Prototype

Cheat Code Central

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!

PGNx Media

The insane amount of strength, skills and powers you get in the game is amazing and the game does a great job of making you feel like you’re really in control of a truly powerful being.

GameZone

Its a virtual toss up between this and inFamous, both are great games, but this one has a decidedly more adult feel to it. Did I mention the copious amounts of blood?

Game Chronicles

The best way I could describe Prototype is a mix of GTA meets Wolverine with a dash of Spider-Man thrown in. I haven’t had this much visceral fun and carnal bloodletting since Wolverine, and Prototype is on an entirely different level when it comes to scale, scope of story, and total originality.

Games Radar (in-house)

Although it’s beset by blandish graphics and wickedly uneven difficulty, Prototype delivers a fast-paced, relentlessly amoral and wonderfully brutal sandbox adventure in a detailed city filled with cool things to see and do.

GamingTrend

Damn it – Prototype is just fun. The combat is visceral, the movement is fluid and fast, and the storyline is just good enough to keep you going. Wrap that in a great control system and tack on the feeling of ever-expanding power and you have a game that fires on all cylinders. Few games manage to balance their end-game without resorting to cheap numbers games – Prototype manages to pull you in all the way until the revealing end.

PSW Magazine UK

Still, you won't ever have played a sandbox game that creates so much carnage and offers so many ways to play.

GamePro

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.

ZTGameDomain

You'll never feel more like a badass and you'll never have a bigger smile on your face.

GameFocus

Prototype is one of those games that starts out with some horribly boring gaming and seems to take too long (1-1.5 hrs) to get anywhere. But once the game opens up and you can free roam, do missions and the like you begin to see how wonderfully brilliant the destructive gameplay is and as you build up your powers to amazing heights allowing you to do more destruction the game is amazing and satisfying. This is a must buy for action fans.

Extreme Gamer

Prototype featuring the shift-shifting menace Alex Mercer is the new Hulk! Bigger, stronger, and faster; Prototype offers up an action packed dose of straight-up entertainment.

ImpulseGamer

Needless to say, Prototype has some strong controls, decent graphics and some innovative use of surround sound, hopefully we’ll see more Prototypes!

GameSpot

This open-world action game set in Manhattan is proof that even viral outbreaks can be incredibly fun if they're done right.

IGN AU

Infamous is more elegant and refined in design, with more of a focus on ranged combat, while Prototype is – truth be told - more frenetic and fun. Prototype is more of a spectacle and puts more power and choice in the hands of the player.

GamingExcellence

The mechanics are sound, but not rock-solid, the graphics are decent, though not great, and the carnage is excellent, though sometimes disorienting, especially with the less-than-stellar camera.

MEGamers

While Prototype is not perfect, it still is a fantastic game to play if you're looking for a ruthless hack & slash game with no limits.

Vandal Online

It's true it becomes repetitive, and it doesn't stand out for its story, but despite that this is one of the most frantic and fun titles we can currently find on the shelves.

PSM3 Magazine UK

Frantic, deep and explosive, but demanding with some rough edges. [Aug 2009, p.72]

PS3bloggen.se

Manhattan is infected by the same virus that gave you superpowers and a human life is worth close to nothing in your quest for revenge and truth. Prototype is is a great apocalyptic game, and it's only what it lacks in story telling and AI that prevents it from getting a higher score. Not for children, though.

Playstation Official Magazine Australia

A truckload of guilty fun, Prototype offers a lot of freedom. Beneath it all it's a simple kill-fest, but it works well. [July 2009, p.72]

Playstation: The Official Magazine (US)

Even without perfect controls or jaw-dropping visuals, it offers a terrifically evil time for action game fans. [Sept 2009, p.74]

Eurogamer Portugal

Without amazing graphics, Prototype gets a good value for the animation. Untouchable even when the characters can be counted around all the dozens of explosions caused by rocket launchers and helicopters.

Eurogamer Spain

Quotation forthcoming.

Play Magazine

Although it lacks much of the polish we've come to expect from sandbox style titles such as GTA IV and inFAMOUS, navigating Prototype's world—while leaving a chunky bloodbath in your wake—as the remorseless Mercer packs more than its fair share of guilty-pleasure thrills.

Cynamite

Motivating until the very end thanks to Alex' many skills. However there could be more detail in the graphics, the side missions are repetitive, and the AI could be much better. All in all a fun game, though.

SpazioGames

Prototype is a great example of a charismatic and enjoyable game, with good gameplay and durability at high levels. Unfortunately the little flaws in the implementation of certain aspects of the technical compartment will weigh more than the many merits for the less attentive user. The title has no multiplayer mode, but the single player experience won't make you miss it. We suggest the fan of free-roaming action to buy this game, the high level of adrenalin and violence won't let you down.

Playstation Official Magazine UK

One of the best superhero experiences yet - maybe not quite the equal of inFamous, but a genuine alternative for the inner maniac in you. [July 2009, p.98]

Playstation Universe

Brutally satisfying, Prototype offers hours of explosive, unscripted fun.

DarkZero

It is absolutely the best game for wasting away those hot summer days. If you’re a fan of superhero games or just love gratuitous violence, you can’t go wrong with Prototype.

Giant Bomb

Prototype is really all about player empowerment, ramping up the number and intensity of larger-than-life superhero abilities consistently as you go. If you've ever harbored fantasies about soaring over skyscrapers and going on destructive urban rampages involving wantonly thrown automobiles--and who among us hasn't, really--odds are you'll find a lot to like about this game.

Gameplayer

As far as we know there’s no other game on the market that allows you to swallow a human for health, while being chased by a mutant twice your size, hurl a car at a helicopter, hijack a tank, cleave a soldier in twain with an enormous biological blade, transform into an invulnerable steel behemoth, tear apart vehicles with your bare hands, stealth consume and mimic any NPC in the city, and run up the walls of any building in Manhattan. Surely that’s got to count for something, right?

PALGN

Prototype is basically a game that you can pick up and play, have an absolute blast with, then walk away barely understanding what just happened. The chaos that ensues within the city is immense and often times damn near overwhelming, making you feel the aftershock after you’ve done it all, with a sudden familiar sound you know called silence.

3DJuegos

Prototype is the story of a very good videogame that asks for a little more polish in every aspect to transcend and become something special. There is no reason to avoid it, it's a great action flick, but as a project it had enough potential to achieve the classic range with a more inspiration and charm in its development.

XGN

PROTOTYPE became a good game, but unfortunately can't completely satisfy it's high expectations. The graphics aren't that good, luckily there is enough action and a nice gameplay to cover up the shortcomings. In the end, everyone must have played this game at least once.

Play UK

Prototype merely ends up an entertaining burst of pandemonium that won't trouble the PS3 big boys. [Issue#181, p.80]

My Gamer

When compared to other open world sand box titles, Prototype leaves an unfortunate bland taste in your mouth.

Gaming Age

It's a lot of fun when you're actually playing, but when it comes the story related material, it falls flat. If you enjoy open world sandbox style games, PROTOTYPE has a lot going for it, and there's certainly a lot of ground to cover through the entire city, and a lot of random stuff to find and toy around with.

Game Over Online

The bottom line here is that Prototype just doesn’t come together into a cohesive and successful form of interactive entertainment.

InsideGamer.nl

Expectations were high for Prototype. Based on what we saw before the release this was logical. In the end, the game turned out to be pretty good, but nowhere near what we expected. The developer did a good thing with respect to the awesome action, the superb superpowers and the chaos in New York, but failed to deliver a decent story. Also, we’re disappointed with the amount of variation in the game.

IGN

Prototype is a game with many cool features. However, it lacks many of the finishing touches that make for a great and memorable game. To say the graphics and game engine need work is a massive understatement and many of the missions are cookie cutter in design without any real focus or attention to detail.

Gamers' Temple

In spite of these shortcomings, I did have some fun with the game. It would have been a lot more fun, though, if there was more variety to the missions and there wasn’t so much frustration tied to them.

Game Informer

From its old school design to its gameplay struggles, Prototype resembles a superhero who leapt off a building only to realize he doesn’t possess the power to fly. I hate to say it, but picture a frustrating Spider-Man game, and you have a good idea of what this experience has to offer.

VideoGamer

There's plenty to do, with the core story missions and plenty of optional side activities making Prototype a game that you won't clock in a few sessions, and the upgrades and abilities are plentiful, but it just doesn't quite come together well enough to create a really great game.

Total Video Games

Although it has everything you'd want from an intense, action-fuelled open-world title, the overall feeling with Prototype is that it tries a little too hard.

Gamer.nl

Keep in mind that Prototype is foremost a hack-&-slash-game and not, as some might expect, a free-roamer. Making it a game with not a lot of variation, even though you can unleash a lot of different attacks. The action is fast and chaotic, but may get frustrating because of the overload of enemies and high difficulty setting. Only a must-buy if you're looking violent action and a fast paced hack-&-slash game.

GameDaily

Thanks to excessive fog and pop up, we struggled locating collectibles. As for the upgrade system, there's so much to level up/moves to acquire that we quickly became overwhelmed and abandoned it. In addition, missions eventually grow repetitive, the story failed to hold our interests and cheap computer opponents killed us more times than we care to admit.

TotalPlayStation

I am sure there are people out there that think [Prototype] is one of the best games of the year, but to me it just is not polished enough to deserve that much praise.

RealGamer

The shape shifting abilities of the games protagonist are fun to experiment with but the story campaign has an all too familiar feel to it.

TheSixthAxis

Unfortunately they’ve been over ambitious and so in taking in as much as they can, they’ve lost out on what really matters - detail, interesting missions and polish. You feel like you’ve seen everything within the first 4 hours and so finishing the games begins to feel like a chore.

1UP

On a theoretical level it achieves a significant design accomplishment in pulling everything together into a cohesive package. As the person holding the controller, though, it stumbles too often on its inability to turn its potential into a consistently fun game.

GameSpy

I just can't get over how cheap a lot of the game feels. Whether it's the dated looks, its frustratingly difficult latter portion, or its awkward storytelling, Prototype often feels like a budget title that unfortunately doesn't have a budget price.

PSX Extreme

Despite all of its time in development, Prototype feels hollow and uninspired. There are a number of great concepts here, such as the shapeshifting and being able to run vertically, but everything else falls apart when you realize how boring many of the missions are, how boring the world is, how boring the game looks, and...well, how boring the game is, overall.

Game Revolution

If you’re willing to put up with its annoying design issues, drab appearance, and second-hand feel, you might find that, like a shirt with different-lengthed sleeves, Prototype holds up so long as no one looks too closely.