An evolution of the Vampire Survivors clone... literally! - Bio Prototype Quick Review

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PLAY IT OR SKIP IT?

Play it if you’re at all a fan of Vampire Survivors and its many clones and imitators. Bio Prototype takes the one-tiny-character-versus-hundreds-of-baddies and adds in a healthy dose of science. You play as a lab experiment gone wrong. Instead of just leveling up and unlocking a growing list of power-ups, you earn both internal and external body parts and must work out a functioning evolutionary path for your creation. This extra layer of depth adds a ton to an already addictive genre of games.

TIME PLAYED

I’ve sunk a good four or five hours into Bio Prototype so far, but I’m not planning to stop any time soon. In fact, I’ve got the game loaded up on my Steam Deck and ready for a plane ride I’ll be taking next week. I’ve stuck with the PC version of Bio Prototype, but it’s worth noting that it also launched on Android this week, and the mobile version packs in all of the same great content.

WHAT’S AWESOME

• A genuinely fresh take on an overdone formula. I love Vampire Survivors, and I’ve enjoyed quite a few of the dozens upon dozens of takes on this style of game that have launched in the last year. I even made a list of some of my favorite Vampire Survivors-inspired mobile games last year!

But for as much as I might enjoy them, very few of the games taking inspiration from Vampire Survivors actually put a meaningful twist on the “horde game” formula. Bio Prototype is the rare exception. Its extremely nonlinear, open-ended, and strategic leveling system required me to think about my progress through each run in a totally different way than I usually do in these types of games.

• Some thought required. Bio Prototype is not brainless in the way that a lot of horde games can be. Quite the opposite, in fact! As I leveled and earned limbs and organs, I had to connect them to one of the brains inside my blob’s body. External organs—limbs, horns, spores, and so on—act as this game’s weapons, while internal organs like spines and retinas determine when or how one of those weapons activates.

To give a simplified example: I might initially connect a spine to my blob’s first brain, and then a limb to that spine. This limb smashes out a massive arm, crushing any nearby enemies, but the spine says that limb only activates once every four seconds. Then I connect a retina to the limb, and a spore to the retina. The spore shoots out a circle of bullets, and the retina says it activates every time the organ to the left—that is, the limb—deals a critical hit.

Written out, this sounds confusing, and it certainly requires more brain power than the average Vampire Survivors clone. But in practice, the cycle of earning new body parts and then working out how to slot everything together in the most efficient and powerful way was extremely compelling and rewarding.

• So many unlocks. As far as I’ve seen so far, Bio Prototype does not have any sort of long-term progression that carries over to make the blobby experiments more powerful across runs. That said, it does have tons to unlock, including over twenty different blob prototypes to play as—each with unique strengths and weaknesses—and over eighty different types of organs. I’ve only unlocked four different prototypes and maybe a dozen or so organs, so I’ve got a lot to experience yet.

• Surprisingly great moody music. I’m not necessarily expecting to listen to the music when I play this type of game—to me, these are the perfect titles for listening to a podcast while I play—but I was shocked to find myself pulled in by the audio experience here. Bio Prototype’s soundtrack plays up the messed-up science experiment vibes with a grim tone that reminded me of something you might hear in a Metroid game.

WHAT SUCKS

• Menu time. While I love Bio Prototype’s twist on the Vampire Survivor’s style, there is one downside: It pulled me out of the action for noticeably long stretches between waves of enemies. Because the game’s evolution system is so complex, I had to spend a lot of time just plinking around in menus, testing out different strings of organs to see what would work. The payoff is worth it, but if you’re expecting a no-nonsense, straight-to-the-action experience like that found in most horde games, you might get frustrated.

💬 Are you going to check out Bio Prototype’s fun science experiment, or does it sound like too much homework for your brainless bullet heaven? Share your thoughts in the comments!