I think we’re past due for a pinned comment addressing some of the more common criticisms for this video: - First and foremost, I had less than 300 subscribers when this video was made. It’s also worth mentioning that this is one of my least favorite videos on my channel, which is why it’s unfortunate that it’s also my most popular. - The “jokes” in this video are genuinely awful. They are at best unfunny and at worst downright misogynistic, which is unfortunately just the kind of immature person that I was back then. Three years is a long time, especially when you’re in your early 20’s and still maturing like I was when I made it. I think this is something that is handled much better in my future videos, but this one was just…bad. - I’ve received multiple comments from people saying that my criticism of the first game was unfair because I was playing the game wrong, and I agree. One of the lessons I’ve learned from later projects is that I cannot fairly judge a game based on a single playthrough, and I now have a rule where I will play every game I cover at least twice, but often more. Much of this criticism is literally just a skill issue. So you’re probably wondering why I haven’t deleted the video if I don’t like it, and the answer is a bit complicated. For one, there are plenty of people who seem to genuinely enjoy it, and I want it to remain available for those people. I was inexperienced and very immature when I made it, but I don’t feel comfortable getting rid of it entirely either. This comment is just a bandaid that hopefully provides some context to newcomers that it is, in my opinion, some of my worst work to date.
@@hansiesilver2991 Probably not. I have my issues with it but enough people have told me that they enjoy it for me to feel comfortable leaving it as-is. If the video was less popular and not as many people would miss it, then I’d just remove it and be done with the topic entirely.
@@michaelbecket4901well then. I guess the military bastard getting gutted by an infected civilian will be way better, for me at least. Or being pounded into past by Supreme Hunter with a new form.
@@michaeljason2593 sure but it depends on if the military asshole has powers as well since we’ve seen soldiers infected with whithlight become evolved instantly before
Honestly, concerning Prototype 2's characterization of Mercer, I've always felt that he was conflicted with his entire plan. Towards the end of the first game he knows that he was never human to begin with, only a weapon who grew a consciousness; so I think he feels the need to "prove" his own agency by shaping the world in his own image. He knows he has the power to eradicate humanity, yet he almost wants to be stopped given the extreme lack of effort on his part. He even release the virus in exact same location that the first outbreak appeared. Why else wouldn't he just leave the city and start another outbreak elsewhere? A sense of nostalgia? Pettiness? I feel like he never really had any intention to destroy humanity. He didn't even have the stomach to kill Dana, when he knew she was never his sister. Mercer seems to me like he doesn't know what he wants, only that he has to do _something,_ and he's too prideful to admit that. His final line even came off as if he never cared whether he won or lost. It's more likely that the writers didn't fully think through his character, but as a fan of the series, and of Mercer, I do love trying to justify his personality change.
Agreed his persnality changed made no damm sense in the 2nd game and please dont mention the comics that was garbage . The 2nd should of been about him trying to find Phariah its been hinted at DOZENS of times in the web of imtregues about elezibeth greens son its like they forgot about him
Prototype is one of those games that screams "Made in a short deadline" to me. The game has a lot of cool stuff like great animations and sounds that make you feel absolutely powerful, individually interesting and fun powers and moves that all feel great on their own, shoved into the game with almost no thought into how this would work with the larger game. Like the devs were short on time so they decided to cram as much cool sh1t they could into the game and threw a very basic open world around it. This d explains the rather boring mission structure and a general lack of stuff to do in the open world.
I think the best way to handle Alex's behavior in Prototype 2 is to completely make him unaware of his actions originally. If you make Alex not realize that he's been leaving behind virus contaminations of every place he has been, only for him to realize what happened after the second outbreak occurs and him just doing what anyone would rightfully do in that situation and panic? You could have this brilliant scene of him playing up how in control he is only for at the end of the game. "You want to hear the funny thing about all of this? It was all an accident. It was only when I became the Host of a Hive-Mind that I realized what had occurred. It's truly a bitch, you go to sleep and the next day, you hear millions of voices screaming at you for what you did to them. Hundreds of thousands crying out for help, but you realize you are just what the government thought you were. A monster, something out of control that harms and kills innocent people. By the time I realize what happened, I had no idea what happened, I just started doing whatever made sense. It's not like I could say "I'm sorry I turned an entire island into a den of mutated people and accidentally evolved others into being like me" without being hit with a nuke anyways. So I just did what anyone would do in my situation and just made it up to make it look like I started with a plan. James, if you look at me, do you see the face of this egomaniacal maniac who planned on infecting the world from the start, or do you see the face of someone who was given the worst case scenario and realized that even with their best excuse, they were going to be the villain, so I played into it. Give the people someone to hate, even after I saved the city originally. I'm sorry Heller, but it can't be fixed." Making him not realize he has contaminated the entire city and going off the deep end because he's too deep into it now, he might as well go full villain? It sounds like something that a scared, confused, and guilty person would do. Him turning into a villain would be him hearing the hivemind he accidentally created and feeling both the guilt and regret of accidentally starting a new plague whilst also being plausible that he'd hear all these voices and start trying to figure out what to do and in a moment of sheer desperation and panic, he just goes "I can't fix this, I need a plan, I need to do something" before realizing he was connected to a hivemind and without him issuing orders, they'd be feral. So he starts off trying to fix it, recruiting Evolved to help him out, but each person is corrupted by the concept of the Blacklight Virus having Evolved them, each telling Mercer a different tale to get him to slowly become a sociopath who wants to take over the world from an outside perspective. Cliche, I know, but looking back at the game, wouldn't it be a massive shock that Alex Mercer wasn't actually trying to be an evil asshole but instead was just really scared by his own powers and what he accidentally became?
If they make a 3 then the Alex in 2 should be a decoy made by Alex prime who was created essentially to be killed so that people stop looking for Alex while he enacts some global plot in the background. Have Heller or even another character to continue the trend find out slowly but unravelling a terrorist style organisation with cell groups that prevents immediately jumping to the top, and by the end have a choice where you can try to stop Alex or join him. Have some choices through the game where you can side with a military force that's exterminating anyone in a quarantine zone or a mildly infected populace who are slowly changing into something new, maybe with a small number becoming basically lesser superhumans. Could be good.
That gives real “end of Sword Art Online S1” vibes. You don’t want to undermine a characters motivations by being like “it was one big oopies poopies”.
My hypothesis is that Prototype 2 did a great job at being a balanced game, because it tried to make everything from the 1st game more concise through it's refinement. as a result (at least for me) while it did have less options than the 1st game, it ultimately made me feel far more empowered as a godlike killing machine because by learning it's mechanics, I became unstoppable. Rather than in prototype 1, I didn't ever truly feel like I was the center of attention because of things like high damage explosions, enemies everywhere, and the requirement of having to keep track of every mechanic while dealing with somewhat clunky controls. I still love prototype 1, though, and I do understand the multitude of things it does better than 2, but I never want to forget what 2 does better than 1.
Well there is the fact that there is an upgrade to become completely bullet proof, so there is that, alongside all backwatch and marine explosive weapons having a timer till they fire their guns, which gives you a 3 second window to block. Also the grenade launcher has a timer after it fires. Also there is the cool mechanic that you can literally rip tanks turrets off, making them next to useless when facing you. So did the game make you feel more god like? Or did they nerf everything else into the ground for you?
@@sebastiankrueger6209 cmon they nerfed everything from the 1st game which captured the godlike feeling in which whitelight says the same thing unlike in the 2nd game plus P2 does even allow you to pick up heavy vehicles like a army truck, tanks and helicopters and more which makes throwing useless unlike in the 1st game throwing was useful as well as feeling the power from mercers throw if you upgraded his throwing range and power
@@godzillazfrictiondude you’re wrong. Prototype 1 does not make you feel godlike. Objectively speaking. You get stun locked constantly, your most damaging attacks are impossible to pull off bc enemies are always stunning you out of it. Your best weapons is the blade arm and it’s pretty much just a single target moveset. Most enemies are damage sponges and you’re constantly forced to fight annoying enemies in large groups. It’s not godlike, it doesn’t make you feel godlike and instead it’s extremely unbalanced and janky. Just bc you liked it when you were 8 doesn’t mean it’s actually good now.
@@godzillazfrictionshut the fuck up with that godlike bullshit. Prototype doesn’t feel godlike. You feel like you’re made of papermache getting nearly one shot by fucking everything and doing very little damage against everything. I have nearly all upgrades in the game and still can’t one shit a tank unless I do an elbow attack
I wish they would make another game like this. They were just fun. Sure it was edgy and it was a total teenage boys power fantasy but it also was just excellent gameplay and endless fun with the mobility the characters (Heller/Mercer) had.
Alex’s plans for what he wanted to do was actually explained somewhat in the comics. (I’m sure you knew that) Although, as much as I love the Prototype franchise, even I have to admit that the “Taking over the world and making a new race” was kinda falling in line with a cliche. Nonetheless, I love Alex Mercer. These are the kind of games you should play at least once in your lifetime. I also didn’t understand the hate on the second game, I actually thought it was amazing. Story could have been better than a typical revenge plot, but it worked, given how the characters are. It has that certain charm to it, since it’s from the early 2010’s.
The hate for the second game is real simple. The marketing for this game was outstanding. It painted a picture of revenge. "Murder your maker". Oooooh, some very good intrigue. Then you play the game. A new character is put into the game in order to undo the legacy character. The legacy character's motivations, actions and practically everything about them, is changed for no in-game reason. The comics do not count, the game does not offer them to the player unlike Darksiders did. You go from Mercer who is smart pre-infection, to Heller, who just an muscle brained "Evolved" because for some reason the virus thought, we know, we''ll just keep this thing alive that is a threat to us for reasons! We love reasons! Mercer has the Evolved. Why does it need Heller? Why not just make everyone evolved instead of just......removing them from this realm? Why wouldn't the military just have Heller fight the infected to clean up the city? The last time they tried to fight against Mercer, the military LOST. Here you have a guy who has retained his sanity and knows to follow orders, and you just get mad at him. No wait sorry. The evolved make the military do this because Heller has resistant DNA and Mercer for whatever reason cannot take him over or remove his life? Military had sensors that would notify them of infected people/areas. In this game, they can't detect Evolved or the detectors just don't exist? The combat is worse. Yes, it's worse. Have a free dodge button. Use tendrils on hunters then cut off their arms and do major damage. The blade power is worthless. Whoa, you can spin around now? Amazing! You have the whip, tendrils, the tendril blockhole ability, bio bombs. The whip is just a grabby thing to units you can outright ignore. Or just time your shield button and.....bounce the missile back. You have little to no air combat abilities in game 2. The mutations on paper sound good, but most of them make the military obsolete. See that tank? Just use a finisher. See that copter? Jump on and rip apart it's cannons. There's no cost to do these things. You can just do them at will. If these were a limited resource, it would work better. Devastators! Mercer has tons. Heller has 2. Summon Hunters and Tendrils. Mercer uses his HP. Heller gets a unique bar (which is great!). However, in the final fight, Heller just gets to use ONE devastator for free, BUT only to respond to a bird attack. Mercer uses what, 1 Devastator attack in the final fight, and even then it's not the same version. Prototype 1 is flawed in gameplay and story. Prototype 2 is also flawed in this same areas, but the cracks in 1 are less noticeable than the cracks in 2.
Hope they bring this series back. So much interesting concept in the first game set up only to be ditched in favor for a different protagonist & story. I have no problem playing as James Heller but the idea of Mercer discovering about Pariah is something I want it to be explored more about in the sequel. Just imagine, before James Heller I would really want Alex to search for Pariah & understand what he or "it" is capable of as Dr. McMullen once stated that it would be extraordinarily bad if Alex & Pariah came to face to since both are very different Viruses. One being Alex (Blacklight Virus) a man made Genetically engineered Virus & Pariah (Redlight Virus) that was naturally born with Redlight. While still having a way to introduce James Heller in the middle of Mercer's & Pariah's conflict & rewriting Heller's character to be more than just an angry guy who cusses every 5 seconds.
I've always pictured Alex Mercer and James Heller swapping roles. Alex is the playable protagonist once again while James is the main antagonist. Prototype 2 is less of a revenge story and more of a redemption one, although it has a few revenge elements in it because Alex once thought Dana was dead because of Heller's new blacklight outbreak. As Mercer consumes Heller, it's revealed that Heller is Pariah's second in command. For Prototype 3, I imagine a mechanic where there is the choice between consuming a lifeform or just replicating a lifeform's shape, size, skills, powers, memories, and everything else without consuming the lifeform. Alex can develop healing powers, health manipulation, and powers based on curing diseases. It should also allow the option to consume or replicate the forms/abilities of plants and animals, land-based, sky-based, and aquatic-based. Pariah is the final boss of prototype 3 and after Alex consumes Pariah, his powers are perfectly combined with Mercer's.
easiest way to cheese elizabeth green is to use the hand blade, run up a building as high as you can and do dive attack with hand blade from your peak high , in easy mode it take out the tentacles entire hp bar in one hit
Good video. Now I’ll just say the two I wanna say: 1. What’s up with the marines in prototype 2? They simply just exist and have no relevance whatsoever. I’m pretty sure the only time they ever even talk in a mission is during the intro and that’s it. They are equivalent to the police in prototype 1. 2. Imagine pulling down Alex Mercers hoodie and it’s revealed he’s actually Albert Wesker lol.
@@saltyshrimppasta Can you imagine the cutscene where you confront Alex at the end going in the direction it did in the original RE1? “-your daughter will become the mother of the new world!” “…Ho haha ho haha” “Heller?” “Hahaha!” “Stop it!” “Alex, your pitiful. This is your ultimate plan? You say this dumbass idea is your ultimate plan?” “You can make sure yourself, whether the new world is a dumbass plan or not.” And then Alex gets impaled by Heller
Unpopular opinion but I really like prototype 2, it was good in its own way and I think it gets unnecessary Hate. The tendrils in PR2 had me playing the game for hours alone
Haven't played P1 sadly :( I had a PS3 when i was younger, but that was when the PS4 was already out a Year or so. I have played P2 on my PS4 and enjoyed it a lot. I even played it on my old PS3 for some Time (Movie Vision, i miss you. You where the best Movie/Game Rental store in my Hometown). I liked the Movement. It's fun to speed around, glide, run up buildings. I liked the Combat. My favorite Abilities are the Claws and the Blade Arm. Heller just moves sick with both of these, combinating the Attacks looks cool af. Stealth is fun too, but not for very long. Seeing Gameplay and the Story of P1, i would love to play It. I really like the Transformations Mercer can go through, and his Shield just looks cooler. But also seeing how janky It is and how much you need to watch out, to not instantly Die, makes me think :"Jup, i'm playing this on Easymode" PS: The Story of P1 for me, seeing it explained is more fun and better. A Mystery on what you are and who you are, later understanding and acting on this just seems a little more intriguing than the simple Revenge Plot of P2. Don't get me wrong, but In my Opinion Mercer and Blackwatch are just Cartoon Evil Guys/Factions in P2. Mercer does what he does, because Humanity is "frail and stagnant", Blackwatch seems to just want to continue the Experiments and somehow gain "Control" or just to make Money. Classic Cartoon Villain Stuff, while Heller is the "Good" tough Guy who does everything without knowing mercy to avenge/save his Daughter. The Ending of P2 is pretty cool in my Opinion. Seeing Mercer evolve into every Weapon You have and just rip him to Shredds is just a cool Way to end the Story. But it's just "Cool" and not good or satisfying. If there is ever gonna be a Prototype 3 or a Remake of some kind, I hope the Mystery and the unanswered Questions of P1 or just creating the same/better Expirience of the whole Theme is beeing brought back.
And another thing i found out, the sword right click also can stunlock them, but it does not work against leader hunters, those cannot be stunlocked, you can stager them for a bit with the sword right click but they will counter with their aoe knockback and then stunlock you
I really enjoyed the 2nd one. It was the first one I played. I enjoyed it so much I went back to play the first which I also enjoyed. I think its mostly cos I liked the story concept.
I like the idea of Alex devolving to his baser instincts after a long mental battle, and that by killing him we're also doing him a massive favour. But I also like the idea of Alex having to rediscover his own humanity. Even at the end of the game, he recognises what he's done and understands it's wrong. A virus alone doesn't have a moral compass. A virus doesn't have empathy. We could have a climactic boss-battle still, but I feel it would have worked much better for his character if Dana snapped him out of it, which brings me to another point. I strongly feel that Alex still has his protective instincts for Dana even at the end of the game. That innate empathy and care for another being that no matter how hard he could try, he'd never truly be able to remove. In short, the part of him that remains human, even if he himself isn't. If Dana's life was threatened and Nihilistic Alex was there to know it, I still believe he'd have a deep urge to make sure that threat can never harm her. Returning back to the boss battle, Alex is snapped out of his nihilistic daze he's devolved to, and just like Prototype 1 Alex, he begins to introspect and look back on what he's done. He begins to realize that the greatest threat to Dana's life, is himself, and every 'human' fiber of Alex's being coils in hate and disgust at that thought. He can't continue on like this, he refuses to, and in his final act, he asks Heller to take his life, so that he doesn't end up taking Dana's. The two say their goodbyes, Dana still calling Alex her brother, and after a moment of hesitation, Heller quickly and efficiently consumes Alex, ending it's life once and for all.
I feel that the reason the two games have different tones, is because Mercer and Heller have different worldviews, Mercer sees the world as morally gray, while Heller sees the world morally black and white. Nothing truly changes about the world, or the parties at play, but rather due to the two’s respective views, different aspects of the parties are shown. But that's my two cents about it honestly.
I honestly think Prototype 1’s release date should’ve been pushed back a year or two which would give the developers more time to realize where they were going wrong with the gameplay, challenges, collectibles, and story. Setting shouldn’t have been New York it should’ve been another state entirely while the characters should’ve been more humorous making it a stark contrast to InFAMOUS which was dark, brooding, and serious.
I always hated how Mercer just went full blown 1 dimensional dr evil teir villain who wants to be evil for the sake of being evil that was never his plan in the first game and I absolutely love his character so it upsets me to see what they did with him
16:37 I imagine you'll probably mention this later in the video, but Mercer isn't suffering from amnesia so much as he just doesn't really exist anymore. You dont actually play as Alex Mercer, you play as the Blackwater Virus in the form of Alex Mercer.
I mean, kinda. The virus sort of went into mercer, and became him. He was effectively consumed by the virus and since that's how the virus started its life cycle it effectively became him
Prototype came out close to the release of the first Infamous game and were compared endlessly, but I always preferred this game to Infamous because of its traversal. Unfortunately, the devs never realized what they had, because they could have filled the map with collectibles like Crackdown did, and it would have given the game a metric fuckton of mileage, but instead, the world is utterly empty. There is a lot of similarity between Prototype's traversal and Saint's Row 4 weirdly enough.
Prototype 1 is one of my favorites super hero style of game. Lots of powers and upgrades. And fun as crap to play. The second one has a special place as I had played some of it when I was pretty young, 10 or so. But Alex imo felt so much more fun to play. And James was basically big guy that's mad 😅and he had less abilities. More individual upgrades per power was cool in the 2nd tho!
For me, the way i see the games is simple: P1: better story, characters, and atmosphere P2: overall more enjoyable gameplay, more fair difficulty (looking at your bs boss fight in the first game greene), and much better visuals
So since I finished P2 and this vid, let me give some thoughts First up I didn't expect to watch this vid again since I had in on my watch later list forever Next up, for story, I mostly agree with you but I actually like the designs for the cutscenes being black and white, it's cost efficient, unique in the medium and shows thematic purposes by highlighting the different factions with blue and red and showing that the story is constantly gloomy and when some colors other than those four are shown, it represents some sort of hope in this fucked up world, this three things are possibly only found in the Monogatari series from the anime medium. Gameplay wise, there's some things I like and some I don't, the tendrils are perfect, much more balanced system, more enemy types(which needs ti be in free roam) and better stealth. But at the same time, the special attacks for each weapon are all automatically unlocked without any particular upgrades which in the end gave me less a reason to do side missions to upgrade any thing or because I find the game to be much more easier, even if I died much more in P2 than P1, I generally did a lot of things in P1 and was giving in my all in those missions, while in P2 I was mostly slacking off trying to get the bonus. Movement wise I prefer P1 cause it has much more depth. Graphically and the way the show they map and world is of course much better in P2. I guess this is all I have to say so far, so I'll put my pen down for now
How did you do a cinematic transformation for Muscle Mass and the Whipfist?! That's not even in the game normally and it looks awesome!! What the heck the Shield AND Armor to!? How do you do this
@saltyshrimppasta Yes, that's exactly how you do it! Hold down the D-pad on whatever direction your Power is on and it does a cinematic even for the vision powers. I've played this game for years after initial release and recently bought the duo pack with [PROTOTYPE] 2 on sale about 2 weeks ago this is awesome to know
I don't know if you know this but there's actually a comic following mercer after the events of *PROTOTYPE* *1* the reason why he's all *VILLAINY* in the second game is because of the events that happened in the comics. . Also this just the Fandoms *THEORY* but....the reason why the Mercer fight is easy is because mercer is not talking you seriously... he's actually mentoring you if you notice the reason for this is because Heller is not selfish, he's not thinking about himself but thinking about his daughter. . Also the reason why *WE* the Fandom are still hoping for *PROTOTYPE* *3* is because Elizabeth Greene child is still somewhere out there..so should a 3rd *prototype game will come the character we would be playing would be the child.
A lot of people fucking hate it and with good reasons too, that were stated on this very video. The game killed the franchise as well, which may say everything that you need about it.
Personally, even tho Prototype 2 improved the combat I feel like it's also way too easy to the point that i got bored halfway through the game. Detection drop way too fast to the point that you can just escape any situation by just jumping away a single time, critical mass being so much easier to stack which make devastators so much easier to spam, you can get an upgrade that remove bullet dmg, the ability to instantly destroy any vehicles without cost make fights against them a complete joke which made strike squads has no longer a danger because you can air grab and instant kill them without the whip, you get an indestructible and almost impenetrable shield that you can use at anytime without needing to switch to. I also don't like how they kinda gutted the movement in 2 by not giving you the ability to charge your jump and dropping from high building no longer feel satisfying because you deal like literally no dmg onto anything despite the fact that you jumped from a literal skyscraper down to the street. Imo, the only good edition to the game that was executed well was the new side quests and collectibles, the ability to properly dodge, improvement to stealth and enemies design
I do love blackwatch in prototype 2 just for the vibes but undoubtedly nunace was lost. Prototype was attempting to be intellectual, prototype 2 was bombastic.
Great work my man. Say what you will about Prototype 2's writing but you can't deny that it was full of hilarious moments. I recommend 2 wholeheartedly to anybody wanting to play these games.
You missed a lot when covering the powers first off whip fist is one of the STRONGEST close range attacks with the street sweeper go up to almost anything at close range and will do tons of damage muscle mass is really useful with things like cannonball bullet dive drop and air stomp as the damage is HEAVILY increased cannon ball being good for taking out helicopters bullet dive drop can take out almost any enemy besides hydras and leader hunters and bosses with enough height and air stomp can do MASSIVE damage on elizabeth greene even in hard mode where her HP is bloated to absurd amounts hammer fist's 3 hit combo also works well against leader hunters as it does the most damage with little moves and leader hunters counter attack after 3 hits so just wait out its slam attack hit it 3 times run away and repeat regarding the devastators ground spike devastator is basically only useful on elizabeth greene where it shreds her health bar tendril is usually useful for clearing out a group and best used on adrenaline and critical pain works best on structures and some bosses. a lot of people including myself went into the game and always just default to the blade but the blade is arguably the most uninteresting and unfun weapon in my opinion after learning about how useful muscle mass and whip fist are I've never found myself having fun with the blade at all the blade is still useful for things like hydra's as most of the other powers can't do much but helicopters and tanks still do well in that regard your point is still pretty valid though as the claws are still pretty useless and a lot of this stuff is hard to discover in fact I only found out through the top level speed runners and players but if I had to pick a power with the most variety it would indeed be muscle mass and oh and when your covering games make sure to cover a lot of the content as your not covering a bunch of the combat moves and ability's and such even if they are useless you should still cover it or at least give it a mention unless its just that worthless that mentioning it is a waste of time
43:16 see how you explained the story, if they didn't do such an edgy weird way with the memories and did it a different way for the other cutscenes to not be so clunky, i would agree to be an interesting story, unfortunately at the end of it all when i played, i didn't care
Imo Prototype one is clunky but have a good fighting system while Prototype two is a bit spoon fed. And my only issue on both is how they lack melee aerial tacks which slides through enemy sides rather than the sword which just jams itself to the ground.
@@saltyshrimppasta bro thanks for making this video, I fukin miss prototype and I hope Microsoft makes a prototype 3 after they buy Activision, staring Blackwatch 1st Lt. GREENE codename PARIAH
That’s one of the things I’ve been thinking about since the acquisition. I’m hoping they revive a lot of abandoned franchises, but especially this one.
i know that mercer is edgy as hell and that a lot of his dialogue feels very stereotypical but the scene with raglund and him revealing his powers and saying ''you could say i'm symptomatic'' actually goes kinda hard
Disagree on the first game being better. The second was more fun in almost every way. I've replayed it several times and haven't been able to stomach a replay of the first more than part way through. The second game was just a great power fantasy. One of my favorite games. The cliche bad guys seem a small issue compared to how fun it is
In your final thoughts you mention that Alex Mercer being dead; and the main character actually being removed from Human in the first place, is the "ultimate centerist" In the second game it's not that the personality trait dies... it's that it evolved to it's most natural conclusion. He VALUES humanity = and IS NOT human. He sees us completely objectively, has absorbed enough of us to identify with us, and believes we can be better. But at the end, he is NOT one of us. Never will be. So in the vein of a single cell that mutates (that's what cancer is) to spread as a hive mind pathogen - Alex's original dead body being it's host - his mindset on turning Humankind into Ants but empowered for their survival of several lethal planetary eventualities, is not that far fetched. It's not good. It's not evil, and it's a flawed plan... but come on. Given what the creature went through just trying to figure out he's NOT Alex at all, I don't see that as a dot that doesn't connect. I absolutely sucked at the first game, didn't bother with the second because I don't think I even got to the point of getting my first real power up in Prototype and figured 2 would be more of the same but harder. So I have no real dog in this fight of otherwise fairly under-developed characters. However I think Alex was meant to be more a blank slate type that you found layers to yourself, as impetus to drive forward with him into the main story. Where it seemed they did not properly know how to transmute Alex into Magneto... so we get Heller (who may also be more than a bit of derision to Military Mindsets in the first place) Just my take. I'm by no means an expert but I do know character development, world-building and power scaling in story arcs.
I've never knew pr2 was hated ik some people may not like it but I've always loved 2 and I never played one but maybe in the future I will but I've always seen 2 as bit improvement of 1 in a few ways. Sry
I think this is a scenerio where both P1 and P2 have their pros and cons of each other. Both gameplay wise and even storywise. There were a lot of annoying things about the gameplay in P1, you didn't really have a super good way to dodge things like missiles, you're only option was to destroy or kill whatever is shooting a missile at you, and you just have to tank it until you can do that. And it wasn't even the damage of the missile spam that was the problem, it was how fast the spam was and how much you get staggered. And mid to late game, all the fights are insanely chaotic. There was always so much going on. Having to fight hunters, leader hunters, plus strike teams with 4 helicopters and tanks. And your character in P1 was just harder to control. All of this led to some pretty infuriating moments. And the story, while interesting enough to keep you invested, was still lacking and boring at times. The gameplay carried the game. But it was still a decent foundation. In P2 there was a significant improvement in gameplay in most aspects. But a few things I didn't like about P2 gameplay was the inability to charge your jump, you can't just slide down buildings like you could in P1. But it felt much smoother, they made it a little less chaotic, and gave you better options in regards to dodging and blocking attacks. I even thought the story was a bit more captivating in P2, even if the direction they went ultimately wasn't as good as it could've been. But unlike others, I didn't hate the idea of Alex Mercer going bad. It's believable upon him figuring out that he really isn't Alex Mercer, he's just a fully conscious form of the blacklight virus, and has God-like powers, seeing the corruption and evil humans are capable of(even if the comics explanation of the details of this was stupid in the end). Prototype as a whole leaves a lot to be desired, and it sucks that we likely won't get a third game, so the franchise will have no chance at fixing it's problems. Really this franchise should be a goldmine in theory. I think their would be a market for a third game, but Activision didn't seem to think so.
Pre-ordered Prototype in 2008, loved it to death...bought alex jacket one day❤ 2econd part only played once...good gameplay but i hated this bull**it storyline givin alex a cliche change into a cliche antiprotagonist and especially james "mofo - i fit better into a fu***ing rockstar game" heller. Oh, he is looking for his daughter who was kidnapped and his secret partner is a religion host...did the storywriter figured that out on his own? Was so disappointed...
I get the vibe that Prototype 1 was originally planned to include a _lot_ more dialogue & animated cutscenes (especially for the Web of Intrigue nodes), but the devs ended up having to scrap or condense most of them due to time/budget constraints.
Disagree on the movement being the same in 2. You can't hold the jump button to perform super jumps. Adding a timing element to the traversal to gain the maximum height, distance and momentum. You're not able to slide down buildings and perform back jumps, the backflip is removed, James has less "flashly" animations compared to Alex. You can't cancel your climbing or dropping when on a building. Lastly, the air dash forces you into a glide, this makes it harder to land and move accurately in the air, and doesn't allow the player to use dashes to gain vertical height as well as the first game.
James focuses moreso on efficiency and destruction rather than agility and single-target damage like with Alex. I can certainly appreciate how they both feel different.
Wait, so you're saying the movement is more restrictive in the second game than in the first ? I just played the first one and if the second one is anything like the first one (or worse...) I'm not even going to bother.
The moveset in Prototype 2 is slower paced, which I found easier to control. Jumps are a little shorter and the running speed doesn’t reach as high speeds. Also, holding the “free-run” button does cause you to automatically start gliding, which takes some getting used to.
I for one hate that the lore for Alex's turn isnt actually mentioned with in the second game, but in the comic for the second game. How he set out and traveled but only found corruption, (I mean he did go to probably the worst places, like he was looking for it "ehem") before finding an old man and his daughter he felt he fit with. He even discribes that he felt like he loved the daughter, feeling like she loved him back, but ofcorse with Alexs luck the old man was apart of some kinda mafia. He trys to take the daughter away but the daughter shoots him after finding his money, that back fires and Alex turns bad boy outta spite really. But honestly much prefer your idea for how prototype 2 should have gone. It feels more in charicter and actually thought out. One thing from the first game (that i hate was trapped in the web) was human mercer actually liked making the virus more deadly, and bragged about how he made it like 10x so. It was only when he heard about green he decided the virus was bad. It made a really cool twist that the virus openly hated human Alex, that the virus seemed to have a better moral compass then his human counterparts. Sorry I've recently returned to the prototype hyperfixation and just needed to put my 2 cents in 😂 Loved the video!
I’m glad you enjoyed it! I don’t remember if I brought up how the Web kind of sucks because you can’t actively seek out nodes, and how you basically have to just run around the entire map and hope the poor bastard doesn’t die (usually by you accidentally throwing him instead of consuming him). I wish there were some ways to unlock chunks of nodes by doing challenges or something, which can be ignored if you find the people to consume while exploring.
@@saltyshrimppasta oh you did bring up the web being hard to use/want to persue and I 100% agreed as much as i wanted to know every little detail its just too hard. Especially trying to find the like last 20, when zombies kill them in your face or as you say, throwing them, or acidently throwing the things you picked up instead if them at them. Thats real pain.
That comic story is just as garbage as the second game's story, it doesn't make it better in any way and I hate when people try to bring it up as if it changes the fact that the story of the second game is trash.
The comics are trash and you either haven't read them or your perception of storytelling is garbage, the idea in them doesn't make sense and it doesn't justify anything.
For the Elizabeth Greene Boss I Prototype 1, if you or anyone else plays again. Use the shield and not the armour, use muscle mass with max throw and grab cars and make sure you're locked onto the weakspots. You can use the whip fist charge attack to do long range attacks. Make sure you're high up to let gravity pull you down during the attacks to dodge her attacks passively. In the 2nd and 3rd phase of the Boss just use the tanks, they are absolutely broken on the Boss and took only 10 minutes to beat when I played it recently, compared to an hour when I last played in 2018. Hope this help anyone
@@randomfactsthatdontmatter3466 it is but due to how groundspike works it just does an insane amount of damage on elizabeth greene only being comparable to the air stomp try it you won't be disappointed and it might not work sometimes its weird that way
I recall Prototype had its own equivalent of the 'bio-bomb' called the 'patsy' (its a skill that you have to buy so I don't blame you for not mentioning it) Basically you point fingers at a soldier and everyone sets their focus on that soldier until they open fire. It makes a pretty good opening for stealth consuming. Though I do find it funny that you can use this ability repeatedly and no one ever suspects you for false accusations. Still prefer bio-bomb any day
I find it ironic in retrospect that - for all the folks who call Prototype an RE knockoff - RE Village recently did essentially the same thing as Prototype with the character of Ethan Winters and the Mold. If you’ve played that game to the end, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Funny how things work out sometimes.
@@saltyshrimppasta We can only hope. There’s also Radical’s involvement in the project; hopefully Microsoft will give them room to come back. They haven’t done anything since 2014’s Destiny.
There can be a lore justification to the fact that Heller is more of a bulky kinda guy, like a Heavyweight fighter while Alex is like a Featherweight fighter... That's why Alex is much more agile and has more fluid movement than Heller. Even the Armoured Heller skin in Prototype 2 is bulkier than Armoured Alex skin...
There is lore justification, the virus uses the hosts original brain and sentience for a baseline on how it acts, from how it looks to how its forms look to how its powers work and everything. So it kinda works on spawn cape rules "it decides what looks.most badass and chooses that" lol
Wow, it’s my first vid from you and it was great. This is literally like top tier games’ analysis. I’m so surprised you don’t have more subscribers. Great work keep it up!
it's always interesting seeing reviews of the first game and seeing what powers people consider useful vs useless, because it's almost always different. I say almost because the one constant is the blade arm being really good.
I'm slightly confused by your claims that build optimization is a factor in Prototype 1. From my experience, I just bought whatever I thought looked cool or that I needed and then bought everything else late-game.
The devastates were great during boss fights, the single target one is awesome for he tank boss, the spikes felt the same as the noodle attack to me but the spike worked better against the blond infected chick in the flower mode. Edit: the upgrade that let's you do the spike ult from a drop makes the fight easy. I dropped 3 - 4 times to get her into the vulnerable state.
Way late but good video and I liked your take on Mercer at the end. His reason for suddenly being wesker was always flimsy at best especially since it was explained in a comic instead of the actual game. There is a video I saw that explained why Alex probably let Heller win and that's how I personally like to see his character in prototype 2 instead of outright character assassination like it probably is but I would've preferred your take on it
Nice! I really need more [Prototype] in my life and this was fun to watch and very thorough. I have been toying with an idea for a prototype inspired game (not sure if I'll ever be able to work on that) and the critiques you have for the two games give me some ver important things to keep in mind for how to make it work.
the idea of a new prototype game is something that i wish could happen so badly, i really hope some indie developer out there has the chance to make a heavily inspired [Prototype]-type game in the future because i absolutely adore these games
I agree that hunters should not be in the Elizabeth Greene’s boss fight as it just makes the fight harder. I found getting high enough to do the air blade attack and immediately do a graveyard devastator
I just finished Prototype 2 for the first time as of today (7/14/2022). At 1:43:05 you mentioned it wasn't clear as to why Heller's daughter was a priority to Black Watch. There were to two agencies that were interested in Heller's daughter. The U.S. government originally had Heller's daughter because of her genetic makeup, which is compatible to the virus. Black Watch command wanted her as bait to kill Heller. Alex Mercer wanted to procreate with Heller's daughter, calling her the mother of the new world. He even mentioned, when she's of age... It was kind of pedophiliac if you ask me. He even told Heller during the boss fight Heller could have been the grandfather of the new world. "Who's the father?" Mercer is the father. I played Prototype 1 and 2 back to back so the plot is still kind of fresh to me. Mercer mentioned that he was not Alex anymore but the virus. Alex died on the street and the virus took over his body acquiring Alex's memories over time. I don't think Alex is a hero but an anti-hero, one step away from turning on the human race. Unfortunately with P2 the plot wasn't executed correctly. I think the concept of an anti-hero becoming a villain in a sequel is quite refreshing to see in a video game, however its of high risk if not written correctly. At the ending of Prototype 2 when Mercer's sister asked what's next, I think it was reference to her asking a similar question to Alex as to what his plans are when its over. Alex caused the second outbreak because he was fishing for people to procreate with. When he first knocked the helo out of the sky, with Heller in it, he was searching for Heller's body at first. When he found him alive, he assessed Heller before infecting. I always looked at Mercer as an undeveloped adult almost like a child, in the game he wanted the truth of his death but after he didn't know where his path lied, like he was still learning his existence. At the ending of P1 he was pondering his purpose in life. Between 1 and 2, he found it. Oh one more thing Black Watch wasn't confusing. In P1 Black Watch was riding both sides. They were conducting illegal activities at the same time pretending to be the resolution to the outbreak. In part two the deception was still the same. I think the franchise was quite ambitious having Black Watch as a supremist organization and can be argued a White Supremist organization calling themselves 'Black Watch.' The virus was originally intended to specifically target and kill a specific race of people. They didn't want to come out and say it but in the middle of the picture of children was a Black boy. Its too of a coincidence the mother of the new world was a Black girl. It implied the virus, that was designed to killer and her people, wanting to coexist with the people it was designed to kill. Prototype was more woke than people give it credit.
No. Just no. Heller's daughter for unexplained reasons was resistant to the virus. A virus that was man made, wasn't in the wild, only released when Mercer ran away with it and was specifically made to go after humans. How on earth are people able to resist this science experiment that can infect buildings to make it spawn out giant creatures is just plot convenience. Mercer, or rather Blacklight, would not need to impregnate Heller's daughter. Why on EARTH would it need to? It's not a thing that's alive in a human/animal sense. It can shapeshift into whatever it needs. I'm not going to both responding to the rest of your comment. My god, is it based on some hot garbage information.
@@chip8293 I don't think Heller cared if he pissed off Heller. I think he spoke the truth even before the boss fight. Without this plot it makes no sense for Alex to be obsessed with Heller's daughter.
prototype 1 story is just as bad. Accept the fact that the gameplay is the only good thing about those two games, the story is just "a virus is spreading, and the military wants to control it.@@aldiascholarofthefirstsin1051
As someone who enjoyed Prototype during the early 2010's as a child, I loved this game for the powers and they looked so cool and amazing I wanted to do it myself too. Now I kinda realize how much of a pain it could be to a normal individual since you're literally shifting your body part and Alex appears in pain. I loved the game as it was for the cool and sick powers and design, and now it's for that and the story and potential it has. Prototype had a decent story and alot a bunch of things it could explore but unfortunately it didn't in some areas. Also yeah the combat mechanic is very clunky for this time and age and I won't lie it sucks sometimes. The Claw power you get is the weakest, even with Groundspike upgraded it's not worth using Claw. Just get the Claw events done to Platinum rank and call it a day with it. Hammerfist may seem important for tanks/armor but it's not. It's useless and doesn't exactly one shot them unlike the Blade even on Easy. Anything that isn't Blade, Whipclaw or Musclemass kinda sucks and don't bother using armor unless you're in shooting events. The trade off for better EHP but little mobility is kinda stupid like removing Glide makes sense but diveroll? Nah, just get the Shield Power to temporarily avoid death and just move around more. Mobility is your greatest friend. Oh and sensory powers are redundant since lock-on exists so there's little point to them unless you're trying to destroy those infested water towers for a trophy. Oh and dear god if you Gold all events be prepared for Platinum and hope some of them are already qualified for it because Platinum in movement sucks but becomes easier the more you understand which are faster routes and how to glide properly. Glide sucks too because you need to be in some of the events at or below 0.50m to qualify and Alex has little control while falling in the air. War events are alright but the Raid event sucks even more and it's just better to go on Easy(+) and do it that way since Hunters will be easier to kill and they won't one shot the tanks. The Kill events can be tedious depending on what you do and the upgrades you have but if it's Infected just go for the fodder since they count. Ignore the hunters and move around to avoid them. If you're in Military and they got tanks, target the tanks. They net more points than killing the fodder units and should be priority, and some of them aren't in the Whipclaw events so just spawn Y/Triangle while lock-on switching to slow the timer for a bit. In a short conclusion, Prototype is an old game and it shows. As the combat looks great until you realize it's very reliant on cerain powers and some are just useless in certain situations but the amount of potential it has is so great and amazing I do believe a remaster/remake should or could happen. Its concept and presence is just amazing and still is a good game despite some of it's flaws, however, being straightforward it's a 7/10 game. Average at gameplay with below average boss fights but with a good in the story it has, it's an alright game without counting the tedious events that may or may not consume you. And if a remake happens with the combat and movement being improved it would possibly make it a 8/10 or 9/10 for me. However unlikely with Activision but hell if they could remove the tedious parts of the game, improve the Greene and Supreme Hunter boss at the end and make each approach with each power and situation viable, it would for sure make a great game. Also changes to Alex as a character would be good if done right but as of now he's alright as a character in the first game. Just don't change his outfit because he's dripped out as hell and all the enemies you fight are just jealous of it lol.
prototype is the most dangerous outbreak ever, the survival rate is so low. especially when you have monsters like goliath. and imagine how a normal human has to do to survive.
i love how everyone, including Alex, is like “he’s a sociopathic unfeeling MONSTER he’s a THING he’s NOT HUMAN he doesn’t have FEELINGS” and he’s constantly having big emotions right there on screen. anger, obviously. sadness and embarrassment when he realizes he scared Dana. mirth, from his little sassy quips. he’s literally a Cancer
Personally I feel in 2 the mc is more jacked and bulky compared to mc in 1, hence the change in movement system. But I do miss the hammer yeet and the full armor mode in 1
Final thoughts! Amazing video. You gave a valueable critique. I played alot of prototype 1 & 2 and I prefer Prototype 1's gritty realism but I also love Prototype 2. You sound like you've already become a fan and I'm so stoked about that! Welcome to the wait for Prototype 3 😅. Also the fanfictions are really good 😶
The amount of combat animations {Prototype} has... Air juggles, delayed punches and kicks, surfing, ground slams and ground slam recovery, mid air grabs etc. And the only things you can use them on are civilians, infected and soldiers, that die in one punch anyway... Sure I had my fun with these mechanics, chaining endless combos and being as creative and flashy as possible with just my fists, but there's absolutely zero reason to use most moves in optimal gameplay and I find it painful to watch other people play prototype efficiently, without the flair
I feel like Musclemass was supposed to make unarmed combat viable against tougher enemies, but the sword ends up being the best weapon for all situations, at least from what I remember from playing.
![[Prototype] Critique | Lost But Not Forgotten](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
