After the lull of quality games this past summer, I was anticipating the Fall/Winter gaming season to be exciting from start to finish. We are just underway in October and this title seemed to be intriguing enough to give a spin. No, this is not Tony Hawk Underground 2 nor Mortal Kombat: Deception, it’s a lesser known title called: “Second Sight.” A game that seems to take the elements of Psi-Ops to the next level landed on all three major consoles a few weeks ago with little splash to the average gamer, but the critics were at least raising their eyebrows in interest. Code Masters seems to be latching onto obscure titles lately that are not your average third party games. Toca Pro Racing and MTV Music Generator 3 a few months back both seemed to be surprisingly well built games in a sea of mediocre summer titles being released industry wide. It’s these smaller titles that I really get a kick out of, that’s why I wanted to enjoy Second Sight, and that’s why I did.
The first thing I first noticed about this game was its cover and I smirked after making fun of it for looking like a Silent Hill box shot. But like most instances, I was wrong, in a big way. What you’ll find is nothing that you’ll expect. You may start the first level expecting a fun, “run and shoot” action/adventure title, but from the very first objective, you’ll find out that the conventional rules of some linear titles are thrown out the window.
No more than 10 seconds into the game, Second Sight has you utilize your telekinetic abilities by forcing open a locked door. This gives you a very accomplished feeling early on as you continue on your quest to find out just what the heck is going on. I will state that you’ll realize in the first few levels that this will be one of those games that do not take a gaming genius to figure out, but each little accomplishment you achieve along the way will make you feel like a million bucks. In my opinion, balancing rewards with difficulty can sometimes make or break a game.
You wake up as John Vattic, being held captive in a hospital of sorts where you later find out that you’ve been victim to several experiments that give you certain powers. You have multiple bruises, stitches, and bandages all over your body, taking over the life of John Vattic is a confusing one, but as the “bilateral” story gets going, you’ll only want to learn more about his past and how he ended up where he does.
When I say: “bilateral story,” I mean that you actually have two stories on two separate timelines moving along while playing story mode. You start off in a hospital (against your will, since no one will allow you to leave without force), then after each level goes on, you will switch to a story from six months prior. This features John Vattic accepting a mission to accompany a group of US Marines. Their objective: stop a mad doctor named Victor GreAnco from developing some kind of super soldier who has psychic/telekinetic abilities.
After each level, you switch between stories;the way it’s told certainly adds a lot of intrigue to this title. Loose ends start adding up as bits and pieces of information lead into upcoming objectives to make them more understandable. It’s a unique way to tell a story like this, and it puts you in the same place that Vattic is in. You’re getting the same information as our hero at the same time, so putting the pieces together as you go along gives you an idea of what he’s thinking as a character. I can compare this with the movie Memento and how the viewer actually got a sense of what the character could retrieve from his memory.
The environments are impressively detailed and fully interactive, and you’ll recognize the character art scheme right away if you’ve played the classic Time Splitters series (hence the headline: “…from the creators of Time Splitters” on the cover). The characters seem to have the same body features, mannerisms, facial structure and cartoony animation, but this is where the game finds its charm and keeps things light. The game’s musical score seems effective enough and sets the mood. Voice acting is sufficient to match the characters. The production value and overall presentation is impressive considering that it doesn’t have a big name like EA backing it, but when you start playing this game, that won’t matter to you.
The thing that surprised me right off the bat was its ability to hold my interest past the first hour or so. Most games after a few levels seem to follow various patterns to the point where you feel that you’ve played the same board several times until the inevitable conclusion. This is where most games suffer since filler seems to replace story more times than not. Second Sight on the other hand, makes you draw back from early knowledge you learn in the game and also take upon new powers to be discovered. As you progress in the game, more and more psychic powers are realized, making you use your previous knowledge (and making it “Zack Morris” in the process) to complete progressively harder tasks that may involve multiple abilities. Want to pick up a security guard using your telekinetic abilities? No problem! Want to throw a television at a lab doctor? Go ahead! It’s not very often you get to do this in a videogame, and Second Sight provides us with goofy techniques to complete average tasks. This is not to say that all tasks are average, because this game is better than that. This game is more open-ended than most titles out today; it’s a pleasant surprise to find this in a title that seemed to come out of nowhere.
Toggling your abilities is not a difficult task thanks to the forgiving control scheme. The only aspect that will take some practice is one of actually figuring out and understanding how to control your telekinetic abilities when picking up and suspending an item in space. Otherwise, you’ll be possessing government agents and throwing them against walls in no time. You can select between a third person camera, first person, or a fixed cinematic camera. Personally, I enjoy the ordinary third person camera. It functions like Splinter Cell by using your left analog stick to move your character and the right analog to rotate the camera.
All in all, I’ve found that the best game you can play is one that takes you by surprise. With little to no expectations, being impressed by the final product is one of the sweetest feelings you can have as a gamer. Gameplay will last you around a cool fifteen hours or so, not breaking any records in length, but you get the feeling that they kept the game fresh until the end. This is something that developers don’t seem to be too concerned with these days when some games can log over forty hours, but you’ll find yourself fighting redundant battles that only result in frustration. Second Sight finds common ground between length, story, style and freshness to deliver a game that won’t disappoint. Even though it may be a tad on the easy side, you’ll have fun simply by toying around with your abilities and solving some of the puzzles to be had. Those looking for a fun action/adventure title will be pleasantly surprised, and those aspiring to develop telekinetic abilities of their own, you’ll have to keep watching the Sci Fi channel.
