Second Sight

"Timesplitters Team Delivers With Pshyic Bliss"

On hearing that both Second Sight and Psi Ops where to be released at almost the same time I was unsure which to buy. In the end I decided on Second Sight as it came from the team that produced one of my all time favourite games in Timesplitters 2, I certainly made the right choice.

The game opens when John Vattic awakes in a secure medical institution with no memory of his recent past. As the game develops Vattic begins to discover that he has incredible psychic powers. Each of these powers has its own particular use in order to complete certain parts of the game. However, what makes this game particularly brilliant is the way that it lets you experiment with each of these powers just to see what happens (unlike games such as Blinx, it doesn't limit the amount of times you can use each power). If your anything like me you will probably spend hours just throwing enemies over railings or controlling someone in order to make them shoot at there own team.

On top of this superb gameplay comes an equally absorbing 'duel-timeline' story, with alternate missions (as your memory is recovered) seeing Vattic as he was six-months ago in order to work out what has happened to him. These missions, to begin with at least, see Vattic without any of his powers forcing the player to adopt a different strategy to overcome each mission. Usually this involves the use of a variety of guns, of which the sniper rifle is particually fun to use.

One sour note is that on occasions setting of an alarm can lead to an endless supply of enemies flooding the screen meaning it is often easier just to load your game than bother trying to hide until the alarm stops. While this can be frustrating it will not spoil your enjoyment of an otherwise excellent game.

Gameplay -9 (Huge amounts of fun to be had whether attempting to complete missions or simply messing about with Vattics powers)
Graphics -9 (If you've played Timespltters 2 you'll know the unique graphical style that Free Radical employ)
Lifespan -8 (Not an overly long game, but you'll be immersed from start to finish)

Overall -9 (If your looking for something a little different from the normal shooting and racing games, you won't find many games better than this)

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/06/04