Second Sight – Review

John Vattic wakes up in a strange ‘facility’. He is badly bruised and cut, and he has no idea why he is there. But from the beginning movie, one of the guards who bring him in says that he is a “psycho killer”!! So who is John Vattic? And why is he here?? All will be revealed.

And so the story starts, and what a story it is. As John starts to remember things from the past, the story unfolds. The second level is set six months before the ‘facility’ level at the beginning, and this is where we meet the real John Vattic. He is in siberia, where he’s been sent on a military mission in an advisory role. But as the speccy wearing John points out, he’s not much use when it comes to guns and the like. This is where the training levels start, and this is where you realize that stealth is gonna play quite a large part in this game. After the training levels are over, it’s back to psycho John in the ‘facility’. Where his psychic powers keep returning, always at the right moment. But what are they, and how did he get them?? These, and many other questions, are answered later in the game, as it shifts back and forth between present day, and earlier.

Levels will have you not only escaping from the strange hospital that your being held in, but also, you’ll be running and gunning in Siberia (outside and in), also you’ll be trying to bust someone from an old mental institution.

There are the same kind of powers as in psi ops, telekinesis to pick things up and throw them about, projection to go ‘out of body’ so that you can scout ahead, and later you can control people with it. Psi blast can either be used to shoot an energy blast at a foe, or a blast wave around Vattic that’ll take all hostiles out that are close. Charm makes people think you are invisible, so you can wander about unseen, or until your psi power runs out, then you’d better hide quick!! And then you’ve got healing, which heals (duh!).

So once you are set up with all these powers, you are pretty unstoppable. But until you get them, you ARE very stoppable!! And this is a bit of a problem at the start, well it was for me at least!! I was forever running and hiding in lockers, and waiting for the guards to go away. But give it a bit of time to get going, and you’ll find a great and very engrossing game.

Graphically the game looks great. And coming from Free Radical, it looks very Timesplitters like, which is no bad thing. The characters all move nicely, and the levels look great. Sadly the camera can be a bit poo!! You can choose between free look, or fixed. Free look is the one you’ll use, fixed is complete bobbins. But even the free look one isn’t brilliant, because it always returns to a behind view as soon as you move, which, at times can be very annoying. But i sort of got to grips with it, and it’s really the only problem with the game.

Sound is also really good, with great mood setting music (again very Timesplitters), and excellent voice acting. Female aspect of the game isn’t so great though!! There are female characters in the game, but you don’t get to be them. You are always Vattic.

Overall I did prefer Psi Ops to this at first, because psi ops was a more action like game from the start. But after playing Second Sight for a bit longer, I’d be hard pushed to pick between them. If you want action, go for Psi Ops. But if you want a bit more stealth, then Second Sight is the one you want. Or get em both!!!

Review by Roy

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