Prototype and the Problem of Chaos

Superheroes and videogames seem like the ultimate combination don’t they. After all, superheroes are the ultimate power fantasy and videogames are the best medium for which to live out said power fantasy. So, it should be no surprise that there have been many great games featuring the act of super heroics.

And yet there haven’t been many original superhero games. Plenty of licenced ones but not a whole lot of original IPs. At one point in time though, 2009 to be specific, 2 games would come out to try to change that.

The first was Infamous developed by Sucker Punch. It was a pretty decent game and one of the better releases for the PlayStation 3’s early days, but I never got into it. Infamous always felt more like a third person shooter disguised as a superhero game, and there’s nothing wrong with that, it just isn’t something that appeals to me. Never been a big fan of shooters.

No, I was more partial to the second game, Prototype. This was more of what I was looking for back then as it was, essentially, a continuation of previous superhero games released during the sixth generation of consoles. Namely, Spiderman 2 and Hulk Ultimate Destruction.

This is no surprise given it was developed by Radical Entertainment, who were the ones behind Ultimate Destruction. It shares a lot of the same DNA, big open world to run around in, powers that let you go on a rampage, lots of military trying to take you down. Very similar experience yet different enough to let it be its own thing.

I did own Prototype back in the day and remember really enjoying it, but I also never finished it. Plus, it’s been years since I played it, and given that it’s close to 13 years old at the time of this writing, I was curious to see whether it had held up or not.

Fortunately, both it and its sequel are still available digitally on modern consoles. I picked up a copy to see whether it was still any good. How does it hold up? Well… it’s complicated.

Prototype puts you in control of Alex Mercer, a man who wakes up in a morgue with no memory of who he is or how he got there. The only thing he does know is that he has been infected with a mysterious virus that grants him complete control over his own biology. Meaning he can change his body in various ways like creating claws, whips, shields. He can even absorb people and shapeshift into them.

Wanting to find out who he is, Alex contacts his sister and finds out that those responsible are Gen-Tek, a biological research company Alex used to work at. While investigating Gen-Tek, Alec accidentally releases a test subject named Mother who was the progenitor of the virus infecting Alex, which inevitably causes a massive viral outbreak, right in the middle of New York City. Oops.

So now Alex has to find out what happened to him while also dealing with mutants caused by the virus. Not only that, there’s also a rogue military unit called Blackwatch, who are determined to keep the virus under control by any means necessary.

The story for Prototype isn’t the best. It does a good job of building a mystery in what exactly is going on, but that’s all it really has going for it. The characters aren’t particularly likeable and don’t leave much of an impression. Alex is the standout but he’s a total edge lord, which was a thing a lot of games did then that hasn’t aged well at all.

It also doesn’t help that certain plot threads end up getting dropped completely and never get brought up again. Even the ending feels like it happens out of nowhere which just makes the whole thing feel anticlimactic.

I’ll give it this though, it is a unique story for a superhero game. The idea of a virus outbreak that turns people into monsters gives the game a horror theme you don’t see in games like this. Honestly it has more in common with Resident Evil than it does Spiderman. And while a lot of it does fall into clichés, it is still a unique combination.

But you don’t play games like this for the story, you play them for the gameplay. At its core, Prototype is an open world action game where you need to use your powers and abilities to complete a variety of objectives to continue the story, while also partaking in the occasional side mission and collectable hunting.

If you’ve played some more recent superhero games like Insomniac’s Spider Man games or the Arkham series, then a lot of this will feel familiar. A lot of modern superhero games are built on the foundation games like Prototype established. In a way, Prototype feels like a time capsule of what these games were like during the 2000’s.

This does mean that a lot of this is starting to show its age. Prototype has aged like milk in certain area’s that make it hard to go back to if you’re used to more modern superhero games. But I also must admit there was a certain charm to it.

As someone who grew up with games of this era, I did feel a sense of nostalgia while playing Prototype. It was fun going back to it and being reminded of how games like this used to be. The upgrades, mission structures, side missions and open world all scream late 2000’s era game design. It’s dated but I think it has worth for those looking to see how far we’ve come.

As for whether it’s fun to play, that’s a different story. Alex controls well for the most part. Like any good superhero game, moving around is half the fun. We all remember the web swinging in Spider Man 2, it was one of the best parts of that game.

While Alex lacks the ability to web swing, though given his shapeshifting powers he probably could, his ability to run across rooftops, jump incredible heights, air dash and glide is fun in its own right. It’s more akin to how movement was in Ultimate Destruction, though with less bus surfing sadly.

Running through the city is still an exhilarating experience even today. When you chain jumping gliding and air dashing together you get a great sense of flow that feels good to control.

Where is stumbles is in its precision. When you’re just moving around it’s fine, but when you need to make tight turns or change direction it can be easy to lose control. This only becomes an issue during certain missions, but it can be frustrating as hell when it does.

Still the game has plenty of options for moving around the city. You can jump from rooftop to rooftop if you wish, or you can run through the streets with your shield power up and swat away pedestrians like a fucking maniac. That’s the one thing I’ll give Prototype, it gives you a ton of tools to play around with.

The same is true for combat. Alex has a variety of different arms he can equip at any given time. You’ve got claws for basic close-range attacks, Hammer fists for stronger ground pound attacks, a whip for long range attacks, Muscle mass which increases physical abilities, and a blade arm which is essentially a better version of the claws.

Each power has their own attacks that make them useful in different situations. My personal favourite was the whip for the added range, but I still found myself experimenting with the other powers to see which was most effective. Something the game heavily encourages.

The only one that gets the short end of the stick are the claws. Once you get the arm blade you never need to use them again. It does have a ranged ground spike attack, but the arm blade does everything else better.

But that’s not all you have at your disposal. You can also pick up and throw objects and NPC’s, use weapons dropped by military enemies, commandeer tanks or helicopters, use powerful devastator attacks when your health is at a certain level, you have plenty of ways to tackle the various missions the game throws at you.

Prototype wants you to use all the tools it gives you. While there is often an ideal strategy for most missions the game won’t tell you what that is, you have to figure that out for yourself. While I like the freedom it gives you in tackling the missions anyway you see fit, it does lead to some frustrating trial and error as you try to figure out the best way to beat them.

That’s not all that makes them irritating. If Prototype had one major flaw that held it back, it would be how chaotic it can get. Which is strange because the game seems like it’s designed around the chaos.

Prototype is a game that wants you to go nuts, it wants you to revel in the mayhem your powers can bring. It’s why the game gives you different ways to tackle each mission. And when everything goes well, it’s fun. Using your whip arm to take out multiple enemies, then using it to pick up a car and chucking it at a tank and then using a nearby rocket launcher to take out a helicopter before fleeing the scene and escaping by blending into the crowd with your disguise ability, it can be a blast.

But often there’s simply far too much going on that you can get overwhelmed by it. There’s often so many enemies and explosions going off at one point that you can die pretty quickly. It can also be difficult to make out enemies during the chaos, which often leads to you getting cheap shot by enemies with rocket launchers.

There is a power you can unlock that lets you make out enemies, but I didn’t find it that helpful. It just made everything look like a blurry mess, sure it highlighted enemies but what does that matter if I can’t make out anything else. Detective vision this isn’t.

Confounding matters is the lock on system. It would often not lock on to the right enemy, even the quick select during lock on was awkward and I would often have to cycle through them to get to the one I wanted. When you’re in the middle of a fight and getting shot at from all sides, having an unreliable lock on is the last thing you want.

Combat can quickly devolve into a complete mess. While the early game is fine, though there are the occasional difficulty spikes, later as the outbreak gets worse and worse you find yourself dealing with a lot more enemies and a lot more bullshit.

I understand why this is. It’s a story of a viral outbreak, it makes sense for things to get more and more chaotic. But from a gameplay perspective it just makes the late game so hectic that it stops being fun and starts becoming aggravating. Even with all the powers at your disposal you’ll often find yourself relying on lame hit and run tactics. Either because of being overwhelmed by enemies or because some enemies are way to strong and can no sell most of your attacks.

It makes you feel powerless, which is the exact opposite feeling you should have in a superhero game. This is a power fantasy, you’re supposed to feel like an unstoppable badass, not be left helpless by some schmuck with a rocket launcher.

And believe me there are plenty of those. Rocket launchers are by far your biggest threat here. Tanks and helicopters are at least easy to make out, but the guys with rocket launchers you’ll often only see after the rockets have ripped your ass a new one. And God help you if there’s multiple of them at once. You’ll get juggled worse than I do when I play Tekken.

There’s a weird dichotomy with the game. On the one hand it wants you to revel in the chaos you can bring with your powers, while also not making you powerful enough to survive the chaos. It’s a contradiction the game never truly escapes from.

Some games thrive in chaos. Party games like Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart, or other action games like Doom are good examples of this. But those games mechanics are designed in a way where you never feel like you aren’t in control even in the most hectic of situations.

Prototype wants to be like that but never quite hits the mark. It’s far too easy to lose control of a situation and that’s no fun at all. Even if I’m losing, I should always feel like I’m in control, it should be my fault that I failed and try to learn from that failure. But if I’m dying because there’s so much going on that I couldn’t see an enemy firing a rocket at me, then it’s not my fault I died, it’s the game’s.

And the sad thing is, when I am in control Prototype is great. The powers are fun, there’s a lot of cool moves to unlock, plenty of side missions to do. When this game is firing on all cylinders it’s fantastic, but when it stumbles it stumbles hard. It’s not a very consistent experience.

The missions themselves are decently varied. You won’t find yourself doing the same thing over and over again which prevents things from getting stale. Even the side missions do a good job of keeping things fresh despite reoccurring mission types.

Speaking of side missions, you’ll find yourself wanting to do most of these. Every mission rewards you with Evolution Points which can be used to purchase upgrades. And in the late game, these upgrades become expensive. You’ll need to do these side missions if you want to afford them all.

Each of the side missions also have 3 medals, bronze, silver and gold, which reward you with more points depending on the level you get. Some of the gold medal requirements can be very strict. It varies per mission, but for some of these, getting the gold had me pulling my hair out.

I don’t think you need to go for gold in all of them though. There are plenty of side missions to do and you still get plenty getting silver or bronze. There are even consume missions which don’t have medals that give plenty additional Evolution Points. Though those consume events can be a pain in the ass in the late game.

Even if that’s not enough there are collectables scattered throughout the map that also reward you with points. They aren’t too hard to find, though they suffer from pop in issues. If you want to get some points without having to stress yourself out, try grabbing some of these.

One big side mission is the Web of Intrigue. This is where you’ll uncover a lot of details on the story, nothing necessary but it fills in some details you might miss in the main narrative. The only way to fill it out is by consuming specific marked NPC’s which unlocks links to other NPC’s as you progress through it.

One problem, the NPCs tend to spawn in the middle of battle zones and getting themselves killed. And if they die you need to wait for them to respawn. Yup, there’s the chaos disrupting the game again.

Prototype is a tough game to recommend these days. When the game works it’s a lot of fun, but the chaotic nature of it ends up causing more headaches than anything. It’s an inconsistent adventure with some great high moments mixed with frustrating low moments.

And that’s not getting into some of the more aged aspects of the game. The presentation does not hold up well at all. It looked good in 2009, but nowadays it doesn’t impress much. Some of the control schemes are also awkward and most of the mission and open world design feels dated when compared to modern open world games.

But I still found myself enjoying my time with Prototype. Admittedly a lot of that is nostalgia, but I do think its strong moments deserve some recognition. So, if you can jive with some of the games dated elements I say it’s worth checking out. It’s edgy, it’s too chaotic for its own good, but it’s still a fun time.

Prototype did well enough to get a sequel, though I never played that one. I heard it was a good game, but I never got around to playing it, so I have no idea if it’s any better than this. I hope it is because this game had a ton of potential it didn’t quite reach. Maybe I’ll check it out later.