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Be a hero or villain in the supercharged ‘inFAMOUS’

What would you do if you suddenly developed superhuman powers in a post-apocalyptic world? Heal the sick and protect the innocent? Or use your new powers to destroy everyone and everything in your path?

You can decide in “inFAMOUS,” an extraordinary Sony PlayStation 3 exclusive that puts you in the shoes of Cole MacGrath, a bike courier who is transformed by a mysterious explosion. After you come out of a coma and find the quarantined Empire City overrun by gangs, you must test your new electricity-based powers and then choose whether you want to be revered by what’s left of the public or be hated by them.

You’ll “level up” over the course of this third-person adventure, and work your way to become a benevolent Hero (wielding blue-tinted attacks, such as shock waves and lightning bolts) or the pale-faced Infamous (packing red burst attacks). You can apply experience points to earn new powers and buy other upgrades for your character, as well as make key decisions during more than a dozen pivotal “karma moments” and live with the consequences of your actions.

Similar to with the open-ended sandbox play in games such as the “Grand Theft Auto” series, you can spend a lot of time roaming around three islands that make up Empire City — whether you want to take on the more than 100 missions or just run around and explore. Assuming you do want to work your way through the single-player campaign at some point, main goals include restoring the city’s power, taking down enemies and unraveling the cause of the blast that started this mess.

The game is also quite vertical, allowing you to climb up almost anything in the city to complete missions and reach “points of interest” and other objectives. You can also walk across wires, beams and poles with ease, and the more powerful Cole gets, the more agile he becomes, and the more damaging his electricity-based powers become.

“InFAMOUS” is also a great-looking game with high production values. The high-definition and destructible environments, smoothly animated characters, impressive lighting effects and graphic novel-style story sequences all help to create an extraordinary fictitious world.

PlayStation 3 gamers won’t be disappointed with this supercharged adventure.