Prototype's Story Holes

[Eric Morales]

You know, a lot of times when Yahtzee describes his ideas for game stories/mechanics they sound kind of dumb, or at least impossible to implement in any reasonable manner.
That said, Yahtzee's idea for Prototype 2's BioShock style big twist would have actually been pretty clever. A nice little way to put a deconstructionist spin on Heller being a walking cliche.

But of course Prototype's "clever storyline division" got allocated significantly less resources than Prototype's "fuck around division." Speaking of which, if Heller were to be an amalgamation of the creature's guilt it would probably be even MORE out of character when the player gets bored and starts finding new and interesting ways to murder innocent pedestrians.

 

[Shannon Spencer Fox]

Well, the <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/9002-Yahtzee-Could-Have-Written-Duke-Nukem-Forever>DNF script has already been accounted for. As for the 2nd person perspective horror game, I was talking about this: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/9423-Survival-Horror-on-a-Cruise-Ship

You don't see through your own eyes, but the eyes of surrounding CCTVs.

Oh! Yes, I remember that column now... thanks. Interesting idea, though to be honest, you'd have to do a ton of testing, since it'd be REALLY easy for the controls to not work just right...

It really bothered me in Prototype 1 how we don't see much of a reaction from Mercer upon finding out he's the virus. In fact, if memory serves, it was just bought up nonchalantly in a cutscene. This series has a few interesting ideas but unfortunately seems let the story fall by the wayside.

Honestly, that's another reason why I liked Prototype 2 over the first one, and admittedly I somewhat disagreed with Yahtzee about: I think Heller's a stronger character than Mercer was, at least from the standpoint it felt like he had a better motivation for doing what he did.

(Although, something Yahtzee didn't bring up that my significant-other did is the fact that, despite Heller presumably rebelling against Mercer and what he turned Heller into, there's several points where he seems rather joyous at the abilities he's able to learn... such as the ability to turn people into kamikaze bombs and all. The plot never goes into the potential losing of his humanity, though.)

By the way what happens to Mercer's sister? Does Prototype 2 even bring her up?

Here's hoping this works...

Spoiler

In the last half of the game, Heller learns of an informant named 'Athena' who gives his friend/confidant Father Martinez help with Heller's war on Blackwatch and Mercer. After Martinez is killed by an attack from Mercer and his 'Evolved', Heller locates Athena, who turns out to be Dana Mercer. She then aids him through the rest of the game, including helping to rescue Heller's daughter, who turns out to still be alive.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

I wish there was a sufficient reason why the stories in AAA games are so poor, bland, and uninteresting. I bet there are plenty of talented people who'd love to use their skill at writing, and I bet there's a bunch of talented people with that skill on these game development teams. It's a shame none of it seems to make its way into the product.

It's because

a) publishers want to make sure their game has wide enough appeal so that more people buy it, and thus they don't want to alienate people with a "too smart" or "makes you question your life" story

b) Games with crappy stories tend to sell better for some reason.

c) Since (b) happens, why the heck would a publisher want to spend more money on hiring a decent writer when good writing doesn't have much impact on sales.

But yeah, I feel your pain. I miss games with great stories. (in fact I'm trying to change that. A bunch of friends and I are making an indie RPG, and we're making the story as good, compelling and awesome as possible)

 

[TheThirdChild]

I'm glad someone else remembered Mercer actually died and you were just the virus. When Dana came out with the line about him being her brother the first thing that came into my head was, ?No he?s not!?
I do like your idea though; it would have given an interesting moral dilemma for the player.
I can?t help but think if you were in a triple-A company and gave that idea, you would have be fed to the companies mascot for showing ingenuity.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

I kinda thought they were doing something similar, but dismissed it early on, remembering that the series wasn't exactly the most outstandingly written to date. Then I just went on throwing bio-bombs all over the place for fun, while Heller incongruously quipped about doing the right thing, without a shred of insincerity.

On the topic of the ending, however, anyone know what was going on when he turned into a giant grid? What was that even about?

I really love InFAMOUS 1 and 2 which is why I never bothered giving Prototype a try but after reading this I'm really intrigued with it

is it as good as InFAMOUS 1 or 2?

Comparable to 1, for different reasons, though. The two of them balance each other out. While inFamous was more narrative-centered, Prototype is more fucking around-centered. Both are pretty damn fun.

 

[Mamzelle_Kat]

... And it's times like this that keep me wondering why Yahtzee hasn't made more games. I mean, Poacher was awesome. The ideas he brings forward like this are pretty awesome. I would buy the games. WHO'S WITH ME?!

Yahtzee on Kickstarter! All the cool kids are doing it!

 

[Shannon Spencer Fox]

I'm glad someone else remembered Mercer actually died and you were just the virus. When Dana came out with the line about him being her brother the first thing that came into my head was, ?No he?s not!?
I do like your idea though; it would have given an interesting moral dilemma for the player.
I can?t help but think if you were in a triple-A company and gave that idea, you would have be fed to the companies mascot for showing ingenuity.

If nothing else, it would've led to an interesting 'final choice', much like at the end of Infamous 2, yeah.

I kinda thought they were doing something similar, but dismissed it early on, remembering that the series wasn't exactly the most outstandingly written to date. Then I just went on throwing bio-bombs all over the place for fun, while Heller incongruously quipped about doing the right thing, without a shred of insincerity.

That was rather what me and my significant-other noticed, yeah: the fact that Heller was ostensibly trying to be the 'good guy', but he didn't seem to mind at all the rather horribly grotesque abilities he picked up. I suppose you could say he justified it in terms of using it against Blackwatch, which, if you listen to the dead-drops scattered around the city, apparently needs a trope even worse than Kick the Dog [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KickTheDog]...

On the topic of the ending, however, anyone know what was going on when he turned into a giant grid? What was that even about?

Spoiler

After Heller essentially consumes Mercer, he presumably removes every trace of the Blacklight virus from the city, such as the Infected, Hunters, etc.

 

[RJ Dalton]

Yahtzee, why aren't you writing big games? You are far superior to those currently out there.

 

[Vausch]

I like Yahtzee's premise, I really do but the problem here is I think some people would get lost with that much information being thrown at them. It would be too much to take in at once.

That's kinda what the problem is with a lot of games, large exposition dumps. Prototype 1 had a good method, weaving the exposition throughout the story until the end where you go "Omygawd I'mma virus!?". You're given hints throughout as the story is told in flashback until a certain point. Yahtzee's story there may have been a bit much because you read it on 2 pages, but imagine if that story there got spread out over 10-14 hours. If you're engaged in it, it would be like any other story properly paced.

 

[cricket chirps]

See i was thinking the entire time "Yahtzee needs to just write his own book based around this idea." ._. Please do it Ben! Please!!!!! Sometimes in life you just have those ideas that are perfect and THAT IDEA IS ONE OF THEM.

OT: I agree that dropping the significents of the original's ending hurt the game from the start. The first game was amazing to me because i predicted that you wern't really mercer early on so i LOVED the game for playing you off as the true worst enemy the whole time.

Not to mention Mercer essentially became the new Elizabeth Green(the main boss and hive mind of the first game). One virus defeating and encorperating an old virus.

 

[Robot Number V]

Spoiler: I had a similar experience in Uncharted 3. (spoilers, obviously)

See, throughout the game, the villain's right-hand man, Talbot, continually exhibits strange powers. He gets shot in the chest(might've even been the head, I'm not sure) and is completely fine only moments later, he appears to vanish around a very small dead end alley after being chased, and has access to a drug that later turns out to be water infected by the presence of a demon. There are also some shenanigans with Tarrot cards involved. Oh yeah, and he's also seen a flashback to 20 years ago, and looks exactly the same as he does in the present. (If memory serves. I might be wrong about that last one, actually)

So at the end of the game, it turns out the Lost City of the Month, Iram of the Pillars, was supposedly destroyed when King Solomon cast a whole bunch of imprisoned demons deep into their water supplies, as the city is made of brass and apparently brass can trap demons. The demons then proceeded to poison their water supply with their presence, turning it into a powerful hallucinogen, getting into everyone's heads driving them crazy. The Shadowy Organization that is headed up by the villain is apparently trying to release these demons.

Well, that's the story that gets hinted at anyway. What we're actually told is that the water supply just happened to get infected for no supernatural reason, and there never were any demons. Well, we see the Shadowy Organization pulling a massive brass container up from the water, but Drake stops them with absolutely no fanfare or difficulty. Then the city sinks into the ground and.....That's it. Talbot's mysterious powers are never adressed, and the presence of demons is left ambiguous. The official story is that the Shadowy Organization just wanted a massive supply of drug-water for use in Shadowy Activities, and the Mysterious Container is completely ignored. What a fucking waste.

So what was I hoping for?

I thought it would out that Talbot was in fact, a demon himself. Alive since somehow escaping Solomon's capture all those centuries ago, but totally alone and with no knowledge of where Solomon hid his demon brethren. So, over the years, he manages to form an entire organization just to find them: Convincing people to work with him based on the promise of power once the demons are released. Hell, this organization is always given a creepy, occultist vibe, so maybe they'd be happy with serving these demons, or think they can control them better the Solomon did. The specifics don't really matter to me, but there's something there. The point is that if Talbot was a demon, the plot would instantly get about a thousand times more interesting. It would explain why all the explorers that previously looked for the city turned back at the mere sight of demon imagery when the same imagery didn't disuade Drake: Maybe they saw an ACTUAL DEMON and finally realized that they were in WAY over their heads. Giving Drake a similar experience might finally deliver the wake up call that all the other characters are trying to drill into his head the entire time, but NOPE. Talbot is just another mook, and Drake gets to ride off into the sunset, having learned nothing.

What. A. Waste.

I seriously doubt anyone is going to read all that, but I'm glad I got it off my chest. Been bugging me for a while. Anyway, I agree that the Prototype series is a pretty good case of wasted potential: I really enjoyed the plot twist in the first game, since it meant the you're essentially playing as John Carpenter's "The Thing". Sounds like all the story potential of this concept is totally wasted, though. And that sucks.

 

[Avulsion]

While it is one thing to come up with a really interesting storyline and overall plot, delivering that story, with all the little details and nuances, is an entirely different task.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

I kinda thought they were doing something similar, but dismissed it early on, remembering that the series wasn't exactly the most outstandingly written to date. Then I just went on throwing bio-bombs all over the place for fun, while Heller incongruously quipped about doing the right thing, without a shred of insincerity.

That was rather what me and my significant-other noticed, yeah: the fact that Heller was ostensibly trying to be the 'good guy', but he didn't seem to mind at all the rather horribly grotesque abilities he picked up. I suppose you could say he justified it in terms of using it against Blackwatch, which, if you listen to the dead-drops scattered around the city, apparently needs a trope even worse than Kick the Dog [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KickTheDog]...

On the topic of the ending, however, anyone know what was going on when he turned into a giant grid? What was that even about?

Spoiler

After Heller essentially consumes Mercer, he presumably removes every trace of the Blacklight virus from the city, such as the Infected, Hunters, etc.

That doesn't really add up for me, or, if nothing else, strikes again of how inconsistent he is. And writing the characters routinely as "Man, I just want to shoot some civilians!" isn't exactly great writing. Cartoon villains have those motivations. If they weren't all army types, I bet they'd all have giant twirly black mustaches.

 

[Shannon Spencer Fox]

That doesn't really add up for me, or, if nothing else, strikes again of how inconsistent he is. And writing the characters routinely as "Man, I just want to shoot some civilians!" isn't exactly great writing. Cartoon villains have those motivations. If they weren't all army types, I bet they'd all have giant twirly black mustaches.

Very true, though it also appeared to be somewhat unconscious on his part, and not really something he deliberately chose. But, regardless, you do make a valid point there.

I must say, though, I am reminded of a conversation you hear while following after some Blackwatch soldiers as you track down one of Mercer's goons:

Sterns: 'You know, some of those female Infected are kinda hot, if you pop a bag on their head.'
Captain: 'Sterns, I have no idea how the **** you passed that psych profile.'

Maybe not exactly a lampshade moment, but it did make me snicker.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

That doesn't really add up for me, or, if nothing else, strikes again of how inconsistent he is. And writing the characters routinely as "Man, I just want to shoot some civilians!" isn't exactly great writing. Cartoon villains have those motivations. If they weren't all army types, I bet they'd all have giant twirly black mustaches.

Very true, though it also appeared to be somewhat unconscious on his part, and not really something he deliberately chose. But, regardless, you do make a valid point there.

I must say, though, I am reminded of a conversation you hear while following after some Blackwatch soldiers as you track down one of Mercer's goons:

Sterns: 'You know, some of those female Infected are kinda hot, if you pop a bag on their head.'
Captain: 'Sterns, I have no idea how the **** you passed that psych profile.'

Maybe not exactly a lampshade moment, but it did make me snicker.

There's a few golden moments like that here and there, where the brutality of both Blackwatch and the player's actions are put into question against actual contemporary morality, but then it gets laughably waved off as said actions are allowed to continue. Nothing as poignant as having a support character disappointed in you for doing something evil, a la inFamous 2, but those moments are genuine joys to behold. Half of Dana Mercer's dialogue is deals well with that kind of stuff.

 

[Reynard Wrecce]

Now, see THAT kind of game would be fascinating.

 

[TaboriHK]

Can some of these companies hire you please?

 

[Karlaxx]

Holy shit, man. That's the most amazing spin-off player-made theory I've ever seen. I had never intended to play the games, but I still feel disappointed anyway.

 

[Angel Molina]

I wish there was a sufficient reason why the stories in AAA games are so poor, bland, and uninteresting.

From what I understand, when a developer is going to make a game, they focus on gameplay first and then the narrative is built around it (unfortunately). When they receive the funds from a publisher, they usually have a premise for the story that is very basic and general before hand. Once those funds are secured and the contracts signed, the story and the gameplay elements are developed separately. That's why most details in the plot seem unrelated to any actions that occur during gameplay and that most of those same details come in the way of cut scenes (also developed separately). When all the assets are turned in and the developer's producer checks out the finished product, there is barely enough time to do any changes or add more things before release... =(

Also: *reads Yahtzee's premise* That's bloody genius! =D

 

[1337mokro]

I agree Yahtzee. All games would improve if they took inspiration from Doctor Who.