Well, I was really looking forward to getting this game. Did it, itself, look really astounding. No, not especially. It looked pretty good, but that wasn’t the attraction. The attraction began long ago with a little game called GoldenEye 007 for the N64. While it was made by Rare, much of Rare who worked on GoldenEye left Rare in search of something more. Considering how incognito Rare has been for that past little while, they may have made the right choice. They formed Free Radical and made a great game called Timesplitters 2 which I already have given a 97% somewhere. Free Radical is easily my favourite developer that is out there now. Second Sight looked like they were trying to achieve something more than just another shooter. Did they? Game Design: 2/2.5: You wake up in a strange place. It’s in the middle of what appears to be a military lab and you are bandaged up the wazoo. You have no memory of who you are, what you are doing and why you are here. You just know you’re name is John Vattic from what it says on your wristband and that you have somehow gained psychic powers. As the memories slowly flood back, you realize that you were sent out with a military team to put a stop to a strange experiment in Russia. As you progress through both timelines, you must save members of your team to learn more about what is going on and to put a stop to it. There are 17 levels (15 if you don’t count the first two filler levels) that you must complete. As just a shooter, this game is painstakingly average. But once you throw in the psychic powers, this game takes off. You have 5 main powers. Telekinesis allows you pick up objects and throw them at stuff, throw faraway switches and choke enemies to death. You can also throw the enemies around, one of the greatest guilty pleasures ever included in any game I have ever played. Healing is self explanatory. You can heal yourself or allies in need. Psi Blast is a fairly useless addition that allows you to both throw balls of energy and create a psychic blast of energy that knocks down enemies in about a 15 foot radius. While the latter is sometimes useful, that is rare and the first is almost never smart to use as it saps energy you may need for other abilities. Charm is an ability that is welcome, but almost makes the game too easy. It, as the name suggests, can sometimes be used to encourage allies to keep up, but is most often used to turn invisible to sneak past guards. It won’t hide you from cameras however. The final and possibly most fun addition is projection. It is originally used to reach computers and switches behind laser beams, but is soon used to possess enemies and keep them under your command. You will be awakened if you are hit or run out of Psi power, but until then, you can go around as the enemy and take out a bunch of stunned guards. The second and fourth abilities are very useful, the first and last are very fun, and the third, well, no one cares. The gun wielding is also above par. The array of gun isn’t to die for, and there are no guns that are really cool like Turok’s Chronoscepter, but the targeting system, while this is something for Play Control, is extremely good, especially the sniper rifle. There are some shortcomings. Second Sight is too short. With all the stuff they show you, once you reach the end, you are disappointed because most of the levels aren’t frantic or short enough to garner a replay. A multiplayer would have been appreciated as well. Despite this, Second Sight is one of the best of its genre for its original psychic attacks. Play Control: 1.7/2: The play control is, for the most part, very good. The only complaint I have is the lack of ability to jump. While it is rarely and issue, it makes the simplest of tasks often take just that much longer. The control of the telekinesis is good and makes ramming an enemy’s skull into a wall several times easy and fun. The first-person controls are confusing, so you’ll rarely use them. The fixed camera doesn’t work well either, but the so called ‘dynamic’ camera is in a Super Mario 64-esque style which works well enough to be the recommended camera setting. The thing that gives this section a much needed boost is the aiming system. When using any normal gun, you press the left shoulder button (for the sake of the making this review all-system friendly, I’ll use general terms) to lock on and use the second analog stick (C-Stick for the Cube) to move a little dot in the center to fine-tune your aiming. The more you fine tune it, the less steady your shot will be. This system, while it may not seem like much on paper, is extremely effective in play. The sniper rifle takes it to a new dimension. When you lock on, you still see you in normal third-person, but in the bottom right corner, taking up less than one sixth of the screen, you see the scope. While the vision may be a little blurry due to its size, it makes the sniping much easier to make sure you’re not getting killed in the process. These additions add a lot to the game, but there are still some minor things that don’t work all that well. Graphics: 1.9/2: While the people may look a little awkward when they talk, they all look fairly good, though they do retain a hint of the over-exaggeration of TimeSplitters, though not as obvious. The special effects, such as psychic powers, look incredible, there really isn’t much detail to go into. Sound: 1/1: There is some pretty good voice acting here to support the pretty good plot, both of which would be acceptable in a movie. The sounds of the screaming and flying bullets all sound great. Sound is an easy category to score a perfect in, and this one has good enough voice acting and effects to get full. Satisfaction: 1.8/2.5: This is definitely a must-rent and, for the price it’s at right now, it is probably worth buying. The only thing is that it may not get very good replay, but definitely fills any empty void for a while at least. It’s unique and from a great company, but it lacks the replay of TimeSplitters. Total: 84%: OK, Second Sight is worth the price of admission easily. While you may not be able to play it over and over, it is the kind of game that you’ll play every once and a while and get addicted to it for a month or so two times a year. If you find it at a good price, I recommend it. It has a great plot, great level design, an excellent aiming system and a truly unique psychic twist. It’s not as much of a must-own as GoldenEye or TimeSplitters 2, but it’ll do.
Second Sight is a absolutely excellant game, the mix of stealth and shooting works brilliantly well constantly making you change your playing style, this is helped by the interweaving storyline. You'll play levels in the... Read Full Review
Second Sight is a wonderful game. From the makers of TimeSplitters, which are some of the finest FPS games avalabile, comes this wonderful third person stealth shooter adventure game. The game uses the main character's (... Read Full Review
