The plot itself is a predictable tale of government conspiracies and double-crosses, but it doesn’t seem to affect the game nearly as much as it should. Manhattan gets its own outbreak of the mutation and has areas infested with carnivorous beasts that are ripping passerby, yet three blocks away people are casually strolling about. Picking a civilian up by his collar will make a military APC begin shooting at you with high-caliber rounds, yet you can leap off of a twenty story building and land cracking the pavement in front of that same APC and it won’t bat an eyelash. It’s the inconsistencies such as these that tear down the believability of the environment, and makes the sandbox seem much less dynamic than a city undergoing a massive viral outbreak rightfully should.

The thing is—it’s easy to overlook such inconsistencies as you will often be too busy gleefully tearing apart whole battalions of enemies to care. Prototype is at its best when it lets you just rip into missions using whatever approach you see fit, which is thankfully most of the time. Whether you leap into the middle of a base and begin throwing helicopters around or hijack an APC and begin blasting from the perimeter, the game doesn’t discriminate when it comes to letting you do what you want. Ultimately that level of freedom is Prototype’s biggest trait, tossing out any preconceptions of right and wrong and letting you tackle a Manhattan in turmoil as you see fit.

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