I remember playing Psi-Ops back in the day on the original Xbox and all of these years later, it lives rent free in my head. So that must mean something. I give it a 4 out of 5 stars.
This game is incredible for the time it was released, you can have a lot of fun with it, but it's not a game that will hold you back for any reason.
There were some interesting things about this game.
Psi-Ops is not a perfect game, but it might be my perfect game.
A wonderful, fun-first action game where the entire selling point is giving the player a thrilling set of powers that are actually fun to use. The giddy thrill of rag-dolling enemies with your superpowers eventually gives way to a much deeper experience. Levels are excellently designed, allowing you to really experiment in either chaos or fine strategy. I managed to skip an entire puzzle by using the game's unique mix of powers and physics, in a manner not unlike something you'd see in a twitter video of Breath of the Wild. Despite its short runtime, there is a lot of room for experimentation.
The story is nothing - or at least it seems that way at first. By the end, the cheese factor had won me over and I was genuinely a bit gutted to see it end on a cliffhanger. Not because of the characters, but because it just feels like this is a bygone era of games - and just like this story, we will probably never get back to it.
Despite some wonky set-pieces in the fourth quarter, this is a wonderful game that you could breeze through in one session -- and I hope some of you do.
A wonderful, fun-first action game where the entire selling point is giving the player a thrilling set of powers that are actually fun to use. The giddy thrill of rag-dolling enemies with your superpowers eventually gives way to a much deeper experience. Levels are excellently designed, allowing you to really experiment in either chaos or fine strategy. I managed to skip an entire puzzle by using the game's unique mix of powers and physics, in a manner not unlike something you'd see in a twitter video of Breath of the Wild. Despite its short runtime, there is a lot of room for experimentation.
The story is nothing - or at least it seems that way at first. By the end, the cheese factor had won me over and I was genuinely a bit gutted to see it end on a cliffhanger. Not because of the characters, but because it just feels like this is a bygone era of games - and just like this story, we will probably never get back to it.
Despite some wonky set-pieces in the fourth quarter, this is a wonderful game that you could breeze through in one session -- and I hope some of you do.
So I played this in tandem with Second Sight, just to see which game about being a psychic super soldier holds up better, and surprisingly, it's not even a contest. Just a loud, stupid action game about flinging enemies away with psi powers, this is the ultimate in psx trash. This game us just nu metal personified.
Goofy story and writing, but awesome gameplay with great level design that offers multiple solutions to any problem. Controls are a little wonky with a controller, but since the PC version would not work for me no matter what black magic incantation I cast on it, I had to deal with it.
I wonder what happens in the sequel
This is like Galerians but for morons that think the government is beneficial to society, fuck the feds
This game has everything you could ever want: gameplay revolving around ragdoll physics, sick mind powers AND a nu metal theme and tie-in music video That's it. It's over for the rest of these pretenders out here. I'm like that guy in that Junji Ito manga about fitting into the hole. This is my video game.
This game barrels over It's own stupid ass by being dumb fun. Fun that is dumber than anything it can be criticized for. I want more games where you levitate on doors. I want to possess the body of a man to kiss another man. I want to set people on fire. I want to harness the near infinite kinetic potential of my mind to order Chipotle on my jailbroken Neurolink. These are things only Psi-Ops The Mindgate Conspiracy can deliver. The limitations of what you can do here are gen six console processing and what I can fucking do with my mind.
WITH MY MIIIIIND
WITH MY MIIIIIIIEEEEIIIIND
This game barrels over It's own stupid ass by being dumb fun. Fun that is dumber than anything it can be criticized for. I want more games where you levitate on doors. I want to possess the body of a man to kiss another man. I want to set people on fire. I want to harness the near infinite kinetic potential of my mind to order Chipotle on my jailbroken Neurolink. These are things only Psi-Ops The Mindgate Conspiracy can deliver. The limitations of what you can do here are gen six console processing and what I can fucking do with my mind.
WITH MY MIIIIIND
WITH MY MIIIIIIIEEEEIIIIND
The last two levels lowered this game's ranking significantly
Hours of time spent in the sandbox mode, throwing around enemies. Using all the powers. Being amazed at the ragdoll physics!
Best part of this game is that the controls really do make you feel like an unstoppable superpowered killing machine.
The psi-powers were actually quite cool and well implemented. A quality sequel could have potentially made this a solid franchise
If not for the unfortunate fact that this game ends in a cliffhanger, I'd give it a 4.
Dang, this was shelved almost as soon as it came out.
Devs, heed the warning and STOP doing cliffhanger endings, no matter how confident you are that your game will get a sequel.
Dang, this was shelved almost as soon as it came out.
Devs, heed the warning and STOP doing cliffhanger endings, no matter how confident you are that your game will get a sequel.
I have kind of a soft-spot for this game and I remember playing this so much back in 2005 - and I think the one main draw of this game is just how well it exploits the central gimmick of a shooter game with psionic abilities, taking that one bit from System Shock 2 and making it just way more satisfying to use. Really, you can't deny the absolute pleasure that comes when your first gain the telekinesis ability - then using that to throw people about, with amazingly satisfying ragdoll physics. And there's the one where you can control people's minds, one where you can drain people's minds to a point where their head just pops, the one where you can literally throw fire at people (and two shitty ones that nobody uses outside of a few puzzles here and there.)
Seriously, it's really good with that regard. It has a central feel where it's something that people were just seeing what they could get away with - and I would probably highly recommend this game if it wasn't for the storyline of it which is just really disappointing. It starts off well enough with how it goes super in-depth about psionic abilities and "The Movement" and there are some really neat visuals in this game - but then most of it is drawn with all of these bizarre caricatures like "Here's the big black guy with super telekinetic powers. Here's the guy who bleats on about 'Meat Puppets' with super mind control abilities." and so on. Also, this game is way too short (lasting probably about 4 hours in total) and also infamously ends with a "TO BE CONTINUED" logo - despite the fact that there was no sequel to this game nearly 20 years after the fact.
Seriously, it's really good with that regard. It has a central feel where it's something that people were just seeing what they could get away with - and I would probably highly recommend this game if it wasn't for the storyline of it which is just really disappointing. It starts off well enough with how it goes super in-depth about psionic abilities and "The Movement" and there are some really neat visuals in this game - but then most of it is drawn with all of these bizarre caricatures like "Here's the big black guy with super telekinetic powers. Here's the guy who bleats on about 'Meat Puppets' with super mind control abilities." and so on. Also, this game is way too short (lasting probably about 4 hours in total) and also infamously ends with a "TO BE CONTINUED" logo - despite the fact that there was no sequel to this game nearly 20 years after the fact.