Second Sight - Review

Added January 23rd, 2005 by Kisan Parikh

Introduction:

Second Sight, developed by Free Radical Design, offers gamers with a new mind based stealth action game that promises unique gameplay and an intriguing story. Second Sight delivers on these promises, but there seems to be a few unpolished areas where the game has room for improvement. These rough areas may not take much away from the game, but it just may have kept the game from being a truly great game. Let’s take a look at what Second Sight offers, as well as what we wish was done better.

Gameplay:

Second Sight allows you to take control of a character named John Vattic, a man who has just awoken from his coma. Vattic has lost most of his memory, but he finds that he has developed incredible psychic powers. During the course of the game, you are presented with the task of remembering who you are, what happened to you, and why you have these psychic abilities.

If you think this would make an enthralling storyline, then you are correct. Through a series of flashbacks, the story is revealed. These flashbacks are of the past when John Vattic was being trained, on a mission, and more of the same. The game alternates between the newly awaken John Vattic with psychic abilities, and the John Vattic of six months ago, who was approached by the military mission for his expertise. In this way, you discover about John Vattic's past through the flashbacks, and you learn about what happens to John Vattic in the present as well. This way of telling the story is both unique and interesting. I found myself wanting to continue playing the game for hours just to see what happened next.

The most innovative aspect of gameplay in Second Sight would have to be the psychic abilities. These abilities are revealed mostly through cut scenes, and every ability is very useful. Telekinesis is the first psychic ability that John Vattic discovers. You use telekinesis to unlock a door from the other side of a gate enabling Vattic to escape from an area. Next, while walking through a doorway, your second ability is discovered. This healing ability is one of the most useful in the game. I’ll leave the discovering of other abilities to anyone who decides to pick the game up, because I don’t want to ruin the game for anyone.

In order for the game to be balanced, you have a psychic ability bar below your health. This bar depletes according to what ability is being used, as well as how long you use it. Sometimes, if a psychic power is used incorrectly, a flash will appear, and your bar will reduce to nothing. This attempt at balance is one of the things I wish was done better in Second Sight. The bar doesn’t seem to take enough time to recharge, so the game is easier that I would have liked on the Normal difficulty mode. Also, I didn’t like that toggling through these psychic powers involves the entire game pausing while you chose the desired power.

The game also gives you the option of using firearms. These firearms include pistols, tranquilizers, sniper rifles, and more. The aiming system is basically auto aim that allows for fine tuning. When using a sniper rifle, you get a window in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen which mimics John Vattic’s view through his scope. This method of aiming works very well with the game, but it does have its flaws. For instance, you may want to shoot the guy on the left, but the targeting system locks on to an enemy on the right that is much farther away. This is annoying, but it doesn’t matter too much, because it seems like John Vattic was actually born with the capability to absorb bullets. These flaws aside, the firefights you are presented with can be very enjoyable, because Vattic can use both cover and psychic abilities to his advantage.

Not everything in the game is about using psychic powers and shooting people. There is a large stealth element present in the game as well. Vattic can press up against objects to hide behind, crouch, crawl underneath objects, and use psychic abilities to evade enemies. In addition, Vattic can grab enemies, talk to them, and even use them as shields. The game also offers many confined spaces for Vattic to hide in if an alarm was sounded because of too much running and gunning. These spaces can be searched by guards though, so be sure to keep peeking out to check. While jumping out of spaces such as closets, you may get shot a lot from behind, but this is mainly a camera issue.

This brings us to the next topic of gameplay, cameras. You are offered three cameras throughout the game. These include 1st person, 3rd person fixed, and 3rd person free. First person mode is not very useful for obvious reasons, and third person fixed does not allow you to see all around your character. The only time where you would be forced to use first person is when crawling through small spaces on your belly, where the game automatically switches to this view. Third person free is going to be the one that is probably used the most, but it has its flaws as well. In certain hallways, the camera gets stuck on walls, and for the most part, the camera system just doesn’t seem as intuitive as the one featured in games such as Splinter Cell.

The levels are designed pretty well, and making you way around them is easy enough. In many levels, you are alone, but there are levels in which you are alongside a buddy or squad. These missions are enjoyable, and they include working with a squad to force your way into a location and protecting a single friendly. Missions revolve around getting something from one place to open up another area, getting out of an area, protecting someone, and more of these same. Instead of just throwing switches, the game offers a system based around using computers. Using these computers involves using the left thumbstick to move the mouse. These computers can open doors, provide maps, and allow Vattic to access records. You can also find a number of fun extras on certain computers. As well as having the computer to provide maps for navigation through levels, there are also visual signs on the walls. These signs can be read aloud by Vattic to help you know where you are going. Another key to getting around the levels is using your special powers. Using telekinesis you can throw switches behind walls and do certain other things to keep you moving.

Overall, the gameplay of Second Sight is well done for the most part. The firefights and use of psychic powers are implemented very well. I wish that the rough edges such as cameras, easiness, and the flaws in the targeting system were not present in the game. I feel that the overall unpolished feel of the game, not just in gameplay, kept Second Sight from being a much better game.

Graphics:

Second Sight offers solid visuals for the most part. The effects when special abilities are used are quite spectacular, and the environments look pretty solid as well. I think the developers leaned for having cool effects rather than incredible textures. In this, they were successful, because the lighting and shadows in the game look pretty spectacular. As far as characters go, they are pretty similar to the characters in Time Splitters. This means that they are not incredibly realistic, but they get the job done and fit within the game.

The animations were superb as well. All of the running, walking, and other movement looked natural within the game. One problem I did run in to was some odd occurrences with the physics system. These include enemies landing in odd positions as well as objects continuing to move much longer than they should. Overall, I think that I would have liked a cleaner look to the game, but I’m not complaining because the environments and effects look great.

Audio:

The sound effects are impressive in this game. The music sets the tone of the game with its eerie and mysterious tone. Sometimes the music calms down during firefights and speeds up at odd times. These strange occurrences don’t happen enough to be a real distraction, but they are puzzling to say the least. The voice acting is pretty well done as well, and includes a wide range of accents. The sound effects that play when a psychic power is used are quite successful, and they keep away from being too obvious and cheesy to be believable. When an alarm goes off, you may get a bit annoyed by it, but it serves its purpose in making you want to get it to stop as soon as you can. Overall, I liked the sound in Second Sight because it fit the style and general attitude presented by the game.

Controls:

The controls implemented by Second Sight are intuitive, but has one flaw that I feel has to be mentioned. This flaw is the fact that the aiming of a firearm and the aiming of psychic powers share the same control system. This was done for simplicities sake, but it also means that you have to switch back into the tedious, game-stopping weapons/powers switching mode. This was my main concern in the controls, and the rest is easy to get a hang of and serves the game well.

Replay:

The game takes a maximum of 8-12 hours to beat, and offers only one mode of play. As you can see, replay is the area where Second Sight suffers the most. I’m pretty sure that playing on a different mode of difficulty won’t offer any relief to the lack of replay value in this game, because the desire to unravel the story would just not be there. If only they could have found a way to implement multiplayer or co-op in some way.

Summary:

As said earlier, Second Sight is a solid game that could have become much more. The great idea used in telling the story, and the solid gameplay make the game a potential big hit, but certain elements of the game needed a lot more polish. This, as well as the lack of replay value makes Second Sight an average game at best. For those that are interested in Second Sight, the price is only about twenty dollars, but if you think you have time to beat the game in a weekend, a rental is a better idea.