Bio Prototype
- April 11, 2023
- Emprom Game
- 31h median play time
In "Bio Prototype," you must survive as a mutated monster, using your unique abilities and organ combinations to defeat enemies and evolve. With over 80 types of organs, 40 characters, and customizable skill trees, create powerful skill combos and wreak havoc on your foes. Gather followers, spread disease, and adapt to overcome challenges in this open-ended, macabre action game.
Reviews
- The game features a unique and intricate organ combination system that allows for endless creativity in building powerful attacks.
- It offers a fun and engaging gameplay loop, where players can experiment with different builds and strategies between waves.
- The game is priced affordably, providing great value for the amount of content and replayability it offers.
- The tutorial and explanations for mechanics are often unclear, making it difficult for new players to understand how to effectively use the organ system.
- There are issues with hitboxes and enemy visibility, which can lead to frustrating gameplay experiences.
- The game can feel repetitive after a while, especially with limited enemy variety and the lack of permanent progression systems.
- gameplay112 mentions
- 32 % positive mentions
- 64 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The gameplay of this game is characterized by its innovative organ combination mechanics, allowing for deep experimentation and creativity in building unique attack strategies. While it offers a high skill ceiling and addictive gameplay, some players find the moment-to-moment action can become repetitive, and the tutorial lacks clarity, making the learning curve steep. Overall, it stands out in the "survivor-like" genre for its complexity and engaging mechanics, despite some areas needing refinement.
“The skill ceiling is incredibly high as 'skill' is less a measurement of pure mechanical reaction speed and meta progression and is more reliant on understanding the organ system, experimentation, and creativity.”
“You know a game is cooked with its core gameplay loop if I'm having the most fun in the game in-between waves in the practice room, fiddling and messing with my current build, where every time I finish a run I am disappointed, even after hours of playing, as I wanted to see just how far I could push my newest idea.”
“The gameplay loop is easy; however, there are endless possibilities to evolve your blob, and the replayability is insane.”
“The moment-to-moment gameplay is putting me to sleep.”
“Unfortunately, this part of the game is not nearly as well developed or interesting as the organism crafting aspect.”
“The gameplay itself is mediocre and the UI/text descriptions need a lot of work.”
- music28 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 61 % neutral mentions
- 14 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players enjoying the tracks while others find them repetitive and dull, leading to a monotonous experience. Many users express a desire for more variety in the music selection, as the limited number of tracks can become grating over time. Overall, while some appreciate the existing music, there is a consensus that improvements in the audio department are needed to enhance the game's atmosphere.
“Super cool little rogue-lite with some nice unique mechanics and banger music.”
“I wish there were more music tracks because I find them fantastic.”
“Complex upgrade system allows for some major tomfoolery and destruction, streamlined for that 'just one more run' feeling, game feels and looks fun, and music is also nice.”
“The same music and level can also become particularly monotonous and, at times, grating.”
“Music is terrible, sound effects are dull, the game feels lifeless.”
“Only two songs in the entire game, one on the start screen and one everywhere else.”
- graphics24 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 58 % neutral mentions
- 17 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game feature a unique bio art style that is both fun and visually impactful, though opinions vary on its execution. While some players appreciate the charm and creativity in the design, others criticize the clunky user interface and basic visuals that can lead to confusion during gameplay. Overall, the graphics are seen as a mixed bag, with potential for improvement but still offering a fresh aesthetic in a crowded genre.
“And it's a lovely gloopy bio art style.”
“At start it is really fun to figure out all the crazy combinations and the game makes you feel like a god with how flashy and impactful the effect visuals feel.”
“Its dirt cheap, thought through, has nice gameplay, nice graphics, nice sound, many quality of life features and is simply the best 'vampire survivors'-like out there.”
“It's clunky and feels like you're wielding a Windows 98 with a graphics pen.”
“To summarize, the idea of bio prototype seems nice but the execution has much to desire; it feels like an early access title, with a clunky interface and boring graphics style.”
“The screen gets too muddy with graphic spam that it's hard to see where enemies are.”
- story14 mentions
- 21 % positive mentions
- 57 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
The game's story is largely criticized for being minimal or non-existent, with players expressing frustration over repetitive missions and a lack of meaningful progression. While some enjoy the adrenaline of gameplay, the absence of a compelling narrative or upgrade system detracts from the overall experience, leading to dissatisfaction, especially with the difficulty spikes in early missions.
“You get the hype and adrenaline like Path of Exile, but you don't have to grind the story!”
“End of the story, is this a great game for a while.”
“Well for being the 2nd mission where players are mostly getting used to and/or still learning the game, it completely throws it onto a whole new difficulty level.”
“Another no story wonder.”
“As there's nothing to do than repeat the same 1st or 2nd mission over and over for no reason at all, and I say no reason as there is no upgrade system for your account like Vampire Survivors or Soulstone Survivors where you feel like you're making progress.”
“The reason I do not recommend this game as of right now is once I got to the 2nd mission where the connectivity to the right organ is random on all organs you get.”
- replayability11 mentions
- 45 % positive mentions
- 27 % neutral mentions
- 27 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's replayability is generally regarded as high, with many players appreciating the variety of in-game goals, character options, and combinations that encourage experimentation. However, some users note that the experience can become repetitive or hit a "wall" of non-replayability after a certain point, despite the initial enjoyment and potential for diverse builds. The game's low price point also contributes to its perceived value in terms of replayability, particularly for fans of roguelike genres.
“The gameplay loop is easy; however, there are endless possibilities to evolve your blob, and the replayability is insane.”
“It has some pretty large replayability and could have some very real combos that make you feel rewarded for experimentation.”
“The amount of content (organs, characters, stages) is already very high, so it has great replayability.”
“Still pretty fun in a limited sense until you hit the wall of non-replayability, which is disappointing because there's so much potential here.”
“Although it became rather easy and repetitive after some time once you discovered some of the more broken chain-reaction builds, replayability is still high since you have a lot of different characters.”
“This game, however, could become much more replayable than Vampire Survivor or any survivor-like game due to the experimental and iterative nature of it.”
- optimization10 mentions
- 30 % positive mentions
- 20 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with players experiencing significant performance issues, especially on lower-end systems, leading to stuttering and crashes during intense gameplay. Many users feel that the complexity of projectiles and the balance of items contribute to these performance problems, indicating a need for substantial improvements in optimization and balancing as the game is still in early access. Overall, the current state of optimization detracts from the gameplay experience.
“I feel like something could really be made to improve performance, seeing the complexity of the textures used for projectiles.”
“My only request to the dev is to improve performance a little bit, as there is some stutter on my low-end machine.”
“Needs optimization too, as the chains quickly got long enough to stutter my 12th gen Intel.”
“Only negative is that the game is not optimized at all, so in waves of 15+ with tons of enemies, my 1050 GTX starts to suffer hard.”
“But the worst offender is balance combined with performance: projectiles exploding into exponentially more projectiles exploding into even more projectiles... and goodbye FPS.”
“It's a little poorly optimized at this time and will actually crash on lower-end systems if you have too many activations running at a time.”
- humor9 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is consistently praised, with players finding it both hilarious and entertaining, despite some noting a lack of depth compared to similar titles. The chaotic and absurd elements, particularly in the character customization and gameplay mechanics, contribute to a fun and comedic experience, making it enjoyable even for those who may not typically favor the genre. Overall, the game's humor is a standout feature that enhances its appeal.
“I have no idea what the heck is going on, but it's hilarious.”
“Bio Prototype shakes things up by shifting the focus away from the running around and onto an elaborate puzzle/programming skill-building system that is hilarious and broken and just tons of fun.”
“By end-game, your little abomination has multiple brains, each executing a mega-skill that you've lovingly crafted from the organs you've grown or gathered with hilarious and chaotic results.”
- grinding8 mentions
- 13 % positive mentions
- 13 % neutral mentions
- 75 % negative mentions
Reviews indicate that the grinding aspect of the game is often seen as tedious and frustrating, with players expressing a desire for more streamlined mechanics, such as a "compare" function for items. While some enjoy the customization and challenge, many find the grinding process overly complex and time-consuming, detracting from the overall enjoyment of the game.
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“Instead, it's just massively tedious to play.”
“The lack of a 'compare' function was also sorely needed since equipped items show their stats with active modifiers while unequipped items show without the modifiers for that slot, so it forces a bit of tedious swapping in and out to determine what's best.”
“It's downright annoying, and removes any concept of target farming for a specific build you have in mind.”
- stability5 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game exhibits some stability issues, with users reporting bugs that affect gameplay and controller support, such as persistent tutorial prompts. However, despite these glitches, players find the overall experience enjoyable and engaging, particularly in terms of crafting and gameplay mechanics.
“I spent the first 30 minutes thinking the game was buggy Unity garbage, but then it hit me and it is really the best of the genre.”
“The possibilities are pretty much endless and crafting a cool arsenal is fun, but it seems to be a bit buggy.”
“Oh, and the controller support is buggy; when I tried using one, it kept bringing up the tutorial constantly for some reason.”
- emotional1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Users express a mix of affection and conflict regarding the game's emotional impact, indicating that while they appreciate certain elements, there are notable issues that complicate their overall recommendation.