Prototype

 PlayStation 3
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 381 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 230 out of 381
  2. Mixed: 104 out of 381
  3. Negative: 47 out of 381
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  1. TylerH
    Jun 17, 2009
    4
    I don't know what to fully think. Either my expectations were too high, or I'm just playing a different game from all those that rate this so high. I played this for about 4 hours straight the first day it came out, and haven't touched it since. The graphics are a major disappointment. Yes, the game takes place in new york (alot to render), rather extensive area to cover... I don't know what to fully think. Either my expectations were too high, or I'm just playing a different game from all those that rate this so high. I played this for about 4 hours straight the first day it came out, and haven't touched it since. The graphics are a major disappointment. Yes, the game takes place in new york (alot to render), rather extensive area to cover... but there's just nothing that's appealing to actually look at or do. The side missions feel like random crap thrown together to extend game play, probably only took a few hours to come up with/create. Difficulty can be frustrating, action is repetitive. Gore is so-so. While I like the fact that games are finally slowly becoming more violent and true to life (should events like what are portrayed in whatever game happen), it doesn't make it any more fun, its actually kinda funny. Plot doesnt appear very intuitive or thought out, nothing to really like about the main character, voice acting could have been better. Overall, just a very sub-par game that should of been released around $30 instead of $60. No lasting effect, spend money elsewhere. Rent if need to try.… Expand
  2. VonDain
    Jun 9, 2009
    0
    Huge dissapointment. Poor graphics, clunky controls, bad ai, bad animations. Horrible game.
  3. mikew
    Jun 14, 2009
    2
    Prototype just plain sucks the graphics,controls and story are terrible there are more pop ins than Ive seen on any game to date and the gameplay is repetitive after 30 mins if anything a rental but you shouldn't waste your money on it.
  4. TheSqu7234
    Feb 18, 2013
    2
    Boring story. Uninspired emo characters. The powers feel no different from each other except for Whipfist.
    If you've seen one of my previous review, you'd know Infamous is my favourite game of all time, so I expected to go into this story and it to be a clone of Infamous with unique power ups, good character and an amazing story, but what did I get? I story with is a completion of King    Boring story. Uninspired emo characters. The powers feel no different from each other except for Whipfist.
    If you've seen one of my previous review, you'd know Infamous is my favourite game of all time, so I expected to go into this story and it to be a clone of Infamous with unique power ups, good character and an amazing story, but what did I get? I story with is a completion of King Kong Shadow the Hedgehog,the worst bosses ever seen to man kind and the most poorly designed and crafted characters ever made. Amnesia is a very hard thing to get right in video games and this just craps on that idea making Alex Mercer my least favouite character of all time. Now this game has two good things; the cutscenes and some of the gameplay elements, but besides that I can't think of any redeeming qualities. clone of Infamous... I mean Prototype gets a 16 from me which makes me vey angry I have to round up to a 20. Now, in saying that, I will try Prototype 2. Hopefully it will commend for its mistakes, but I doubt it.    … Expand
  5. TheGunShogun
    Sep 12, 2016
    4
    This game can certainly be a lot of fun at times, shape shifting into whichever character of your choosing and throwing cars at zombies, civilians, soldiers and helicopters. However most of this fun wears off towards the middle of the game and it just becomes an incredibly frustrating experience where they take your powers which are the coolest part of the game and make them feel weak andThis game can certainly be a lot of fun at times, shape shifting into whichever character of your choosing and throwing cars at zombies, civilians, soldiers and helicopters. However most of this fun wears off towards the middle of the game and it just becomes an incredibly frustrating experience where they take your powers which are the coolest part of the game and make them feel weak and force you to use alternate methods to complete tasks.

    For a game that is supposed to make you feel like this total badass mutant shapeshifter that can take on anything and everything it truly fails. By the end of this game I felt like I was playing world of tanks or possibly a helicopter flight sim as using these vehicles were the only feasible method to completing the majority of the late game missions. Ask yourself this, does it make sense that Alex Mercer who can shred a tank to pieces in mere seconds would rely on that same equipment to defeat an enemy more powerful than himself? Why as this awesome mutant am I relying on military vehicles which have far less power than I do?

    The reason is because the game becomes extremely challenging by the end of it. And not challenging in a good way, the game doesn't earn it. It just throws an exorbitant amount of enemies at you all at once. You are constantly being juggled around by tanks, helicopters, rocket soldiers, super soldiers, hunters, ect. all at the same time and sometimes can barely find your footing to make an escape as you try to regain a little bit of health on the run just to turn around and do it all over again. Helicopter or tank gets blown up? Better find another one because you are completely ineffective using your powers (the coolest part of this game) on foot. For a game that should be all about fast paced combat on foot with cool powers you will spend most of your time on foot fleeing from a mob of enemies that will tear you to shreds.

    Another frustrating aspect of this game is that several missions have you defending an objective which has it's own health bar. During these segments most of the enemies are melee fighters so they rush your objective and start hitting it. In one particular mission your only recourse is to use militarly weapons such as grenade and rocket launchers (there are machines guns available as well but they are nearly useless at taking down the big guys or large groups before they kill your base) so you are forced to use weapons which cause AOE splash damage to the very thing you are trying to protect. The same happens with your powers as well, as you swing in wide arcs and hit it accidentally. This is horrible level design.

    On top of these things, you have a lackluster story. I had almost no idea what was going on until near the end of the game when there was a cut scene of Alex spouting tons of exposition and I was just wondering when the hell he learned all of this information because it certainly wasn't on any of the last few missions I had just done, yet here he is telling it to me. It didn't flow at all. It's like I was just playing a game and having a separate story told to me in between missions.

    There are also a number of bugs and interface issues. Tab targeting is extremely hard to use because the city is such a target rich environment and often times I would have to hit tab 3 or 4 times just for it to lock onto anything. Same goes with bringing up my stealth HUD, press the button 3 or 4 times and it just flashes then goes away rather than staying like it should. I also had a few crashes (one time JUST after completing a very difficult mission)

    The controls are decent and the powers are very cool and fun. I like the little touches like being able to change form midway through the animation of hijacking an enemy vehicle. Or entering the vehicle as one person, shape shifting and then exiting as another.

    Like I said, I did have quite a bit of fun with the game but I certainly cannot recommend it. I was considering scoring this as a 5 which I consider average but now that I'm thinking about it, I can't even give it that. It very well could be but the fact that they just take the coolest, most enjoyable part of this game which are your powers and make them virtually useless later in the game really does neutralize this games main redeeming factor and for that I have to give the game a low score, and this is years after release when I paid $20 for it. Even for that price, don't buy it. I wish I had $20 to spend on a better game.    … Expand
  6. TylerM
    Jun 17, 2009
    4
    What should have been good was only to be drowned out by the bad. It is hard to even start to describe the lacking of quality within this title. Being that I work in a game environment, I am constantly asked why I did not like it, and that maybe I should give it another chance. Well my answer is no, I played it for a good few hours, only to leave feeling that I had wasted my money. No What should have been good was only to be drowned out by the bad. It is hard to even start to describe the lacking of quality within this title. Being that I work in a game environment, I am constantly asked why I did not like it, and that maybe I should give it another chance. Well my answer is no, I played it for a good few hours, only to leave feeling that I had wasted my money. No matter what people try to say, I am not harsh, I just can't lie to myself and cough up that this is a 'great' game. It is not all bad though, that is why it gets a 4. Since it tried to immitate a sandbox free roamer, and I give it that. Also another beautiful aspect about this title is the action and the epic battle scenes. It is loaded with blood and gore unlike most titles, and deserves an applaud for its gore like qualities as well as some of its battle methods: customizing Alex's stats to the extreme, and using his custom abilities. But it just could not do it. All of the acrobatic stunts only stood to way down the capabilities that a common super hero should have. From missing roof-top after roof-top, and being knocked off of tanks too many times to count; I felt 0 satisfaction in any of the games actionized styles. Not to mention the lack of gravity only stands to impair this title more so. When you run up a building, Alex goes at the exact same speed as if he were running on the ground. That is crazy, and throwing a car is like throwing card board. When I throw a car at a heli copter, I expect it to hit it just soley based on the amount of inertia and speed that must be thrust outward to hit the copter. But magically the copter is fast enough to escape. One last refutation: certain enemies are to hard/tricky to kill( I have beaten extremly hard fights before so don't think I couldn't do it, it just was not rewarding when I did kill them). Trying to beat this game on normal mode can seem as though it were a chore; one mission to another and that is it. The story, although it tried to be drawn out well, there was something about its feel that kept the story from being one that is empathetic. I could not feel Alex's pain. He just seemed like an angry punk. The voice acting was only mediocre and it will be forgetable. Ultimately, I believe the fate of this title will rest in the bargain bin a few years from now only wanting to have lived up to the titles of its time being held behind the nice glass with a big price tag.… Expand
  7. TimK.
    Aug 18, 2009
    4
    First, the good. Prototype gives you a great sense of being in a real city, and the city is huge and seamless. The powers are generally cool. I don't know what anyone who complains about the art is smoking, but I found it to be fine. The ability to absorb people and disguise yourself is quite fun, as is the over the top ultraviolence. Unfortunately, most of the good is undone by the First, the good. Prototype gives you a great sense of being in a real city, and the city is huge and seamless. The powers are generally cool. I don't know what anyone who complains about the art is smoking, but I found it to be fine. The ability to absorb people and disguise yourself is quite fun, as is the over the top ultraviolence. Unfortunately, most of the good is undone by the bad. The controls are extremely irritating -- it's quite possible to do completely the wrong thing by being off by a meter or two in worldspace. Grabbing, for example, is extremely dodgy. Hit grab while standing, with nothing close by, and you will just make grabby motions and do nothing. Try it while running and it's quite possible to miss your grab because of the timing or (my most frustrating) try to enter a vehicle, which will inevitably be nearly impossible because a rocket-launching sharpshooter will knock you off the vehicle just as you are about to rip the hatch off. That isn't my only gripe with the game design. The missions are torturous; the one where I decided to be done with this game involved trying to blow up three Blackwatch Spectres, which are tank-like vehicles in which the firing controls (machine gun/rocket) are reversed. Thanks for that. The place is swarming with Infected who all target you specifically, so you're fighting the whole military plus all the mutants. I figured the best way to complete this would be to disguise myself as an army guy, walk right up, take over a tank and then use it to kill all the rest. That worked, kind of, until four rocket launching troops spawned on opposite rooftops and rained fire down upon me... destroying the tank I was in in an eyeblink. No problem, I ran away, evaded the strike team by disguising myself, rinse repeat, right? Except I got them down to the last tank, ran back to destroy it... and a bunch of "reinforcements" showed up. Oh, and because the mission wasn't challenging enough... I had no access to my powers at the time. Topping this is the bewildering array of "upgrades" -- dozens and dozens of ways to advance your powers. The fact that you can enhance your powers as you wish using "evolution points" is kind of cool, but the game lacks guidance on how to use them. The help boils down to a one-paragraph instruction in the upgrade guide on what buttons to push. There is no "and now here's a mission that you can only complete by using that power we just gave you" type instruction, and it would be really useful. The story is "meh," pretty much a recycle of Generic Video Game Story #3 ("evil gubmint program gives ordinary guy super powers and amnesia" -- comes right after "space marine confronts demons" and "princess captured, eat mushrooms & rescue her"). There's nothing especially compelling about the protag to make me care why this happened to him, or how he's going to deal with it. Sadly, my verdict on this has to be negative. Sadly, because I've been looking forward to this game for some time. I sorely regret paying full price for this, and I wish there was something I could do about it.… Expand
  8. StrideX
    Jul 25, 2009
    3
    This is interesting because despite my initial thoughts that Infamous was going to be the better game, once I got my hands on it I erased all prejudgements on the game and erased any thoughts on it in comparison to Infamous, Crackdown, Ultimate Destruction and Spiderman 2. While I don't want to be too harsh I can't see why anybody would believe this is a good game to begin with, This is interesting because despite my initial thoughts that Infamous was going to be the better game, once I got my hands on it I erased all prejudgements on the game and erased any thoughts on it in comparison to Infamous, Crackdown, Ultimate Destruction and Spiderman 2. While I don't want to be too harsh I can't see why anybody would believe this is a good game to begin with, the controls are strange, not impossible to grasp but definitely strange when it comes to 3rd person games its hard to get into a rhythm once you start the game, you'll need time to get to grips with the controls The graphics are sub par at best, they are so unspectacular I don't have much to say about them, overall you'd expect better from a game that was 4 years in development, buildings suck and don't break or blow up when Helicopters smash into them. As for Story I'd say, I don't know, not at one point did I get interested in the story, the characters did not help, all of them were awful including Alex, he's about as uninteresting as a character gets, just an angry guy out for revenge, not once did his character develop, not once did he even improve, everyone else is too unimportant to mention. Gameplay was better once the controls became easier to handle, crashing through the streets while being attacked can be enjoyable but I feel it is this aspect of the game that is overrated, at times there was too much chaos, enemies came around too often, while there is a varying set of weapons, all pretty much do one or two combos, and this is what makes the game repetitive despite all the gore which can be humorous at times it remains the same. It doesn't help with Alex's overall lack of style when it comes to fighting, when compared to greats such as Dante, Ryu Hayabusa, or even Spidey he just falls so far short it's unbelievable, his lack of personality doesn't help matters Overall I'd say this game is horribly repetitive and for the most part, boring as hell. If you are looking for a game with depth, non-repetitive gameplay, style, solid controls and interesting story look elsewhere. If you want to wreak havoc for a couple of hours before you throw this in the dust-collecting pile, go right ahead, it's your money that's being thrown away… Expand
  9. Nickb
    Jun 10, 2009
    0
    Game is so boring, crap graphics, ok gameplay, no multiplayer.
  10. Sarper1707
    Mar 31, 2022
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I haven't seen a game which has such a cool concept with real crap gameplay. I can't even describe how annoyed I am about these gameplay. Especially in the Elizabeth boss fight. With such an epic scene it is sad that there isn't an atmosphere that makes you feel excited or scared. There is not even a music you just hear a massive mad vagina screaming and tries to hit you with her green genital fluid. About the gameplay, there isn't a balance between you and your foes. No matter how much you hit, you can just get knocked out with a single slap of a hunter. It looks like they are just randomly shaking their hands and trying to hit you. Whenever you are hit by them, the game just stupidly activates slow motion. I DON'T WANT TO SEE MY CHARACTER FLOATING IN THE AIR FOR HOURS BECAUSE OF SOME DUMB SLOW MOTION WHICH THE PRODUCERS THOUGHT IT WOULD BE EPIC TO SEE IT.… Expand
  11. HaroldL.
    Jun 9, 2009
    2
    honestly i played this E3 and it felt very repetitive. its the same thing over and over again. visually the game looks like a glorified xbox 1 game. there's hardly anything impressive about it. GTA 4 came out a year ago and looks miles better than prototype. also the character is very porrly designed, it feels very pretentious, as if they were trying to create a mysterious main honestly i played this E3 and it felt very repetitive. its the same thing over and over again. visually the game looks like a glorified xbox 1 game. there's hardly anything impressive about it. GTA 4 came out a year ago and looks miles better than prototype. also the character is very porrly designed, it feels very pretentious, as if they were trying to create a mysterious main character and thought "hey lets give him a hoodie". the voice over by Barry Pepper sounds waaay to over the top. All in all, this game lacks style, substance, finesse, class....and just tries to wow the player by giving them excess gore to the opint of it being funny rather than disturbing (think slasher flicks and evil dead),....too much is not always good.… Expand
  12. nascent
    Aug 19, 2016
    3
    Massively overrated game. Gameplay is uninspired, with a very uninteresting open world game, with very little to do. Combat is pretty pathetic. You buy upgrades which are various types of moves or power, but these are easy to obtain, I never ran out of 'cash' in this game. The moves are pretty boring and can't be strung together. The free roaming movement is not particularly fun, it'sMassively overrated game. Gameplay is uninspired, with a very uninteresting open world game, with very little to do. Combat is pretty pathetic. You buy upgrades which are various types of moves or power, but these are easy to obtain, I never ran out of 'cash' in this game. The moves are pretty boring and can't be strung together. The free roaming movement is not particularly fun, it's a poor man's parkour where all you do it hold a button and you can run over and across every surface. The most interesting movement is gliding, but if you've played any Just Cause you'll be dissapointed.
    Melee is fairly rubbish. Health is pretty easy to come by, and any type of enemy above infected human basically has to be avoided until facing away from you, then they're easy to hit. It gets very repetitive.
    Boss fights are extremely un-enjoyable. With heavily unbalanced bosses, that attack 50% health destroying blows in rapid succession. Tank and helicopter control is probably the most fun aspect of the game, but are so massively unecessary for 99% of the game, that there's barely any point them existing.
    There ready is very little to get from this game, after a couple of hours I was begging for it to end. The story is god-awful, the voice acting is atrocious, and the characters are uninteresting.

    I didn't have much expectation for this game, but due to high ratings figured I should try it, but couldn't begin to expect how un-enjoyable this game would be.

    Also I must note that the graphics of this game really don't hold up, the cut scenes are decent, but the actual game graphics are fairly painful to look at for extended periods of time. This game did come out 7 years ago, so I wont dock any marks for the graphics, but have to mention it, especially after playing it on PS4.    … Expand
  13. Aberukun
    Oct 24, 2021
    0
    Garbage game, terrible visuals, dumb story, empty world, unbalanced missions.
  14. 360barrier
    Jan 12, 2022
    0
    I got this game recommenced to me by a friend and oh my god it was such a waste of time. It just throws an exorbitant amount of enemies at you all at once. You are constantly being juggled around by tanks, helicopters, rocket soldiers, super soldiers, hunters, ect. all at the same time and sometimes can barely find your footing to make an escape as you try to regain a little bit of healthI got this game recommenced to me by a friend and oh my god it was such a waste of time. It just throws an exorbitant amount of enemies at you all at once. You are constantly being juggled around by tanks, helicopters, rocket soldiers, super soldiers, hunters, ect. all at the same time and sometimes can barely find your footing to make an escape as you try to regain a little bit of health on the run just to turn around and do it all over again. Helicopter or tank gets blown up? Better find another one because you are completely ineffective using your powers (the coolest part of this game) on foot. For a game that should be all about fast paced combat on foot with cool powers you will spend most of your time on foot fleeing from a mob of enemies that will tear you to shreds.… Expand
  15. badgamessuck
    Apr 17, 2020
    3
    I have to say this is one of the worst games I have ever played. I never played Prototype back in the day but remember it being a counterpart to inFamous. It really does not live up to the nostalgia that people have for it. I have four major problems with this game that give it such an atrociously low score.

    1. The knockback effect plus no invincibility frames. Both of these things make    I have to say this is one of the worst games I have ever played. I never played Prototype back in the day but remember it being a counterpart to inFamous. It really does not live up to the nostalgia that people have for it. I have four major problems with this game that give it such an atrociously low score.

    1. The knockback effect plus no invincibility frames. Both of these things make it impossible to get into tanks and sometimes helicopters during combat. In fact, any time you try to launch a move with an even slightly longer than usual animation, you have a success rate of about 10% because as soon as you get hit, the move is over before it starts. You can often get chain knocked back as well and die very easily. Plus, once a big move is executed and has an exit animation, you can still get killed.

    2. Overly aggressive AI. If you ever want to take even a 3 second breather in this game, good luck to you, because it's impossible. Every major enemy runs faster than you and spawns so frequent during boss sections that it means you are always using the movement system to get out of harms way. It's very disorienting and means that instead of normal games having good pacing between sections, you are instead always playing at 1000%.

    3. The targeting system. The targeting system in Prototype is frustrating at best. Because the AI has such a hard on for the player, using the targeting system is very difficult. The way it chooses targets and changing between targets is very unintuitive and does not follow basic logic. You will often end up attacking the wrong enemy, and if you've read No. 1 then you get the idea.

    4. Buttons launching wrong attacks. This is a problem that is frustrating because it means that you will often launch your triangle ability (on a DualShock) when you really are launching your Devastator attack which is triangle + circle. Because of reason No. 1, this is extremely.

    In the broader picture there are elements I enjoy. The carnage and spectacle is great, and generally piloting helicopters and driving tanks is fun. There are also a wide variety of powers (although you often rely on the Whipfist ability). The movement is quite good, although it could have been fleshed out more. I wouldn't stick around for the story, as it's pretty derivative and uninspired, as were action adventure games of the era. Those are my thoughts on Prototype.    … Expand
  16. JoseManuel10_
    Sep 4, 2023
    4
    Prototype is a 2009 action-adventure video game developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Activision.
  17. JrDouble
    Jun 26, 2023
    4
    Bad game with poor mechanics, story, and graphics. Very repetitive and frustrating. I do not recommend this game.

Awards & Rankings

59
#59 Best PS3 Game of 2009
12
#12 Most Discussed PS3 Game of 2009
15
#15 Most Shared PS3 Game of 2009

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 53 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 40 out of 53
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 53
  3. Negative: 0 out of 53
  1. PSW Magazine UK
    90
    Still, you won't ever have played a sandbox game that creates so much carnage and offers so many ways to play.
  2. GamePro
    90
    I suspect that some people will find their enthusiasm drained more than mine by the shallow enemy gene pool, but even they're bound to get swept away by the myriad pleasures of tearing up town as a ghoulish and preternaturally fleet-footed shape-shifter.
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  3. Cheat Code Central
    98
    Prototype is one of the best games to release this generation and is definitely the best game to drop in 2009 (so far). Outside of the lackluster stealth and disguising mechanic, the brutal combat, huge open-world, varied challenges, and utterly satisfying gameplay makes this a must-have title for any serious gamer's collection. Get ready to put your life on hold!
    Read full review
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