It makes brawn and brain one and the same.
The games that are worthy of your attention - no matter what type - are great because they either meet the standards, beat the standards, or simply sidestep the standards. Psi-Ops is one of the latter; it offers something that never has come into play - quite literally - and that manages to satisfy any M-gamer's thirst for blood.
The reason Psi-Ops isn't among the masses of awful, boring shooters is that it adds to the generic formula a dose of psi-powers that allow the player to use brains AS your brawn. These psi-powers allow you to throw massive objects, set people ablaze, or even enter the minds of your enemies. If you don't mind no-holds-barred violence and a healthy dose of gore, the intense action of Psi-Ops should quickly and constantly satisfy you.
Psi-Ops plants you in the shoes of Nick Scryer - a former elite operative whose memory was wiped for the purpose of infiltrating a new world order known as The Movement. Behind the movement are several masters of the psychic art who have complete control over the program. Although Nick was supposed to quickly recover his memory and psi-powers, he discovers that his suppressed memories aren't coming back. With the help of Sara, an ally on the inside, he begins to recover his memories and powers, and he begins to take down the leaders of the Movement.
For the first five minutes of gameplay, you may be a bit disheartened, as you don't have any powers and you have to stick to the boring shooter part of the game. Almost immediately though, you recover the power of telekinesis - easily the most important power in the game - and stuff starts flying. Telekinesis is so fun to use because it gives you an interesting and surprisingly deep way to combat enemies. The obvious pick-up-and-throw-your-enemies-against-a-wall option is really fun to use (and it's surprisingly brutal), but it doesn't end there. You can pick up and throw things in the environment for use as weapons, and you can use telekinesis to hold enemies still while you shoot them. You will also end up using telekinesis to solve puzzles, reach the unreachable, and to do things like "surf" - where you pick up and move an object while standing on it.
The other powers will come back at a steady pace through the remainder of the game. You will gain remote viewing, mind drain, mind control, pyrokinesis, and aura view. Remote viewing is more of a stealth skill that allows you to exit your body and peek ahead. Mind drain allows you to collect psi power from enemies, and mind control lets you enter the body of your enemy and use the body to your will (use your imagination). Pyrokinesis lets you throw a wall of fire, and aura view allows you to see the invisible. The game takes an interesting twist once you learn aura view since you are able to see things from the beyond.
You learn the powers at an appropriate rate, and although telekinesis is by far the most heavily used power, all the powers will be useful at some points in the game. While some of the powers sound as though they would be difficult to use, the game makes the control schemes very user-friendly, and the visual presentation and Havok physics really help to make the use of psi powers convincing and hard-hitting. The only major shortcoming of the game is the weak shooting scheme - the weapon variety is disappointing and uninteresting, and the way weapons incorporate into the game isn't that good. Although the weapons have appropriately less power than the psi powers, they still don't feel as though they have much power at all. The AI is also a bit weak, although overall it doesn't seem to hurt the quality of the gameplay. It's also noteworthy that the game presents strictly optional stealth elements - while the game clearly caters to run-and-gun aficionados, it also rewards those who use stealth in some places.
The graphical presentation doesn't betray the overall intensity of the game. For some reason, I find the engine appealing and well-chosen for this game. The game's atmosphere is appropriately dark and cold, and the frame rate is steady. The use of powers is visually convincing - remote viewing makes you feel like a ghost, mind drain and telekinesis appear appropriately powerful, and pyrokinesis actually looks like you're sending a shockwave of fire. While maybe the textures aren't as polished as they could be and the enemy models could be a little less goofy, the design of most everything else is good. The animations for the main characters are indeed well-done, as the faces act very convincingly all around. The cutscenes are well-rendered and well-directed, and very little looks out of place in the game.
The same is true of sound. While sometimes the voice acting is forced or a little goofy, the voices were chosen well nonetheless. The sound is part of what makes the action intense - all of the psi powers are loud, crisp and very effectively. Remote viewing's ghostly aura and pyrokinesis' flaring report are especially convincing. The only main problem is music - if there is any, it really doesn't keep your attention. This is especially problematic during down-time.
Since the main campaign is decently long or average - especially for a superficial, fast-paced game like this - and since there are an unbelievable number of unlockables, Psi-Ops has a surprising value. While maybe the main campaign isn't too compelling for replay value, the game offers a myriad of unlockable videos, gameplay modes, challenges, and the unique cooperative play (two people control ONE character). Especially considering that this game was pretty much never a $50 title (it's a sleeper), the value on this game is astounding, especially for this type of game.
Frankly I'm disappointed by the caliber of recent Midway titles - Mortal Kombat and The Suffering (either of them) weren't BAD, I just wasn't impressed and I didn't think they were fun. You can still tell that Psi-Ops is part of the same family - however, Psi-Ops estranges itself from these types of games because it provides hard-hitting, gory action WITHOUT being bland or stupid. Psi-Ops provides a really different experience, and the garish brand of brutality Midway has to offer isn't wasted on Psi-Ops because Psi-Ops actually uses it for effect. The gore in Psi-Ops gets your blood flowing, whereas in Mortal Kombat and The Suffering it was disheartening and unnecessary.
Psi-Ops is worthy of your attention because, like other revolutionary titles, it manages to sidestep the standards by giving you some interesting toys to play with. If you don't mind (or are drawn to) brutal, gory, intense action, look no further. It's far from deep or intelligent or artistic - but it makes brawn and brain one and the same, and it deserves credit for that.