Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy

"You must get this game now...."

Psi-Ops was an amazing game. It had great gameplay, graphics, sound and everything. I had an amazingly fun time with this game and I'm sure you will too. Get it if you want a third person shooter with some originality.

Graphics, 10/10
Everything looks spectacular in this game. The people and environments all look realistic. Walls look like real life walls, as do the floors and rooms, along with everything inside those rooms. Outdoors looks great too. Animations run fluently, and cutscenes look great. FMV's look nice too. Blood effects are real looking, like when you blow a persons head off or watch them get crushed and see blood and limbs fly everywhere...not that I do that sort of thing. Explosions are great looking too. I'm sure you can overlook the same character models which doesn't really bother me. The physics engine (rag doll) works very nice. These are some of the best graphics this generation.

Gameplay, 10/10
On to the most important part of every game, the gameplay. Psi-Ops does it perfectly. The controls are a bit annoying when you first start, but after you get to run around a little, and get used to them, they feel perfect. There aren't that many guns. Just your typical shotgun, machine guns, pistols, and sniper. Although don't get me wrong, I love all these weapons, they're very fun to use, like using the shotgun and sniper to blow a persons head off. There just isn't that many. But, I excuse there not being that many weapon by one thing, you'll see what that is in a minute. Let me tell you how very interactive the environments are. THEY ARE VERY INTERACTIVE! You can pick up and/or destroy 99% of what's in the room. Whether it be throwing it at an enemy, or "surfing" on it, it's all fun. You'll never stop laughing after throwing an enemy into gas tanks and watch them fly across the room. Anyway, let's get into the good stuff, infact, the best part of the game, making it very original, the psychic powers. This improves the gameplay so much and gives it even more replay value. It also gives it a great fun factor, with some great abilities, you'll never stop trying them. I won't spoil what all of them are, incase you want to find out for yourself. Telekinesis is probably the best PSI power in the game. Throwing enemies anywhere you want, be it electricity or fires, it's always fun. You can also use another fun move called "Mind" Control (MC)." This is another great PSI power where you can take over anyone elses body and make them do anythink they don't want to! You can kill your comrades, or commit suicide! It allows you to use some new weapons if you MC the right person, you can have flamethrowers or grenades. The other abilities are great fun and very useful and I'm sure you'd love trying them over and over and over again.

Story, 8/10
The story is pretty good. You play as Nick Scryer, a veteran soldier with great PSI abilities. He is captured along with his team by a group called "The Movement." Nick has amnesia and throughout the game, you start remembering more and more stuff like PSI powers. He meets with ally's and foe's trying to remember his past and stop the terrorist group. Overall, a pretty decent story.

Sound, 9/10
The sound is just great. Guns sound realistic, as do explosions and machines. It has a great ambiance with it which adds to the sound even more. The characters are overall good. They sound great, at least most do. Some voices are a bit annoying with cheesy lines. And sometimes they repeat the same line again and again. And sometimes they repeat the same line again and again. This gets annoying sometimes with an annoying voice, annoying lines, and repeating lines, but it definitely doesn't ruin the rest of the sound, so it's still a 9 out of 10.

Replay Value, 8/10
If you're like me, you'd probably want to play this again. There's unlockables for you to uncover throughout the game, so that adds to the score. Plus. the game might be a little short so you'd want to play it again. And there are harder difficulties so you may challenge yourself. Some people might want to put this one down for awhile, then pick it up again, and and that's fine, but I'm sure you'd play it at least twice.

Rent or Buy
I'd say buy. I mean, it's a great, original game that just blew me away. Plus, I am pretty sure you can get it new for $30 so that's an even better reason you might want it. Of course, some people might not trust me, so at least rent it, that way you'd have an opinion on it and able to decide if you'd like to purchase it or not. And it is multi-platform, so you can get it for PS2, GCN, or Xbox, and still enjoy it. It'd definitely a good game to have in your gaming library.

Pros:
Great graphics
Nice sound
Amazing gameplay
only $30
on all systems
Decent story
Nice characters
Mostly good voice overs
Unlockables
Original gameplay featuring psychic abilities
interactive environments
rag-doll physics
Higher difficulties

Cons:
Can be a short game
Might have slight control problems at beginning of game
Some voices can be irritating

Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy is definitely a game you should pick up, so go get it, NOW!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/21/04