Was it really THAT bad?

No but it was generally a downgrade

It was 'ok'
Fucking over Mercer was a terrible decision though

I liked the second game a bit more (mostly because I played it first) but I will admit that P1 has it beat in terms of story and progression. Also the bioarmor and Claw ranged spike ability was cool as hell and they shouldn’t have removed it.
Prototype 3 is my most wanted “never ever” to be honest.

>unlock the Mercer skin
>activate headcanon mode
Now it's a great game.

>>715221193 (OP)
Gameplay wise it wasn't terrible.
Story wise it was a fucking dumpster fired which needed you to read a comic book to understand a core facet of the story (but the comic book was retarded so the story still made no sense.
It also pushed the interesting shit aside in favour of being as generic as possible.
It also replaced an interesting protagonist with a generic angy marine

>>715221193 (OP)
>Zero (0) games like this in the 2020's
sandbox bros, it's completely fucking over

>>715221193 (OP)
Literally killed the franchise