Prototype came to Xbox One in 2015 as part of the Prototype Biohazard Bundle, a re-release that packs both Prototype and Prototype 2 with all their DLC into one purchase. This review is for the first game in the bundle. This is the same game I scored an 8 out of 10 in my original review, where a virus tears through New York City, the military quarantines Manhattan, and the only thing that can really stop the spread is you, playing as Alex Mercer. Coming back to it on Xbox One, the question isn't whether Prototype still holds up, because it does. The question is what the remaster adds, and whether it costs the game anything.
Prototype Biohazard Bundle Xbox One Remaster
Activision handled the re-release with Radical Entertainment and Fun Labs, and the marketing promised full HD rendering, higher resolution textures, and an improved framerate. What actually shipped is closer to a resolution bump than a true remaster. The textures are sharper on a 4K panel, but the game underneath is the same 2009 build, and the promised framerate gains don't always show up. In heavy combat, when the streets are packed with infected and the military is bearing down all at once, the framerate can dip in a way the original didn't always struggle with.
Prototype Controls and Gameplay on Xbox One
This is where the remaster earns its lower score from me. The controls feel janky on Xbox One in a way I don't remember from the original. Everything else plays the same, the traversal, the consuming, the power swapping, but the targeting still fights you, sometimes snapping to a different enemy on its own, and the inputs never feel as tight as they should on newer hardware. I hated trying to steal health from someone and the game decided to do something entirely different and I ended up dying. It was extremely annoying.
Prototype Story and Alex Mercer
The story is untouched, which is fine, because it was always the best part of the first game. You wake up as Alex Mercer with no memory of who you are, and you uncover your past by consuming specially marked targets across Manhattan. Each one fills in another piece of how you got your powers and who's worth trusting along the way.
Prototype Xbox One Review Score
That puts the Xbox One version at a 7 out of 10 for me. The game underneath, the story, the characters, that stuff is still the same solid 8 from my original review, but the remaster's loose controls were too annoying to ignore. For anyone who never played Prototype and lives on Xbox now, the Biohazard Bundle is still the easiest way in, rough edges and all. For anyone still holding a working copy on an older console, the jump isn't worth a second purchase.
