Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy

"Totally over the top gory action? I love it! Bless you Midway!"

Ah Midway, the people who brought us the "Mature" rating. Let me tell you, starting with "The Suffering", Midway has been actually putting some effort into their games. ABOUT TIME!!

Graphically this is impressive for Midway. Even texturing and a steady frame rate make me a happy gamer. The effects for fire and explosions are weak though. It's kind of hard to feel like a badass when the destruction you cause looks like it was colored with crayons. Still, the ingame charecter models are detailed and this is hands down the best physics engine to be seen on a console game (yes, better than Max Payne 2). Rag doll physics are ever so much fun. :)

Sounds nice! I like it when the voice acting dosen't make my ears bleed. Though the Melaine or what ever her name is, the fire girl boss, her voice overs are imbaressingly bad; "Oh my, great balls of fire!" a quote from her boss fight. Psi-Ops delivers slightly above average voice tallent...which it uses to execute a mediocre story.

Story telling is important; it keeps the gamer in the mood (and may make you feel for an otherwise bland main charecter). But really guys, I dont need another amnesia based story, it has become the new cliche' for video gmaes. I personally think it's worse than the "save the princess/world" cliche'. Honestly, I dont give a hoot if you cant remember squat! At least the bad guys are interesting (except for the fire girl). They are all themed after their abilities like: pyrokinesis, telekinesis, and mind control just to name a few.

This brings us to GAMEPLAY! And good golly is Psi-Ops fun. Mindless fun yes, but fun none the less. controlling your powers is easy to grasp except for telekinesis, that one takes a little practice. Psi-Ops controls alot like The Suffering, but dosent feel as much like a first person shooter which The Suffering essaitally was. Nick, the protaganist, controls much like any ol' adventure charecter. The reticle is under your control, but will lock onto individaul body parts of the enemy such as the arms or head.
The stealth aspect is fairly well executed with a simple sneaking ability and Nick can preform stealth kills. All this was important to me, because stealth/action is my favorite game category. However, Nicks jump is simply pathetic. Its best described as a half-hearted skip which will get you over only such defying obstacle like a tin can or a pebble.
Another small issue I had and I feel that many more will too, is that Nick can only carry two wepons at a time. Nick default pistol is great for stealth, but can not be droped which means you only can carry one rifle. That's right, ONE WEPON AT A TIME. Even with all your cool abilities your gonna wish you could carry more than one gun. Theres also a sivear wepon shortage at all these military bases you'll travel to. I dont mean theres never enough ammo, I mean there's just FIVE wepons. Two machine guns, your obligatory shotgun and sniper rifle, and of course...the pistol. Now there are a few specail enemy types who carry wepons you can not so keep an eye out for guys with flame throwers and what not and use "mind control" to use those wepons.

BOTTOM LINE: Just give it a rental. Its not like there no replay value (four levels off difficulty, bonus stages and Arcade mode to name a few), really the Big problem is that Psi-Ops is short. ICO short. I mean it took me 5 and a half hours to beat. That I think makes it really not worth droping $50 on. Psi-Ops is an experiance every X-Box and PS2 owner should try, there is no difference in graphicall quality between the two versions. Rag doll physics are great fun to mess with, your "psi" abilities rock and theres even a cocky blonde female love intrest. I'm happy I waseted my time playing this game. I soooooo recomend it!

P.S. :Midway made sure to make the game nice and gory! :)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/20/04