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Mind games with Psi-Ops

Psi-Ops is a third-person shooter with a twist, offering gamers tons of fights and many interesting puzzle-solving sections. This is a game that is sure to keep fans of the genre busy for hours on end.
By Tyran van Zyl
Johannesburg, 12 Nov 2004

<B>Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy</B>

[SidebarPicture]Platforms: Sony PlayStation 2, PC, Xbox
Type: Third-person
Developer: Midway Games
Publisher: Midway Games
Number of players: One
Retail price: R489
Supplied by: Ster-Kinekor
(011) 445 7940

I remember seeing the preview of Psi-Ops on my copy of The Suffering a few months back. I knew then that I simply HAD to get this game.

You play the role of Nick Scryer, an elite operative placed in the middle of a corrupt organisation called The Movement. You must bring The Movement down from the inside.

But what you don`t know is that Nick was mind-wiped to make him seem like any other normal human being. The saucy Sarah Blake - who after freeing Nick and handing him a pistol, injects him with a serum that slowly restores his memories - helps you in your quest. One by one, Nick`s mind powers begin to awaken too.

This is a third-person shooter (with a twist). There is a lot of fighting and puzzle-solving. The cool thing is many puzzles have a number of ways they can be completed.

Some of them involve key-cards, while others need Psi powers.

As your mind powers awaken, it is played out in a flashback sequence to your days in the Mindgate academy, where Edgar Barrett trained you. He takes you through a crash-course of telekinesis in which you fling boxes and gas tanks at test subjects.

Every time a new power is awakened, you will be treated to a similar training course to teach you the basics.

These powers include telekinesis, allowing you to move people and things with your mind; remote viewing that allows you to leave your body behind so you can sneak around and get a look at what lies ahead; and mind drain, to allow Nick to drain energy out of enemies and fill your psi-pool.

One of the coolest features of Psi-Ops is the ability to use your mind powers in combination with one another. For example, you can use pyrokinesis to set an enemy on fire and use telekinesis to throw the burning corpse at another enemy.

Another awesome feature is called telekinesis surfing. Get Nick onto a box and focus your telekinesis onto the box and you can lift the box with him on it and move it around.

Although awesome, the game is not without its bugs. There are places where your gun completely disappears and Nick is left standing, holding fresh air.

Also, there is a part of the game when the inventory screen just popped up for no reason. Another criticism is the completely useless map. It took me a few hours to figure it out (and I STILL don`t know how to use it).

Graphically the game is great, the models are realistic and I can see a lot of time went into their development. It`s too bad that the backgrounds are not anything to get excited about.

There is also no real soundtrack, only a little voice acting that is 'so-so`, and a touch of ambient music here and there. However, the little annoyances aside, Psi-Ops is a good investment and I loved playing every second of it.

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