How many games offer us to play as a main character with supernatural psychic abilities?? In my memory there were only two such games. Oddly enough, the unusual game mechanics using telekinesis, telepathy and other extraordinary abilities acquired only two representatives. The first such game was “Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy”. It was followed by another game called “Second Sight”. To say that they are similar is to say nothing. Both games were well received. The first one is better than the second one, to be more precise. Both games received awards: one was praised for its game mechanics, the other for its writing. And even their fates turned out the same. Both games were ultimately neglected and forgotten over time. “Second Sight” is worth remembering, at least, because we only have two games like it, which means this is a good reason to tell you in detail about it in my review.
“Second Sight” was made by developers from the Free Radical Design studio. In the past, they were known for the once critically acclaimed, now forgotten, action first-person shooter game trilogy called Timesplitters. In particular, its third part, “TimeSplitters: Future Perfect,” according to those who played it, was simply brilliant, as was the bald head of its protagonist, who looked like Vin Diesel. “Second Sight” only connects with that game that the main character here is also bald, but he uses mental rather than physical strength against his enemies. Here the development team focused not on shooting, but on silent passage and solving puzzles. The authors themselves proudly called it an intense psychological thriller. Let’s find out if they succeeded and why you should pay attention to it.
To begin with, let’s immediately deal with this moment. Comparisons with “Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy” cannot be avoided. Second Sight has similar game mechanics based on the main character’s psionic abilities. Their plot is also somewhat similar. Both from the PS 2 console and both came out around the same time. I don’t want the whole article to be a comparison of these two games and I’ll make it simpler. I’ll say right away – Psi Ops is better. And period. “Second Sight” does everything that concerns the physics of objects and gameplay elements either differently or simply worse. Therefore, do not look for mentions of the first in the text, with the exception of this and the last paragraph.
"Second Sight" game is different. Here the player is almost always placed within strict limits, leaving no chance for improvisation. If it says that a particular segment of a level needs to be completed quietly, then this is the only way you will complete it. You don’t have any alternative paths or other methods. Caused a commotion in enemy territory? Enemies will be sent down on you, and they, in turn, will spawn even more on the radio, and this will continue for an eternity until you find yourself a quiet corner and start playing by the rules. Even though the local guards and soldiers do not shine with intelligence and intelligence, you still have to move with your knees bent. Sometimes they lose track of you, even if you just walked around the corner in the hallway right in front of them. But when ten or more people come running to hear the alarm, you will have no choice but to start the previous save.
On the other hand, there should be no problems with passing quietly. The main character has a special ability – to convince opponents that he is not there and become invisible to them. Of course, you can only use it for a certain time, until the psi energy scale runs out. As a rule, it’s not difficult to run past the guard’s nose, and then sit behind cover and wait until the scale is restored for the next run. This is exactly my problem with the game. The point is not that stealth is being forced on me, but that stealth itself is not particularly interesting. To be honest, playing quietly most of the time is quite simple and monotonous.
However, there are some nuances https://betyonercasino.co.uk/withdrawal/ here. CCTV cameras are placed at the levels and for them the main character is always where he is. It’s not difficult to break equipment. For example, you can literally ruin them with three shots from a non-lethal weapon like a tranquilizer. If the level has a camera control panel, you can disable it. But that’s not all. Sometimes you will still get caught by cameras, because level designers are very clever in placing them in locations. They are often located where you would not expect them at all. But in my opinion, even this doesn’t make stealth fun. It’s not difficult to see where the cameras are. You just need to be careful and look around.
When it comes to gunplay, you quickly realize that the keyboard and mouse are bad allies in a third-person console game. Here, however, those who ported the game to PC are also to blame. Shooting is carried out using an auto-aim, but aiming the target at the enemy requires some unimaginable effort. It’s hard to explain in words, but it’s as if she’s tightly stuck a few millimeters away from him. But if getting used to it is not so difficult, then the camera here is a complete mockery. Sometimes. When you just follow your own level, don’t bother anyone, and no one bothers you, then everything is fine. As soon as you stick to the wall and start playing as a spy infiltrating enemy territory, the camera will constantly start getting stuck in the most inconvenient angles. Sometimes it gets stuck right above the bald top of the main character’s head, hidden behind a box, and refuses to move, no matter how hard you twist the mouse. At times like these, it’s hard to see the guards moving from side to side patrolling the hallways, and you can’t know when to come out of hiding to avoid being seen.
The puzzles in the game are mainly tied to the use of another ability of the main character – creating a projection. Having separated the astral form from the physical one, the main character has a hologram with which he can pass through laser beams or inhabit an enemy. It won’t be difficult to figure out where and how to use this ability. The puzzles themselves are also very simple. They are obvious and, as a rule, these are actions such as turning on a button on a computer panel or moving a lever in the desired direction.
Since the game does not have first aid kits or regeneration, the authors came up with a healing ability that can be used to replenish the health of the main character and his partners. This is similar to the usual recovery of lives behind cover in shooters with one “but”. The player cannot heal himself and move at the same time, that is, using the ability during a particularly intense battle will not work.
“They ask the doll to dance, the doll climbs under the bed. All play – she lies down, All lies down – she runs. Oh, we suffered with her. Everything is not the same as with people. What kind of upbringing! Just a punishment!»
Excerpt from the poem “Naughty Doll” (author Valentin Berestov).
The supernatural ability of telekinesis brings the review to the topic of physics. In their game, the developers used the physics of a Ragdoll rag doll, but they failed to “educate” it properly. The behavior of the “dummy” bodies, objects and everything that we can interact with on the levels leaves much to be desired. The limbs of enemy corpses get stuck in textures, barrels timidly jump to the side, even if the player barely touches them while passing by. And it doesn’t matter whether you lift a person or a box into the air with telekinesis, they always feel the same. Also, when a player throws, say, one opponent into a crowd of other opponents, they do not react to it at all. However, in very rare cases this works. The physics in the game is like that naughty doll from the poem. Sometimes it works as it should, but the rest of the time it’s capricious. True, it is worth saying that the game almost does not use the physics of objects in the gameplay in any particularly important and meaningful way. The same telekinesis is mainly needed only to scatter enemies like dolls in your path and very rarely anywhere else in the game.
The remaining two psi abilities, psi impulse and psi blast, are essentially the same thing and will only be needed at two points in the game.
The main motivator to complete the game to the end is the local plot. It’s surprisingly engaging, not cheesy, and keeps you interested until the end. Honestly, at first I wanted to quit the game. It starts out like a typical story, the kind that has happened a million times. A hackneyed cliché. See for yourself. The main character named John Wattick wakes up in a laboratory where scientists experimented on him. He has amnesia and doesn’t remember who he is or why he was here. Our protagonist runs from his room in a cold sweat in search of answers to his questions. It turns out that he was framed by some mysterious villain, and now he is on the run, alone against the whole world. Frankly speaking, the introduction to the game is very sluggish and unremarkable. But as soon as the main character leaves the laboratory premises and goes to save his girlfriend from the past, who is being held by force in a gloomy psychiatric hospital, the plot presses the gas pedal to the floor! Intrigue appears, and with it the high dynamics of what is happening. The narrative rushes between past and present, throwing us either into a winter village somewhere in Russia, or into the gangster slums of Queens in New York. The gameplay alternates quiet passage with shootouts, fights and chases. All this really resembles a good exciting thriller with interesting characters and skillfully written dialogues. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the storyline and the twist towards the end of the game. However, don’t count on an incredibly outstanding story. The game has a good story, yes, but don’t expect anything too extraordinary from it.
It can be seen that all the efforts of the Free Radical Design studio were thrown into the development of “TimeSplitters: Future Perfect”, so “Second Sight” was carried out by a small part of this team. This is of course just my guess. This would explain some of the not-so-good game design decisions of its less experienced authors and the overall short length of the game. But, despite all my complaints about it and several of its significant shortcomings, the game still has more positive aspects than negative ones. From the text you might think that I’m being too picky, but I’m not. Actually I liked her. If you like story in games, then play “Second Sight”. If you prefer game mechanics, play Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy. If you like both, then play both. "Second Sight" is much better than it might seem at first glance (maybe, in a sense, that’s why the game is called that?), and well deserves the title of "Hidden Gem". This is a good but overlooked game.