Prototype PlayStation 3
User Score
7.8 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 249 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 194 out of 249
  2. Mixed: 23 out of 249
  3. Negative: 32 out of 249

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. 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 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
  2. 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... 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
  3. VonDain
    Jun 9, 2009
    0
    Huge dissapointment. Poor graphics, clunky controls, bad ai, bad animations. Horrible game.
  4. Nickb
    Jun 10, 2009
    0
    Game is so boring, crap graphics, ok gameplay, no multiplayer.
  5. 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 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
  6. 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 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
  7. 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.
  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, 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. 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 Ko    ng 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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
79 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 53 Critics

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.
    Read full review
  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
See all critic reviews »