Prototype™

Unfortunately, the game does not run on new generation PCs, even though I reduced the number of cores...

It's a good game but you'll need to download a fix from the internet. Just google "Prototype game fix" and you should find the latest version.

It's a classic superhero with superpowers game. Find enemies, destroy enemies, story time, rinse, repeat. The movement in this game is top notch and still one of my favorite mechanics in any game by far.

i like this game since i was a kid ngl this is recommend to play but there's a random crash somtimes but still good

it is true that the game is dated for modern computers, however the community has provided not only start up and resolution fixes, they also have FPS and FOV fixes too :D

With a simple fix found on Nexus, the game runs great on PC.

Out of the box works great on steam deck (I havent beat the game overall but I would assume I can.)

Nostalgic fun for me, love running around causing chaos as a living weapon.

Good game but dated and i personally don't want to see an IP revival/reboot because you just know they'll star a black lesbian with the kilmonger haircut as the protagonist

great game, I dont know why people complain so much about the game not working properly, its such an easy fix. go to nexus mods, type in prototype, look at the most popular/most downloaded mod. follow the instructions on how to install the mod properly, and boom your bugs and crashes are gone. you cant expect EVERY game thats this old to work without any issue on modern PCs.

So in 2025 the game is good but you need to install a dll to allow for higher res , you need to change ur affinity for steam to four cores and you need to disable some things in device manager so honestly just emulate the game if ur not cool doing that

the elizibeth green boss fight has to be the most poorly desined boss fight ever made.
boss just spams projectiles and an insta kill move when you get close, then you have the constanly spawning hunters that stop you from healing because of their uniteruptable attack.
after this boss fight its no wounder why infamous dominated in sales compaired to this game because they know how to make boss fights fun and interesting.

It's a fun game from what I have played which is about 10-20mins of actual gameplay the only problem i'm experiencing is audio, cutscenes are all staticy and then voices are all high pitched so i'm wondering if anyone knows how to fix it?

Great games

Feels like those old ps2 spiderman games i used to play, only with blades, hammers, Whips, Zombies, Guns, Tanks and the military

Good freedom, flying/climbing
Disguise as enemys and infiltrate

This game is a classic. Prototype is a pretty fun open world game that was way ahead of its time.
Nowadays the graphics are a bit dated obviously, but to this day there has not been a game like it.
However the game is just not supported for newer systems, and you have to go through a lot of loopholes to make it work. The max resolution is like 1280x800 or something, and my FPS was so bad that the rendered cinematics were lagging and had choppy audio.

It's not bad. It definitely feels dated, but that's because it is really dated. The bosses are all absolute trash though.

The game is good so far. I'd recommend getting a Nexus mod that fixes the fact that the game crashes when loading in. (It basically disables the game from trying to load billboard textures from a defunct website that causes the game to crash) It also fixes a few other issues. I can't link it but search "Nexus Prototype 1 fix" and you should find it easily it should be titled "PrototypeFix - CrashFix - FPSFix - FrameDouble fix"

Please make Prototype 3 to wipeout the poor lazy writing of Protofart 2 from existence. Both games are cool I had fun on my ultra comfy and totally intact with no cat scratches 20$ black thrift store couch (can you imagine my couch costs less than proto2?? Tax included)
But what the shiZat happened near the ending of proto2? Twas clearly rushed y'all... We need proto3 to excuse the mess they made for the story of proto2. I repeated myself cuz I haves the 80HD!!1!!

Real review: If you like smashing things, killing people and messing with the military while wearing a hoodie and acting all edgster on society... just play the darn viddya gaem. The way I see it: Spider-Man is Sonic, ok? Alex Mercer is Shadow. Boom. Similiar game mechs, different stories. No BS. Now you pick your poison. I'm going with this one fellas.
Love me some dark roast coffee and cigars typa game. This title's got a place in the bundle of Y2K nostalgia top hits. Get real gamerz.

Game doesn't run at all on modern systems. Keeps crashing, don't buy.

In a time where the most interesting game was GTA and call of duty, this was very refreshing. It was open world, you could scale any building you saw, your powers were unchecked, and you were incestivized to inflict heavy casualties to the population of this virtual city. You can also pretend you're an npc, if you want to roleplay like that

While the PC port is a bit iffy and does needs mods to fix its current hiccups, do check the guide section to align the necessities to their places. Otherwise expect a few cutscene crashes here and there but still playable.

Prototype is one of those games that was lost in time when PlayStation 3 was still a gem to be played, did so back then as a kid but probably never ever finished it due to difficulty being so outrageously stupid and upgraded enemies or explosive damage just knocks you out in a whiff. Now replayed on Steam version and finished, I must say I'm impressed how this game holds up. It has great city landscape of Manhattan with nice addition of sandbox to play around, run, glide and cause chaos at your own pace. The story is pretty average and cutscenes are very cheesy but has this funny charm that works so well. Although for its date and time release game has a great gameplay value since you have so much to do with the activities- just a shame they don't reward you much with unlockables and especially difficulty unlocking for Hard doesn't offer same way as well. But it is there if you wanna feel rewarded for doing so. Especially upgrade system giving you so many powers to have fun with, with a blend of stealth use too.

All in all I like it, there's a few bugs and glitches plus some combat issues that occur every now and then so you have to cheese as badly as possible. And some enemies are a bit tad annoying to deal with. If anything I do suggest trying the game on Easy difficulty if you don't wanna restart missions due to such repetition on dying against beefy enemies.

Runs like hot garbage on modern systems, and is basically unplayable.

Yes, but to make it run you need to run Steam on 4 Cores.

Make a .bat file in Notepad (it's just a text file which you save with .bat instead of .txt)

Put the following lines in and after you save it, run the file as Admin.

chdir C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam
start /affinity 7 Steam.exe

I played this game all the time back on the 360. It is one of my favorite games from that era. Yes it needs some work on your end to work properly on newer hardware but it's worth it. You can elbow drop tanks what more do you need from a game?

[PROTOTYPE] is one of the rare Gem games that you don't see any more from today's game industry unfortunately. The game let you play as Amnesiac protagonist Anti-Hero Alex Mercer who has unnatural God-Like shapeshifting abilities & hunting down specific targets responsible of the event while causing Choas in your way feeling like an unstoppable force in an Open World infected battle zoned New York City. While the game takes place in New York City, Parkouring at High Speed in this game, to this day is still unmatched & fun as ever, even the movements in Insomniac's Marvel Spider-Man Remastered 2020 just doesn't compare & I'm a fan of that game too. The game takes that M Rated Mature to a pretty Dark & Edgy tone, that's because that was a product of its time which was 2009, Alongside another similar great game which is inFAMOUS (Only on PlayStation)

Graphically, this the 7th Gen Version of the game for the PS3 & XBOX 360, not the Biohazard Bundle 8th Gen Version that's only available for the PS4 & XBOX ONE with some obvious improvements in textures & lighting. But if you look past the 7th Gen graphics, does it really matter? As long as the game is set to do, which is having an absolute fun time with your God-Like powers.

[PROTOTYPE] was made by Radical Entertainment, the same developers that also did the Hit 2005 game The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction & other Legendary Games like Scarface: The World is Yours & The Simpsons: Hit & Run. Much respect for them for simply wanting to make fun Open World games. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said by their parent company Activision-Blizzard who pretty much laid off Radical Entertainment's staff for "Not doing a good enough job" basically back in 2012.

Honestly since Microsoft now pretty much owns Activision-Blizzard which still holds the rights to the [PROTOTYPE] IP, it might as well be a good time & give the [PROTOTYPE] IP to a new passionate game developer to make a very good Quality Modern [PROTOTYPE] game, either it be a Sequel/Reboot/Remake which ever, that would be a dream come true especially on powerful current gen consoles to take advantage of. Not only that but for new generations of players to experience [PROTOTYPE] as a whole like I did, with the same love & care Motive did with the Dead Space Remake game or what Insomniac Games did for the Marvel Spider-Man games.

For me personally I give [PROTOTYPE] a solid 8 out of 10.
Just for creating so many pure fun memories. Played the Hell out of this game back in the day on the 7th Gen & 8th Gen consoles, now on PC because I have a Steam Deck OLED.

(Actual PlayTime is 14 hours) I remember seeing an add for this at Game stop on repeat 15 years ago, But I wasn't interested till recently. It's really good. Radical took their work on Hulk Ultimate destruction and applied it too the Modern Warfare crowd. unfortunately an Nvidia Update just made this unplayable, Patch and all

Amazing game, and its even better when you've maxed out and play the story + mode.

I can't play the game, I download it, I press start and as soon as I press, new game, it crashes.

I had so much fun with this game but once I got a better laptop it would just crash so its a great game just dont have a powerful laptop

Heads up, the game doesn't work on newer devices, you meed some workaround to get it to play. But it is totally worth it. Absolutely love this game. First played it when I was a child and loved it, recently picked it up thinking that it would be one of those games you only like why you are small. But surprisingly it is genuinely fun, not very grindy and makes you feel like a badass.

This game is a classic. Prototype is a pretty fun open world game that was way ahead of its time. Nowadays the graphics are a bit dated obviously, but to this day there has not been a game like it.

I love this game.

However, after i changes my computer, this game keep crash after i try to start new game.
My computer spect are above the spect this game required to play.

Does anyone can help me?

to fix crashing and slow game on windows 10 disable steam.exe cores by setting affinity in task manager, only enable few like 0-4 or 5

A very entertaining game with an incredible feeling of power fantasy- Something I have been missing in newer video games.

However the game is just not supported for newer systems, and you have to go through a lot of loopholes to make it work. The max resolution is like 1280x800 or something, and my FPS was so bad that the rendered cinematics were lagging and had choppy audio.

You have to install multiple mods, disable HID drivers, and cap your fps at 60 to make the game work properly. No thanks.

Sending back as refund, I can't get this crap to work with the proton/linux resolutions, and I haven't even started the game. I'll just play it on playstation, geez. This games engine did not age on pc well, and the devs don't update anything. sigh. a gem of a game...

Awesome gameplay, love the freeroam mechanics, but I had to do a whole ton of computational gymnastics just to get the game to run. Also dialogue's kinda... artificial

The game just doesn't run... at least correctly.

It's a product of its time in more ways than the gameplay and graphics. Though they aren't as lackluster as you would expect from a 15 year old game.

The main issue with the game is it just not running. The game apparently has a set limit of 4 cores active in the device it runs. If you pass that threshold (Which you most definitely will in any modern PC) the game crashes on startup. So if you want to even launch the game, you will need to deactivate most of the cores present in your PC for Steam. Which becomes a chore since you need to deactivate and activate them everytime you launch and close the game unless you're fine with playing every game you own on steam with 4 cores.

Another technical issue arises when you, and I am being serious, try to move your mouse. The game has an interesting relationship with modern mice. Which I had no idea were different from older mice until this game revealed it to me. Your mouse will stutter and lag in a way that will ruin the gameplay completely.

Truly one of the games of all time.

But under all of those problems and the random crashes which goes without mentioning, what awaits us?
An edgy 2000's power fantasy of a gem. 7/10 for today's standarts, disregarding limitations of its time such as the graphics.

A Thrilling Power Fantasy!
Prototype is a game that embraces the chaos and delivers an unforgettable power trip.
From the moment you step into Alex Mercer’s shoes, you’re given the kind of raw, unbridled power that makes every moment exhilarating.
The game’s standout feature is Alex’s incredible shape-shifting abilities.
Whether you’re tearing through waves of enemies with razor-sharp claws, smashing vehicles with brute strength, or consuming foes to gain their memories and appearance, Prototype offers an endless array of ways to wreak havoc.
The fluidity of these powers makes combat and traversal an absolute joy.
Speaking of traversal, few games nail the feeling of movement like Prototype!
Sprinting up skyscrapers, gliding across rooftops, and leaping through the air gives you a thrilling sense of freedom.
The game’s version of Manhattan is the perfect playground for your powers, teeming with enemies, challenges, and opportunities for destruction.
The story adds an intriguing layer to the chaos.
Alex’s quest for answers about his past and the virus that has transformed him is engaging, and the dark, gritty tone complements the gameplay perfectly.
While the narrative doesn’t delve too deeply into character development, it keeps the momentum going and provides a solid backdrop for the mayhem.
What makes Prototype truly special is its unapologetic embrace of fun!
It’s a game that rewards experimentation and creativity, letting you approach combat and missions in countless ways.
Sure, it has its rough edges, but they’re easily overshadowed by the sheer enjoyment of tearing through the city as a super-powered force of nature!
If you’re looking for a game that lets you unleash your inner antihero, Prototype is a must-play.
It’s a thrilling, over-the-top adventure that leaves you feeling unstoppable!

Just a forewarning this game requires a nexus mod fix to work. And also the audio is way too low, so I have to turn my audio levels to close to max and risk blowing out my ears if I forget to turn it back down. Half way through the game a mission takes away your abilities. Also it forces you to buy certain abilities I do not want or use and make the parkour way too floaty. At certain points you just have absolutely no time to do anything, youre constantly avoiding hunters, infected, army, helicopters, etc so much that you cant heal, attack, use devastator or anything, just run and hope you can get lucky to guerilla warfare it little by little. The Emily Greene fight is a clear indicator this game was NOT playtested for balance and a prime example of what I mean, took me so long of running around, avoiding hunters, hopefully absorb more energy and maybe get a devastator attack in just to rinse and repeat. And the last boss is annoying a.f. and restricts how you can play to "just use muscle mass" not to mention the instakill move, the bug not letting my pull out weapons while in armor, and the stupid countdown with no one around to consume for health. Bosses arent challenging in a way that was engaging or fun, more so boring and annoying. And for those reasons I have to thumbs it down since there is no neutral recommendation option which is what Id really rate it.

But there are reasons I keep playing and do enjoy it obviously or I wouldnt have completed it or roam around from time to time in free mode; movement, audio design, lighting and world map all hold up really well. Ive avoided upgrading my jump or dash more than necessary so the parkour is more realistic, making the timining and choosing a short or charged jump way more interesting, which makes barely making rooftop jump to jump is way more intense during a chase. And the abilities are all really cool and change how you play. And I really like the slow decay of the city as the story progresses. I am one of the few who liked saints row 4 and this game MUST have been such a inspiration to the development of that game with how many similarities there are, but theres also enough differences to make it a new experience.

All in all its a good game with some glaring flaws and bugs, but I do think its worth playing through it albeit sometimes frustrating to continue.

A hearty, thrilling, unrestrained feast of blood-soaked carnage

9/10

Opening

In 2009, Activision's landmark game Prototype was released. It attracted countless players with its brilliant, creative, and playable game design, delightful and hearty combat experience, fragmented yet complete closed loop, and deep yet reversed plot. The protagonist Alex Mercer's hooded sweatshirt outfit and charming personality of being cold on the outside but warm on the inside have become a classic image in game history, too. This work has deeply influenced classic open-world action game IPs such as The Amazing Spider-Man(Video Game) series, Marvel's Spiderman series, and Batman: Arkham series regarding combat and map design. Even today, it is still a considerable outstanding game. Regrettably, due to compatibility, optimization, adaptation, and other reasons, it is very difficult to experience this 2009 work smoothly on the modern Windows operating system. The game also has problems such as uneven operation, low volume, and rough modeling that extremely damage the player's gaming experience.

Strength

The story of the game takes place in Manhattan, New York. After an unknown virus breaks out, the player needs to play the role of Alex Mercer, an anti-hero who was infected and resurrected constantly exploring his lost memories and his duty in this infection. The game's movie-level camera movements and performance effects in the cutscenes are still considerably acceptable even today. Through the highly immersive game system known as the " Web of Intrigue", players can gradually understand this closed-loop, deep, reversal, and charming game world through fragmented memory flashbacks. As the plot progresses, the world of Prototype will undergo corresponding changes, creating a strong sense of immersion. In addition, the player's interactions with the scene are rich in realistic details, such as the broken glass marks when running on the building, the different operations when falling will affect the character's landing action, etc. As a game released in 2009, Prototype also has a certain degree of scene destruction effect, which is truly excellent.

The player's combat abilities in the game are quite diverse, the character's body movements and actions are extremely agile and swift too, giving the player an excellent and smooth map-running experience. In addition to being able to devour and transform into others to disguise oneself, or using blades, claws, hammerfists, musclemass, whipfist, and other biomass abilities unique to the infected to fight, players can also drive tanks and planes like in military games, use rifles, grenade launchers and rocket launchers to assist in combat; since the restrictions on ammunition are relatively loose, players can enjoy the pleasure of venting firepower.

Compared to the Grand Theft Auto series, which also offers a high degree of freedom but constrains players' actions to a certain extent, the moral constraints and punishments for evil deeds in Prototype are almost non-existent. In this crazy world where every battle in the middle and late stages is extremely grand, dazzling, and multi-party melee, players can act recklessly, trample on life and human rights at will, and experience the pleasure of being able to do anything. The powerful and striking character movements combined with the game's blood-splattering effects and rich details of severed limbs bring players a hearty and refreshing violent aesthetic experience. The difficulty of most of the game's mission and challenges is also extremely balanced, to serve the core purpose of "making players feel refreshed". When switching locked enemies, the game will slow down like bullet time. Using this mechanism, players can easily pass through some more chaotic and time-limited scenes.

Weakness

It is extremely difficult to experience the 2009 Prototype smoothly on a modern Windows operating system nowadays. Whether it is the frame rate performance, optimization, filters, or volume, the game has serious problems. Without various player-made patches and software assistance, it is even impossible to play normally. Even so, the optimized game still has certain unsolved problems with volume, operation, and viewing smoothness. The main storyline of the game is quite short, and side quests like challenges occupy most of the game content. In addition, the cost of upgrading in the game is quite expensive, so if you don't complete these challenges, you will not be able to experience the full capabilities of the character due to insufficient evolution points. Although the game's overall worldview and plot are excellent, the main story is extremely poor and sloppy in many character building and detail processing. The lack of foreshadowing and the overly fast pace of the plot can easily cause players to miss key details and fail to keep up with them or even have misunderstandings.

Whether it is the main story mission or the challenge, the game does not have the option to restart or quit midway. You can only choose it when the mission fails or the player dies, such a design is quite inhumane. There is also friendly fire between enemies, players can even cause damage to some mission targets. The health of ordinary enemies and civilians is generally low, any contact with the player could result in their death, which is a bit too exaggerated. There is always an indescribable strange distortion in the volume, other problems such as extremely rough character and scene modeling, slightly stiff character movements, weird enemy locking logic, and the lack of smooth character operation feel and camera movement smoothness also have a serious impact on the player's gaming experience.

Conclusion

As a game released in 2009, Prototype inevitably has a variety of problems in terms of image quality, optimization, operation, and even plot narrative. The problems of the main storyline being too short and the challenge occupying the vast majority of the content mean that only those players who extremely enjoy the game's combat design can have enough fun. Still, simply relying on its outstanding combat, map design, and worldview building, as long as you can accept its shortcomings, Prototype is definitely a work that any video game enthusiast cannot miss. Even if it takes a while to experience this 2009 work, you will eventually find that the quality of the game is worth it.

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Crashes on start, nothing works. Even after trying out several fixing guides I can't bring it to work beyond the main menu.

I was actually looking forward to play that game, but it's unplayable here.

Fix the damn issues, a lot of people have the same problem and it's insane to sell something completely unplayable.

Best game. I really wanted to play Nidus in Warframe but didn't because I don't like multiplayer games. Prototype has almost everything that Warframe has with Nidus and more. My only wish with Prototype is that there could be some infested guns we could generate. Combat and exploration in Prototype is amazing. Glyding and dashing is so much fun to get around the map. this game is 9.5/10

good game but require tweaking

step 1 : go to task manager
step 2 : details use 4 cores like from 0 to 3
step 3 : well done you can play the game after loading you can reset it to all cores

Payed 5 bucks for the game and now testing community fixes because the devs forgot to actually finish it. It should not be sold in this state

super villain simulator, wherein you crush, crash, smash, slice and otherwise destroy everything before you, with a littany of powers at your disposal. very fun, ran great for me, and my laptop is a POTATO doing its best. highly recommend if you like power fantasies with EDGE

A unique and fun gameplay, still holds up. There is not much about the story that keeps you up. But the gameplay is very simple and mostly fun. It's interesting going around and exploring the city. Consuming enemies and taking their appearance is a fun design. Open world is overall good but it suffers from same problem like other open world games, the impact onto world is short lived. Next mission, it's like nothing happened, you just took down a building and next loading it's there, good as new, like nothing happened.

The game still has its share of problems, you gotta use a mod which will make game playable on modern system.
Boss fights are biggest let down, frustrating. The aimbot accurate enemies is not fun. Plus you getting stun locked by stronger enemies and you can't do anything to escape is a just ridiculous design. Running up the building is buggy on more complex building.

I loved playing this game back when it first game out on the Playstation 3. I played it for hours upon hours for many months before moving onto the next video game. Recently, I felt nostalgic and decided to revisit this game here on Steam. Unfortunately, the game is unplayable on modern systems and such has been the case for a few years now, however, there is a silver lining! Several months ago, someone published a mod on NexusMods that fixes all of the issues this game has including its crashing and optimization issues. I haven't sunken a ton of hours into the game with this mod installed, but so far, I've been able to play the game normally with no crashes. It's just as fun as I remember it (even though it does show its age a bit), but ultimately it achieves what I'm looking for in an amped up destruction simulator.

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME UNLESS YOU WANT TO DEAL WITH COUNTLESS, ENDLESS ISSUES

Game is not compatible with most modern PCs. Company no longer exists and it is no longer supported. If you do manage to get it working, expect the worst anyway

No other game gives the same euphoric power fantasy like this game. Played it as a child, and it's even more of a blast as an adult. Difficulty spikes can be frustrating but nothing that can't be overcome. Only downside is the very specific requirements for this game to run on this port, but if you have an older system, this game's a must have

I had to modify the game and use third party software for it to fix some bugs and the resolution, the controls are weird, the stealth here is pathetic and unnecessary and the game can be repetitive sometimes but it's pretty solid. 7/10

Will I ever get over it, that other games do not have the gliding feature as part of moving? I think not. In this great game, the player explores the reason for the protagonist's infection by a virus, which threatens the whole city of New York. Different kids of enemies, nice boss fights, great selection of weapons and skills (which have to be purchased) and well made cutscenes that explain the story - that is what you can expect from this game. But attention: In order to get it to work on windows 11, it needs some patching! I did mine with a patch, that i found in nexusmods - after that it worked like a charm. Only twice small problems arose after that. A great game for fans of classic games with quite a unique story and a lot of slashing (at least in my gameplay).

Like its successor, Prototype 1's PC port is just as unplayable, requiring you to download external resolution fixes and change Steam affinity every time you launch the game just for you to get to the main menu. And with controls and movements so janky it'd make old mobile shooter games with tilt controls blush, you'd wonder if they purposely made it like that to ward off any poor unsuspecting player that may be interested in playing/revisiting the game.

Everything P1 does (with the exception being its upgrade system and the upgrades themselves) from its story, voice acting, combat (literally 90% of P1's combat involves spamming the whipfist and using a tank to get past missions), difficulty, and side content, P2 does better. So how come the vast majority of P1 fans claim P2 to be an inferior game?

The same exact reason this game gets a positive review: the edgelord of gaming, Alex motherfuckin' Mercer. He's just way too iconic that it'd be wrong to give this game a thumbs down. Even as an 8 y/o playing the second game, I knew how badass he was. I quickly soon found out that you get to play Alex in P1, but they weren't selling copies in stores anymore, so I was stuck playing as Sergeant Lames Heller, who did NOT have a hoodie and an iconic back pattern on his jacket. But being real here, P1 does deliver its promise in making you feel like an unstoppable being (Mostly in free roam, that is apart from the time you're forced to use a tank/spam whipfist to progress), making it a very fun game, just not as fun/repayable as the 2nd game.