Full Review for Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy by tomsmiley18

Introduction

First of all, Psi-Ops is one of my favourite games, it's almost unique as there are very few games that could even be considered similar to this game, such as; Second Sight and Destroy All Humans. But neither can be considered as good or as satisfying as the game that is about to be reviewed.

The game follows a man named Nick Scryer that is captured by a revolutionary terrorist named The Movement group during an attack on an oil refinery. After attacking a guard during the introduction of the main bad guy (The General) he is placed in solitary confinement and realises he can't remember his past. The only one that can help him is a double agent named Sara Blake who claims that Nick and her are working for the psi operaions arm of the US military called Mindgate. From this moment you as the player must go on uncovering Nick's past on a quest to stop The General's evil plan, using his psi agents he is taking innocent people and brainwashing them to do exactly what he wants. And the only way to stop him is by killing mind controlling blind men, phsyco men that only exist in spirit form, Germen women that launch fire from their hands and many more. Apparently an amnesiac can't just go home for a cup of tea and biscuits.

Graphics

Psi-ops may seem a bit to cartoony for some, but compared to some games released at the same time as it, graphically everything is very impressive, from charecter design to backrounds. Even the psi power animations are stunning. Midway quote in the special features section of the game that when they created the animation for PK (pyrokinesis) they didn't want to create something that felt like magic, what they wanted was to create something that felt like a raw wall of fire unleashed on a path of destruction. And it does exactly that, almost nothing can stop it until it hits a wall. Another small addition to Psi-ops is the inclusion of the ragdoll physics engine which makes even the death of an enemy a joy to watch. Each enemy reacts realistically to every attack possible in the game, if an explosive barrel explodes next to someone they will literally go flying across the room, including you. The FMV secuences (video cinematics) are not even comparable to those from games such as Final Fantasy or God Of War, but they are well excecuted. The intro scene creates a believable attack on an oil refinery. During gameplay the graphics can pecome quite gorey. Midway semm to want you to blow up people's heads up at almost every possible moment. Smack a grape with a hammer to realise what it's like. One power has been implemented just to do that, and there are many more ways to brutally murder everyone. Basically the graphics are amazing but the cutscenes let it down, they're good, just not stunning.

Sound

Just like the cutscenes, the sounds are good just not brilliant. Every normal enemy has the exact same voice and in one level you will hear every one of their frases. All they say is that they will kill you or that they don't know where you are. Though not a serious problem it does deduct from the overall experience. The gameplay music is basically always the same, but apart from these two things everything is fine. All sound effects are realistic and every crash, bash, explosion, head pop, power, gunshot, footstep, death, door opening, burning, etc... Sounds exactly how it should. The voice acting of the non normal enemy's and main caracters is also reasonable, they each make the situations believable. Except for when the main character Nick Scryer is hit by a flying train carriage and is knocked flying he gets back up and says "ow".

Gameplay

This is obviously what Midway have put the most effort into. Every scenario literally makes you feel like a god. There are six powers available overall which are unlocked during the story of the game, TK, the ability to lift and throw objects and enemys from great distances, RV, the ability to send your spiritual self out of your body to see through doors and spy on enemys, MD, the ability to suck the very psionic energy from enemy's heads and blow them up, MC, the ability to leave your body and possess other people to do exactly what you want, including killing people that could be their friends and commiting suicide, PK, the ability to throw a wall of fire from your fingertips and AV, the ability to see another dimension and invisible things, it's not as exciting as it sounds. These powers create dozens of ways to murder your opponents, combining them with each other and the enviroment. On each level there are many, many deathtraps to use on the poor enemys. (They can't even control themselves, sniff...) But it's all worth it in the name of fun. On the first two missions you will be able to chuck people into burning lasers, blow them up with gas tanks, throw them on to electrified floors, launch them off of high ledges, trap them under descending lifts, lock them in poisinous gas chambers, have them burnt alive in boiling hot furnaces, shred them in spinning fans etc... It pays to be inventive, and it's fun. But you could just opt for the common way, shooting them to death and throwing, boxes, benches and barrels at them. You can even throw them about and use their dead body's as weapons against his friends. Later on there are even more ways to take care of them. But I would double the size of this review describing half of them, this game really is a bit to violent and i'm surprised it hasn't been critisized yet. All of this and popin' their noggins remains satisfying right through to the end.
Throughout the game there are seven bosses to fight, each more creative than the last, and played on elite difficulty the game is a real challenge, even on easy it is hard if you haven't got an instinctive mastery of the dualshock 2 control pad.

Lastability

The main story is pretty short with only eight missions but once the game is complete there are extra missions which provide some easy and frustrstingly hard challenges including bowling with giant skittles and a ball the size of you, pool where you use PK and TK combined with explosive barrels to pot all of the balls, a survival mode where you have to, uh, survive... An onslaught of zombies in a graveyard, and many more. There are dozens of skins to unlock, some of which have improved powers and some of which are from other Midway games. It's not hard to realise which ones can do what because they comply with which power they have mastered in the story. There are also three modes to play the story mode in which are, dark mode (nearly no light), co-op mode (terrible, one person controls movement and another the guns and powers) and arcade mode (you are timed and win points). But even with all of this it is not necessary as there are multiple ways to complete each mission. Even finding different ways to murderise your opponents can be fun. (believe me. It is)

Overall

Overall this is a great game worthy of a place in anyone's game collection, but those who prefer non-violent games (which can be just as fun) should stay away. Anyone that wants to feel powerful should buy this straight away, as it's probably in a bargain bin by now, it's sales were terrible (god knows why). If you feel put down by the world then now is your chance to unleash your power on the world and laugh in it's face as you do it. Popping heads will satisfy your violent needs beyond belief. Just don't lose your head (ahem. Sorry) with enjoyment as you play.

Final Score: 86%