Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy Updated Impressions

Today, Midway gave attendees an updated look at Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, which is the upcoming action game that casts you in the role of Nick Scryer, who is a psychic soldier that works for the US government. While we've seen demos of the game over the past few months, this latest look at the game showed off the polish the title has received in the time since our last look at it. The demo we saw showed off Nick's psi powers, some puzzle-solving, and some nasty boss fights, which featured an impressive scale.

The first part of the demo started off as a simple corridor-run that offered another quick rundown of Nick's abilities. The initial segments of the level featured enemies that could be dispatched with a simple burst of telekinesis, pyrokinesis, or Nick's rifle. A few rooms later we were shown Nick's precognition, which offers quick cinematic hints on what's coming up in the level (a la Prince of Persia), and his remote view ability, which lets him scout ahead with his mind. The action became more involved when Nick encountered an armor-wearing enemy who was immune to his telekinesis and was only marginally affected by his pyrokinesis. Given the enemy's aggressive nature, getting close enough to use Nick's mind drain--a powerful and deadly attack that has explosive consequences for an enemy's head--was also not an option. The key to victory was using a combination of pyrokinesis and telekinesis to heat up Nick's foe before flinging the enemy into some explosive canisters.

Using the aforementioned powers to deal with the enemy was a turning point in the level's gameplay, which shifted to a more puzzle-oriented slant. After dealing with the armor-clad foe, Nick came to a round corridor that appeared to have energy waves pulsing through it. Since large energy waves are usually deadly, Nick stuck to indentations in the corridor wall that offered "safe zones." However, after going up the corridor a few indentations, Nick found that his path to the next slot was blocked by an enemy. A friendly telekinetic "tug" as the wave came by ensured that the foe wasn't an obstacle for long. Additionally, it confirmed that the energy waves were, in fact, deadly. However, when an enemy was out of telekinesis range, Nick's "mind control" power came in quite handy for placing the enemy in harm's way.

The next part of the demo consisted of two boss fights. The first one was against an Asian woman whose power of illusion animated some stone statues that Nick had to destroy by using pyrokinesis (to heat them up) and telekinesis (to throw urns at them). The resulting damage caused them to crumble. Destroying the statues was hardly the end of the fight, though. Unfortunately, Nick's illusion-casting nemesis morphed into a nasty demonlike creature with three acid-spitting heads. The two-part boss battle theme was continued in the last fight we saw, which began with Nick avoiding a massive laser that attempted to hone in on him so that it could fry him up. While racing around the room, Nick was forced to pick up nearby cylinders so that he could fling them at part of the laser. After clearing this tough sequence, Nick came up against a pyrokinesis-wielding woman with a bad attitude and some heavy-duty cleavage.

The new look at Psi-Ops showed that the game is shaping up very well. The graphics in both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions have really come together and offer smooth frame rates and impressive detail. The added layer of polish and the very slick use of psi powers during gameplay represent a good combination that works well. While the powers are easy to pick up, they seem like they'll be challenging to properly master, which offers a nice amount of depth to be mined. Psi Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy is currently slated to ship this fall for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.