In this more gritty and realistic take on superheros, you play as Cole McGrath, a bike messenger who opened a package containing a device called the Ray Sphere that gave him lightning superpowers, however the sphere blew up and destroyed one of the districts in Empire City, and the whole city is put on lockdown with criminals rising up and taking over

You decide whether Cole becomes the savior they need, or the villain they frame you as

The most notable gameplay feature is the karma system, certain actions you do throughout the story will give you good or bad karma, which affects your powers by having different upgrades and effects for both paths

This gritty power fantasy allows players to run wild with their powers and experience what its like for an average joe to be superpowered

Side content is plenty too, although myself I found most of it a bit boring to do, you can find crystals called blast shards located around the world to increase your energy, missions that when completed will make its area safe and enemies can't return, or missions exclusive to good and evil paths

Overall, a pretty unique take on superheroes in the form of a power fantasy where you choose to the path of good or evil and a pretty decent if not good story for an original game inspired by comic book characters

However there are a few issues I had with the game overall, notably that the story seems over the place at times and rushing certain events in a effort to keep the flow going, while the game doesn't lack in challenge, enemies aren't designed the best as you can't walk 5 feet without getting shot at by some random enemy on a rooftop, you can be one shotted without warning and you might find yourself hiding behind cover alot to fire back with lightning most of the time since it can be risky just rushing in

Despite these flaws however, I cannot recommend this game enough if you have the ability to play, a game and its sequels that have been sadly overlooked by its parent company today

A good start to an iconic series.. its definitely aged in some areas with lack of strafing and such compared to its sequels
Having played the reboot and A Crack in Time first, it shows

However, the writing and humor is good, such as the titular duos growing friendship throughout the game and many funny lines

The soundtrack and atmosphere is quite good and seems unmatched in future games

All in all, a classic PS2 platformer that is very much worth playing even today