Prototype Remaster Runs Worse On Xbox One Than On 360

In the modern era, it’s a little hard to escape the barrage of commercials and social media campaigns promoting the biggest and best video game releases. That’s why it was a little suspicious when, earlier this week, a Prototype remaster found its way onto the Xbox One store, with absolutely no marketing to support its release. Thanks to the talented folks over at Digital Foundry, we now know why Activision were a little quieter than usual in marketing the game.

As you might expect, both Prototype and Prototype 2 see an increase in resolution from 720p to 1080p in the Xbox One version. Prototype manages to maintain 30fps, but there’s a distinct lack of improvement in shadows, textures and draw distance. It’s an unremarkable and underwhelming ‘remaster’ but its successor bears bigger problems.

Prototype 2 on Xbox One, astonishingly, manages to perform worse than both its Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 counterparts on several counts.

“It’s absolutely among the worst performing games on Xbox One to date”

The Xbox One version consistently sports a framerate of 20-25fps, hitting a low of 18fps. Screen tearing also permeates the experience, so much so that the PlayStation 3 version is deemed superior. Given the lack of significant upgrades to the overall package, it’s unfathomable that the remaster should perform so poorly. In fact, Digital Foundry have labelled it as “among the worst performing games on Xbox One to date.”

Prototype and Prototype 2 followed the stories of Alex Mercer and James Heller respectively. Mutated by a viral outbreak, both heroes sported incalculable powers of destruction. Despite receiving generally favorable reviews, developer Free Radical were forced into partial closure after the release of Prototype 2. Evidently, if you ever wanted to revisit the stories of Mercer and Heller, it’s advisable to stick to the last-gen iterations.