One of the most intense and chaotic games released by a major studio is now heavily discounted on Steam. This is exciting news, but only if you can overlook the game-breaking bugs.
When Activision launched Prototype 2 in 2012, the mainstream video game industry was experiencing a creative stagnation. Most popular titles focused on bald protagonists with an insatiable desire for violence, such as Hitman, Spec Ops, and Max Payne. Even the cover of Call of Duty featured a silhouette of a bald man with a gun. Although Mass Effect 2 is widely loved, it too fit uncomfortably within this trend.
Prototype 2 stands out because, in hindsight, it’s unclear whether it represents the peak of this trend or is a clever satire of it. My guess? It’s a bit of both.
In the game, you assume the role of former U.S. Marine Sergeant James Heller, whose main objective is to eliminate the protagonist from the original Prototype. With mutant abilities, you can scale skyscrapers, leap across city blocks, and glide through streets — imagine the movement mechanics of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, but in a city covered in Vaseline.
Unlike Spider-Man, Heller possesses a slew of ultra-violent supervillain abilities. He can consume people in a single bite and then take on their appearance. His forearms transform into mutant claws that would put Wolverine to shame. Even a basic punch is powerful enough to obliterate a civilian, and each enemy has enough blood to fill a swimming pool.
Sadly, the game reflects its era quite literally: the PC version, released months after the console debut, was a complete disaster. This wasn’t widely noted in contemporary reviews, perhaps because simply having a console game available on PC seemed like a bonus. At the time, publishers were wary of piracy and often limited their investment in the platform. This contrasts sharply with today, as the PC market is rapidly expanding and publishers like Square Enix are reevaluating their business strategies around it.
Combine the issues from 2012 with a modern-day problem: the industry’s general neglect, if not disdain, for preserving games, particularly those no longer deemed profitable. This leaves Prototype 2 on Steam as a good game let down by the industry twice, still available for purchase despite many players struggling to launch it, often resorting to YouTube guides and old forum discussions for help.
I do recommend playing Prototype 2! But you might want to dig your Xbox 360 out of storage and find a disc. Remember those? They were fantastic.
