AaronAmoth
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When John Vattic wakes in a secure medical facility, he realizes something is terribly wrong. Stolen from his mind are his recent memories. Left in their place is an incredible power that threatens to tear his psyche apart.
Bits and pieces of what he remembers aren't pretty: a spec ops mission gone wrong, capture, bizarre brain experimentation. He also knows he possesses unimaginable powers. Paranormal, psionic powers. Armed with these abilities, Vattic must unravel the truth of his past and destroy the military conspiracy moving in against him.
It's an intense psychological journey as the past plays into the hands of the future in a mind blowing mix of stealth, gun play and devastating psychic power.
Age requirements: ESRB Rating: TEEN with Violence, Mild Language, Blood. PEGI Rating: 16+ with Violence.
Minimum system requirements: Windows XP or Windows Vista, 1 GHz Processor (2 GHz recommended), 512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended for Vista), DirectX 8-compatible 3D graphics card with Hardware T&L support (GeForce FX 5xxx and above, ATI Radeon 9xxx and above recommended), Mouse, Keyboard. Patched to version 1.00
Posted on 2008-10-07 08:37:16 by
avatar_58:
(Repost from the forum)
Amazingly I only picked this game up because it was developed by Free Radical, the folks who brought you the Timesplitters series. Timesplitters 2, while flawed, claimed quite a few hours from me if just from trying to complete all the challenges. So I thought I couldn't miss with buying this.
First off - I played the PC version. I would recommend this read more
over the console versions due to the controls. Considering it is stealth based precise aim is a must and the control method is already quite complex without having to deal with inaccurate control sticks. Basically when you wish to aim your gun, you have a mixture of a lockon - but a small aim circle appears over the spot you will hit. I imagine headshots aren't very fun on the console equivalents.
The story is suprisingly good, considering how arcade like Free Radical's other games are. You basically start the game out as man in a mental facility and no memory of how you got there or who you are. You start to realize you have psychic abilities, mostly by accident. You also start having flashback of a mission six months ago that started this whole mess. As the game commences the plot becomes very clear and a final "Aha!" moment will occur towards the end. I enjoyed it quite a bit, games with good gameplay AND story are few and far between these days.
The graphics in this game are the same style as Timesplitters, stylish cartoony characters with exaggerated features. For a game with a pretty serious story it's amazing that it works so well. Their facial features and moods are easy to recognize compared to the stone faced characters of other games. It's not HL2, but its mighty impressive.
The gameplay is well rounded. The game is a third person stealth action game. You use psychic powers to get through the game's obstacles and enemies and earn them as you move between levels. Telekinesis allows you to manipulate switches and objects from afar as well as toss enemies around like ragdolls. Throwing soldiers off tall ledges is really funny to watch. You have healing, but it is limited in that you will be vulnerable as you are healing. Projection allows you to send out a 'spirit' version of yourself to scout ahead and hit switches, or (later in the game) take over enemy bodies to force them to fight each other or, if you are really feeling evil, make them jump off cliffs. You get different powers as the levels progress, with your character learning them as he needs them. The gameplay is definately the strongest point of this game and thats a good thing.
The levels themselves range from all out action to missions where you simply can't afford to be seen. Although if you are caught and alarms sound, you can always duck for cover and it will be all clear eventually. With all the powers this game gives you, you'll become quite efficient in being a ghost.
The sound effects are pretty good, with decent sounding guns. The music reminds me very much of Timesplitters and really adds to the mood. In fact the main theme seems taken from the Siberia level in Timesplitters....I swear it. It also picks up when enemies are nearby and in levels that require more force than stealth. It is actually one of the few games I can recall the tracks after finishing....which to me indicates it was quality not just ambience.
In all I would say it was definately worth the bargain bin price I paid for it. This game is highly underrated, and it bothers me that it got such low reviews on some websites. Sure the controls take some time to get used to, but that hardly detracts from the experience. Even though there wasn't much 'replay value' since the game was linear, I still feel like replaying it because it was that good.
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Posted on 2008-10-12 01:18:06 by
SmashManiac:
You wake up trapped in the middle of a mysterious building, all strapped in bandages and with a serious case of amnesia, and you quickly discover that you have crazy psychic powers. When attempting to escape, you discover that pretty much everybody wants you dead, police included. The only things you can remember are flashbacks of a military mission in which you participated as read more
a civilian expert, but the information you gather in the present appears to alter your actions while you experience a flashback, which itself changes the past and the present. What's going on? What really happened during that mission? Can you escape your fate as a fugitive? That is the setting of Second Sight, and the story only gets better as the game goes on.
The game itself is separated in 2 timelines: the present, in which you must visit various locations to gather more information about you and attempt to save yourself, and the past, during the top-secret military mission. Even though the controls are identical during both time periods, the gameplay itself is not, since you don't have your psychic powers in the past, but you do have several teammates and lots of guns to compensate. And since the game always switches between present and past, and since you constantly discover new psychic abilities, the experience is always fresh and never gets boring.
Even though the game is played in a 3rd-person perspective, aiming and shooting is surprisingly easy, and you can usually find cover when you need it. Stealth, melee combat, and some tricky platforming are also all integral to the gameplay, and the 3rd-person perspective is an advantage in these cases. As for the psychic powers, you have a psychic bar that refills slowly over time, and the trick is to know when to use your powers versus standard stealth/melee/gunning gameplay, as it may well save your life in desperate situations.
The psychic powers are diverse and always fun to use. You can use them to either attack your enemies, distract them, have access to unreachable objects, heal you and/or your allies, or just have a good laugh at confusing and scaring grunts. Some powers may appear too powerful, but use them too often or unwisely and the first thing you know is that you become defenseless.
The AI of allies and enemies does a pretty good job, and even the most insignificant NPC feels like a real person. The physics sometimes are a bit arkward, but it never detracts from the experience. The story sequences are usually integrated within the game, so you never feel like watching a movie. The game isn't too punishing when you die, so it never becomes a frustrating experience, but unfortunately it makes the game relatively easy. Therefore I recommend playing at the Hard difficulty setting right away.
Finally, even though this game is only about 15-hours long and lacks a bit on the replay value department, the experience is so unique and thrilling that it's worth every second of it. This is easily the best 3rd-person shooter game I have ever played, and it even puts the Metal Gear Solid series to shame. Definitely an overlooked title.
Buy this game, you won't regret it.
NOTE: This review is based on the GameCube version. I know that some people have issues with a mouse/keyboard setup, so you might want to play this game with a controller.
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Posted on 2008-10-07 16:30:18 by
antihippie:
This game contains an interesting story line and a new twist on the typical 3rd person action game. Mixing shooter action with psychic powers makes for good combat, and the set pieces are never boring. What keeps me from giving it a full 5 stars is that it suffers from serious problems with the aiming mechanics and the camera that hampers your ability to solve the puzzles. Often read more
times you'll find its immediately obvious what needs to be done and how to do it, but you'll find yourself in a frustrating mess of attempting to get the game to follow along with its own logic.
Those glitches aside, this game was a pretty solid sleeper title that deserved a lot more acclaim than it got.
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