You can lose contact with the story in all the killing fun, but at any time you can simply drop into your safe house or advance point, and after a short cut scene, advance the story in continually interesting dramatic plot developments. As you progress through the story you will see the city slowly come under the grip of this mysterious biological weapon. Buildings will change. More and more of the city will be filled with mutant enemies destroying the once civilized city streets.

Alex is being chased by the military, while fighting off the horrible infected monsters decimating the local population. The military is also fighting the breakout, and will continue to do so throughout the city even when Alex is no where around. You may be gliding through the air when, in the distance, you will see a skirmish between the military and a building overrun but the red vines, and pulsating sacs of the infected hives.

Side missions scattered around give you experience points that you can use to purchase more abilities. Buying new abilities with experience points might sound a little corny, but it is handled rather elegantly. The balance between difficulty level and new abilities pair up so perfectly it feels almost natural. The side missions themselves are sometimes attached to the story slightly, such as missions in which you infiltrate a military base or destroy a hive before time expires ( reasons are given for the time limit, but it's your basic race the clock missions ). However there are other missions that have little to do with anything. They exist simply to hone your abilities. It is just a little odd to me to think that Alex puts his entire quest on hold just to see how close he can glide down to a certain point on the street below. I wonder if little 'ability developer' missions could have been made into missions that fit with the rest of the game a bit better if only some more effort was put into the creation process.

You may feel the urge to use a certain attack that has proven effective for you repeatedly. To discourage this, certain attacks become ineffective or less damaging on certain enemies, forcing you to improvise in your attacks. If you are still having troubles a nearby tank can easily be hijacked and used for high damage attacks on some of the tougher enemies.

As you traverse the skyscrapers and city streets you will come across highlighted characters who have some association to Alex, and knowledge of his situation. Devouring these characters allows the individuals mind to merge with Alex showing flashes of his victims history and how it ties in to the games story. Thankfully these cut scenes can be skipped, as can all cut scenes in the game. I still don't know why this is not an option in every game. The more people of interest you devour the more the web of intrigue fills up and the more clear things become for Alex and the run of events that led to the point he now finds himself at.

Exploring the city is encouraged by adding glowing orbs at select locations in the city. Collecting these gives you hints, or experience points. You can also come across side missions by exploring. I highly suggest this. By gaining experience points you can quickly develop your skills and keep up with the difficulty curve in the story missions.

The entirety of Manhattan is open the entire game, so there is little expansion on the world. However with it's sheer size and slow destruction as the infection spreads the scenery doesn't get too drab. My only quip is that many buildings look too similar. Although this is what a city looks like when you really think about it, sameness of each building can make it feel like all areas are alike.

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