrealistic and I find the people who vibe with nihilism essentially just cannot be bothered to give a feck about life and have lost a sense of how to gauge actual cruelty in the world. They’re so obnoxiously jaded and ambivalent towards human suffering that they can’t help but also see constant negatives in anything good. So to bring this into a frame of reference with the comic, the most unrealistic, and just simply false, aspect of that comic is the premise. This idea that someone can travel the world and only find awful, evil things in it - that reeks of someone who has never left their parents’ basement.
Agreed. Been annoyed for a long time that pessimism/edginess is treated as being more realistic just for being jaded, as if it’s telling hard truths that people who disagree with it just don’t want to hear. There’s nothing more grounded about insisting that people are bad and irredeemable, and it’s no less naive than the optimism it sneers at. At least idealism is rooted in a belief that things can get better, nihilism is just an insistence that it can’t, often in order to look down on others.
I am not gonna lie. I HATE when they used extra media (books,comics,etc) to explain mayor things about the story. Mercer turning evil, aside of just straight up being bad and dumb, is something that should be explained in the game, not in some random comic most people won't even know about!. I am unsure about the whole Templars part. Like,I get it for an occult group,but Templars are like the new Iluminati, I think it's just burned. I do prefer your idea tho,of Mercer/Heller working together, instead of Mercer being an edgelord and Heller just plain stupid
I always get sad when I watch these kinds of videos, because it opens my eyes to what could have been. The beauty of an actually compelling story that isn't full of vulgarities, heel turns, and constant betrayals. Having an anti-hero be /genuine/ and not angsty or becoming the villain. Making his final death /matter/.
It turns out if you go around eating bad guys you'll only gain memories of bad guys doing bad things. Lol, who would have thought? Mercer just needed to eat a bunch of regular people like I did because the game kicked my butt so badly on my first play through. Sarcasm aside, even if he just munched down on military men, he should have had experienced a vast amount of positive and redeemable memories. Still, even if the stormtroopers were some how as evil as Palpatine, Mercer would be able to experience the events that forced them to compromising, morally flawed decisions. Welcome to Prototype 2, where empathy is made up and nuance doesn't matter.
Your rewrite of the 2nd game and your writing for a potential 3rd game are really good and close to what I'd do if I were to rewrite this shit. The only difference is I'd actually make it so that at the end of the third game after the spore explosion, there'd be an aftercredit scene where we'd see what looks to be Alex Mercer going about a normal every day life and reveal that after his supposed death, he survive but had the blacklight virus purged from his body along with all memories and personalities with it left him basically with amnesia. With pretty much a clean slate, this new Mercer lives out a peaceful normal life as a decent person under a new name with his Sister and Heller watching over him as his close family and friend with this cutscene ending with the underlying message that human connection was the real "anchor" that Alex was looking for this whole time.
6:33 To be fair someone shooting you in the face is not "wah wah woman hurt my fifi", its "someone i trusted shot me in the face over my money", which is way serious matter than just a hearthbreak Though i like your take on a better storyline
To judge humanity as a whole as bad is an incredibly self-indulgent and infantile thing to do. What makes anyone think they are worthy of judging? You want to talk about selfish, there it is right there. To judge all others as lesser, you truly have to be the worst.
Ok, I like that take, makes it a bit more empathetic and complex for Alex and Heller too. While names like "bluelight" and "templars" feel a little overt, I like how they are used, particularly the exploration of the whole eugenics aspect of the game which goes untouched.
Am I the only one who got annoyed by the change in artstyle from the first game? Prototype 1 had a lot of cool somewhat grounded enemy designs. Blackwatch soldiers in 1 looked like real PMC units clad in hazmat gear. In the second game, all the enemy soldiers look like cyberpunk football ninjas, complete with cliche LED goggles and massive asymmetrical shoulder pads. And that gaudy style is extended to the entire game. It mirrors the childish writing
Yup, you said it best pal. I also hate how colourful Mercer's in-game model is. Man's gray old jeans and shoes became perfect blue Hilfiger jeans and some nice brown leather shoes. Man's too fashionable for someone who hages humanity
Much better and explainable ending. It gives Mercer a good death as it kills Mercer, ends in a similar way the second game plot ends... And does not feel like a slab in the face. Thank you for putting your own idea or spin on the plot especially considering how frustrating it was for most prototype fans.
Personally I thought the story of prototype could evolve into a modern interpretation of frankenstein but alex mercer is both Dr. Frankenstein and the monster. Mercer should be the hero but in a kind of survivor's guilt kind of hero where he beats himself over the fact that he (the original alex mercer) caused the outbreak in the way similar to how medieval people use to do during the time of the black plague. Also I'll have Pariah as an antagonist since Alex did killed his Elizabeth Greene, his mother, Alex Mercer would go through a character arc where he can be heroic in a genuinely noble manner. But your idea would sounds better since you are connecting prototype 1 and 2.
There's actually an anime where Doctor Frankenstein became his monster instead of creating the monster outside himself. It's called Soul Eater. I have not made it very far in that anime but it's really cool.
I've heard a lot of ideas for how Prototype 2 could have been better and how Prototype 3 could play out. To date, THIS is the best idea I've heard. Well done :)
I am probably in the minority here, but I like the concept of having Mercer be an antagonist in the 2nd game, I just hate how they made it happen in the comics. I don't feel like I've played many games where good guy in 1st game became bad guy in second, and I think it's a cool trope. That said, I think this revision of 2 and concept for 3 is incredibly solid and would have also been a great experience.
Alex could have worked as a villain but yeah the problem is that they ended the first game with him much more explicitly deciding to try and save humanity. So even if the comic didn't exist they still couldn't start him off as a villain in the second game without some serious character changes. If anything if they were going to go this way, maybe have Alex be the villain, with part of the mystery being trying to figure out why Alex is a villain now, with his motivation being a lot better and more complex than it was in the comics, and then the conclusion of the game could be trying to sway him back to the good side.
I honestly thought Mercer didnt die and had this grand plan for Prototype 3 to defeat Pariah with the help of Heller. It worked somewhere along the lines of -Mercer allows heller to consume him -Overtime Mercer would acquire Heller's unique DNA where he cant be consumed (much like how Heller gained abilities from consuming other Evolved) -Once done he'd induce Heller into vomiting him out similar to Greene vomiting the cure out which created the Supreme Hunter -Now with Heller's unique DNA he could fight Pariah with (possibly) Heller's help Its hard for me to believe Mercer just went out like that but given Radical shut down I guess we'll never find out
I think the best argument against this sort of rewrite would be that the premise of prototype is to be the monster and that being edgy is a huge part of what people liked in Alex Mercer. However, any such criticism gets invalidated by how Heller does get to be the good guy, even though he is just as monstrous as Mercer is. personally, I would still try to preserve some of that edge. However, your concept goes a lot further into the motives of posthumanism in the series which the second game left woefully unexplored. I think the main takeaway is that, for a character driven story, Prototype did not think its characters through and there is a lot more that could have been done with them
I like that you point out the stupidity of the whole "only actual emotion is romantic love" bit. I would go a step further even by saying that I really hate how often media portray the romantic love to a woman as the only redeeming and humanising emotion for men. Like men are supposed to not be real, fully emotionally realized people unless their humanity is briefly activated by a woman. That's such a toxic mindset and even extends to attitude towards children and mothers. It's more respectable to have an emotional and tender bond to your mother or daughter as a man than to your father or son. Which carries that toxic idea on from generation to generation.
How can a human say that all humans are bad? If a human has a concept of good, then there must be good in at least some humans. Otherwise, how do you judge what is bad?
But that's the thing, "Alex" ain't human. He's basically a God in this story and funnily enough, it being Godlike is half the reason why he was a good guy in the first game
I've always gone with the idea that Alex and Mercer got separated during the nuke at the end of the first game (an idea I took from purposelessrabbitholes prototype 3 proposal) the guy that we follow throughout the anchor and who is the main antagonist of prototype 2 is mercer AKA what is left of Elizabeth Greene mixed in with the being that Mercer became after the virus. Alex is the true human part of the duo the reason Mercer in the comics only sees evil is because Greene is influencing him from the inside. The guy who turns Heller into an evolved and shows him the stuff with Gentech at the beginning of the game is the only time we see Alex in the entire game. Him being genuine in his want to destroy Gentech and Mercer by proxy. Alex hiding in the shadows in hoping that Mercer can take down his more powerful other half.
Fixing Prototype 2's story is a WHOLE lot simpler than your idea. First off ignore The Anchor. Anchor is just post facto character assassination to justify Mercer's radical out of character heel turn. Secondly, reveal that the "Alex Mercer" trying to take over the world isn't actually Mercer, but the Dr. Koenig impersonating him/a warped version of him created by infecting Dr. Koenig, one where Koenig (Not Mercer) is the dominant personality. Basically have all be the result of an attempt to infiltrate Gentek that backfired. Little else needs to be changed. Given Koenig's nature as an Evolved, him being an "Imposter" Mercer would be a simple matter to explain. Honestly, I get the impression that that that was the original intent, and that Mercer being the actual big bad was a last minute rewrite... possibly corporate mandated by Activision... as a sales hook. I say that because first off the story actually makes more sense and has fewer plotholes that way... and secondly for much of the game is spent setting up for and building up to that reveal... only for it to go "lolnope Alex is a cartoonishly Evil N@z! now!".
Want a cherry on top? Karen Parker was declared dead solely on poster promoting second game while her fate in first game after meeting Alex in elevator was left ambiguous on purpose. We could have had her instead of Galloway. And we could have had Ragland back too. As a (former?) Halo fan, "tie ins" are the worst. Comic authors should be banned from contacting movie and game studios by same rules as sex offenders.
Interesting. I had actually mapped out my own 'redeem prototype 2' plan, though it was _completely_ different direction, but yeah... you need to fix both Mercer and Heller if you want this story to work. Heller is unlikeable, and Mercer isn't Mercer. Your story definitely does that.
it really is such a stupid betrayal that Alex went from ostensibly saving humanity at the end of the first game to this dumb nihilist in the second. Having him just be much more just anti the people who are really behind this, who could *portray* him as a villain, is a waaaay better idea. Like he doesn't have to be a goody two shoes, he can still just eat random people to gain superpowers. But having him completely 180 into this anti-human monster born out of nihilism is just pointlessly edgy and dumb and bad.
The reason alex couldnt consume heller is because heller gotten stronger, thats it, some viruses mutate faster than others whether be the same strain or not, this a comment from reddit who explained this best: "My theory goes that just like some strong enemies like Hunters, Alex needed to weaken Heller first to be able to consume him. I say strong enemies, because regular people don't need to be weakened with a minimum of a neck snap compared to hunters which need to be really weakened. In that same sense, Heller was able to consume Alex because he weakened him." This is literally the game mechanic and no one noticed! You cant just go to some one and just *boop touch of death* and consume them dispite the size *looks at greene in her monstrous form* is just be unfair
Honestly I think making the story a bit more linear and giving the open world more progressive change over time alongside story beats and world events would have solved a good 40% of the overall issues from an environmental point.
I am okay with with Mercer's experience mostly been from bad people, even Autumn betraying him like that. What he needed was the antithesis of everything he has come to witness, someone like Heller showing him that there is good in the world. Hell the first part of the game, if Mercer were only telling the truth - would have set the narrative. Heller's evil ending could be taking over Mercer or the good choosing whether to carry out the rest of the ending of Black Watch either as Mercer with his abilities, or Heller with his own.
I feel it's more a case of the developers realising that Mercer had become too OP in Prototype and they didn't really see a way to work around that. So they introduced Heller as the new protagonist. The logic behind that decision is that Heller literally resets the development and thus the developers had instantly gotten away with Mercer being too OP. The conclusion for me is that the developers never planned for a sequel and therefore went wild with Mercer in Prototype. Only after Prototype's success, the studio considered a sequel, ran smack-dab into the OP problem and came up with this solution.
As much as I liked [Prototype] 2 I had a lot of the problems with the story especially after the events of the first game it just didn’t add up even with the prequel comics explanation i really loved how you rewrote it having Mercer still be the hero again and do what he intended to do in the first game and not be a complete hypocritical prick
while i do agree that we should lean on the racial extermination aspect of the first game story, i feel like the current northamerican politics injection to the plot is a bit heavyhanded. I'd rather have the research be directed at eliminating threats such as the Russians and Chinese by targeting their above average manpower, a virus, to destroy the Chinese population, fueled by cold war paranoia, tested on black people Not only is this less heavy handed but also has a wider worldwide appeal as binary northamerican politics are not shared by most of the world, while, the cold war scenario was more of a global event
yeah, that's my main issue with this script. Also, the templars being the ultimate form of the group with the 3 k's at the name, it feels weird. Prototype has a more geopolitical feel to it, like Metal Gear. Not exactly "america politics" But besides that, I like how she treated every character.
Dam, where do I sign up? I really like how the people he absorbed slowly drive him insane. That he starts not acting like himself. That he starts talking down or using phrases that military or asshats he ate would. I also think it would be neat if when merser found Hela. That he doesn't give him the choice to become an alpha or give up and die. That he says he is going to die. But he can be reborn new as alpha and not end his fight here. That Merser thinks being an alpha is a different person than the humans they were. He gets confused when Hela still remains the same man as before. When merser dies to white light. Diana is crying and Merser is confused cause he wasn't really 'her brother' that. He just wore his face. That he sorry for everything he did. Diana cries that he was her brother. Virus infected or that asshole doctor he was. That Merser dies knowing that HE was loved. Not the face he wore. Also theory of the baby Elisabeth gave birth to, is Merser. That's why he because super human rather infected mindless monster. That the virus laid dorman until it came across a live variant of the virus. That why Elisabeth says; 'I'm your mother.;' that wasn't her saying that she is just like her. That he was literally her child. Once government discovered the baby didn't have any of virus. They threw into the Forester system. Or one scientist pity the baby and send him away to the forest system to have change at life. Or even one scientist took him in and brought him up as his own. That Merser became a scientist for this virus company cause his adoptive father worked there.
Super cool. But I think the real reason Greene told Mercer that she is his mother was because he is a sentient sample of Blacklight. Blacklight was made from Greene's Redlight so technically Elizabeth Greene is the mother of the Blacklight which consumed Mercer's corpse.
Using Templars in a game about a hooded character running and jumping across buildings sounds a little like something to another series of games with hooded characters. I'm not against the idea I just find the connections a little funny.
Hindsight is 2020 as always. We can correct bad writing after we've read it but in the end the bad writing was published and the correction never will. Still this would be a great version of Prototype 2 but I would also enjoy it if Pariah was the playable character in the third game. Like if we were put back into Alex Mercer's shoes in the first game where you start this game in total darkness with no idea who you are, what was going on, who to trust, and ultimately realizing the horror that you were responsible for everything bad that's happened and now you have a choice to either watch it all burn or try to save a fallen city and maybe even the world.
That is fair and I know from comments made on my channel that there are flaws and criticisms to be made against my rewrites and ideas. We can only do what we personally think is best and it's unreasonable to expect the result to work for everyone.
Despite the political differences between us and what points I disagree on, I do find your commentary entertaining, and from what I've seen of your review of Prototype 2's story, this rewritten edition of it would be way better and far more preferable to what we were given
What if the Templars were to secure power over themselves and other wealthy elites? They try to oppress racial minorities as one of their many strengthening campaigns, but being white doesn't make you safe either. Anyone, *ANYONE* who threatens their power and/or the new world order gets taken out. The race stuff was just due to the civil rights movement (since Hope Idaho occurs at the same time, being the 1960s). This would also let them have "useful idiots",... people who think it's just a race thing, but since they're white or white-passing (lightskin, some latinos, mixed people, etc) they assume that they're safe, only to be betrayed in the end anyway - because any shady deeper-than-government shadow organizations trying to control the world are *BAD*
Not sure how you expect me to buy that a cartel managed to take and hold a texan town. I'm sorry but law enforcement down there is the least of your worries, the army wouldn't even get a chance to show up cause the residents would've shot all the cartel members before they got there. Look, humans are generally selfish creatures, but the insinuation they're all cruel is blatantly untrue. Even when it comes to being selfish, there's a limit and there are those who are incredibly generous when they don't need to be. You could say they get a sense of satisfaction from helping another individual, and the sense of satisfaction they might continue to pursue from those acts is inadvertently selfish, but that's reaching. I mean Mercer knows individuals already who prove that there's good in humanity. So the thought of him not thinking that at all is weird. The idea of the rewrite is definitely more appealing than how Mercer just did a 180 to being evil. Hell if we wanted to make Mercer into a god complex virus spreading monster. Then rather than having him do a 180 because of heartbreak and being unable to find anyone decent in humanity. It'd make more sense to have him lose his sense of self as he fought Gentek and Blackwatch, until a new personality surfaced that saw humanity as a sickness or something, or maybe it has a twisted idea of humanity needing to evolve to be like it. Regardless my point is the motivation would need to be some sort of understandable progression from the previous game, in one way or another.
I find it funny and interesting that you used Templars, it gave me an Assassin’s creed vibe. Funny enough. I remember when the first game came out, and the fandom’s beginning. I remember people mistaking Mercer to be a protagonist from Assassin’s creed. One thing I love about the ending of the first game, is that it gave the writers the creative ability, to have multiple ways to continue Mercer’s story for the second game, but we have the Prototype 2 we all know now exist and it’s sad. I love this franchise. I was a fan of it as kid, and even still to this day. I would do anything to see this franchise come back again. Heck I wouldn’t even mind to see a faithful remake of the first game, or a remaster that actually has care into it. The only thing that has slightly scratch the itch for this type of gameplay, has been Spider-Man 2. I miss this franchise and I only have a dream left. I have listen and watched how people would change Prototype 2 or even to make a Prototype 3 and I won’t lie. You have some very interesting ideas to retell and continue the story. I appreciate to see Prototype still being talked about, and to hope it may never be forgotten.
The studio was probably aware that there's no chance in heck a third game would be greenlit, hence, they tried to conclude it in the 2nd. The studio shut down just right after releasing this game, hence, the memory leaks of the PC release still exists to this day. Not sure if someone made a fan patch.
I've got a Better Plot. So in Prototype 2, Alex Dies in the Final Boss of the Game and Gets to be Consumed. But take note that other Characters from the First Game isn't actually Present in the memories during Alex's Conversation with Dana so in that Case the Alex Mercer in Prototype 2 wasn't Actually the REAL Alex, It was actually the Supreme Hunter in Prototype 1's Final Boss it's actually a Theory that since the Supreme Hunter Can use the Tendril Barrage Devastator during the Final Boss. it's now Canon that Alex Got Hit by the Devastator Tendrils, and like In-Game, the Tendril Absorbed Almost of Alex's DNA and Powers, Since If you got Hit by the Tendrils in the Game, Only an Inch of HP is Left. means that it's Canon that Alex was Hit by the Tendrils and The Supreme Hunter Fully Copied Alex, But Before he could Transform, mercer Cut him and Hear me out, Cuz in the First Fight of the Supreme Hunter, He could Regenerate by just a Puddle of Blood, and Since in the Final Boss, He was just Cut into Pieces, He could Eventually Form himself and Fully Take on Alex's Appearance, So mercer so Called "Kills" the Supreme Hunter, Uses the Helicopter to Dump the Bomb out to Sea, and Heres the Kicker, In the game Alex's Copter seems to be So far From Shore, means that Alex could have Landed on Sea. so the Alex that we saw from when he Absorbed the Crow to regenerate. was actually the Supreme Hunter Forming as Alex. since the Tendrils Copied Alex's DNA, Powers but also Memories. meaning that when Dana was Talking to Alex About their Childhood. Alex does Flashbacks of Him and Dana as Kids and what they did together. Dana never Talked about that with Original Alex in the First Game. so in my perspective, Alex went out of Manhattan, without being Known, and the Alex in prototype 2 was actually the Supreme Hunter. am i right?, if not then Listen to this. if Alex in prototype 2 was the Supreme hunter, then why did the Supreme Hunter wouldn't be able to use the Armor Ability like Alex from prototype 1, It's maybe because alex was using his Armor in Prototype 1, Meaning that Supreme Hunter couldn't Copy the Armor Ability, because Alex was Using it. and theres one more, The Musclemass Ability, If you payed Great Attention to the final Boss, Alex only used 4 of his Powers. Alex in prototype 2's Final Boss had the Groundspikes which is Claws, the Blade, the Whipfist, and the Hammerfists. the Great Question is Where Is MuscleMass. Since if Musclemass was a Canon Ability, then Why could Alex in prototype 2 Use the Ability during the Final Fight with Heller? A simple answer. the Supreme Hunter did not Absorb the Muscle Mass Ability because Alex was Using it with the Armor, So the Armor and Musclemass was use by Alex during the Final Fight with the Supreme Hunter in protoype 1. he couldn't Copy those two, he only Copied the Unused Powers. So how would THIS be a BETTER PLOT for Prototype 3? I've got a Story Line to tell So the Next Game takes place first in Green Zone, where a New Protagonist is visiting a Hospital, to see his (Whatever Realtive is he visiting, Possibly Girlfriend,Sister,or maybe Confidants, whatever you Name) and according to Lore, His "Relative" was infected by the Virus and Went into a Coma for some Reason and our new Protagonist Visits the Hospital Every Day to see His "Relative", during the Visits, Blackwatch ran a Viral Test on Subjects in the Hospital, and who ever was Infected, would be Killed on Sight, So after Tests and A Few Deaths, Our Protagonist' s "Relative" was Next, our Protag was too Late as they just started Scanning "Relative" just as he Arrived, But for some Mircle, the Test Proved Negative for Some Reason, which Relieved our Protag, but days later, Our Protag was Kidnapped by Blackwatch and Went to a base in Green Zone, Testing a New Version of the Virus "DX - 1119 'blackmod' " which is a Modded Version of the Virus. Blackwatch wanted Evolved to work for them, so they ran Tests on Civilians, and as Plot takes Place, our Protag is one of the Test Subjects, Code Named "Subject 24", as it's our protag's turn, he was Injected by the Modded Virus and this wasn't just a Regular "Alex Mercer Incident", this Virus gave him a different Path, Since Alex has Musclemass, Heller has Tendrils, He would have "The Curer", which appears as a sharp 4 Fingered Absorber that if this was Injected into an Infected Human, It would Suck the Virus and Drain it's Effects and Cures the Infected Human, and Absorbed Virus Turns into Nutrients to the Host, keeping his Body Healthy even though he's Infected, and it has a Special Ability to Deploy "Demolight Symbiotes", which is made of the Modded Virus that attaches to Uninfected Humans, and Grants them Powers, Like Forming Claws, 2 Short Blades, a Whipfist, and the Large Blade, As well as Boosting their Speed and Jump height, the Symbiotes Doesn't really Infect the Human at all, Just Attaches itself right at the Skin, and Only tampers with the hosts body to Amplify the Host's Abilities, and Plot time! the game does the Infamous Mechanic, where you either become a Villain or Hero, theres Moments of Choices that Either will be Heroic or Evil. our Protag has a Choice to Leave the Facility alone and Leave the Virus Samples (Villain Choice), or Destroy the Virus Samples and Defend & Lead the Civilians out of the Facility (Hero Choice), and when ever you Consume, theres a Choice when you're in Consume Choice, When you either Just Inject "the Curer" inside the Person You're Consuming, and Copy his Appearance and Regenerate You're HP (Hero Choice), Or Just Full On Grab and Consume the Person (Villain Choice). Heller Visits Green Zone and Runs into Our protag, heller tells him to Follow Him to a Location, and the Game Starts the 3rd game has now the Choice to pick 3 Protagonists, the Protag,Heller and Mercer into the Story, Blackwatch Captures Our Protag and Keeps in Custody, and now it's Up to Heller to Rescue our Protag from Blackwatch. And even more into the Story, Heller ends up Being also Captured By Blackwatch and Ends up with Our Protag. Dana Starts losing Hope aling with Amaya Heller who is Now Older after Dana's Care, All of a Sudden a Jet starts Flying Towards a Building and Crashes into the Build but, Someone Hopped out of the jet Before it Crashed, and Blackwatch Choppers, Scans the Person who hopped out, and Figures out that it's None other than the Original Alex J. Mercer, who is Back from somewhere outside NYZ, and New Comic Books will be released to Explain how Alex Used a Jet to get back to Manhattan. Alex is Suprised to see Manhattan Almost Destroyed, Alex Tries to Look for Dana, but Runs into the Evolved who was working for Prototype 2 Alex, and they all thought that their Leader has Returned, but Alex Kills All of them, and Proceeds to Still Find Dana, and asks one of the Evolved, the Evolved told Alex Dana's Location before Dying, and Alex Went to the Location and Enters Dana's New Place, Dana was Aware and Attempts to Threat Alex, but Alex Explains that he's the Real Alex you've meet Before. Dana Asks what started this Problem. Alex Says "i'm the Cause, but the First Problem was Hope, Idaho", Dana Recognised what Alex Said and Believes he's her Real Alex and Alex Questions "Who's the Girl over there?", Dana says "It's my Friend's Daughter, I'm Looking After her.", Dana Then Said "and My Friend has been Captured by blackwatch and is in Custody. Can you Rescue them?", Alex Replies "Of Course i Can.", Dana States "Alex...Just Like Old Times?", Alex says "...Just Like Old Times." **More of Prototype 3 Story** **ENDING** Done.
Dude, this is AWESOME!!!! But I think it has just a few flaws. First, if the Alex Mercer from Post-Nuke-Regeneration is actually the Supreme Hunter, why would he identify himself as Mercer rather than the first person he consumed which is Cross? I mean Supreme Hunter probably would still have all of Cross's memories and personality. Plus Supreme Hunter probably only became sentient after consuming Cross so he should still self-identity as that character mentally even after consuming part of Alex Mercer and shapeshifting into his clone. Now for the second thing that I think might be a flaw in this. "The Curer" or rather the way it works. Separating Blacklight from it's infected hosts like that should be impossible because based on everything I have observed and thought through, the poorly so called "virus" consumes every cell of the infected and shapeshifts into the Blacklight zombie version of the infected host cells.
I loved prototype so much loved Alex Mercer i didn't mid him traveling the world to find the good in the world wich i can understand as he seen horrific stuff but i do think he should of realised yes their some are bad people but their are good people in the world and bad things are going to happen to you but good things are going to happen to
So the Prototype comics were... far from perfect, but my interpretation was that the misery of the world was all that Mercer could see (or at least focus on) after all that he has been through. The whole "pretty girl shot me" wasn't motivation, a lot of people have shot him. It was the final straw that broke the camel's back. With that said, yes I do have a lot of issues with the plot of Prototype 2. Most of them are because well... I know that comment won't win me any originality awards, but everyone in it is cartoonishly evil. If this is how this whole universe works... I'm sorry does Mercer have a point? (I mean really, if he truly wants to change the world using questionable methods, he could just find people that he trusts, turn them into Evolved, and then order them to consume all the corrupt people that have power and take their place. I'm not saying he has the right to do it, but you have to admit it's a much better plan than "infect everything that breathes") How to fix Prototype 2 IMO? Don't go with the "everyone mean" angle. Even Heller is this rude jerk for no reason. I know that this will sound really childish, but Prototype 2 would have been saved if they went with the theme of the recent Death Battle (Cole MacGrath vs Alex Mercer) "This world sure isn't perfect, but it's a lot better without you in it". Have him fight a character that still has hope, making his descent into the dark side so much more tragic.
I was thinking about the relationship between your new Alex and his identity, knowing that the person his name and body originates from is scum but having to use them to maintain an sense of themselves in a sea of memories and dna that threatens to leave him as an incoherent mess of flesh, stray memories and instincts. Its a really interesting concept that i'd love to see integrated with gameplay, but at the same time i understand that since it takes time for an apex to start being overwelmed by all the people they absorve (Alex in prototype 1 and your new Heller and Dana dont seem to have this problem in their time as playable characters), and it would be kind of broken to start the game with one the previous characters with all of their abilities unless you make them lose all of their powers witch would raise the question that if they lose their powers (and the dna associated with them) wouldnt that mean that they should lose the memories of their victims and etc etc... So after thinking for a while about it i had an idea, have an apex that has two different personalities inside of them! How did it happen? Gentec was making experiments with the apex abilities to absorve memories, one of those experiments was feeding a human being to an apex during the process of their transformation, when the apex was fully formed they had the personalities of both the original apex and the person that was fed to it active. Our playable character would have two different move sets that would complement one another with the game incentivising switching a lot to win the chalanges thrown at the player. And the story would be about our protagonists trying to find a way to separate themselves while dealing with gentec and the templars while also dealing with the impacts this forced fusion has on our protagonists and their loved ones. Also thank you for making this video i was always interested in this series but i was left disapointed with the second game, watching this video has inspired me and i cant wait to see more of your work
I wonder if a hypothetical plot of Prototype II and/or III could have the player work towards a couple of different resolutions for Mercer's perception of himself. Because he never really had the memories or personality of the scientist who released Blacklight in Penn Station, he can choose to not truly consider himself to be Mercer. But, what is he? Why does he default to Mercer's body when he can look like anyone he's consumed? Khanlusa's re-write already has Mercer grappling with identity, but ending with Mercer sacrificing himself to end the thing "he" created, and presumably to also put an end to his suffering ... is really questionable in light of his effective innocence AND what that says about how people with mental illness should ... fix their problems, if you catch my drift. I don't think Mercer should die at the end, and I think there's a hell of a lot more we can do with the character. It all boils down to what we can do with Mercer's disassociation. On the one hand, he could come to see himself as a parasite, or perhaps symbiote with humanity. He's made from and of the virus, so he's not human ... but he probably also can't live without humanity. He's a virus, after all. Separate from, yet a part of, the rest of us. Alternatively, since Mercer has a million identities he can adopt, and that run through his head, he could see himself as a sort of "meta-humanity." Representative of the whole, expressed through a single entity. What would it mean for him to be able to adopt the identity, in great detail, of the minorities the Templars want to exterminate? If he really did travel around the world, he would see its nature from a perspective not unlike a compound eye. Little bits of detail stitched together into an all-encompassing mosaic of the species. The Mercer we see in the canon games is a white dude, and we seem to get no indication he thinks any differently to the average white dude ... but in this re-write that doesn't have to be the case. He could potentially shed the guise of Mercer entirely after a while, getting to choose who he wants to present himself as. Yet, we can go even further. If Mercer really does want to be a good guy, and put an end to evil-doers, he's probably not going to be consuming random innocents off the streets. Thus, all the voices in his head will be either scummy people, or people who felt they had no choice but to do bad and/or commit crimes. Suddenly, that all-encompassing mosaic is looking incredibly biased. It could be really easy for him to slip into nihilism in this light ... which would put the player characters in the position of helping this truly unique being come to terms with everything he's learning and experiencing.
I am not on you with this one, I liked Mercer as a bad guy but perhaps he could have seen the worst of humans and perhaps wished to destroy the system instead of humans.
THIS right here. I want,... no I NEED THIS. Exactly this with maybe just one small change. Just let Alex Mercer spend his dying moments asking James Heller to consume him and James Heller agrees. Well then again, not sure about that because it would probably go against him wanting James Heller to be careful about who he consumes. Oh man, NOW I REALLY WANT TO REBOOT P2 to be almost exactly the way you described everything in this video.
12:19 This might be the one example of a White Supremacy Villain I’d be interested in watching. As so much modern bullshit points to “White Man Bad but is also pathetic and incompetent” just really grinds my gear. This example A: establishes the villains as few in number but powerful where the populace clearly would not approve of their actions so a veil of benevolence is practiced. B: the setup itself builds on what was already established in the first game and not something pulled out of thin air. C: The defeat of this White Supremacy Faction would lean into the theme of human nature and its corruption. That any individuals with sufficient power could and likely would do horrid things for whatever “Justification” they could cling to.
Your point C. also circles neatly back into nihilism. Humanity will always do this because power corrupts. It lets you have your cake and eat it too, because the narrative threads from Anchor can be included (probably toned down) while simultaneously providing a counterpoint to that nihilism by saying there can always be people who stand up against that corruption, and we can choose to be those people ourselves.
@@irregularassassin6380 I probably should have added an addendum. Power Reveals rather than corrupts. Give an evil man power and he will do evil things. Give a good man power and he will do good things. However if human history is anything to go by the latter is rare indeed.
I think this would have been a million times better. But I will say after watching your video regarding the Anchor and things I never noticed at my young age of playing this- maybe Prototype isn't worth saving haha. Can't wait to listen to all your videos while I'm chilling at work this week!
Don't forget that in Prototype 2, they completely glossed over the disappearance of D-Codes, and just slapped in the Orion project as a cheap replacement for them. I think your story idea has potential, and would've been preferable to what we got with Prototype 2, but the ending seems too much of a cliffhanger, and the third game's ending is too optimistic. I think it would've been preferable to have it be more similar to most other game endings, where the majority of loose ends are closed, but there's still enough room for sequels later on. If anything, it'd be better to largely remove Alex Mercer himself, as his existence shows that it's possible for the virus to turn rare people into "Prototypes" similar to himself. This is one thing the second game did sort of right, as having Alex playable for a second game wouldn't have made sense due to already being so overpowered. The Templars idea is in the right direction, but seems too blatant in its white supremacy. Perhaps more like the 'genetic purity of the human race" would be better, which justifies Blackwatch fighting bioweapons that harm said purity, and with coincidentally white people being more "pure" on average or something to justify the attempt at targeting ethnic types with Redlight, though that concept would need some details to be ironed out, especially with how making super soldiers using viruses is allowed despite "purity" being a concern.
i would say that instead of a one playable charchter you get a choice between her and the previous two main charchters of the series while giving her a uniqe skill that makes her as optimal to play as the other two thus making this a good send off to the story as you see each of the three fighting and eventually ending the game withthat bittersweet ending anyway you have done a lot of work on this and you created a idea for a stellar reimagining of 2 and a possible 3
As mentioned in your little trilogy, these games really do come across as edgy incel fanfic. I mean, it sounds like all the references to SA never go anywhere, making it just seem like edge, the powerful woman immediately simping on the player character. 2D characters, 2D story and "messaging", and a whole lot of, admittedly fun, gory glory violence. I wouldn't even say it's an accurate representation of nihilism, instead being a (again) 2D and (again) edgy way of interpreting the concept. I enjoyed these videos, thanks.
3:06 / 3:07 my g o d- i never thought of how horrifying a rabid gorilla would be like you have a biological powerhouse that could prolly pluck our heads like we would a dandelion, now ramp the strength and unpredictable factor to the Nth degree with the prior mentioned "buffs" i pray rabies never reaches the gorillas and no rabid gorillas ever ran/runs across a n y living thing cause that had to SUCK
hey good work, I found your videos just tonight and already churned the hours away to the ams (oops). Straight white man here giving you a big thumbs up on your content and commentary. I personally find most fanservice for straight men repulsive.
In the megaman series original x was suppossed to be evil in megaman zero series .they dont do that cuz it will leave bad impression on the zero series. Meanwhile prototype just do that. It really just "what if" role.
Ehhhhhh the ‘human trash’ stance does make a bit of sense. Like powerful people and systems are the problem sure, but inaction and enabling of said powerful people and systems is the fuel that keeps the wheels turning.
the issue is that kind of stance just pointlessly passes the blame onto random people when they could never do anything about it directly. Like what is a random joe shmoe supposed to do about the CEO of an oil company causing another huge spill in the environment? It's not like we can vote for a new CEO. When the problem is systemic, the people to blame are those at the top who actually have all the power to change the systems, but actively choose not to because it keeps them in power. Blaming the little guy for not being able to change these massive complicated systems that are hard to comprehend is utterly pointless and literally what the people in power want you to do in order to deflect blame away from themselves. It's like with climate change stuff. These rich executives like to try and pin the blame on the average man. "oh if you just recycled more maybe you could have saved that baby seal" but the reality of the situation is that it doesn't matter how much random people do their best to reduce their carbon footprint, when various corporations have carbon footprints that are millions and millions of times greater than any one man and refuse to do anything about it. Random people deciding to take the bus more often or leaving less waste is a drop in the bucket compared to what those corporations could do and yet they don't. Meanwhile Alex's mindset is basically "oh my god that woman littered that one time, that must mean that saving humanity is completely pointless!" When ultimately one person or even a million people littering is ultimately nothing compared to how much harm these corporations do.
A prototype game with an gta5 style of 3 characters would be interesting, use mercer as the more general character, heller as more of a tank character, maybe can't fly, only being able to jump really high ( like the armor ability but with steroids) and Sabrina as a more mobile and more stealth focused gameplay, maybe should be able to go completely invisible, is more agile and better at longer range combat situations. The story suggestion you made is great in general, but i don't really like the ending you suggested, don't really like the idea of ending a game in a sort of cliffhanger. I would probably end the game by making Heller's daughter be killed, but not by blacklight, maybe by an angry mob, seeing her as the daughter of a monster and a danger to the world, she isn't killed by the "evil" ones, but by the people they were trying to help, this makes heller lose the last thread he had in his humanity, transforming him into a killer destined to end humanity, in this state he kills and consumes Sabrina, and now as the final boss of the game is a super strong - fast - able to turn invisible supervirus, and now Mercer has to kill the last person he would call friend. I don't think prototype ( and it's characters) would fit in a happy ending where everything is fine.
Yeah that would have worked out way better. Mercer being a villain felt like less a story choice and more "wouldn't it be cool if he was the villain of the next game" as well as "hey we got this comic deal and we need to have a story for that". 2 felt like they were trying too hard to rethread the first game with Mercer now being in the Elizabeth Greene role where you can feel sorry for them but they are actively trying to kill you and the world wouldn't be all that good if she won. The thing with a rethread like this is you need to have it make sense which the comic got to basically "set fire to cancer orphans with burning puppies" levels of literally everything horrible to justify them being a villain. Rather than the simpler answer that with the propaganda and him being basically a big scary monster you aren't sure if you can trust leading to obvious early conflict before they come to a understanding and go after the actual villains. The white supremacist angle works well with them trying to take out "undesirables" by targeting minority groups heavily with experiments which WE KNOW HAPPENED IN REAL LIFE.... and then it got out of control and went horribly. Because white supremacist don't think logically they just despise the minorties, want them to suffer and will try to rebound if it ends up hurting them. Like forcing native Americans into mountain lands so USA can take the farm lands only to later realize the land they forced them onto had gold so USA then wanted the land too. And yeah they could have had partnerships to have trade agreements rather than losing people to war but they don't want that logic because they see the minority as non human.
So how would this alternate P2 story work with the gameplay? What would the missions be? The story is only in cutscenes really so at which points of this story does it switch into the actual gameplay? Will some of the story missions make us play as BlueLight Dana Mercer? That might be cool.
Why do you have such a massive hate boner for nihilism? Don't get me wrong, Mercer's character doing a complete heel-turn 180, especially when it pulls a Bungie and puts that information in a completely separate media for no good reason, is dumb as shit. But it seems like the very *concept* of nihilism touches a nerve.
Tl;Dr - Nihilism as portrayed in the media (and by extension, a lot of people's perception of the philosophy) as a shallow excuse for a character to be mindlessly violent, and yet it is sometimes portrayed as not just a legitimate worldview but also the truth within the setting. Not OP, but as someone who also doesn't like Nihilistic media: Nihilism is usually presented in media as 'The world is meaningless and cruel, and I will do nothing to about it.' Whilst this isn't directly true in the most direct definition of Nihilism - which states there's no inherent meaning or morality to anything, good or bad - that's not usually how it shakes out in media, in part because that's not very dramatic. So usually Nihilist characters take it with a dose of cynisym and Richard Dawkin's 'Selfish Gene' to come out with 'Humans are innately selfish and cruel', which in turn colours how people see nihilism. Rick and Morty delights in this sort of 'media nihilism' (to provide a distinction) a lot. Going back to the characters, these characters usually then take this media nihilism as either motivation or justification to commit acts of horrible violence, either because nothing matters so why not be evil, because there's no inherent morality or god to stop them, or because this philosophy makes them angry and they want to punish humanity. Weirdly enough, a lot of authors doing this tend to write it as if the character has a point (using the above dramatic 'everyone is selfish/evil angle), either because they want to get some sweet sweet anti-hero or morally-grey-villain points and that's their best idea, or sometimes because they genuinely believe it. Of course, portraying the character as 'having a point' effectively requires that either everyone be a selfish, cruel asshole in the media's world, or sometimes one or two people aren't until the inherently evil world snuffs it out - because if people are more complex than that, either being genuinely capable of selfless actions or able to consciously outgrow selfish and cruel impulses (or indeed, if widespread violence and cruelty is the result of systemic issues or exploitation), then humanity isn't inherently evil, or is at least capable of being better in the right circumstances - making the 'morally grey' Anti-hero or villain realistically just a black-and-white violent serial killer. So, either your media nihilist is an absolute monster, killing people due to an obviously flawed philosophy (especially bad if they're the protagonist), or you need to write a caricature of humanity as a whole to prop up a flawed character. Needless to say, this usually attracts either people who are young and are still forming opinions (hence the phrase 'I'm 14, and this is deep) since it's subversive and outside the Disney-optimistic-happy enough to appeal to them, or grown adults who genuinely believe that humanity - or sometimes, a select group of humanity, often with certain indelible traits - who want to indulge in the fantasy that they are the enlightened one or in being someone above cruel humanity (and thus justified in commit acts of violence to it) and want a philosophy that agrees with them. These people are not usually pleasant to be around. It's telling that Nietzsche, one of the big original fathers of Nihilism (he's the 'god is dead and we have killed him' guy) also did a lot of thinking about how to avoid this very cruel and unfavorable philosophy, as he is also considered one of the fathers of Existentialism - a counter-philosophy to Nihilism, that proposes ascribing individual meaning to human life. Ok, I've talked too much for one youtube comment, thank you for reading if you got this far though!
@@lozm4835 Yo, thank you for this, it adds more context to the utter disdain that is understandable. Something entirely unrelated but I didn't Existentialism was a thing. It's something I like to believe so cool that there's an actual name for it. That's all, have a good day.
I honestly like Alex as a Villain. It's not like there wasn't a possibility jush wish they made it better. Mix alex mercer past, everything black light did to the city especiallythe nuke, everything the virus experienced as alex, him being the first person it has the experience of (similar to how venom was at the start or symbiotes work generally personality wise) , the history behind the company, the existential after the truth about "him" is revealed, all the experience from people he's consumed good and bad and he was edgy in the first game. And as bad as it was The betrayal in the comic was almost the same thing that happened in the game. All they nedded to do was actually create that final push for the character. This somewhat explains what i mean to a degree. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PZ1i5oFGO1I.htmlsi=PNC6D7akdXdVNL4E
While I do like your rewrite of the horrendous "story" the game originally had I do have in issue with just how politically motivated it's coming across as. I do think story telling is at its most meaning full when it makes us think about the flaws in the institutions of our society or within ourselves but ya just leaned hard into " Republicans and white people are evil" rather than it be about the evil that rises in theses systems, thinking back to your first 2 vids on prototype where you mentioned that Japanese bio weapons torture fest, evil doesn't have a color.
Equating all white people as a whole to white supremacists is 100% on you. Nowhere did I say "white people are evil," and I'm sorry but those flaws don't spring fully formed out of the ether, they're driven by something. Whether it's greed, malice, fear, or bigotry, the terrible things we do to each other have motivations behind them. Evil doesn't have a colour, true, but America fully committed ethnic cleansing and genocide to exist as a country and built much of its foundational wealth off the backs of an enslaved population. Pretending like the sentiments that allowed that to happen have all gone away and no one would ever do anything like that now is extremely naïve. Unit 731's operations were heavily tied up in the belief that the Japanese race was wholly superior to all others, referring to northern chinese test subjects as "Manchurian monkeys." Ignoring the racial component in how they operated and why would leave out important context regarding Japan's actions during World War 2, trying to secure a future ruled by the "yamato people" who they held as inherently better. If you vote republican, whatever, I don't know your situation or your life story. But it's worth noting that as someone from the UK, hearing "make america great again" just sounds like stealing from the National Front, an openly racist neo-nazi political group who put up posters in the 70s with the phrase "Make Britain Great Again."
The only thing ı don't agree with is making the whole plot a race problem. I mean we've got viruses that make human beings into something that transcends any living creature we know and the antagonists are there because what? they don't want the black men to be below them? This is kinda underwhelming and is pretty much only North American problem and video games are such a big market that having it only focused on something like that would be a waste in my opinion. Maybe it could take inspiration from games like Killing Floor and have an antagonist like Kevin Clamely aka Patriach, a scientist who tried to bring back his dead son while working at Horzine, a company trying to make supersoldiers for the Brits, which eventually turned into him mass producing zeds and making himself a zed of which he sees as superior to replace humanity. You can have a character like this in Prototype who wants to use Pariah to make a new species like uberhumans who will talk about how he doesn't understand why Mercer and Heller are against him, saying that he thinks they want to be the only uberhumans in the world and have all of the power themselves while also calling them hypocrites for using said powers they are trying to destory kinda like how in Killing Floor 2's endless mode Patriach calls our mercenaries hypocrites for using healing/weaponry derived from his zed technology and being guns for hire for his former employers Horzine cooperation who themselves are shady AF.
Firstly, that's not a North American problem only. I get where she's coming from with the virus being based on race at first. But yeah, we transcended from that when there are literall Kaijus fighting and killing everything. It doesn't feel right to become a Republican bad situation. It would feel right to be a "Now it's just us vs them", them being the monsters and infected at this point. Leaning too much on political grounds would be very underwhelming since the game goes beyond the petty politics with literal Apocalyptic scenarios.
