Thursday, July 01, 2004
Psi Ops 2 - This Time It's Good
Right now I am knee deep in the overlooked yet amazing Beyond Good and Evil. To use a common phrase amount the internet message board crowd, it plays like Star Fox Adventures without the suck. As I am not even halfway through with the game I will save my in-depth feelings about this title until later on.
As much fun as I am having with BG&E, my mind is still slipping back to the amazing play mechanics found in Psi Ops. It’s weird, I did nothing but complain about the game, both during and after playing through it. But the power to control objects with your mind has been haunting me every waking hour since I first placed the CD in my PlayStation. I was at Nick’s house a few days ago and needed to look through the instruction booklet to see if Rainbow 6 is multiplayer on one console (it isn’t). Instead of getting up and retrieving said manual I actually tried, if for only a second, to bring forth the manual with the power of my mind. Of all the video game powers I have seen recently, this power appeals to me more than any other. Well, I guess I would choose to be a wizard if I could, but next up would be Psi Powers – and when it comes right down to it they really aren’t that different.
Anyway, Midway completely blew their amazing concept with a below average game. I’ve chronicled why the game is weak here in detail, over the course of two separate columns, but I still can’t get the idea that I really missed out on an amazing play experience because a lazy developer rushed out an incomplete game. So now, as the bitter memories of bad game design leave me and the remembrance of slamming a poor sap into a wall and watching his body burst, my mind wanders to a game that can, hopefully, complete the idea Psi Ops started. I am speaking, of course, of Second Sight.
Rare is easily my favorite developer and Second Sight has the enviable position of being made by members of the team responsible for Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, albeit working for Free Radical now. A team that redefined what console multiplayer was all about and created a game so technically beyond the competition developers are still scrambling to keep up even though more than 4 years have passed and there are much more powerful systems on the market. As great as James Bond is, creating a game around the ultra cool power of mind control is a concept so awesome the potential for immortality is through the roof. So now, without further ado, the three main reasons Second Sight will not only make Psi Ops completely irrelevant but will make every other 3rd person shooter go the way of E.T. and Enter the Matrix.
1) Story – I usually hate stories in games. Second Sight seems like it’s doing it right, though. You play as two different versions of the main character – a future version that is completely insane and a past version that is mild-mannered. This is not just a gimmick, however. As you progress through the game as the crazy guy with super human powers, you have flashbacks to the younger, calmer you. Whatever happens during these flashbacks actually affects what happens during the present. So, if you snatch a women from the clutches of death in the past, you will see her living, breathing form in the present. Chrono Trigger has some competition.
Psi Ops actually had a flashback system as well, but instead of having actual consequences in the present they were merely a gimmick to give you new powers. The fully interactive world of Second Sight should provide a real incentive to actually pay attention to the story since your actions can change it.
One more point about this – by having there be multiple storylines depending on how well you do during your flashbacks, the game actually does have drastic changes. This ensures that, assuming the game plays as well as previous Free Radical games have, there is incentive to play through the story mode more than one time. Hopefully, this will make the title far more worthy of purchase than the entirely too short Psi Ops.
2) Move Variety – Like Psi Ops, the vast majority of combat will be through the use of super awesome psi powers. But, Second Sight seems to have an actual system of weapons and melee moves in place to ensure that, no matter how you kill your enemy, you will be having fun. Added on to the relatively standard list of weapons at your disposal is the always enjoyable tranquilizer. For those that played Perfect Dark and were able to loop up a couple aliens and watch them run around the room bumping into things and shooting sporadically, you’ll know the joys of using a tranq gun. Hopefully, SS will be just as fun.
As far as melee combat goes, there are thankfully more moves at your disposal then a simple punch. You can now snap the necks of your enemies and even use them as a shield. While certainly not the most innovative move set, at least there should be enough variety to keep the combat fresh at all times.
3) Psi Powers – in addition to the powers found in Psi Ops, Second Sight adds a few new ones. First is the always welcome heal command. This adds a new element of strategy to the game as using it will leave you wide open to enemy attack. Furthermore, since it uses a hefty amount of your psi powers, you had best be ready to whip out your tranq gun. Also in the game is Charm. Replacing the out of body experience from Psi Ops, Charm is essentially an invisibility cloak. I don’t know about anyone else, but I never sent a scout ghost of myself ahead to check for dangers in PO. By allowing you to walk undetected through enemy encrusted buildings, the Charm power should be a viable solution to completing levels.
Don’t think you won’t be able to assume a ghost form at all, though. Using Projection you can send an invisible version of yourself to scout for danger, if you desire, or actually accomplish goals. Psi Ops used the ghost only as a scout, meaning you could not interact with the environment in any way. The Projection ability in SS lets you trigger switches and posses enemy’s bodies if you so desire. Good times.
Add to the mix a yet to be reveled two player mode and Free Radical’s knack for making long and difficult one player modes and Second Sight should be an amazing game.
As much fun as I am having with BG&E, my mind is still slipping back to the amazing play mechanics found in Psi Ops. It’s weird, I did nothing but complain about the game, both during and after playing through it. But the power to control objects with your mind has been haunting me every waking hour since I first placed the CD in my PlayStation. I was at Nick’s house a few days ago and needed to look through the instruction booklet to see if Rainbow 6 is multiplayer on one console (it isn’t). Instead of getting up and retrieving said manual I actually tried, if for only a second, to bring forth the manual with the power of my mind. Of all the video game powers I have seen recently, this power appeals to me more than any other. Well, I guess I would choose to be a wizard if I could, but next up would be Psi Powers – and when it comes right down to it they really aren’t that different.
Anyway, Midway completely blew their amazing concept with a below average game. I’ve chronicled why the game is weak here in detail, over the course of two separate columns, but I still can’t get the idea that I really missed out on an amazing play experience because a lazy developer rushed out an incomplete game. So now, as the bitter memories of bad game design leave me and the remembrance of slamming a poor sap into a wall and watching his body burst, my mind wanders to a game that can, hopefully, complete the idea Psi Ops started. I am speaking, of course, of Second Sight.
Rare is easily my favorite developer and Second Sight has the enviable position of being made by members of the team responsible for Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, albeit working for Free Radical now. A team that redefined what console multiplayer was all about and created a game so technically beyond the competition developers are still scrambling to keep up even though more than 4 years have passed and there are much more powerful systems on the market. As great as James Bond is, creating a game around the ultra cool power of mind control is a concept so awesome the potential for immortality is through the roof. So now, without further ado, the three main reasons Second Sight will not only make Psi Ops completely irrelevant but will make every other 3rd person shooter go the way of E.T. and Enter the Matrix.
1) Story – I usually hate stories in games. Second Sight seems like it’s doing it right, though. You play as two different versions of the main character – a future version that is completely insane and a past version that is mild-mannered. This is not just a gimmick, however. As you progress through the game as the crazy guy with super human powers, you have flashbacks to the younger, calmer you. Whatever happens during these flashbacks actually affects what happens during the present. So, if you snatch a women from the clutches of death in the past, you will see her living, breathing form in the present. Chrono Trigger has some competition.
Psi Ops actually had a flashback system as well, but instead of having actual consequences in the present they were merely a gimmick to give you new powers. The fully interactive world of Second Sight should provide a real incentive to actually pay attention to the story since your actions can change it.
One more point about this – by having there be multiple storylines depending on how well you do during your flashbacks, the game actually does have drastic changes. This ensures that, assuming the game plays as well as previous Free Radical games have, there is incentive to play through the story mode more than one time. Hopefully, this will make the title far more worthy of purchase than the entirely too short Psi Ops.
2) Move Variety – Like Psi Ops, the vast majority of combat will be through the use of super awesome psi powers. But, Second Sight seems to have an actual system of weapons and melee moves in place to ensure that, no matter how you kill your enemy, you will be having fun. Added on to the relatively standard list of weapons at your disposal is the always enjoyable tranquilizer. For those that played Perfect Dark and were able to loop up a couple aliens and watch them run around the room bumping into things and shooting sporadically, you’ll know the joys of using a tranq gun. Hopefully, SS will be just as fun.
As far as melee combat goes, there are thankfully more moves at your disposal then a simple punch. You can now snap the necks of your enemies and even use them as a shield. While certainly not the most innovative move set, at least there should be enough variety to keep the combat fresh at all times.
3) Psi Powers – in addition to the powers found in Psi Ops, Second Sight adds a few new ones. First is the always welcome heal command. This adds a new element of strategy to the game as using it will leave you wide open to enemy attack. Furthermore, since it uses a hefty amount of your psi powers, you had best be ready to whip out your tranq gun. Also in the game is Charm. Replacing the out of body experience from Psi Ops, Charm is essentially an invisibility cloak. I don’t know about anyone else, but I never sent a scout ghost of myself ahead to check for dangers in PO. By allowing you to walk undetected through enemy encrusted buildings, the Charm power should be a viable solution to completing levels.
Don’t think you won’t be able to assume a ghost form at all, though. Using Projection you can send an invisible version of yourself to scout for danger, if you desire, or actually accomplish goals. Psi Ops used the ghost only as a scout, meaning you could not interact with the environment in any way. The Projection ability in SS lets you trigger switches and posses enemy’s bodies if you so desire. Good times.
Add to the mix a yet to be reveled two player mode and Free Radical’s knack for making long and difficult one player modes and Second Sight should be an amazing game.
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