Second Sight

Fantastic little touches abound, adding up to a firmly cohesive, engagingly structured, marvelously imagined setting to explore. [Oct 2004, p.67]

The storyline is everything you'd expect from a game by Free Radical, as is the look. The gameplay is also very solid, although one of these days someone is going to have to learn how to make some really good enemy AI.

The combination of a fantastic story, clever puzzles, strong (albeit psi-lite) combat overcome any gameplay nitpicks or deficiencies.

Though it's a bit rough around the edges, Second Sight packs a huge core of ideas into what could have been a standard shooter. Powerful psionics, extensive gun combat, and a great story are all just part of the plan.

It's got some flaws and it's not very long or replayable--you'll probably finish it in 12 to 15 hours, without much incentive to go back to the beginning--but it's fun while it lasts.

If "Metal Gear Solid" and Second Sight were at school with eachother, Second Sight would dress the same way, dress the same way, and wear the same clothes, which is a great shame.

It’s almost unfortunate that the first couple hours of Second Sight are really good. You won’t care that the action is too easy or that the A.I. is dumber than Teddy Ruxpin because the plot is good and the characters are interesting. But by hour six or so, the plot loses its mystery and the gameplay holes become increasingly frustrating.

Released at about the same time as Psi Ops (that also featured the use of physic abilities) Second Sight is the superior of the two largely thanks to the quality of its storytelling. The player takes on the role of John Vattic who awakes from a coma to find himself trapped inside a government facility with no memory of who he is or how he got there. As the game progresses he gradually discovers that he has a number of psychic abilities and these of course play a huge part in the gameplay whether it be in solving puzzles or defeating enemies. The fact that these powers can be used pretty much as often as you like does arguably make the game a little easy but since it is such fun to test out each new power it doesn't really matter. Aside from the odd difficulty in highlighting the correct target when using your abilities the controls are also well implemented and after a bit of practice become quite intuitive. Alongside the psychic abilities the game also features a selection of high powered weaponry such as shotguns and machine guns. These are a little too easy to come by at times and the game can often be played as a straight first person shooter but that would really defeat the purpose. In the end while Second Sight may have the odd flaw the interesting story and excellent implementation of the psychic powers makes it a game that is certainly worth playing.

It's a good game, and many mechanics are original and fun... but its short, the story is disappointing and there is no reason to beat it again.

i played this on xbox which took me 2 days to complete really loved it..... i decided to play again only wish it would reboot this game on ps3 and xbox 360 with Better graphics

With Second Sight Free Radical created an outstanding and excellently well narrated story, presentend in their unique comiclike artstyle and characteristic music known from the Timesplitters series. The cutscenes are cinematic presented and even for the simple artstyle the facial expressions and gestures of the protagonists are much better than many games of its time. Also the maps, which seem to be bland at first, offer lovely details if you watch closely. Sadly this is only one side of the medal, the game itself is barely mediocre. They try to offer alot. Stealthy close combat or no combat situations, heavy shootings and psychic abilities, yet they are all poorly implemented. The enemies seem to be born with the poorest eyesight and a severe braindamage, while your invisibility and similar psychic abilities are very strong. The controls and especially the aiming system is just laughable sketchy for 2004, but at least its playable. Many times the game gives the illusion of offering various solutions, but its mostly linear. Stealth parts needs to be done stealthy or you get endless waves of enemies. Escort missions has to be done the expected way and shootouts cannot be outsmarted by sneaking around it.. As much as Iove what this game wants to be I also hated to play it. You will have to play like 6 hours to see the end.

the kind of game that should only be played once and never again because the replay factor is horrible. Midway's PSI OPS is light years ahead of this "game prototype"