Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy

Added April 21st, 2004 by Barnolde

A few years ago, Midway was seemingly synonymous with mediocrity. The games they released were not bad, per say, but they were just average games that no one really cared about critic or consumer-wise. Unfortunately, there is one very promising game that has seemed to slip under everyone’s rader, and that game is Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy.

Psi-Ops first started out being called ESPionage, a game which claimed to be the first action game to utilize psychic powers as a weapon. Now whether this claim is true or not, is irrelevant, but what is relevant is how amazing this title looks. You play as Nick Scryer, a seemingly ordinary and generic looking musclehead, who also happens to possess incredible mental strength in the form of psychic abilities. One of the main ploys to this game is the fact that there is a seemless transition from the regular third person gunplay to using your psychic abilities, which can be used at will.

Each psychic ability has it’s own time and place to be used. The psychic powers that can be utilized are: telekinesis (movie objects with your mind), pyrokinesis (start fires!), mind control (take over enemy’s bodies), remote viewing (out of body sight beyond what your eyes show you), mind drain (one person’s brain is another person’s food), and aura view (go into the fourth dimension to see hints to aid you.)

Ever since the E3 Half-Life 2 demonstration, the Havok engine and ragdoll physcics have been everywhere. Psi-Ops of course sports these, and also seems to be similar to the amazing looking gravity gun in the Half-Life 2 demonstration when using telekinesis. You can pick up pretty much anything, and do what you please with it, whether it be used to deflect bullets, or hurl boxes at enemies. The game also boasts incredibly advanced AI, which will react to sights and sounds accordingly. They’re going to dodge and attack you as they see fit. They will take cover and call for help, which makes it only fair that you can light them on fire or force them to blow their brains out. The wide range of psychic attacks will surely make Psi-Ops a game that can be completed in a varied amount of ways. Whether you want to suspend someone in mid-air while you unload bullets into them, or just pick them up and throw them into something, and then light them on fire, while stealing the enery from someone else’s brain. Psi-Ops contains 8 different varied locations, and from the current screenshots, they all look amazing, as do the graphics throughout.

With 8 different levels, 6 psychic powers, and a huge variety of ways to get through the game or just mess around with guys, Psi-Ops looks to be a game that needs to be watched. Luckily, it will be out in less than two months, and you can expect the review by then.