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Every Prototype game, ranked

All 2 Prototype games we hold, spanning 2009 to 2012: 2 ranked by the GamingPickz Score and plotted below, the rest listed in release order so nothing in the series is missing. Together they carry 30,002 Steam reviews.

Where to start

  • For the best-reviewed: Prototype (GamingPickz Score 7.1), the highest-rated entry we can score.

The Prototype games on the grid

Compare the whole catalogue

The same 2 games, plotted rather than listed. The two axes below are the ones the ranking is built from, so a game sitting high and right is a game the formula placed near the top. Change either axis to see the field a different way. Where we hold a publisher wordmark, the game is drawn as its mark rather than a dot.

2 games have both

75874861PlayersPopularityPrototypePrototype 2

Axes are fitted to these 2 games rather than the full 0 to 100 scale, because a filtered list shares a narrow band and would otherwise sit in one corner. End values are marked. A point on the left edge is the lowest of thesegames, not a low score.

Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.

Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.

  • Multi-platform
  • PC

Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.

How positions are decided

No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
  • Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
  • Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
  • No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
  • A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
  • Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.

2 best Prototype games, ranked

Ordered by GamingPickz Score. Every figure links back to the source that produced it.

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  1. 1

    Prototype

    Best for: A consistently well-received pick in this category

    7.1GamingPickz Scorehigh confidence
    Prototype at a glance
    Released2009StudioRadical Entertainment
    Player sentiment80% positive of 14,163Critics79/100
    Price$19.99Steam Deckplayable
    Install sizeNot statedAccessibility0 declared features

    Raw 80% shrinks to 80.1 on 14,163 reviews, then blends with the 79 critic aggregate, giving 7.1.

    Worth checking first
    • Flagged for mature content on its store page.

    PCPlayStation 3PlayStation 4Xbox 360Xbox OneSteam Deck

    Full entryGames like thisStore page

  2. 2

    Prototype 2

    Best for: A consistently well-received pick in this category

    6.9GamingPickz Scorehigh confidence
    Prototype 2 at a glance
    Released2012StudioRadical Entertainment
    Player sentiment77% positive of 15,839Critics76/100
    Price$39.99Steam Deckunknown
    Install sizeNot statedAccessibility0 declared features

    Raw 77% shrinks to 77.2 on 15,839 reviews, then blends with the 76 critic aggregate, giving 6.9.

    Worth checking first
    • Flagged for mature content on its store page.

    PC

    Full entryGames like thisStore page

Best and worst entry

The best-received Prototype game we can score is Prototype at 7.1. The lowest is Prototype 2 at 6.9, a 0.2-point spread across the series. The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.

Cheapest way in, and best value

  • Cheapest right now: Prototype at $19.99. Prices are read live from Steam and move.
  • Best value: Prototype, the most GamingPickz Score per dollar in the series at its current price.

On a Steam Deck

Valve's own Deck compatibility rating for the Prototype entries on Steam:

  • Playable: Prototype

Platforms across the series

Where the 2 Prototype games have landed, counting every entry we hold:

Platform familyEntries
PC2 of 2
PlayStation1 of 2
Xbox1 of 2

The Prototype series, game by game

Every Prototype game we hold, in release order. Each description is the game's own, from Steam where it has a listing and Wikipedia for the older entries, never ours.

  1. 2009

    Radical Entertainment · pc, ps3, ps4, xbox-360

    You are the Prototype, Alex Mercer, a man without memory armed with amazing shape-shifting abilities, hunting your way to the heart of the conspiracy which created you; making those responsible pay. Fast & Deadly Shape-Shifting Combat: Reconfigure your body to the situation at hand. (Steam)

    ActionOpen WorldGoreThird Person

  2. 2012

    Radical Entertainment · pc

    Become the ultimate shape-shifting weapon! (Steam)

    ActionOpen WorldGoreSuperhero

    Plot

    The story of Prototype 2 begins in 2009, one year after the events of the first game, when U. S. Marine Sergeant James Heller, returning from a tour in Iraq , discovers his wife and daughter to be declared dead, causing him to rejoin the military in the fight for NYZ against the Blacklight virus. (Wikipedia)

    Reception

    Reception Pre-release Out of all Activision's titles displayed at Comic Con, Prototype 2 was the most well received. Greg Miller of IGN awarded Prototype 2 as Activision's best game at Comic Con and did not mention anything negative in his preview for the game. Release Prototype 2 received "generally favorable reviews" on all platforms except the Xbox 360 version, which received "average" reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic . (Wikipedia)

Prototype, head to head

Two entries side by side on score, price, specs and reception:

Prototype vs other series

How Prototype stacks up against other series in the same genre, as a whole:

Common questions

How many Prototype games are there?

We hold 2 Prototype games in the catalogue, released between 2009 and 2012. 2 of them carry enough Steam data to rank; the rest are listed in release order below, including console-only entries with no Steam listing.

Which Prototype game is best?

By the GamingPickz Score, Prototype rates highest at 7.1. That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, computed the same way for every game, not our opinion. The full ranking is above.

What order should I play the Prototype games in?

Release order is listed below, from 2009 to 2012. For most series that is also story order, but we list dates rather than telling you a canon; the timeline is read from Wikidata.

More franchises

Browse every game franchise ranked the same way, or head to the full grid.