Prototype's Story Holes

[M Silverthorn]

You know, I like this for my own part.
My concern would be that the average gamer wouldn't give it very much thought beyond all of the aforementioned dough-punching. The overall feel of the game and that underlying truth just don't seem to jive, somehow. Maybe it's a bit too deep for all of the violence and murder frenzy that the game is being sold for.

For that matter, I'd think that Mercer would have compartmentalized a few other personalities into other unfortunate buggers beyond just Heller. Maybe there's another creation that stores nothing but a sense of innocence and empathy, or one that was built purely as a 'buffer' entity to halt Heller's efforts at realization. If that were true, Mercer would have churned out more than just one "New" prototype at the same time the army was being built.

Hey, there's your multiplayer plug, woooo.

 

[taltamir]

Wow! I really really wish they would have had Yahtze write the plot for prototype 2, what he came up with is infinitely better!

 

[Ranorak]

Somebody get this man a game writing job.

He already has a writing job.
As I recall, he wrote a book.
One I'm still currently trying to locate.

Anyway: OT.

I have to agree with Yathzee on this. Something I try to avoid saying, because apparently this makes me a fan-boy of his show without a opinion of my own.

I had loads of fun with Prototype, and that's exactly the reason I bought 2, regardless of the negative reviews I had read. And I had a blast. I love the bio-bomb and I just had some dirty, virus induced fun.

But the story was a bit disappointing.
Mind you, I wasn't even expecting much to begin with. Kind of like a Die Hard movie. You know the story is just there to frame the action and give some moments of calm in between the badass shooting and shape-shifting into- wait wrong example... But where prototype 1 had an interesting plot twist at the end, like Yathzee already mentioned, Prototype 2's ending made me do a little silent "meh."

During the game I was speculating what the plot twist will be. "Will Mercer turn out to be a anti-hero. Actually showing that he turned Heller for a reason. That has to be it, he's acting too evil to be really evil. I'm sure we'll find out that he's working for something bigger then RULE THE WORLD.... what do you mean ending!"

Still, I'm going to continue to play this game, and have a blast, but the story, I won't be listing it in my favourites any time soon.

 

[Rangerboy87]

Somebody get this man a game writing job.

He already has a writing job.
As I recall, he wrote a book.
One I'm still currently trying to locate.

I know about the book. That's why I specifically said someone should get him a GAME writing job. He always comes up with these great story-game ideas. I think if someone let him help write a story for a game, it would probably be pretty awesome.

 

[Auesis]

That was a fantastic alternate story. Yahtzee, get that writing job. Seriously.

 

[head desk tricycle]

I think the problem is that they wanted to do Scanners, which they sort of did, but there was some pressure to make something more generic, which is fairly justified imo since the story from the first one was kind of weird and inaccessible, the game was coasting on its cool (and basically borrowed) engine. Sure the twist is neat, but I'm betting that quite a few people lost interest before that point.

 

[Bradders616]

yey for having seperate opinions and being able to post them to a large audience!LIKE im sure most the people that complain wish they could do. i bet you get so much shit mr benji becasue people try to get their opi nions heard such as yours but dont have the drive, origionality or maybe just the intellergence to do it on their own. so they wait for some co ntraverscial chap to come along inwhich to jump at the chance to get their 15 minutes by 'piggy-backing' off the success of others! to the same degree as britney spears mindge gets coverages every so often when its flashed in a drunken state!...crude.

 

[Drago-Morph]

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.

That's pretty much what I choose to believe happened in Protoype 2.

Spoiler

See, by incorporating ideas from Yahtzee's take on what he thought the game would be and elements from the first one, I figure that Mercer was spreading his specific brand of the Blacklight Virus through the "Evolved", much like the standard zombie-like infected are Greene's strand. By infecting Heller, Mercer inadvertently created an evolved version of himself. Somehow, his DNA reacted with Heller's to create a new and improved strand of Blacklight. This strand was even more closely entwined with the psyche of its first consumption, which is why it shows empathy for humans other than the ones Heller would have personally cared about.

Also, in regards to Mercer's motivations in Prototype 2:

Spoiler

Correct me if I'm wrong, but where was he ever acting outright evil? He wanted to spread the virus, yes, but he wanted to do it in a way that made the infected "Evolved" as opposed to the mindless zombies. He wouldn't technically be killing people, just improving them. Sure, it takes the humanity out of humanity and leaves us with a bunch of remorseless psychopaths, but at the same time, it also makes them essentially immortal. Personally, I think that his goals are just as much a grey area as the rest of his personality.

 

[Orekoya]

So what Yahtzee is suggesting is that Mercer is Naraku and Heller is Muso.
Now I feel awful for reading Inuyasha's wikipedia page.

 

[leviadragon99]

Huh... well then it's unfortunate your hypothesis didn't pan out, that could indeed have been cool.

 

[Aggelos Kotsikos]

My only hope, is that there will be a 3rd Prototype game, in which Mercer will consume Heller from the inside. That way the plot that was created in the 1st game, will unravel itself in some kind of super interesting and award winning way. Instead of the "save the princess" story that was given to us in Prototype. But then again I might be overestimating the abillities of the developers, like Yahtzee did.

 

[duchaked]

this is still one of my favorite Extra Punctuation articles. I actually think you can still play through the game with this in mind as the backdrop to add some real depth to it all. if Heller is a vassal of what remains of Mercer's humanity then he could turn on and destroy Mercer and continue to exist as a person of his own kinda...since he possesses the human bit or...ya lol