Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy

"An average third-person shooter, made great by amazingly fun gamplay."

For centuries, the human mind has fascinated its owners. With it, people have been gifted with language, and memory, and the higher level of thinking that separates us from animals; yet, there has always been the tantalizing possibility that there are extra, hidden uses for it. Speculation on these has led to the belief in psychic powers - the ability to control and manipulate objects, people, and even the elements.

Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy is a game that follows the exploits of Nick Scryer, a U.N. soldier who is secretly an agent for the U.S. government's PSI program. As Nick, you are tasked with infiltrating a terrorist organization known as the Movement, using guns and (eventually) your own latent psychic powers to take down the organization's leaders. Such a concept for a game may seem ridiculous, but does the gameplay make up for it? Read on:

Visuals:

Psi-Ops' main interface is well organized and looks good. All menu options are clearly labeled, and all sub-menus are easy to navigate and understand. In-game menus work very well, also. There are separate menus for in-game needs, such as inventory, objectives, and maps, and the pause menu allows the user to change control and display options on the fly. The essentials are all covered, and the overall feel is very good.

There are many pre-rendered cutscenes that will play between and during missions in Psi-Ops. These look good, not great. Everything is animated well, and the characters look realistic, if a little bit comical. The videos are only a small step up in quality from the in-game graphics, but they look good enough that they get their job done.

In-game graphics look, for the most part, good. Character models, like their cutscene counterparts, have some slightly exaggerated features, and this works to good effect, making the bosses and friendlies more memorable. There are only a handful of different enemy models that will appear outside of boss fights, and these are well done, despite their repetitiveness. Animation is nothing short of superb in Psi-Ops; with the game's heavy focus on psychic powers such as telekinesis and pyrokinesis, the animators did an incredible job of making everything seem as realistic as possible. The game uses the Havok engine to incredible effect, as the rag-doll physics for both enemies and objects looks extremely realistic almost all of the time. The environments you will move through are overall bland, although there is a good enough amount of variety between the locales that everything stays fresh as long as is needed to beat the levels. Everything moves along at a smooth frame rate, with barely any hiccups.

Psi-Ops' use of the excellent Havok physics engine allows the game world to come to life, with realistic effects and rag-doll movement. The physics are clearly the star of the graphical show, and they are impressive enough that the overall above-average look seems all the better.

Score: 8/10

Sound:

Psi-Ops' sound effects are varied, given the amount of abilities at Nick's hands. All of the guns sound effective enough, given the near-future setting of the game. The constant bumps and bangs you will hear from your use of various psychic powers all have a solid feel, and are always about what you would expect.

The voice acting in Psi-Ops is mostly mediocre. The villains do a good job of portraying their disposition through their lines – most of which you will hear during the actually boos fights themselves. Nick's own lines are up-and-down; the writing isn't all that great, but the execution could have been better in a lot of instances. Regular enemies will spout off one-liners during encounters, and these are done well for the most part.

Music in the game is understated and forgettable. It plays constantly during levels, usually quietly in the background. Its pace will appropriately rise and fall along the action in the game, but none of the tracks are at all more than generic rock and techno.

Psi-Ops weakest point is its audio score, although it certainly isn't so bad that it detracts from the experience of playing the game.

Score: 6/10

Gameplay:

Psi-Ops, at first glance, may seem like just another military-themed shooter. This is not an unfair assumption, given the presence of genre staples such as locked doors that require keycards to open, corridors filled with enemies trying to keep you from getting those keys, and the occasional boss fight or simple puzzle to break up the action. Fortunately for this game, though, the use of psychic abilities adds an incredible layer of depth and enjoyability to the proceedings.

The controls start out fairly straightforward at the beginning of the game. You move with the left analog stick, and control the camera with the right. The X button has Nick jump, the square button has Nick perform a melee attack, the triangle button locks on to the nearest enemy or target, and the circle button toggles Nick between crouching and standing. R1 fires the currently equipped weapon, and Nick can switch between the two weapons he can carry by pressing down on the D-pad. The Select button brings up the inventory, map, and objective menus, while the Start button opens the game options screen. Once Nick obtains telekinesis, the L1 button is used to pick up objects, and the right analog stick moves the object while it is in your control. Other powers that will be acquired are mapped to different buttons: pressing up on the D-pad while targeting an enemy will have Nick control that enemy's mind; pressing left on the D-pad activates Nick's remote viewing ability; pressing right on the D-pad switches the game to aura view. Rounding out Nick's impressive psychic arsenal are pyrokinesis and mind drain, which are used when the L2 and R2 buttons are pressed, respectively. Overall, the controls will take a bit of getting used to, but the helpful in-game tutorials allow you to grasp them quickly. The controls seem perfectly made to work with the PS2 controller.

As previously mentioned, the game is essentially a corridor crawl. You'll be given an objective, such as to find something, or save someone, and you'll have to fight your way through a small army of enemies to achieve it. The game features plenty of weapons, such as an assault rifle, shotgun, pistol, submachine gun, and sniper rifle, and each of them feels good to use. Undoubtedly, though, the weapon you'll be relying on most is your mind. Your psychic powers make you a literal one-man army, able to dispatch several foes with ease. Your psychic abilities give you a tremendous advantage you're your enemies, and so in order to compensate, they will come at you in droves.

Nick's psychic tools are the absolute star of the game. From telekinesis to mind control, if it's been thought of in some cheesy science-fiction story, it's in Psi-Ops, and it's a blast to use. Telekinesis is inevitably going to be the power you'll use most often, as it is the most helpful of the bunch. The ability to lift objects and people allows for a delicious amount of creativity in how you achieve your objectives. Do you want to pick up a box and walk behind it, using it as cover to reach that door across the enemy-infested hallway? Maybe you would you rather take them same box and pelt each enemy with it repeatedly, until they're all nothing more than crumpled, battered heaps? Or, perhaps, you would prefer to mind control one of the enemy goons, and use him to slaughter his friends? You can do any of these in Psi-Ops, and that freedom is the game's most attractive feature. All of the Psi powers are well implemented, as their use is governed by a Psi meter that drains when you use them, and in practice they are a breeze to use. You will of course need to use all of them at one point or another, but in between these parts, you are given the freedom to try out different combinations of powers to deal death to your enemies.

The use of those Psi powers constantly keeps the game fresh and interesting, even when you're going down corridor number 20 to find key number 10 to unlock door number 30. The sheer amount of options you have in murdering your way through the people who oppose you is so great that you may even want to spend time in the game's Practice Room, testing out your toys with unlimited Psi power and enemies. The game's 10 to 15 hour length is definitely supplemented by the ability to go back and kill your way through in different manners.

Enemy artificial intelligence is average, although as mentioned before, those enemies will usually come at you in droves, thus evening the odds. Your opponents will charge at you with guns blazing, and will often precede their charge with a grenade toss. Unfortunately for them, you can just pick that grenade right back up, and chuck it back to them – or, you can pick the enemy up, and bring him to the grenade! Again, the amazing variety of Psi powers does a great job in masking the weaknesses of the rest of the game, and this is especially true of the enemy A.I.

Boss fights, while certainly interesting, are still somewhat of a disappointment in Psi-Ops. While the regular gameplay is a blast to go through, most of the boss fights are simple exercises in pattern recognition, where you must find your enemy's weakness and exploit it until they are dead. You will only need one or two Psi powers, and there is very little creativity required to get past these. Overall, since the boss fights are fairly frequent, and are probably the biggest weakness in the gameplay, you will be glad to get by them, to get back to the meat of the gameplay.

The innovative Psi powers are what separate Psi-Ops from the rest of the field of third-person action/adventure shooters. These toys allow you to become the ultimate creator of the fun within the game, and the feeling of doing so is sure to stick with you, even after you've beaten the game through.

Score: 9/10

Story:

Psi-Ops' story is best described as being ‘functional.' It's not the most memorable story, and this fact is certainly not aided by the mediocre writing and voice acting; however, it is enough to justify the events of the game, and it gives you a reason to continue on with the killing, other than the gameplay.

The proceedings of the game follow Nick Scryer, who, as an agent of the American Psi program (called Project Mindgate) was been gifted with psychic abilities. Unfortunately, this program was deemed unnecessary by the government, and several of its members, as well as members from other countries' programs, have banded together to form a terrorist organization called the Movement. As Nick, you have been memory-wiped, and given facial reconstruction surgery, so that you can infiltrate the terrorist organization without suspicion. Once in, he meets an agent named Sara, who gives him a shot that allows him to slowly remember his past, and his abilities. Then, predictably, the two of you will attempt to stop the organization's plans, which (of course) include an attempt to take control of the world.

While the story isn't all that original or interesting, it does a good job of setting up the situations you'll be in – most specifically, the lack of full use of all the Psi powers at the beginning of the game, and the slow recovery of their memory throughout its course. It does its job admirably, wrapping up the plot at the end in an acceptable manner – although, as with any potentially decent-selling game on the market today, it sets itself up for a sequel at the end.

Overall, Psi-Ops' story accomplishes its purpose, although it does so neither memorably nor impressively.

Score: 7/10

Features/Modes:

There are several extras to play with in Psi-Ops once the game is beaten on the default difficulty. First, there are higher difficulty settings, although these still aren't much of a challenge until the highest. There is also to ability to play through individual levels and boss fights again, as well as a boss medley to conquer. There is a feature allowing the game to be played with two players, although having one player control the character's movement and another control his attacks and powers does not lend itself to a fun experience. The most appealing extra feature, though, is the Practice Room, which allows the player to try out all of Nick's psychic abilities without concern for dying or running out of ‘mind juice.' This room alone could give more twisted gamers hours of enjoyment.

Extras such as new character skins, a movie theater, and secret missions involving gnomes also can be unlocked during the game. These allow for a bit more replay value, as you need to complete the game multiple times to acquire everything.

While there are several extras to unlock, most players will not need anything more than the regular game and Practice Room to enjoy Psi-Ops to the utmost.

Score: 7/10

Total Score:

The premise behind Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy is an innovative one. Give the player psychic powers, and let him choose how to tear through his missions with them. Games that try to bring something new to the table usually fail because of poor execution of those additions; fortunately for gamers, Psi-Ops not only avoids this pratfall, but it actually succeeds in creating a game mechanic that is both enjoyable and 100% functional. As a result, Psi-Ops is an incredible action game to play.

Any fan of action games would do well to at least rent Psi-Ops; anyone who loves games where their creativity is the only limit to their level of enjoyment would also do well to try this one out.

Score: 8/10 (not an average)

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Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/06/05