If I asked you to name Super-Hero games, you would certainly hear names like Marvel’s Spider-Man and its sequel, Miles Morales, Marvel’s Avengers or batman arkhamknight. Recent names which have replaced, in the collective imagination, almost all the games of the PlayStation 2 era, during which the releases were nevertheless linked at breakneck speed. But let’s go back a few moments in the past, to a very precise period: 2009. In this year of grace which saw the birth Left 4 Dead 2 (no relation but it always feels good to remember it), we have to wait until August for the exceptional to come out Batman Arkham Asylum. However, a few weeks earlier landed two new licenses intended to compete. Infamous and Prototype.
The first is still quite fresh in the memories, for the simple reason that in good series stamped Sony, an episode (and a half) was released on the previous generation of consoles, continuing the work started on PlayStation 3. The second did not hadn’t been so lucky, and to see him come back from the dead one day would be a miracle, pure and simple. That being the case, although not having particularly marked the spirits, Prototype and its sequel were nevertheless full of good intentions, and did not deserve the gameplay ideas. This is what motivated the writing of this column, in which we will try to explain to you why we forgot a little too quickly about this license which nevertheless had solid arguments up its sleeve.
The Super-Hero game, an institution
If Super-Hero games weren’t born out of the blue, since they’ve been found since the first game consoles but also on any self-respecting arcade terminal, it’s really with the PlayStation and the advent of 3D they explode. Not necessarily in number, it is a fact, but rather in media representation. We had a bunch of adaptations of Spiderman in the past, yet it is the PSX episodes that have left their mark over time, offering a new depth of play, and allowing players to realize some fantasies such as using the spider-man’s web to move from building to building.
Subsequently, on PlayStation 2, Xbox and Gamecube, several titles adapting different comics and heroes have emerged, including Batmanof Superman and of course the Spiderman. Rarely memorable games, but which were each time rather well received by players, eager to approach a little more this strange fantasy that is the incarnation of an all-powerful being fighting evil. Some titles have marked the players more than others, in particular Spider Man 2adaptation of Sam Raimi’s film, a true open-world a bit ahead of its time.
In 2009, all eyes are on Batman Arkham Asylum, which completely deviates from the trajectory initiated by the previous softs of the license, undoubtedly influenced by the very dark spirit of Christopher Nolan’s films. However, the time of two months, before the release of this one, it is two other games which monopolize the media space, also proposing a vision of the incarnation of super heroes. These games are Infamous and Prototype.
The first is a new license launched by Sony and Sucker Punch, studio to which we owe the recent Ghost of Tsushima. The idea is to place the player at the controls of a badass character, not frankly qualifying as a good Samaritan, who obtains superhuman powers by a curious combination of circumstances and finds himself forced to fight to survive and protect his city. As for the second… Well we can say that Prototype, apart from the fact that it is a multi-console (and PC) release offers a different vision of an identical premise and concept. In other words, and this is clearly how many players experienced it at the time, the two titles were in fierce competition.
Two complementary opuses
Replay to Prototype in 2022 is not a very pleasant experience. The story gets off to a horribly sluggish start and struggles to engage the player. Alex Mercer, the hero, is sorely lacking in charisma, which gives even less desire to learn more about the lore. The title of Radical Entertainment is an open world that we would today qualify as empty, but also very close to the hackneyed recipe that we have been served by uninventive studios like those of Ubisoft for almost fifteen long years. In other words, looked at through the prism of the year 2022, Prototype is not a good game.
However, at the time he was not lacking in interest. We can even see it as the consecration of a huge player fantasy, with its vast world with its large population, as well as the feeling of omnipotence that it offers very quickly. ‘Cause what god thunder works in Prototype, that’s the gameplay. Alex Mercer can learn a ton of abilities, through a very basic skill tree, ranging from devastating attacks to movement-enhancing features.
On these two levels, the developers were able to aim just. We take great pleasure in destroying enemies by the hundreds using the various transformations of our hero, in lifting tanks to throw them at soldiers and zombies, or even in violently assimilating our attackers. But also to move in a Manhattan in flames, running at breakneck speed, flying and jumping very high and very far. In a way, Radical Entertainment had understood, before Marvel’s Spider-Man, the importance of movement in a game like this. And we can say it: we take as much pleasure in moving as in the title of Insomniac Games.
The second opus, released in April 2012, will have made less noise than its predecessor, and does not improve a lot of points that it lacked. There is a fundamentally necessary visual upgrade, not raising it to the level of the most beautiful software of its generation, a world divided into three distinct and gigantic zones, and finally a skill tree which allows a rise in power even more enjoyable than by the past. In short, a recipe that has the same objective as the first opus, without doing much better, despite the three years that separate the two experiences. Again, difficult to play again Prototype 2 in 2022, unfortunately, the title suffering from the comparison with others of the same genre.
Why a return?
The last lines were not particularly complimentary, you will agree. So why claim loud and clear that we would like to see a return of Prototype in this case? Well the reason is simple: the developers had understood everything before their time!
Let’s be clear, the two titles haven’t revolutionized anything, and even so Infamous wasn’t very good (that’s free), he at least had the merit of arming himself with a more talkative and interesting hero than the two flavorless idiots we serve Prototype and its sequel. However, there was everything you expected from a superhero game. In other words, an open world that evolved according to our actions, a disaster scenario, but above all a very effective and evolving feeling of omnipotence. All wrapped in a dark, bloody, mature universe.
A return of the license, which we would like in the form of a reboot to avoid echoing the weak characters of the previous ones and their uninteresting scenarios, would allow us to go even further. This new Prototype should be offered a charismatic protagonist, to begin with, a kind of badass type inspired by action films of the 80s why not. A hero, or rather anti-hero to stay in the original spirit, which would make us want to learn more about him, and at the same time about the pandemic which is ravaging the city in which we live.
On this subject, there is no need to aim too high at the level of the playing area. A map such as the Manhattan of Marvel’s Spider-Man would do just fine. Especially since it would be necessary to avoid the mind-numbing filling, based on thousands of small icons on the map, undrinkable side quests… like those of Marvel’s Spider-Man exactly…
Finally, the feeling of power should be pushed to its climax. Start the adventure with a frail character, with few attacks, and be able to evolve it into a real war machine capable of breaking the armor of an assault tank with bare hands. Have the possibility of destroying a large part of the elements of the decorations too, just to impress. Do not skimp on the gory effects. And draw on the side of a Devil May Crywhy not, for the gameplay, history that this one does not fail to be nervous at will!