Playing Second Sight: Life Saving Headaches

free-radical free [ __ ] radical these lot were [ __ ] fantastic if you haven't heard them here is their claim to fame they made the bloody brilliant time splitter series this was my Goldeneye growing up split screen on timesplitters 2 in particular with something you could lose ours too it was fast and frantic shooting with monkeys and an arsenal of insane weapons and while each of the games had a meaty single-player component multiplayer was always the focus and timesplitters always delivered it's also the reason I don't mind FPS on a controller keyboard mouse is objectively better but I got used to both sets of controls pretty young timesplitters gave me a bit of a sweet spot for it we're not here to talk about the time splitters games mind we're here for second sight and is a far cry from time splitters it's a totally serious third-person stealth game that's wholly single-player with a focus on psychic powers to boot it's also fairly different from there later title haze by virtue of not being a titanic piece of tedious [ __ ] which I'm still better about oddly enough this is also the only title free-radical released to see the light of day on PC timesplitters 2 and future perfect for multi-platform and so release on the PlayStation 2 Gamecube and Xbox meaning the online components for these games never really went anywhere they're entirely single-player game on the other hand got a PC port I just find that a little bit curious good shot free radicals suddenly dissolved sometime after work on haze they were nearly finished working on his little game called what was it oh yeah Star Wars Battlefront free the company itself wasn't completely done however free-radical became Crytek UK doing work on the multiplayer portion of Crysis 2 and they also did some work on Crysis free and then they pretty much went in the [ __ ] or again now what a sad [ __ ] notes begin this review on a you can read up further on this but I promise the only pretty much gets worse the deeper you dig so that's on your own initiative there is one bright spark if not for the company then for timesplitters itself in that we may someday see the release of splitters rewind a fan project that got Crytek's blessing now I wasn't originally going to do a full review on this and instead was going to do a comparison video between second site and another title that came out around the same time that also had psychic powers as a main gameplay feature psyops the mind gate conspiracy then I was going to do a bit of wondering why we don't see any games that do psychic stuff anymore after replaying second sight I felt it deserved a review all to itself so psyops will be another day as of this writing there is no way you can buy the PC version of second sight digitally one last thing before we dig into this game and just a side note for you and myself this is the first review that I got cracking on right after finishing the last one and I was hoping it'd be done sooner in the month but my plans got scuppered when life got in the way and this particular part of life involved sitting in a toilet stall of a boom mic for an extended period of time go figure then a bunch of University work happens and it was somewhat related to that on to the review before we start the game proper let's just appreciate what you see before you even hit a button this is John vac you'll be playing as him for the next several hours and well he seems a bit dumbfounded by that computer and he just can't find a comfortable spot for his chair then again I guess ergonomics are important on the screen you can see the profile select so maybe he's just flabbergasted by the profile I've created that's called John vac sucks because I think he's a decent protagonist I've got to say though John you're not exactly inspiring confidence well maybe he's just questioning the fact that it's not plugged into anything it's [ __ ] magic then we go into John's point of view and into the main menu so we're playing the main character playing the main menu ain't that lovely I'm going to play through the game on challenging when I beat the game a year or so ago I found that we're a bit of a bullet sponge on Normal difficulty having now beaten the game on both settings I would suggest challenging as the better experience and the one that a majority of this review is based on so after learning that our protagonist probably isn't NIT the game begins with him getting wheeled into a high-security mental Hospital hey come on Harry it was me true what you got yeah yeah shish shish Khayyam ever one John awaits and he's got that old plot disease amnesia luckily psychic powers kick in to remind him that he has that much going for him now this is a great opening it makes you appreciate a game that organically teaches you how to play why can't I remember anything we have to learn how to use our telekinesis to escape our cell and then we get a room of medical equipment to experiment with I really think I should practice this new ability of mine it might come in useful John or patience JV 3 4 4 is also taking this a bit too well I've got to grips with my new power I need to get out of here it's two rooms down we get healing I think I'm free to not use it so I can't help by kind of warrants it we've got a small mess of hallways and labs and our only escape is a lift with a code lock this opening gives us a few button of dialogue prompts but otherwise we're left with our own devices to how we deal with the guards and scientists also roaming the halls on the way to figuring out the code you can attempt to sneak by or do as John says I wonder whether I can scare them away using my new telekinesis power deficit he's taking this in stride we could try and interrogate the scientists we can kick the guards nice kick there John you smuggling in bricks with those slippers there is only one actual solutions progress and that's finding the code on a computer I guess on by looking at the lift on a map screen this is a great cold opening it's got just enough direction but it leaves room for guessing plus the dye jaqen Peter interface the game has comes as a nice surprise I love the computers in this game this clunky son of a [ __ ] UI the fact they go to screen saver John guessing passwords when he doesn't have the actual solution where am I gonna get the password from anyway it's just great because it lets you tour of your starting power and figure out how to deal with problems on the way to objectives we nab the code John is actually more competent with a computer than we were led to believe and he heads off to the left whereupon he has a headache and it has the unfortunate yet narratively helpful side-effects and flashbacks I'm addict it's six months ago to John John has been called up to join an elite military operation in Russia like all speckled crews they're willing to give a civilian 20 minutes of prep time did you handle the sidearm they said my role was strictly advisory then advise yourself to get some weapons training after the cold opening six months from now this section pretty much halts the entry kills the momentum and puts those two on the back burner so that a bloke named Tex checks that unites a circle around corners they make sure John is capable of using his arms using his arms to grip [ __ ] using his arms to shoot [ __ ] oh and it's not just the arms either they make certain his knees can bend we get a pistol firing range and a sniper one you'll have to figure out every gun between these two while out in the field trial by fire and on you have to run the same course twice once with a gun once without this tutorial covers every movement in the game except for pressing buttons I guess they give John that much credit it also serves the purpose of introducing you to the wind race team most importantly Colonel start with by 10 o'clock Hill reaping free-radical regular played Cortez in times blurs it's timed as split Colonel Stark is a man who is wholeheartedly bought into the idea of positive reinforce my good work you do skinny good work good work colonel have the gate open good work colonel while it was locked it was still just a gate the rest of the team doesn't get much screen time but they get enough time to differentiate each of them and it makes him feel like a squad of individuals rather than some blank slate sent to shoot [ __ ] plus they don't mind that John is so damn fidgety he's got one hell of an idle animation going on all in all though this tutorial is a drag the first time around it took me 20 minutes on this playthrough and I'm pretty sure that's my record for fastest completion then we're off to a mission briefing now John has been asked long on this mission because his job is a debunk savings I don't confirm and this is all about tracking down a psychic researcher so nice and snug narrow us pipeline in Siberia and his name is Graham Coe the u.s. approved this mission because they were warned about green code by someone named Jane wild meet Jane wild dr. vadik I know who she is is she's a mystic she's a fake she's your adviser hello John good to see you again I think John has a right to feel a little bit slapped in the face every time I publish your special adviser attacks my work for being straitjacketed by the scientific method doesn't the then call for weighing evidence before drawing the conclusion therefore the scientific method demands that you go and fight in a dangerous mission in Russia John was the only logical way I'm not going to say Miriam basically Jane can get away with this because she saved Southern California once by predicting a suitcase nuke and as this footage no doubt spoils John did end up going to Siberia Jane did decide to stroke John's ego though because no one else can save us and so winter ice sods off to go get chilly and catch a psychic winterized yep that is what the team was called John if the first thing I recovered off the amnesia struck me was a tutorial like that I just go and headbutt some concrete but now this game gets good after that so is the flashback and more eventful left right ends John steps out and his new escape plan runs into a hitch Scott wait a second to download grammar I let it let me explain I would still try out okay just love the fact that he tries to act coy with this guard and well that was embarrassing for both of you but at least John learned something from it take a hint dead guy and with that we got the SIA tag John heads through the facility to the patient records room grabbing the opie charm of Ellie and an even more Opie tranquilizer gun on the way and we arrive at patient records with only a minimal stir caused John looks up winter ice finding out that Jane was killed in action this causes another flashback this time to Siberia what am I doing here Jesus John did you actually [ __ ] the whole way there his whining triggers an ambush Jane runs out into enemy fire to ward a little shed and John follows somehow knowing that a shed would blow here John and Jane then proceeded to single-handedly wipe out of days of Russians and then John returns to the present aah aah and Jane has now been promoted from dead to institutionalized in Vermont with nothing else to really go on and I imagine not much else on the old itinerary John heads off to find her and while John sobs off to do that I'm going to sort off from the story for now it's talked about gameplay the sections of the game taking place in the present are more stealth oriented John is for the most part on his own and has to depend on guile and psychic powers to get by meanwhile the Siberia sections are more action-oriented John's working with a squad you're funneled into more enemy encounters but you're better equipped to deal with them the different gameplay focus between these two keeps things interesting and make sure that Nova stealth noir action gets dull to solve second sight quickly however it's a third-person stealth game built around psychic powers the closest comparison I can make for it is calling it a British maiden that will get solid where you play as a whiny power-down Psycho Mantis so I hope that's everything you've ever wanted then why do you want me here we now John controls well for the most part this is bearing in mind that the game was built with consoles in mind so the WASD controls feel a little bit clunky and this clunkiness of course extends to taking cover behind walls it also makes trying to grab enemies from behind a worthless endeavor John has to be so close to an enemy to get grabbed prompt and with WASD controls it's just not happening you're gonna bump the bastard and they don't respond well to it whatsoever bit of an overreaction if you ask me these doctors don't know who I am I should try to use this to my advantage conversely trying to talk to people without murdering them is a terrifying experience because you're trying not to spontaneously grapple and kill them it's a bit like normal social interaction the bond mapping is a little bit curious and you may want to rebind I didn't do so and I ultimately got used to the controls but there are a few odd choices in the default setup is mostly to do have control and shift cycling through camera modes the spacebar also handles way too many different functions and you see that poor rectangular bastard when presented with more than one option will always pick the wrong one one little function I do like is that mouse wheel up cycles weapons and mouse wheel down cycles powers it becomes somewhat intuitive after a while I figure I wouldn't like this quite as much if the game didn't pause when you go to swap out for a different gunner ability and I feel the generally slow pace of the game actually makes me overlook the clunkiness of the controls in the way the game handles switching the slow pace in combination with the controls gives every action you make a very heavy deliberate feeling both in combat and stealth gameplay everything feels considered and it does emulate being average guy thrust into a bizarre situation very well in this sense as for how this average bloke sees the world well we got free camera options we've got cinematic camera and fun first-person cinematic camera is nigh useless I mean it's pretty good if you don't want to actually see where the enemies are it [ __ ] excels in that circumstance luckily you never ever have to use it it's just kind of there in case you feel theatrical third person is a standard third-person stealth game camera and first-person is for examining things up close or killing enemies at a distance of your preference you can't move in this mode but you can lean so thanks to this you can have a good amount of fun playing second sight like time crisis running between cover popping out to return fire and plus fun I also think leaning is the reason why it is only one or two mirrors in this game fruit psychic power there John we've also got the wimpiest mealy I've ever seen yeah John throw your freakish arms Adam [ __ ] up those orderlies possess someone get them to hit you in the face see how you like it the way Kombat handles is unique and it keeps the feeling of John being a bloke out his death in third person you've got soft lock on old our name and hope to [ __ ] that John is angry at the same guy you are you can't move the mouse around in hopes of hitting a limb and you have to do very quick flicks with a mouse to change targets it's a little bit finicky but it functions well enough and it makes pulling off headshots on the fly understandably tricky the sensitivity of mouse aiming changes depending on distance from whoever you're shooting at and this gives the combat a certain sweet spot too far or too close and things get tricky first-person aiming gives you more precision and thanks to poor enemy AI at times you can just corner bait them and pull off easy headshot it's a good panic option however it's easier to handle groups of enemies in first-person mode where it's free game instead of lock-on like I said John's not an experienced soldier and the aiming in this game captures that fairly well well saved when he's using a sniper rifle but he's a gifted little marksman this is some silent scope tier stuff combat is enjoyable but it's balanced well enough that it feels like a fallback option not a first resort I'll get more into this when we start talking about stealth the more weapons selection is pretty standard you've got a couple of handguns which don't really do for much a submachine gun two assault rifles which don't really differ much a shotgun and a sniper rifle well it doesn't exactly have much variety q TD aiming mechanics in the way weapons handle it's a game where you find yourself swapping pretty often depending on the circumstance handguns are precise but they fire slowly smg's an assault rifles aren't exactly all that great John's hands but they're great for keeping groups of enemies suppressed the shotgun is the only things works well the third-person aiming at close range and of course the sniper rifle helps with those bastards just stand a little bit too far away the funny quirk of the way in this handle makes a sniper rifle actually function better in third-person and the actual first-person mode while everything else is pretty much the polar opposite while the selection is limited the way weapons feel distinct from each other and the fact they actually fulfill different roles makes them satisfying to use the tranquilizer gun also falls under this somewhat in stealth is the most broken thing going it's silent it has infinite ammo and it reloads quickly but once the LED starts flying it loses some of that former appeal one bit of design that I only half understand is the game taking weapons away between stages it makes sense when jumping between past and present but in stage 2 take place moments apart John just telekinetically grabs his Garen flings it into orbit so we can start fresh I find even order about this is that every stage it doesn't start you with a tranquilizer gun has one within spitting distance whoops Jane just swallowed my tranq luckily the gods sort fit to hide a backup one in the fountain well did that spoil part of the story certain weapons are also unique to certain stages and by I mean there's one instance of it the revolver and a sawn-off in a New York ghetto stage the adds a decent amount of character to this level and thanks it a weapon loss between stages it means John respects their natural habitat there are of course a few downsides to combat while I do enjoy the clunkiness of it it's definitely not for everyone and I realize I may be romanticizing it's designed more than a little bit well normal difficulty the game could definitely come off as too easy John had some iron flesh [ __ ] going on before we even got the psychic powers the biggest annoyance is by far the invincibility frames the enemies get whilst they're in a hit animation it's just frustrating and it makes shooting at groups of enemies feel a bit like spinning plates overall though the guns are decently weighty they feel enjoyable to use and your psychic powers do not end up stealing the show from your lawn gain options on that note let's see what powers we've got here telekinesis of course doesn't actually work all that well for throwing stuff at people I mean it's doable but it's really for its own sake and it's just kind of insulting to the forces on that you're [ __ ] killing it does upgrade and let you throw people at stuff though which is a pretty good substitute sadly throwing people at people seem to be right out I love throwing people out the stage for the most part however telekinesis is used for utility in a fight it can be handy to fall back and to play sometime if you need to reload multiple enemies that you want to tranq out of the way we have that side tack and it comes with two forms arranged ball and a blast move and both forms of it a really too costly to be used most of the time and the ball form is outclassed by guns for the most part I tend to forget about disability healings healing you can do it on yourself or whoever you may be escorting it locks you in place and drains a ton of meters so using in a fight isn't exactly wise our greatest aid and stealth Sansa tranquilizer comes in the form of charm probably my favorite use of invisibility in a game and my favorite ability by far it's John convincing everyone around that they don't actually see him I love that explanation for it and trying to activate while someone's shooting at you as a few repercussions yeah mental diplomacy only goes so far plus it doesn't work on cameras which on all that common anyway mostly there is projection which can be used to scout our areas ahead of time hit switches and mess with computers from a distance and possess people which does make for some fun ways to mess with the enemy plus it's just broken they don't give a [ __ ] that Ted just decided to shoot the cameras the SOB does it every week keeps budget folk on their toes if you look at the powers overall well they're really worthless in a fight and I appreciate that fact every Power John has is defense and stealth oriented with firearms being your offensive option and it makes it so that combining the two is the greatest way to use them it also creates a great balance in that John is clearly incredibly powerful but those psychic powers only give him so much leverage they need to be used cleverly to have any real impact in both combat and stealth you are playing as the underdog but your abilities allow you to be underhanded enough to get [ __ ] done and most importantly of all the powers are just plain fun to use flinging guards never gets old charming your way through high security is thrilling taking control of an enemy and having him run out into the open to be gunned down there's well it's sociopathic but who's judging the stealth is really enjoyable thanks to this before you get your psychic powers the stealth is tough but it's not incredibly noteworthy with the inclusion of psychic powers it remains challenging but it has a good amount of variety to it levels are spacious in areas tend to have multiple routes through them you've got security cameras and you can track down their control station to shut things down and make the game easier typically you have to find a code as well but that only adds to the hunt there is the problem that the enemy AI is impressively oblivious and they got their eyeballs donated directly from the guards of Metal Gear Solid and without the solids on radar bed sighting distance is pretty much impossible to gauge overuse of charm and projection in conjunction with hidey-holes and a whole ton of patience does pretty much give you impunity to all but cameras and even then you can just track down that Ted feller and remove them from the equation as well also the punishment for getting caught in a stealth section is brutal gods are dropped in infinitely and shaking them off as an exercise in frustration this is in conjunction with the fact that many level objectives become near impossible to complete while on alert locked doors that need computer codes or key cards to get through the security checkpoint that requires evil waiting for an opening from another guard or getting tricky with projection I guess the only other thing telling you not to just blast your way through is the morality start in the menu screen which I have no idea how to quantify plus their blood spilt that's a great name for a statistic and pretty [ __ ] morbid the game spends more time with stealth than in action segments and luckily both sides are enjoyable and more stealth is definitely more fleshed out the action is used sparingly enough to keep you on your toes it feels like a punishment during the sneaky bits but wits with Wyatt it's definitely enjoyable I can forgive the god shoddy AI and the fact that you can make the stealth a bit easy if you use your abilities to their fullest because the punishment of getting caught is sufficiently brutal it lets you know that you [ __ ] up as for some graphical stuff well the art style is shared with the times close series so I associate this look with an over-the-top series about time crystals and sideboard monkeys and despite that I think it ends up working really well here the cartoony a snake in combination with the down-to-earth character designs in a drab environments just works and it sets the downbeat tone pretty well plus I think the look at this game holds up well considering it came out in 2004 and I need that in general really the only gripe I have with this games look is that some secondary characters don't have all that well in cutscenes while everyone else is decently expressive a strange quirk about this game I haven't really been able to figure out is there every time I launch this game it seems a cap at 50 FPS and considering those 50 Hertz Telly's we had over there in slow refresh rate land at the time I sort of understood it managers started launching at 57 FPS it once even made it to that magical 60 it just seems to pick a frame rate out of the Hat and run with it and you know I can respect that it's like a little lottery before you even launch as for resolution the highest sixteen by nine ratio we've got here is 1024 by 768 I played it in four by free though can't offer a good explanation as to why I did that one thing the second site does brilliantly is background music this atmospheric is all hell and they work perfectly of the stages for the most part it's a moody oppressive soundtrack the adds to the tone of each stage perfectly one thing that does drag this down is a wild every stage has unique ambient music there's only one alert thing throughout the whole game and it gets pretty phrasing not only because it quickly becomes associated with failure the stages are also rife with light touches along the way that helped with world building and make the stages feel more alive in one of the Siberia missions you can just take some time from your mission to play a fully functional arcade machine ok I mean the game's a little bit simple but hey it's that in the mental asylum we can have a chat with a few of the patients Jack therapy makes me seem pretty star ah I Duke of Wellington I always expected you while your armies prepared well if you first escaped in the intro there's a unique conversation for trapping the two guards from the opening cinematic in your cell okay okay very funny now be a good psycho and press that switch so I can brain you during the New York ghetto stage where John has to infiltrate a street gang John can possess gang members and there's unique dialogue recorded for John as a gangster I've completely regarding our Starks hiding you film in a mean yo hi there New York Street gang buddy and well it's [ __ ] hilarious my favorite of all is back in that Asylum though you can find a computer disk in one of the supply closets you can then backtrack to a computer for yet another minigame seeking these things out is a ton of fun and rewards exploration well I only happened upon that disk by accident there's probably more [ __ ] in this game that I'm not aware of those themselves can look a little bit bland in places but they're well laid out they often have multiple ways to head through sections of them and considering the more concentrate story than the time split series they've attempted to offer an eclectic selection of places and objectives obviously to Siberia areas are all a bit Siberia ish but the modern sections changing locales often enough to keep things fresh there are some unfortunate dick moves in the level design considering how they're handled I'm not quite sure what to make up most of them when we first get projection it's demonstrated in a cutscene John uses it to shutdown and head for a laser gate if you don't then turn the gate back on when gameplay resumes gods will come in from behind and spot you granted looking at the footage I lucked out because well there are I say [ __ ] sucks but you won't be around to defend yourself if they do spot you you'll be too busy [ __ ] about with the new ability you just got but one point on the stage you can perfectly stealth route to enemies will be dropped in right behind you and will then zero in regardless of how you handle the rest of the stage some areas also drop enemies in where you're not looking after you clear every other enemy out these incidents happen really infrequently but they're really irritating especially because for the most part in this game you can scout areas out and plan ahead so every time you get caught of god it doesn't feel cheap it just feels like you [ __ ] up but then something like this just comes and kicked you up the ass because you're not a psychic well you are sidekick but I get you're not but the bloke you're playing as is well I'm saying is if you pass through a door in and around cutscenes make sure you close that bastard when gameplay resumes the point is these don't feel like curveballs the enemies are dropped in where you've got very little recourse unless you know they're going to be there ahead of time alright gonna set off back to the plot now so if you want in on the game and still want the rest of the story to be a surprise this is your spoiler warning and this is where I'd stop watching second sight is a very rewarding stealth game and while it's not the best story ever told it's well paced delivered well the conspiracy hoarding the plot together unravels nicely and the villain looks like a pissed-off Niles crane that got gene-spliced with a lizard so what's not to love so John is found out that Jane is somewhere between dead and institutionalized and well he wants to put the matter of which to rest so we nabbed a car and slipped off the bomb on bust into an insane asylum stops place of video and then finds Jane much worse for wear but better than earlier in a different timeline that's a chain you can do it come on it's time to go the first half of the insane asylum portion is a pretty straightforward stealth mission even if this insane asylum is worse than a David cage games take off you go guard you crazy abusive diamond leave the stage in your profession behind all don't waver the second half is an escort mission with a crazy Jane who gets spooked by loud noises so lethal is pretty much off the menu I mean you can calm her down with charm plus tell her to wait in to follow thee for an escort mission it's not actually bad at all if you need to meet Jane wait around well then you can play it like a regular stealth level just with the added caveat that you've got to double back every once in a while they escape into the sewers and the refreshing smell of a storm drain fixes Jane right up what about the colonel where is he and this news is so traumatic that John goes into another flashback it's in this cutscene that you learned why you'd be sad that Colonel Stark died here Mirjana just sitting out in the open deep in enemy territory far away from the rest of the team basically giving the researching Russians with their rifles the middle finger when said Russians turn up with sniper rifles Stark is more than happy to charge their position armed with only a pistol you've got to respect that follow us also John is seeing blue ghost children we'll take that as it comes see all the Devils we know you seen go static current I think we should file agree or do the two of them stumble on an old pipeline facility being used as a base so John heads on in and clears out single-handedly Jane does not to pick anything he also decides to beat their high score and shoot some pool in the process of humiliating the enemy John also figures out where their head is next allowing winterized to follow and continue humiliation okay we'll check it out job well done and all that but then the colonel is possessed by that psychic ghost child and it tells John to come save them before having the colonel sawed off to a train station where he's ambushed while the ambush is very slowly being carried out John and a ghost child have a bit of a chinwag come to the brains city bus kid or safety brakes later from the project John this is not the time or the place you easygoing twit John the colonel how can I help you help us what do you mean psychic real Freegal old school because it's not real I realize you get paid to do this and your skepticism is [ __ ] impressive right now but you are talking to a blue ghost child kid just giving the powers and make him show his face this will help huh right Cheers kid then John finally saves the colonel thanks for waiting up guys John was busy up there the colonel inspect his ambushes equipment and comes to a chilling realization this can't be right what this equipment it's not Russian it's you were Special Forces you mean yeah our side does that mean that those accents are dumb affectations okay squad search him and watch out for Honor's good I hope that's the case we flash forward to the present he's here starts alive and a bloke named Hanson has turned not to be slimy while everyone else does all the work trying to catch the 2:00 bus begins a sewer escort mission and it's not god-awful I mean it's definitely one of the dullest levels in the game just a statically and in layout except for this room I mean holy [ __ ] look at this it's like the origami killer's luxury suite the two Scarpa boroughs sewers the Colonel's a lie of course he is and thus the to go off screen to nab a car and head up to New York to find stuff he apparently came here off of a Siberia mission ended in failure at least according to these two agents of exposition what a dump why here yeah his old neighborhood couldn't face the music every screwed up in Russia as for John and Jane well to put it lightly they're not the best at this cloak-and-dagger malarkey circle the block this mission is probably my favorite overall yet conversely it also is my biggest right flip the game John has to ingratiate himself with Starks gang otherwise they won't let him pass elsewhere on the stage find a woman who needs a package delivered despite not knowing who the help John is or having any reason all to trust him she'll just give him the package if you save one of our mates was hanging around outside was busy being badly beaten me it makes no difference he just hangs around in the corner actively not giving a good word I'm looking for a friend of mine we delivered a package across the road and it's Robert friendly and perhaps two thrusting gangsters basically has you as gang's insignia as a tattoo what's that nice how lovely of them now we can go and meet the code the gang members are a little bit questioning but ultimately accept the fact that this bloke suddenly got a tat surprised and shocked kora agents attack so John gets to show of his marksmanship his psychic abilities and finally his people skills how's it going good night huh yeah guess so freak then we head up to meet the colonel it's a short mission but as an eclectic set of objectives a good bit of humor at the expense of the main character a good mix of stealth action and exploration two unique weapons in a well laid out stage packed with extra details it's also probably one of the shortest stages in the game now for the bad it's only really one thing but it's a pretty big one you can't just sneak to the Colonel's apartment and end the mission sooner you can try but Stark's gang just zeroes in on you the exact moment you stop using charm plus they respawn infinitely is really contrived there is no sensible reason for this to happen especially considering sneaking past should be a valid option and especially because the gang never comes up again so it's not like they need to know John exists for the rest of the narrative to work how do you contact the damage and just like it to the apartment on Normal difficulty it's still really stupid hey guys I didn't know you all psychics - nice to meet you [ __ ] like any good New York apartment of the Colonel's there's a whole bunch of conspiracy [ __ ] on the sole table owned by the occupant in this case Stark who isn't a fan of people sneaking into his place he's pleased and a little surprised to see John however considering the fact that the rest of the team died in Siberia something that start drills into John as he goes into another convulsive life-saving flashback first begins teamwork my favorite of the Siberia missions is a squad combat mission but you've got full access to your powers and the whole of winter ice is here which means you can possess your squad mates the one LMG this game has is carried by an ally and I don't think they wholly considered what would happen if you took control of it look at this it's [ __ ] nuts and I love it if once what me dies that's it game over so you're also unhealing duty along with the actual medic who if you ask will patch you up and ask just how the hell your healing works dr. Ballard patch me up sure John here you go Hey I thought the colonel said you can heal yourself now yeah takes a lot out of me you were just standing that's a bit harsh job especially considering well he is under fire again this mission hits a really good sweet spot in terms of balancing our action you've got a bit of stealth and some light puzzle-solving I mean it's really just opening up the door of projection but it does break up everything else I heard a door open nearby I mean this part of game is basically went for I saying bucket and assaulting a for head on because it stands in the way of brianc oh they aren't even trying to be subtle anymore one thing that does sadden is this is the one mission in the game at this scale these two missions of a high point for me and I'm sad to say this is the one mission that really utilizes the squad in such an interesting way and spoilers after this mission they're gone we go it was like a wasted opportunity and it's just bizarre because the game starts scaling back after this the story looks pretty thick yes Vatican does we'll never get it open from out here someone really doesn't want to send out I guess some of Jane's psychic intuition is rubbing off on John come you get bigger less of the smart dogmatic winter ice breaks into a four and we find soldiers gunning down civilians we jump in go I don't G go and this ambush is what killed the winter ice team that's kind of insulting good going lads be glad I'm here too what with the timeline so you don't embarrass yourselves so if I'm in the other timeline did John get bored and just decide to shoot them in the back that's the only explanation I can think of Jane Lane says the woman they saved was the key but John just shoots ahead six months into the present where he forgot what that means couldn't stuck back for five seconds there John no well teams alive and kicking now and start shows us that the psychic experiments in Russia were a success Raj and Hansen some bigshot bloke in national security is now repeating the experiment stateside it's handsome the director of tactical weapons research for the NSC he was there the compressed with agents rushing the block John decides to set off to deprive the United States of super soldiers a noble goal at Benning oh also Jane is kidnapped John takes this in stride he heads to NSC headquarters whereupon we get to see his character development can I help you I'm here to see director Hanson and you are John John vadik I guess you've heard of me went from a confused whiny bloke to a cocky son of a [ __ ] I'm on board I like it good stuff can't say the same about the mission however the progress you need to do a very specific set of actions that aren't very well explained second sight never hand holds too much luckily for the most part the correct path is usually very easily grasped and exploration of the beaten path is even rewarded or at the very least does not feel like a waste of time not so much here first off grab a set of disks if you didn't find the video game in the asylum level this feature has never come up at all plus there is nothing to drive you to this closet let alone to the disks on the wall I think I'll take one you never know when something like this could come in handy yeah truly you never know then go and read a small post-it note on the opposite end of the level this has an email on it that will let you log on to a computer then go and read Hanson's emails one of them has a video attachment burn it to a disc man enters the room looking for the cleaner that you just tranquilized fur into a ball killed or all of those so you do the same to him then go to a different computer boot the video file from the disk onto a projector then go to the media room but be sure to [ __ ] with the faulty wiring and the metal detector on the way talk to the media room good job mission complete that doesn't actually sound that bad does it the funny part is I'm sure this is the shortest mission in the game if you know what to do from the outset you could probably clock it in at 5 minutes probably under there it's just that it drops in completely new elements of our explanation and things are pretty poorly directed regardless in the media room we find out those psychic soldiers are taking off in a pretty big way and John isn't really gonna stand for that so he triggers a flashback all by himself I got to get back to deburr ensk let's just hope to fight nod walks in and sees you doing that we were warned by the woman we saved six months ago but if anyone but John heads to do brains to Brent's scream with the deep brain that the difference - Bren sky can never say that right on the first guy they'll get torn apart my psychic children I know me John I would stop being a whiny [ __ ] heads off without any complaint for his only instruction ding the lab is beneath a church what do you tell I love is it from this point onward deaf now has a unique cutscene hand it's pretty dire look at me I'm your friend I'm the only friend you have left yeah you are I'm here to help you I can't Ravech I can help you to remember and I can help you to be strong just trust me thank you that's quite all right take him to the labs prepare him for the surgery now that's a way to make you hate the villain it does play every time mind but it can be skipped pretty much from the first frame so it's not too annoying in the village of Russian town we get introduced to the new shock trooper enemies his journey ends here psychic soldiers well I say psychic what I mean is that they have shields this is actually where the SIA tech finds a good niche as it breaks their shields in one go remember when I pitched ages ago the game just drops two guys in on you from behind well guess what it's two shots troopers in a wide-open area the thing is shock troopers are just plain not fun to fight they're bullet sponges you're pretty much guaranteed to take damage fighting them even knowing the site at which you blow through their shields it's little consolation they do up the feeling of threat at least but the first two times you come into contact with Shock Troopers you're made to fight them head-on which drills in how [ __ ] they can be pretty squirrely oh that either way we get to the church and head down into the labs and wonder if that altar lift was already there what degree anko get that custom meanwhile grant Co isn't having a great time down in the labs because while he's a bit of a bastard Hansen is on a whole other level but what should we do with him sir now when he's finished get rid of him while you're down in the rather spacious church basement trying to access the lab don't Trang call the guards you need them for hand prints yeah you can make this part unwinnable in the labs proper we find Hanson's men trying to gun down kids they're not doing a very good job of it and arson early punished now we get to actually ambush Shock Troopers and [ __ ] me this is way more satisfying you have to fight them but at least this pot lets you play around with being a sneaky underhanded [ __ ] and it's enjoyable for that much and we get to read just how horrifying the psychic research was while gunning down the perpetrators you can get down with this on a gameplay and narrative level after we save as many children we can find they take us to agree on Co this is a masterpiece I was repeatable results in psychic phenomena can your mind grasp the implications I have some idea yeah John warned him about Hanson's up-and-coming betrayal and well John does point out the experiment on kids is a wee bit looked down upon this is shame for the old [ __ ] really I see he's quite excited about the whole psychic deal and he thinks he's going to America necktie Hanson if John starts fading back to the present even finish my back they're a little bit salty he starts blasting or charming his way through NSE headquarters possibly doing both as we near the end we run into some actual psychic enemies it's a great fight they are such bloody pushovers you can run circles around these guys easily they've got some of your moves they can throw [ __ ] they can charm but they're so slow about it now I love rival fights and while this is fun it's fun as a curb stomp not a boss battle as I said earlier all but one of your psychic powers operate best in tandem with firearms all for avoiding a fight entirely then you get a boss fight where those powers or all the enemies get this isn't a match between two equally matched opponents just John versus two [ __ ] who can pick things up from a distance they might as well have litter Pickers for all the good it's doing them Plus this is what we're fighting so hard to stop are we trying to save Hanson from embarrassing himself spare the blokes feelings the real shame about them is that while we see shock trooper enemies again these guys are just boss fights in this one room I think I'd be better if we got to fight them alongside regular enemies but nope that's it after we kill the three rather disappointing psychics they've got Hanson sends a bloke to escort Jon to his office once there him and John have a heated debate and we find out that Hanson's plan was done haven't you the very reason it has succeeded No I'm the reason it's gonna Elle please do you really think I would have allowed you to escape unintentionally your little runaround was nothing more than a test granted it does seem to be working for him at least if the end game of this plan was being in the same rooms a dangerous pissed-off psychic who isn't just pissed off in general but rather pissed off in your direction I'll suffer the little children well how delightfully evil the cards have been dealt and I hold the winning hand you can't change the past and how on the nose let's do just that John probably should have pointed out that his psychics were absolute shite before he went back but I guess he has a bit on his mind I mean he does also have Jane hostage it's circled block good enough leave that where's Hanson director Hanson he's examining the specimens your crazy he just wants tissue samples he'll slaughter us all I've seen it happen it's not true you can't know six months ago Priyanka is get your notice and first begins the final level and it's a [ __ ] slog we head deeper into the bowels at a research lab and inside we find free shock trooper gauntlets in a [ __ ] row the first two are short cramped rooms with little to no cover and the third to fine always a wide-open scaffold with only marginal cover now dealing with two Shock Troopers in a fight can feel like a matter of luck if you face them straight up you should feel lucky if you walk away with half your health remaining well here they want to drop four of them on you at a time repeatedly with a checkpoint only after each gone look whenever I said before that you have to be underhanded because you're outmanned and outgunned I meant clever use of psychic powers or finding ways to make the enemy's numbers worthless I did not mean I had to exploit shitty AI to even hope I could win because that's the way it is evil the best plan I could come up with one little hitch and I'm [ __ ] dead it's a tough final stage I'll give it that but it's not fun it's just meandering and slow murder with pretty much nothing of what I enjoyed about the rest of the game no exploration no mixing of stealth and combat just advanced through this psychically shielded waist-high mud you see the gauntlets are locked off until every enemy is dead so you can sneak about but you do eventually have to raise the alarm because you're going to have to shoot someone after each gauntlet Jon starts skipping through time and we get the twist worthy revelation the interrogation room Jon you've got to understand you're not really here what do you mean this is not the present this is a possible future don't you see Jon the children that's how I knew you would save us she isn't gonna die it's not gonna happen you can't change the past she are so wrong Hansen this isn't the past ah it's the present yep all those present levels were just a possible future that we were circumventing in Siberia now that's a good time [ __ ] their free radical right and if we die in one those possible futures we also die six months earlier and the checkpoint in the past present is before the [ __ ] gauntlet and sadly the final boss isn't good time factory we reviewed final boss we free some kids kill some waves and the final boss is a [ __ ] window this glass is bullet and safety where the [ __ ] you get slight proof windows so that [ __ ] made in house anyway it breaks and Hansen is eaten by psychic children pick me you little bastard alright then we leave having successfully deprived the us of what we now know would be no worthless psychic soldiers they had no idea of the potential in Russia practically zero we cut to John looking sad as winter ice alive and well being extracted there are many possible reasons he could be sad it could be that he's just seeing a man get eaten alive it could be all the murder or it could be that he's going to have to go job hunting it will be hard for him to waltz back into psychic debunkers limited come Monday I just feel like his heart wouldn't be in it anymore and with that the credits roll save for the twist I'm sad to say that second sight really Peters out in the final quarter everything before that point however is a really well-made game and it's a good story well told with a likable cast of characters and a detestable one where appropriate the psychic powers are well utilized in the way they're balanced with the weapons there's an eclectic selection of levels and objectives that keeps a good deal of the game moving along and keeping things interesting but one conclusion I came to in writing this review was basically that I wanted more of it I mean I guess it's complementary to say it in an eight-hour game I came away feeling I didn't get enough more time with a winterize team both to give them a bit more to do and to [ __ ] about with a mix of squad combat stealth mechanics that in the ending is Fanta climactic the final stage doesn't play to any of the game strengths whatsoever in the end though it's a really unique beast and it's a damn shame it didn't do better when it came out and it's got a lot of charm I would really recommend second sight while it's a long way from being the best game ever made there is nothing I've played that's quite like it and it's definitely worth experiencing for yourself

Channel: Tehsnakerer

Views: 215,148

Keywords: second sight, second, sight, game, free radical, timesplitters, timesplitters 2, review, Second Sight (Video Game), gameplay, timesplitters: future perfect, haze, PC, playstation 2, xbox, gamecube, stealth game, psi-ops, psi ops, second sight gameplay, second sight review

Id: C4F3Kqjno80

Length: 54min 25sec (3265 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 30 2015