(this review will have mild spoilers)

So, as someone who didn't play this game as a kid, here is a somewhat untainted, nostalgia free review.

The reason why I bought this game at all was because I was a HUGE Timesplitters fan, and played all three of those to death, so I thought I'd give one of my all time fav developers another go.

I played on the hardest difficulty.

For starters I think the graphics look pretty okay. I'm a big fan of the character design Free Radical does, although it is definitely not as creative in Second Sight as in Timesplitters, it still gave me a nice comfy feeling seeing very familiar animations and visuals.

The gameplay is quite clunky, and you can REALLY tell it's 2004 console third person action game controls. It translates rather poorly to mouse and keyboard, but once you get used to the jank it's manageable. I did however find myself frustrated at some of the more challenging parts where precise gunplay and quick swapping of powers/weapons was needed.

What was really cool about the game, though, was all the different psychic abilities. They all make for some cool and fun gameplay moments, and the pacing of how and when you unlock them is done very well. I would have, however, liked if they had more open ended solutions to most tasks. Sometimes it really feels like the game wants you to use a certain ability, and only that, so some more variety in how you would solve certain puzzles or enemy encounters would keep it from getting kinda stale towards the end.

I did however REALLY enjoy the computer puzzles. Albeit simple, they were a really cool way of interacting with the world and story, and I found myself actually wanting to read every tidbit of information I could get my hand on. It makes the whole world a little bit more believable, even though some of these workers really need to learn more about password safety :p


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Story wise I felt even more disappointed. I'll try not to spoil too much, but I felt they could've taken the story in a much more ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ way. It felt kinda tame and left me with a rather sour taste in my mouth when I was done. Very predictable, which is why I felt the story was going in another direction. The ending felt kinda rushed, too.

It was so obvious and over the top at some points I was certain the story would go completely M. Night Shyamalan on my ass, but I was left very disappointed when it was in fact just an obvious rather boring story.

Skip to under the line if you don't want me to spoil what DOESN'T happen, because now I wanna give my two cents on what I was really hoping the story was doing at the midway point:

To me; all the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the main character experienced were so cliché and boring I genuinely thought it would end with him actually just being a schizophrenic mental hospital patient. They could've made such a powerful story relating the player to the insanities these people sometimes experience, and man oh man would it have been good, if executed correctly. After the first 2 hours I started doubting everything, thinking that this was such a good way of showing psychosis symptoms and delusions, but no; turned out it WAS all real and it was just another bland, fairly naive story.

The first time you meet... uh... I already forgot her name, the other psychic woman, and the whole squad got split up, I followed my gamer instinct and tried to kill her when I got bored. I killed her, then got a cutscene of the main bad guy interviewing us; asking if "killing and hurting people is fine with you?" I think this is where the biggest seed of us just being a very mentally ill person REALLY started taking a hold, and I was really eager to find out what would happen.

The biggest reason as to WHY I even bothered finishing it was because I thought this type of ending would redeem the whole game. But no, you are the chosen one with psychic powers and you are the hero and oh my god please save us!!!
How sick would it be if you just turned out to be someone suffering from SERIOUS schizophrenia? I don't know man, I thought it was a cool concept, until I realized towards the end that that ending was all in MY head, and I was suffering from mediocre story psychosis.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Music and sound design is pretty okay too. Some of the tracks were pretty good, Graeme Norgate is one of my favorite video-game soundtrack producers, but even so it is kinda more in the background in this one. Very rarely did it do anything but serve its purpose, which is fine.

Other sounds are also pretty good. A lot of them are kinda nostalgic to me, since I played so much Timesplitters, like the Soviet Rifle, or the camera detection sounds. Dialogue delivery is mostly fine, but sometimes there was a few unintentionally funny deliveries.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(this review will have mild spoilers) So, as someone who didn't play this game as a kid, here is a somewhat untainted, nostalgia free review. The reason why I bought this game at all was because I was a HUGE Timesplitters fan, and played all three of those to death, so I thought I'd give one of my all time fav developers another go. I played on the hardest difficulty. For starters I think the graphics look pretty okay. I'm a big fan of the character design Free Radical does, although it is definitely not as creative in Second Sight as in Timesplitters, it still gave me a nice comfy feeling seeing very familiar animations and visuals. The gameplay is quite clunky, and you can REALLY tell it's 2004 console third person action game controls. It translates rather poorly to mouse and keyboard, but once you get used to the jank it's manageable. I did however find myself frustrated at some of the more challenging parts where precise gunplay and quick swapping of powers/weapons was needed. What was really cool about the game, though, was all the different psychic abilities. They all make for some cool and fun gameplay moments, and the pacing of how and when you unlock them is done very well. I would have, however, liked if they had more open ended solutions to most tasks. Sometimes it really feels like the game wants you to use a certain ability, and only that, so some more variety in how you would solve certain puzzles or enemy encounters would keep it from getting kinda stale towards the end. I did however REALLY enjoy the computer puzzles. Albeit simple, they were a really cool way of interacting with the world and story, and I found myself actually wanting to read every tidbit of information I could get my hand on. It makes the whole world a little bit more believable, even though some of these workers really need to learn more about password safety :p [h2]Gameplay and level design 7/10 - Some really cool moments, some really tedious moments. It suffers from its age [/h2] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Story wise I felt even more disappointed. I'll try not to spoil too much, but I felt they could've taken the story in a much more mindfucky way. It felt kinda tame and left me with a rather sour taste in my mouth when I was done. Very predictable, which is why I felt the story was going in another direction. The ending felt kinda rushed, too. It was so obvious and over the top at some points I was certain the story would go completely M. Night Shyamalan on my ass, but I was left very disappointed when it was in fact just an obvious rather boring story. Skip to under the line if you don't want me to spoil what DOESN'T happen, because now I wanna give my two cents on what I was really hoping the story was doing at the midway point: [spoiler] To me; all the mindfucks the main character experienced were so cliché and boring I genuinely thought it would end with him actually just being a schizophrenic mental hospital patient. They could've made such a powerful story relating the player to the insanities these people sometimes experience, and man oh man would it have been good, if executed correctly. After the first 2 hours I started doubting everything, thinking that this was such a good way of showing psychosis symptoms and delusions, but no; turned out it WAS all real and it was just another bland, fairly naive story. The first time you meet... uh... I already forgot her name, the other psychic woman, and the whole squad got split up, I followed my gamer instinct and tried to kill her when I got bored. I killed her, then got a cutscene of the main bad guy interviewing us; asking if "killing and hurting people is fine with you?" I think this is where the biggest seed of us just being a very mentally ill person REALLY started taking a hold, and I was really eager to find out what would happen. The biggest reason as to WHY I even bothered finishing it was because I thought this type of ending would redeem the whole game. But no, you are the chosen one with psychic powers and you are the hero and oh my god please save us!!! How sick would it be if you just turned out to be someone suffering from SERIOUS schizophrenia? I don't know man, I thought it was a cool concept, until I realized towards the end that that ending was all in MY head, and I was suffering from mediocre story psychosis. [/spoiler] [h2] Story 3/10 - It really disappointed me. GOD, I WISHED THEY DID SOMETHING MORE WITH IT. [/h2] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music and sound design is pretty okay too. Some of the tracks were pretty good, Graeme Norgate is one of my favorite video-game soundtrack producers, but even so it is kinda more in the background in this one. Very rarely did it do anything but serve its purpose, which is fine. Other sounds are also pretty good. A lot of them are kinda nostalgic to me, since I played so much Timesplitters, like the Soviet Rifle, or the camera detection sounds. Dialogue delivery is mostly fine, but sometimes there was a few unintentionally funny deliveries. [h2] Music/sound design 7/10 - Nothing amazing, but not bad either [/h2] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------