Since 2009, the InFamous series from Sucker Punch has offered Playstation gamers a chance to romp through a city as a superpowered hero or villain. The series boasts one of the most well-rounded ‘karma’ features of a modern game, allowing the protagonists to become a paragon of virtue, a walking devil, or something in between, and is not simply limited by A-or-B-type choices like most games. InFamous: Second Son, the latest in the InFamous series, takes the game in a slightly different direction and puts the PS4 through its paces.

InFamous: Second Son puts players in the shoes of Delsin Rowe, a delinquent troublemaker in a tightly knit Indian village. His brother, Reggie, is the exact opposite, a cop with a firm stance on justice. Before you take control, though, the game gives you a bit of background in case the first two games passed you by. During the first game, a freak accident granted superpowers to certain humans, turning them into ‘conduits.’ These conduits could become extremely powerful, but were then largely wiped off the face of the Earth years later.

Now, the conduit gene has reemerged and is being contained by the Department of Unified Protection, or D.U.P. The D.U.P. is transporting conduits on a prison bus when something goes wrong and the bus crashes near Delsin and Reggie’s village. Hank, one of the prisoners, breaks free and gets in a confrontation with the brothers, transferring his powers of smoke into Delsin, revealing him to be a carrier of the conduit gene. Delsin uses his new powers to chase Hank until the pair are stopped by the D.U.P. And their leader, Brooke Augustine. After Augustine further assaults Delsin’s home, Delsin makes it his goal to use his new powers to topple Augustine’s rule.

Second Son takes place in a copy of Seattle, set in 2018. Visually, the game is beautiful. Climbing or flying around the many apartment buildings, parks, and skyscrapers offers a flowing gameplay experience, but the combat controls are a little stiff at times. Furthermore, Delsin’s powers are drained with every use of power, so it’s possible to run out of ‘juice’ during a fight if he doesn’t stay charged up. The game feels much harder than the previous installments, with increasingly challenging enemies as you advance in your quest for revenge.

Delsin’s powers are certainly not as cliché as the lightning power Cole possessed from the previous games. Delsin gains a variety of unique powers from the world around him, such as smoke and neon, from coming into contact with other conduits. The powers are all beautiful, and each have their own strengths and weaknesses.

One of the most important parts of the game, however, is the karma system. Delsin can either be a true hero or villain such as in the first two (as usual, being a hero is the canon choice in each game), but the feeling of choice is a little blurred at times. The difference between good and bad choices is certainly apparent, but either way it’s obvious that Delsin is only thinking of himself at times either way. Still, both endings are very worth playing the game twice to get, and both are well thought-out and shocking in their own ways.

Infamous: Second Son is a new game in the InFamous series that tackles the superpower dream in new ways. From zipping around skyscrapers to hurling neon at enemies and everything in between, InFamous: Second Son offers a great open-world game for the PS4 that is sure to entertain while telling a gripping and powerful story.