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"This is the only way you can have fun with amnesia."

Dr. John Vattic is having a very bad day. It seems he has woken up in some sort of medical facility, beaten and bruised, with some big problems. His eye is blood red, he's covered in cuts, scars, and blood. He also sports a rather large bandage on his shoulder, and he's on the brink of death. On top of that, he has no idea where he is, why he's there, or who he is. (Despite the fact that he's wearing a bracelet with his name on it) And to make matters worse, he's got a throbbing headache. As if these problems weren't enough, he has some strange men in suits after him, that care nothing about negotiating, they are simply looking to put a bullet in his skull. Yep, he's got a clear cut case of amnesia. So you say you've heard this story before? Chances are you have, because the whole “waking up in a medical facility with amnesia” storyline is very generic. However, the story gets much better from there. Within five minutes the doctor discovers he can lift objects using his mind, via the power of telekinesis. A few minutes later, he gets a massive headache, and discovers he has the power to heal himself.

So that's the first 5-10 minutes of Second Sight. Don't worry it may sound a little slow as of now, but the plot soon thickens. A lot. The story goes through so many twists and turns that you really won't have any clear idea of what's happening until the end. The game does start a bit slow, because the first half hour or so is an interactive tutorial, more or less. Soon the action picks up, and you'll find yourself thrown into a stealth-action hybrid, with psi powers. The game takes place during dual-timelines, the present, and the past. The past happens to be when John was on a mission for a team known as Winter-Ice. Playing these levels leaves you with a squad, and they are intelligent enough to operate on their own. You have no control over your squad, but they have good AI, as they will take cover, cover you, flank, and give orders, sometimes even to you, if you're just sitting behind a fence picking your nose.

I know what you're thinking. “What's the point of having all these nifty powers if I'm going to be sneaking around the majority of the time.” Well believe me, there are plenty of opportunities for you to use those powers, as they are perfectly incorporated into the stealth gameplay. You have many options for sneaking past the guards, although I have to admit that it was sometimes overly easy to just whip out a gun and start blasting. Doing this will, however leave you missing out on a great gameplay experience, where everything is fine tuned to near-perfection. Second Sight has a lot to live up to, as it was made my Free Radical, the geniuses behind Timesplitters2. You'll notice quite a lot of sound effects and style that has been imported from TS2, and there is nothing wrong with that. FR character design is superb, and the graphics look like a slight upgrade from TS2. Their characters have always been a bit exaggerated, and the same applies here. The characters are a bit cartoony, and it looks simply brilliant. The graphic design is slightly cartoony as well, and you can see a definite influence from TS2 in this game. Some may be turned off by this fact, but if you're a TS2 fan, or you enjoy this graphical style, you will not mind at all. One other reason to fall in love with this influence is that there are absolutely no framerate hiccups. This game, I would assume, runs off the TS2 engine, which was as smooth as silk, and Second Sight is the same.

The music in Second Sight is absolutely beautiful. It is good enough that it will catch you ear, even during a heated firefight, or while your bashing a chair into your suited opponents. I actually found myself stopping, standing still (after having my way with the baddies) just to listen to the music. It really made me think, “Wow, that's really good”. That is the only time I have done that in a game, ever. It is composed of extravagant music, that is brimming with excellence. Seriously, I have no idea how to describe this music, because words cannot describe it! It is worthy of buying a soundtrack, just to experience this music in a less stressful setting. (Take that, Final Fantasy!)

Guess what? The voice acting is good! In a video game? Good voice acting? Unthinkable! Finally, someone realized that good voice acting makes for a much better story, and will immerse you in the story much better. The cut scenes are done well, with great cinematics that further the plot. You will actually care what happens to Vattic, and will take serious interest in what's going on. It's good to see that Free Radical put in a great plot to accompany this excellent game. It's a good change from these games where you don't care whether anyone lives or dies. I would explain a little more about the story, but it is so rich that going any further would mean spoiling some of it for you, and believe me, you don't want that.

As with any game, the gameplay is the meat, and should be the strongest point. Second Sight delivers. The game is a mix of stealth, and all out blast-fests. Basically, it's completely up to you to decide how to play. The game is arguably more fun playing the stealthy way, but for twitch gamers everywhere, the game is beatable if you'd rather just wing it, and blast your way around, with guns and psi powers. The powers are integrated perfectly into the stealth areas, so that you'll be able to sneak up on a guard, and then hit them with a psi blast, or maybe use your invisibility power to sneak up behind them, and grab them. (Or anything else you may want to do with them)

You have a bar measuring the amount of psi power you have left, but it regenerates rather quickly, keeping the pace quick. You can pretty much use your powers at will, because you can always find a safe place and rest for a few seconds. Your smorgasbord of powers allows for many ways to accomplish the various missions. Using them is a piece of cake. You simply have to hold the left trigger, and then scroll through your targets. The targets have a blue/orange circle around them, showing you what you can attack, and what you can't. You have a great variety of abilities, rather than just giving you a bunch of ways to kill people, like Psi-Ops, the other psi power game. (which is just a bit worse than Second Sight)

You could have an out of body experience, and see what's around the next corner. You could use your charm ability, turning you invisible, and sneak up on your opponents, or just walk right past them. Most of your powers can be upgraded, and will give you a completely new way to use them. For example, the psi blast, which fires a ball of energy from your palm, can be upgraded to launch a shock wave in all directions, clearing the immediate area of suited, sunglasses wearing baddies. You can chose which version of these powers you would like to use, so when you get an upgrade, you are not forced to use it rather than the original version. This means that if you're are up against a single enemy, you won't have to launch your shockwave, you can instead elect to fire a single blast at said enemy. When your telekinesis is upgraded, it allows you to lift and strangle enemies, before bashing them into the walls, floor or ceiling. I won't describe every power, I'll leave them up to you to discover.

The game also features the standard weapons set that is in every action/shooter to ever hit store shelves. You have, a shotgun, SMG, AK47, etc. The one new thing is the “3rd person Sniper Rifle”. When you try and aim with the Rifle, a box will come up on the bottom corner of the screen, showing the scope of the rifle. It is then moved with the thumbstick. This allows you to keep an eye on your character, so you can see if a weapon toting enemy is coming up to you, meaning you won't be caught off guard. It keeps you in the action, and also just looks damn cool.

Since it is a stealth game, you are able to put your back to walls, sneak around in a crouched position, lean out from walls to fire weapons, or use powers, and grab bad guys from behind. This move set is featured in just about any stealth-action game, and it is surprisingly useful. It allows for you to sneak up on the baddies, and then decide how to dispatch them. Of course you could always just start shooting, and sometimes this is the only way to go. That helps keep the gameplay fresh, because you always have many options to get past any situation.

The one thing that suffers in the stealth department is in just about every stealth game I've ever played. And I've played the Metal Gear Solid series, and Splinter Cell 1&2, which are considered to be the ‘kings' of stealthy adventures. The enemy AI can be downright stupid. You could shoot up a room full of guards, leaving blood and bodies everywhere. Then, go hide in a locker when the backup comes in, and they won't even notice you. They'll walk around the locker, which happens to have dead bodies lying around it, and never open it, unless you leave a trail of bloody footprints leading into it. I can't really be too mad at the game for this, as it happens in every stealth game, even the greats. It may anger you, but it's kinda funny seeing the guards searching a room full of fallen comrades, only to decide that there's nothing wrong. After all, it probably is just a coincidence that loud gunfire was just coming from the room, and the bodies are covered in bullets, surrounding that locker. I don't know what kind of training these guys went through, but it must have not covered what you should do when an entire squad is suddenly lying dead on the floor.

What I have described is only half of the gameplay. As I said before, you play in dual-timelines, the past taking place with a squad, on a botched mission. Half of the fun is figuring out what the missions purpose was, and it has a lot to do with what is happening in the present, so it is a joy to blast your way through these levels, trying to figure out why things are the way they are in the present. These levels are pretty much shoot em' ups, but it's actually fun since you have a squad. They also require strategy, because the bullets will really get flying, so you'll need to use proper use of cover, or die. Since you don't have psi powers in the squad missions at first (you have to discover them first, it happens a little later) you can't simply heal yourself, and must be careful not to put Vattic under to much fire. Your teammates will do a good job helping you, so the squad missions are not overly difficult, but you will get into some rather intense shootouts. These shootouts are an absolute blast, thanks to the great squad gameplay.

Events that happened during the past will affect those in the future so it's cool to see things happening with the squad that directly affect what is currently happening to poor John Vattic.

This is playable storytelling at it's finest. It's hard to find a game that immerses you in it so greatly that you feel a huge drive to reach the end. So it's quite ironic that reaching the end reveals the biggest disappointment of Second Sight. It is a fairly short game, most gamers will have it completed in about 8-10 hours, depending on your skill level. This game makes you want to push ahead, in order to see what's going to happen next, so it is over a bit too fast. However, it's fun enough that you'll want to play through it multiple times. This is one of those games that you may not play a week, or even a month after beating it, but you will definitely play it again. It is that good.

Pros/Cons:

+Excellent graphic style
+Perfect framerate
+Easy , no fuss controls
+Incredibly interesting story, with plenty of twists to keep you guessing
+Story is complemented with good voice acting, and beautiful music
+Who knew you could mix stealth and action based psi combat, and make it work? The game is simply fun to play
+Good diversity in powers, that gives you a variety of ways to accomplish any situation
+Regenerating psi bar means no worrying about item management
+Also means you can use psi at will, rather than rationing it
+Uses some of the sound effects and character styles as TS2 (this could be a con for some)

-Uses some of the sound effects and character styles as TS2 (this could be a pro for some)
-A tad short
-It can be just as easy to shoot your way through, although not as fun
-Enemy AI can be a little lacking, as hiding in lockers can make the bad guys forget you were ever there
-The healing power makes things a bit easy (but it keeps things fast paced)

???Dr. Vattic looks a bit like Agent 47, from the Hitman series

Scores

Graphics:9.5
Sound:10
Story:9.6
Gameplay:9.5
Replay Value: 8.9
Fun Factor: 9.4
Overall:9.3 (not an average)

Final Word: This is a perfect blend of story elements, gameplay, music, and graphics. Second Sight is a prime example of virtual greatness. It's too bad it got overlooked, as it has already dropped to the budget price of $20. The game plays smoothly, it's fast paced, and best of all: fun! It's rare that everything in a game comes together with such finesse, and style. If you like action games, you won't want to miss this, it is a great mix of different styles of gameplay that's fits in the best possible way. Normally, mixing action, stealth, and psi powers would be a recipe for disaster, but Free Radical blends them without making devastating mistakes. It is even harder to throw in a good story, and a dual-timeline, but it has happened. It happened in a very successful way, that makes Second Sight a joy to play, and it should be in any gamers collection.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/07/04