In Prototype, he's the hero, but in Prototype 2, he's the villain.
State your reason why did he become a villain. For me, it's because he plans on exposing Blackwatch for being an evil army who executes innocents to keep the information a secret.
Prototype 2
Game » consists of 8 releases. Released Apr 24, 2012
- PlayStation 3
- Xbox 360
- PlayStation Network (PS3)
- PC
- + 3 more
- Xbox 360 Games Store
- Xbox One
- PlayStation 4
The sequel to Radical Entertainment's 2009 ultra-violent sandbox game, Prototype 2 returns to an urban landscape ravaged by an all-consuming virus.
Alex Mercer's motivations
He's no hero in Prototype. He's a fucking genocidal maniac no matter how much restraint you try to show.
That was the worst part of the first game, IMO. The disconnect between Mercer the character (who had moments of genuine humanity) and Mercer during every other part of the game (who was kind of a monstrous prick).
This seems like a logical turn of events, although I'd bet he'll be revealed as the hero in the end or something.
^thisHe was a horrible person in the first one! He consumes humans for health! That's pretty damn villainous!
Alex Mercer is no hero in prototype. In fact he's the source of the whole calamity. Or a by product of it.
Alex is NOT a hero in Prototype .
@Tim_the_Corsair said:
That was the worst part of the first game, IMO. The disconnect between Mercer the character (who had moments of genuine humanity) and Mercer during every other part of the game (who was kind of a monstrous prick). This seems like a logical turn of events, although I'd bet he'll be revealed as the hero in the end or something.
When did he ever really show humanity as a character? He did not even care about "his" GF. Only went after her because of memories. (there is one moment at the very end of the game but that's about it and it happens after he finds out what he is)
He is not even human or Alex Mercer for that matter.
@Fanboy said:
In Prototype, he's the hero, but in Prototype 2, he's the villain. State your reason why did he become a villain. For me, it's because he plans on exposing Blackwatch for being an evil army who executes innocents to keep the information a secret.
Because the developers did not want to crate a contrived way to take away your powers at the start if the game number 6495697090. So instead you are a new character.
I remember murdering thousands of innocent people in the first game. Mostly by cutting them in half and pulverising them with my giant fists.
since this is a Prototype 2 thread, i assume we can speak reely of spoilers here?
Alex Mercer isnt even Alex Mercer, he's just the virus taking a human form, the actual Alex Mercer is long dead/absorbed before the game even begins, so he was evil all along (well, as evil as a virus can be i guess)
edit: reading people's replies...did you all even finish the first game? >_>
Here's my guess for how Prototype 2 will go down.
Main character goes after Alex Mercer for revenge, but then finds out Alex wasn't the real villain behind everything. Then they work together to take out the real bad guy(s), and Alex will end up sacrificing himself to save the protagonist (yes, I don't remember his name).
Now, I am hoping that the devs won't take that cliche route, but I think there's a big chance they will.
@Poppduder said:
He just wants his daughter back.
I laffed. When will those villains ever learn to stop stealing daughters?
Secondly, what's with all this talk about Alex Mercer being crazy evil? It's an open world game; you can't take every single action as canon. Otherwise, John Marston, Niko Bellic, Cole MacGrath, and even Nathan Drake are all crazy, crazy homicidal. So many bodies pile in their wake!
The way I played the game, I kept the civilian casualties to an absolute minimum, and while Human Alex Mercer did unleash the virus, it was only because his back was to the wall with a dozen guns pointed at him. He was trying to escape Gentek when he realized they were experimenting on unwilling subjects, not volunteers as he had been informed. Stealing a sample of the virus was his form of insurance against the company, but they called his bluff, which wasn't a bluff after all.
Then there's Virus Alex Mercer, who throughout the story keeps his viral instincts under control. His only goal is to stop the virus and the company that created it. The end of the game sees him saving island from nuclear attack, willing to sacrifice himself in the process (he personally flies the helicopter holding the nuke). Relatively heroic for a guy (who isn't even human) who could have just walked away from it all.
TL;DR - Mercer's cannonical actions are at best heroic and at worst understandable. He's not some insane killer, and he'll likely turn out to be not so bad in Prototype 2.
@Mercanis:
His powers are super destructive, there's literally no way to play that game without killing at least a couple dozen civilians. You heal yourself from eating innocents.
@august:
All he ever does is spoil shit, he's either a troll or mentally disabled.
Alex Mercer's motivation: He's a dick. Seriously, anyone who actually had a thought on the character in the first game can admit that and don't give me that "Oh, he was pushed into dickatude." Sure, but still doesn't change the fact you were essentially playing a character that looked like a human sized herpes sore and acted just as unlikable.
I love the morons who complain about the disconnect between protagonist actions and player actions. No, Alex Mercer, John Marston, and Niko Bellic aren't dicks, you are. You made the choice to go on mindless killing sprees, hijack vehicles and beat up hookers because you did it for a laugh. When you willingly create that disconnect, you forfeit all right to bitch and moan about how the canonical interpretation of the character doesn't jive with how you played the game.
Alex Mercer canonically is not an asshole, even if he's not human. When he finally knew what he was and how the infestation happened, he did what he could to save Manhattan from utter destruction. The character arc Mercer goes through from conception to revelation to making the conscious choice to save people despite the fact it could kill him proved he was a heroic figure. He made a choice to do good, with all of the facts on the table, knowing he didn't belong to humanity and was in a way responsible for the outbreak in the first place, he still made the choice to save millions of people.
@KingWilly said:
I love the morons who complain about the disconnect between protagonist actions and player actions. No, Alex Mercer, John Marston, and Niko Bellic aren't dicks, you are. You made the choice to go on mindless killing sprees, hijack vehicles and beat up hookers because you did it for a laugh. When you willingly create that disconnect, you forfeit all right to bitch and moan about how the canonical interpretation of the character doesn't jive with how you played the game.
Alex Mercer canonically is not an asshole, even if he's not human. When he finally knew what he was and how the infestation happened, he did what he could to save Manhattan from utter destruction. The character arc Mercer goes through from conception to revelation to making the conscious choice to save people despite the fact it could kill him proved he was a heroic figure. He made a choice to do good, with all of the facts on the table, knowing he didn't belong to humanity and was in a way responsible for the outbreak in the first place, he still made the choice to save millions of people.
I just couldn't take this seriously when Alex Mercer needs to devour innocent people in order to heal himself.
can =/= need@KingWilly said:
I love the morons who complain about the disconnect between protagonist actions and player actions. No, Alex Mercer, John Marston, and Niko Bellic aren't dicks, you are. You made the choice to go on mindless killing sprees, hijack vehicles and beat up hookers because you did it for a laugh. When you willingly create that disconnect, you forfeit all right to bitch and moan about how the canonical interpretation of the character doesn't jive with how you played the game.
Alex Mercer canonically is not an asshole, even if he's not human. When he finally knew what he was and how the infestation happened, he did what he could to save Manhattan from utter destruction. The character arc Mercer goes through from conception to revelation to making the conscious choice to save people despite the fact it could kill him proved he was a heroic figure. He made a choice to do good, with all of the facts on the table, knowing he didn't belong to humanity and was in a way responsible for the outbreak in the first place, he still made the choice to save millions of people.I just couldn't take this seriously when Alex Mercer needs to devour innocent people in order to heal himself.
In Prototype, he's the hero, but in Prototype 2, he's the villain. State your reason why did he become a villain. For me, it's because he plans on exposing Blackwatch for being an evil army who executes innocents to keep the information a secret.There's a difference between "hero/villain" and "protagonist/antagonist". He's so far the antagonist of Prototype 2 because that game's main character blames him for his situation.
I love the morons who complain about the disconnect between protagonist actions and player actions. No, Alex Mercer, John Marston, and Niko Bellic aren't dicks, you are. You made the choice to go on mindless killing sprees, hijack vehicles and beat up hookers because you did it for a laugh. When you willingly create that disconnect, you forfeit all right to bitch and moan about how the canonical interpretation of the character doesn't jive with how you played the game.
Alex Mercer canonically is not an asshole, even if he's not human. When he finally knew what he was and how the infestation happened, he did what he could to save Manhattan from utter destruction. The character arc Mercer goes through from conception to revelation to making the conscious choice to save people despite the fact it could kill him proved he was a heroic figure. He made a choice to do good, with all of the facts on the table, knowing he didn't belong to humanity and was in a way responsible for the outbreak in the first place, he still made the choice to save millions of people.
Forfeit the right??? Get off your high horse, white knight, because I can't figure out which ones the ass. The preception of "dick" is just that, a preception. I found the character to be dry, overdone and a dick. There is nothing about the character that appealed to me in the slightest as any human emotion that he was suppose to exhibit got buried under the fact that "OMFG, I'm dying from getting my ass shot and all I have to heal is the assorted civilian population to nom nom nom." Call it what you want but if such a person existed, shit, i'd want him dead too, bio-mistake or not. You may think he was a mistreated misfit who dealt with things best he could and that's great! I will not down your opinion. but in my mind, he came off as a whiny, emo dick.
@CandiBunni said:@Poppduder said:
He just wants his daughter back.
I laffed. When will those villains ever learn to stop stealing daughters?
Secondly, what's with all this talk about Alex Mercer being crazy evil? It's an open world game; you can't take every single action as canon. Otherwise, John Marston, Niko Bellic, Cole MacGrath, and even Nathan Drake are all crazy, crazy homicidal. So many bodies pile in their wake!
The way I played the game, I kept the civilian casualties to an absolute minimum, and while Human Alex Mercer did unleash the virus, it was only because his back was to the wall with a dozen guns pointed at him. He was trying to escape Gentek when he realized they were experimenting on unwilling subjects, not volunteers as he had been informed. Stealing a sample of the virus was his form of insurance against the company, but they called his bluff, which wasn't a bluff after all.
Then there's Virus Alex Mercer, who throughout the story keeps his viral instincts under control. His only goal is to stop the virus and the company that created it. The end of the game sees him saving island from nuclear attack, willing to sacrifice himself in the process (he personally flies the helicopter holding the nuke). Relatively heroic for a guy (who isn't even human) who could have just walked away from it all.
TL;DR - Mercer's cannonical actions are at best heroic and at worst understandable. He's not some insane killer, and he'll likely turn out to be not so bad in Prototype 2.
Well didn't he show some actual concern and care towards his sister Dana? He went through a lot of trouble to make sure she was safe (though in the end she was out cold on a table, last I can remember)That and the fact that he actually says in the game he's trying to stop the virus (eventually) gives him some humanity and heroic characteristics.
Did you people skip all the cutscenes? The only time you saw Alex Mercer was in a flashback. You played the game as the virus who assumed the identity of Mercer because he was the first person consumed by the virus.
I'm also pretty confident that virus Alex Mercer isn't the actual villain of the game.
Alex Mercer died at the start of the game. You find out that you've playing playing as the virus in alex form.
Viral Mercer loved his sister, whereas the real Mercer only used her as a source of information. Viral Mercer began to regret killing escaping soldiers just to get to Taggart as you can here him say while taking down several Blackwatch helicopters before the mission where you chase Taggart down. He saved the city from a nuke. Even so, he questioned his own motivations for doing so. He was violent, monstrous in form and killed without hesitation. But was he truly heartless? No.
I've read the comic that explains his actions between games, The Anchor. To put it simply for you guys who haven't read it: He travels the world looking for good in humanity, to find his place, but only finds violence and hate. Some time later he ends up living in a lodge in the mountains neighboring an older man and his daughter, whom both treat him with love and as a friend. The first bit of compassion viral Alex had experienced from another human being that wasn't Dana. But then it turns out a group of men working for a shady man named Zurich are planning to kill the man and his daughter to make room for operations on their land. Alex of course stops the men for the sake of the people he had come to care for, but in consuming Zurich's memories he finds that the old man used to torture and kill people for Zurich. Though he has put that past behind him to have a simpler life, Mercer is enraged at the old man who simply wants to move on and in his fit slices his throat open while screaming "How could you do this to me?". Realizing what happened he plans to run away with the man's daughter, not even telling her what he did to her father. He reaches into a stash in his home to find money he had stored gone. The girl draws a gun on him and unloads into him, having stolen the money and claiming it's what her father taught her. An enraged Alex stands up and consumes the girl.
Consumed with rage and emotionally broken, he runs away and finds himself back in New York City, where he proclaims "The era of man has ended" and he has plans to create a new world under his own image. And that's Alex's reason for being a villain in Prototype 2. Though an achievement for the game raises something curious, as one is called "Murder Your Maker?". Note the question mark. Something tells me there's much more to James Heller's confrontation with Alex and Mercer's role in the game's plot.
Just thought I'd throw this out there for those who are still curious about Alex's sudden turn. He's simply become disillusioned by the world and concluded that he has no place in humanity and that humanity has no place on earth.
I'd also like to say that Grubich's post hit the nail right on the head as far as Alex's moral stance. Great post.
@Redbullet685 said:
People who wear hoodies are always bad guys. Also, he was pretty bad in the first, too.
Just stumbled on this, and it's a bit prescient considering the recent shooting of Trayvon Martin.
As for Alex Mercer, I agree with everyone saying that he was never a hero. One of the reasons I liked Prototype was that you were a emotionless murderer in the gameplay and pretty close to that in the cutscenes. There was no obvious disconnect like in most of Rockstar's open world games.
OPM UK discussed a preview of the game on their podcast not too long ago. Alex Mercer is only really the antagonist until Heller meets him. They have a pleasant discussion about how Blackwatch are evil and then start working together (that's the gist of it anyway).
@Vestigial_Man said:
OPM UK discussed a preview of the game on their podcast not too long ago. Alex Mercer is only really the antagonist until Heller meets him. They have a pleasant discussion about how Blackwatch are evil and then start working together (that's the gist of it anyway).
You just got me interested in the sequel sir.
I was too busy elbow-dropping tanks from the tops of skyscrapers to give a shit about Mercer's motivations.
@Vestigial_Man: Must happen pretty early in the game if they're willing to throw that plot-point out there like that.
@Vestigial_Man said:
OPM UK discussed a preview of the game on their podcast not too long ago. Alex Mercer is only really the antagonist until Heller meets him. They have a pleasant discussion about how Blackwatch are evil and then start working together (that's the gist of it anyway).
That's just weird as hell. Only way I can see this going is if Mercer just betrays Heller anyway. The recent comics set Mercer up to be a humanity hating monster that wants to rebuild the world under his image. I wonder if Radical actually know what they're doing with him.
you never actually play as alex mercer. the virus has merely borrowed his memories and likeness as its own.
alex mercer is dead!
It's definitely worth a look if you want some insight into how Viral Mercer goes from a grey morality with signs of being on the road to doing good to hateful towards humanity and planning to commit genocide.
I'm also interested to see how Dana's relationship with Alex plays out in 2 now that he's gone full on hate machine and she was the one thing the virus itself actually cared about, since Heller will be meeting up with her and this could play out in a few ways. They've confirmed a few characters returning from the first, though there weren't that many left really. Ragland was among the confirmed I think.
First, he was neither a hero nor a villain. He was an anti-hero.
Second, I doubt he'll really be the antagonist. More likely he's just being displayed as a villain by Blackwatch....
He wasn't the opposite. He was an anti-hero. Someone who is not a villain, but also not doing things for a heroic reason. He at least acknowledged what Blacklwatch was doing was wrong, had regrets for the things he was doing and tried to connect with humanity. He didn't become the opposite until the comics that were released as a sequel to P1 and a prequel to P2, where that attempt at connection only made him hateful and remorseless.
@Fanboy:
His reasons for becoming "evil" are well explained in the comic books covering the events between the two games: http://prototype.wikia.com/wiki/Prototype_2:_The_Anchor
By the way, the opinion he develops during his journey, that humans are disgusting and not worth saving, isn't that unpopular these days. More and more people become critical about humanities' morals and actions. Alex Mercer just has the abilities to make his point... very clear.
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