In 2004 there was a war. Not the war in Iraq, but an even crazier war. The war between two video games: Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy and Second Sight. In the EU, these games were launched within a month of each other. I was a staff writer for a PlayStation 2 magazine at the time, and I remember a ridiculous tension in the office about which was better. One was brash, loud and American. The other was artsy, psychological, and British. But they both had protagonists with psychic powers, thus becoming the subject of a somewhat pathetic mini-culture war. Do you like Psi Ops? How basic of you. Prefer Second Sight? hipster. If Twitter existed at the time, the discourse would have been insufferable.
Developed by Midway, Psi-Ops is the story of Nick Scryer, an amnesiac psychic super soldier who is captured by terrorists and forced to fight his way to freedom. It’s a pretty basic run-and-gun shooter at its core, but lofted (literally) by some spectacularly fun, destructive paranormal powers. Telekinesis allows you to pick large objects from the world and throw them at enemies. You can also fly around by surfing chunks of debris. Mind Control lets you possess enemies and make them attack their allies, or force them to commit suicide. With pyrokinesis you can build fires, burn people alive and set off explosive chain reactions.
Psi-Ops is not a subtle game. If it was an action movie, it would be a Netflix Original starring a grossly overpaid Dwayne Johnson. It’s silly, superficial, and stretches an idea way too thin, but it’s also entertaining as hell. It makes excellent use of the Havok physics engine (a big deal at the time), with flying rag dolls, destructible props, and a plethora of huge screen-shaking explosions. Psi-Ops was completely unpretentious and enjoyable over-the-top, but the hokey plot and lackluster level design didn’t make it great. Sadly, it’s unlikely we’ll ever see a sequel, despite the ending paving the way for a sequel.
Then there was Second Sight. Developed by Free Radical, the studio behind the TimeSplitters series, this paranormal action game has a greater focus on storytelling, atmosphere and world building – and for the most part, hero John Vattic prefers to sneak past his enemies. kill. Like Scryer, Vattic is also amnesiac, but that’s where the similarities end. He is a quiet, bespectacled scientist – a parapsychology researcher – and the story revolves around him trying to mend his broken past while being chased by shady government agents. The atmosphere is very different from Psi-Ops, with a dark, moody neo-noir feel.
But there is also plenty of action. The gunfight, adapted from TimeSplitters, is tight, satisfying and fun. Vattic can unleash a burst of psychic energy called a Psi Pulse that knocks enemies off their feet. You can throw things around remotely the same way Scryer can, but admittedly, with not nearly as much destructive power. There’s also a nice selection of stealth-focused powers. Projection lets you create a ghostly doppelganger of yourself to distract enemies, while Charm can make curious guards look the other way. It’s a lower set of powers than the one in Psi-Ops, but Second Sight is a deeper, smarter game overall.
I’m a fan of both games, but my heart is with Second Sight. I like the gloomy atmosphere, the story is excellent, the cutscenes are brilliantly animated and the levels are large, varied and visually interesting. It’s also full of quirky, memorable moments. In one scene, Vattic enters a reception and kills a guard. Go to his computer and you will see that he was in the middle of an IM chat with his girlfriend. Noticing his sudden silence, you watch in horror as increasingly desperate, tearful messages flood the chat. “Where are you?” “What is going on?” “Are you OK?” I’ve never felt so guilty for killing an enemy.
As you probably guessed, I was on Team Second Sight. It’s just a more classy game and Free Radical was one of the best developers of the PS2 era. But the ‘war’ between these two loosely linked games was ultimately pointless, as both offered completely different experiences. If you wanted something sneakier and a little more story to chew on, you could play Second Sight. But if you just wanted to rip a chunk of concrete out of a wall and surf it while firing a machine gun, Psi-Ops was there. Both are great in their own right and worth revisiting today. I also think it’s about time the paranormal shooter made a glorious comeback, and a sequel for both games would be most welcome.
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