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inFamous 2 casts you as a superpowered twentysomething in a crumbling N’awlins-esque dystopia. But the game isn’t just about battling southern-fried mutants and militias, it’s also about morality. The decisions you make—which faction to assist, whether to help or harm a given person—boost your powers for either good or evil.

Games that track your karma as well as your kill count aren’t new: Fable, Mass Effect, and the original inFamous have all gauged moral balance. But developers are getting better at making the villain’s path as compelling as the more familiar hero’s journey, all while keeping the wickedness more appealing than appalling. (The previous inFamous was rated T, for teen—acceptable for 13-year-olds—and that’s the target for the sequel as well.)

The developers at Sucker Punch learned some hard lessons from the first inFamous. “People thought the choices were too clear,” says Brian Fleming, producer of the sequel. “Do you want to murder a baby or not? Do you want to sacrifice yourself to save the life of an ant?” In the new game, the choices are more subtle: Do you want to bring along a loose-cannon sidekick who’s handy in battle but more likely to inflict collateral damage? “It’s like choosing which friend to give your other concert ticket to,” Fleming says.

The developers also grappled with how to make evil rewarding (literally). Many games create incentives for constructive acts: Save a village and receive experience points. Why not dole out a dark equivalent for destructive acts? Hurl a grenade into a crowd and win points that unlock new powers. Keep boosting your evilness quotient and you sprout badass tattoos; law-abiding citizens flee when you approach. “It makes the game more scary—and more fun,” Fleming says.

The best thing about karma games is the replay value. You can spend 30 hours going through inFamous 2 in a satanic frenzy and then retrace your steps as a saint for a totally different experience. There are often multiple ways to solve problems. For instance, one mission can be completed either by freeing some imprisoned cops to help you or by commandeering a streetcar, loading it with explosives, and using it to carry out a spectacular and indiscriminate attack. Hmm, so hard to choose …

Courtesy of Sony