Playing Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy: ESPionage
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- Опубліковано 10 кві 2015
- Yeah, ESPionage is the games working title, and a way better name at that.
The idea for these two reviews did start as a direct comparison between Second Sight and Psi-Ops, so here is an abridged version.
from a distance, the two of them do have quite a few similarities. Both have an amnesiac protagonist who uses a mixture of guns and psychic powers.
Second Sight has a conspiracy in the plot, Psi-Ops has the word conspiracy in the title.
They're both third person that have both stealth and action mechanics. They have a similar set up, but they take them in very different directions in gameplay and tone.
Second Sight is the slower of the two titles, the psychic powers are slow and considered. It's a stealth game with large, winding yet linear stages.
Psi-ops is an action game, the psychic powers come out in full force and when the game attempts to limit them it ultimately suffers for it. The stages are again ultimately linear, but tries to disguise it with backtracking.
Second Sight is a downbeat story with well placed moments of levity within the gameplay. It's well written and well acted.
Psi-ops is confused, it feels half like a straight faced b-move thriller that you'd laugh at with your friends, and half like a saturday morning cartoon. It jumps between them with seemingly no self awareness, and this is a game with a giant black man who changes hair styles in the flashbacks.
I am infinitely more welcoming to the puzzles in Second Sight, as they are generally better designed and mesh well in a slow paced stealth title. When solving a puzzle in Second Sight, you are doing it while trying to avoid detection, it heightens the challenge.
In Psi-Ops the puzzles come after you kill every enemy in an area and feel like the game putting on the brakes rather than flowing from point A to B.
Second Sight runs out of steam near the finale.
Psi-ops runs face first into a sheer cliff, blames you for it, then asks you to scale it for it's appeasement. My personal pick between between the two would be Second Sight, it comes down a lot to what you want however. If you want slow paced stealth, go with Second Sight, if you want bombastic action, go with Psi-Ops. - Ігри
![Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy [Any%] in 26:50 (PC Loadless) [Old PB]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3nouZ9JtsYs/mqdefault.jpg)
1:35 Wait. Did that guy just get blown up, lose his arm, do a fucking flip and then land and keep fighting without hesitation?
I think I see why the Movement really won.
Yes.
It’s the Legend27.
Worship him.
HE IS OUR KING
(Jk I’m a weirdo don’t mind me)
secret psi-elite?
That bit ALWAYS gets a 'That rules' out of me lol
I love ragdolls in mid 2000s games, like SS, Psiops, Punisher. There's just something about their weight, or lack of it, that is simply fun to fuck around with.
B-b-butts Butts These days you only have two ragdoll degrees, fucking moon gravity like Left 4 Dead and the more common Team Fortress 2 "as heavy as a sandbag" ragdolls, with almost no fun in between anymore.
@@vman339 I feel old reading these
At least Yakuza 6 and Kiwami 2 allow you to relive those moments
@@reapeashooter2 Judgment and Lost Judgment now too lol
An interesting thing to note as someone who's played the PS2 version; The lack of looping music and full silence is purely a PC port issue. The music just does not loop at times and at other times some sounds just do not play at all in the PC version when I recall it doing so in the PS2 version.
Also, another thing to note is that switching to different characters actually affects your psi abilities. If you play as barrett, you can now pick up heavier stuff with more ease (You can even pick up freighter crates now like he could in the boss fight) and your telekinesis gets more kick to it. If you play as the mind control expert, he has a secret move that you activate by holding L3 and R3 at the same time for a few seconds that makes them put a gun to their head and pull the trigger, which is endless sadistic fun especially since a pistol makes them just slump over, but using that ability on an enemy with a shotgun will make their freaking head explode (I don't know the PC version's equivalent of these controls though.) If you play as the pyro expert, I think her pyrokinesis is way better than nick's in terms of damage. I think if you play The General he gets the benefits of literally all of those characters. And also, the ability that lets you raise an object even higher than normal is mainly meant to be used to get to tricky areas while TK surfing.
You get the sense that two different teams worked on this game; One who wanted the player to have as much fun as possible with the abilities and added in loads of hidden, enjoyable shit in it as well as death traps everywhere to throw enemies into, and the other that was like "WE HAVE TO VARY UP THE GAMEPLAY IN A WAY THAT MAKES ALL OF THOSE FUN THINGS OBSOLETE BECAUSE DURR GAME DESIGN"; And I suspect that same team is the one that worked on every other psi ability other than mind control and telekinesis. It'd also explain the tonal shift in the story between trying to get you to take it seriously and just having fun with the material.
WMan37 The suicide trick works while playing as Nick, but it instantly drains your PSI.
I had so much fun screwing around with the alternate skins. If you just treat it as a power fantasy, there's few games that do it quite as well as this one. There's just so much room for creativity in your murder.
13:44 that enemy behind the box was pretty awesome.
Got the fuck outta dodge
odin lindeberg he was the most likable chacter in the whole game
Playing this game on Xbox allowed my friend and I to play co-op. One of the most interesting and fun co-op systems I've ever used, as we each got control of half the character. One got to control movement and aim, the other got to control psi powers and guns. Took some getting used to, but it was really fun once we got the hang of things.
Fun-fact: this game was originally going to be titled ESPionage.
No joke here. Someone at Midway thought it was a good idea. He was promptly tossed out an airlock.
Would've been funny, though.
Please don't comment more than once.save some room for the rest of us
Yes, he was tossed into an airlock because no human could come up with a name that good, thus he was concluded to be a vanguard for the invasion of earth by alien shapeshifters.
Woah woah woah, that's the _best_ title this could possibly have had, what a tragedy...
Oy Boyo fuk u
I died laughing when she handed him a bundle of 5 Glowing blue golf balls.
Few things about the bosses (From what I remember):
Wei Lu can be damaged with guns too. In fact, if I remember correctly, you can use the lock-on while aiming at her, and it will automatically lock onto one of her tentacles. Likewise, you can set her on fire with Pyrokinesis to slowly do damage to all three tentacles over time for a short bit, and they'll take more damage from gunfire or thrown objects.
The guy with the TVs and Aura Beasts can be cheesed if you stay in the opening hallway and throw a metal crate over to your position to take cover. Simply hide behind the crate while the TVs shoot lasers, and try to land a shot on the TVs whenever they aren't shooting.
The final weapon you get during the fight against The General has a pretty useful purpose. Whenever he turns invisible, you can use Aura View to see where he is at, then shoot the projectile at him. It'll reveal him, stun him for a second, and cancel the surprise attack he was preparing.
"That was NOT a failure, that was a 200% success."
I'm surprised he never mentioned you can play as Scorpion in this game.
Must’ve used Nick as a template for how dumb Scorpion needed to be in this 9-11 timeline.
@Commieblin Midway owned Mortal Kombat at the time, so they’d put MK characters into their other games as Easter eggs (like Scorpion and Sub-Zero baseball teams in MLB Slugfest 20-04)
@@smugalice6206wait what? In baseball? That I gotta see
@@thehoodedteddy1335 MLB Slugfest 20-04 is the greatest baseball game of all time. You can “hard tag” (punch) players, the announcer commentary’s full of character, bean the batter (who has a chance to light on fire and charge the mound), and there’s a butt load of cheat codes that let you have a team of minotaurs with swords for bats play against the Yankees in an Atlantean baseball stadium.
I highly encourage playing it.
18:52
Ahh, the mid-2000s. When every IP had to be paired with some form of grungy rock music. Republic Commando, Halo, the Bionicle series...
Lemme just say the first time I watched someone play this game, I was straight faced up to the General's reveal, the moment he said "I am the General." I just laughed my head off.
An interesting aspect that's never really touched on, you can use cheat codes to play as the other various characters in the games, from the various Meat Puppet types all the way up to the Bosses. The thing about the Bosses is, you actually get to used their super powered psi abilities. As Barret you can lift and throw larger objects, actually catching and throwing around the Shipping Containers and Train Cars during his boss fight. The Mind Control guy can control any enemy, if I recall correctly, such as the Super Meat Puppets without actually having to stagger them. And the Fire Woman gets a super powered version of Pyrokinesis which is still pretty terrible. Can't remember what the other characters gave you, but if you play as them you can get access to the powers right from the start, breaking the game completely. I liked playing as the higher level Meat Puppets, because who doesn't like running around as a psychic Helghast?
Also, there was a censored picture of a Topless Sarah in the art unlocks. It's been the better part of 16 years since I've played this game and THAT is one of the things that's stuck with me. Funny what can stay with you.
It seems like all of your issues are only on the pc port. That sucks because the xbox version was amazing, you could even gently place objects since it was based off of trigger pulls
"Feels like I'm rationing out cruelty, depriving myself of being a bastard"
Another gem, and precisely how I would describe my experience playing this game WITHOUT the super PSI cheat codes.
Playing it with, and playing it without those codes is night and day.
If anyone wants to play this game search for it in speedrun(dot)com. The game isn't commercially available anymore but my friend made the pc version available for everyone with blessings from one of the original developers!
For a game with a story that's barely trying, the lip sync is bizarrely good.
Hey, that was a kick-ass theme song... back in 2004.
Fuck you, it still is!
@@StubenhockerElite Yeah, Cold has always been pretty good. I got to see them when they opened for Manson like 15 years ago.
@@StubenhockerElite The Thing game has a nice 2000's rock song.
I played the original xbox version and I remember it controlled really well
I honestly dont remember issues putting objects down that might be a port problem.
I would definitely rank this game as a hidden gem maybe eventually worthy of a sequel someday.
Joel Salyer
Yeah definitely a port problem.
And hey, with games like Masquerade: Bloodlines getting a sequel, anything’s possible!
A sequel could of done this game a hell of a lot of good to see what worked, what didn't and what to expand upon.
Been hoping a good dev picks up the license and makes a Psi-Ops 2 for years now.
I LOVED this game back in the day, used to mess around in the arena mode a bunch
assistant: uhh sir nick is shooting everyone in his espionage missions
general: Now that's espionage
No one can see you if no one is alive
10:55 That was totally the right way to solve that riddle for any veteran FPS gamer. Also 14:26 was freaking hilarious. Game physics logic be damned.
The Aura beasts are the reason why i didnt finish this game
Yea, this review is more or less on the money. I would definitely say play the PS2/Xbox version though due to the sound of those controls.
Pyrokinesis definitely sucked, I rarely used it.
Stealth was garbage, these guys had frickin Xray vision
Level designs were indeed confusing as hell. That illusion hallway had me lost for hours trying to find the trigger or right door.
Loved turning on the telekinesis cheat and tossing those cargo trailers and train carts back at Barret. Epic as fuck.
The anti-psi guys were cheap, barely any powers work on them and they have some of the most powerful weapons. But if you can catch one unguarded, you can mind control or TK them without any worries.
I liked Aura view, at least the concept for it, but the aura beasts can fuck off.
I never fought the Remote viewing boss like you did; instead I just hung back and shot the TVs from afar, so that's skillz to have run in and juggled all that shit at once.
That said, this is one of my favorite games due to the psychic power schtick. TK tossing someone off cliffs or into crushers is ... well, quite what I expect from Midway I guess. Just wish Fire didn't suck so hard, dammit.
It is a nice to see a review for this game. I fully agree with a lot of the stuff you brought up, except I played on PS2 which was not affected by those control or music looping issues.
Back in the day I couldn't really pinpoint what I did not like about the game, but now I also remember the pain in the ass final levels with insta-kill mines. Basically at that point a lot of the psi-powers become obsolete and you have to just bite the bullet and keep trying again and again until you can navigate through those mines and annoying enemies. In the earlier levels there are so many death traps and environmental hazards and enemies are more vulnerable to psi-powers. Really sucks that they never made a sequel.
I have fond memories of flinging enemies at me and mind draining them in mid air. Or mind controlling an enemy soldier, having him throw a grenade at his own feet and see him ragdoll through the skies.
I miss games having minigames and extra content the you actually had to unlock/earn. Made me feel like I hadn't wasted my allowance, haha.
I remember playing this as a kid, god thank you for that nostalgia kick. I had a good bit of fun in those days.
As soon as the psychic powers came into play, I got real Star Wars: force unleashed vibes from this one. I wonder if they're related.
Eonymia nah this game is waay better!
Force Unleashed was fun.
Pepper Millers its ok to b wrong
@@wowza935 you're ok
Man don't you diss the Force Unleashed
I remember you could mind control an enemy and hold down both thumbsticks to make them shoot themselves in the head. What a dark game.
These powers remind me a lot of Blood Omen 2. I don't remember if you getTelekinesis, but you can use mind control and pyromancy. And you do have to defeat bosses first to get those powers. It also has a bunch of other fun combat powers and a stealth system. And you are a vampire. It's a good game. Check it out maybe.
Glad I got to play this on PS2 when it came out. I dont ever want to touch the PC version.
Yeah, pretty much all of your gameplay related complaints but the shooting (burst fire is the only real fix) come down to "You're playing the PC version". I know I'm... 2 years late? Yikes. But the only version of the game that's largely bug-free is on PS2.
by the way, did you ever play the Midway game Area 51?
16:53 better known as... "The Docks"
Holy shit, this is the game i have vague memories of from years ago that i couldnt remember, thank you reccomended.
21:26 More like "Free their souls by freeing their minds from their skulls"
I liked the theme song. Also the game was alot of fun to play even through all the crashes. I remembere it fondly.
i loved this game back in the day. best original xbox game ever.
***** I would pay gold for that.
Best original XBox game? Nigga did you even play Halo?
[edit:] sorry for the necropost
Even if we're talking obscure ones, have you ever played crimson skies?
Also good finaly a review of this game!!
I remember this one fondly.
Have you ever thought about doing these reviews with an emulated ps2 copy rather than shoddy mid 2000s pc ports?
This game deserves a remake that can achieve the same goals but better.
Oh, i was really hoping you would mention the unlockable costumes that allow you to play as bosses, including their in some cases upgraded powers, like Barrett's ability to lift large physics objects freely
I'm happy someone else knows about this game
This game is on my list of top ten best games I've ever played it's good to see this very criminally underrated game get a look at I hope Control will be good.
Is it me or first (blind) boss sounds like Spy from TF2?
Have you ever played Geist on the gamecube? Another one of the supernatural fps/puzzle-y hybrid games, loved it as a kid.
If you do the Barret fight as barret (with costume select) you can throw around the big stuff too.
Was there an early build of Stranglehold that ran of of the Psi Ops engine? Just curious.
A lot of games shared this engine.n yes,pretty sure wanglehole ran on it as well.
@@wowza935 Havok isn't the game engine, just a physics engine.
while it's a considerably late response, there was one unlockable early stage video of stranglehold's gameplay, and it reused assets from Psi Ops, specifically the meat puppets, so yes, it seems like they use same engine.
I always quit when I got to the Himalaya level. The beasts suck all the fun out. Never saw the end because it was just too much stupid bs to fight them and solve the crappy puzzle.
I also agree about the Barret boss fight. One of my fondest memories is that fight. Great stuff.
Hey, I remember having this game... I think it came free with some video game magazine.
I recall liking it, but never finishing it.
Then at some point it kinda disappeared somewhere from my home. No idea what happened to it. Shame.
I loved this game when I was a kid. xD
I remember playing this and Second Sight at around the same time as a kid. I liked this one much more as a game, but Second Sight was more engaging story-wise (tho i don't remember much of it now)
aw hell yeah vamp-sama pfp
It annoys me that the mocap actor is clearly left handed it shows in all the cutscenes with how he holds weapons but during gameplay the character is right handed
I remember playing the crap out of the demo on Jampack as a kid. Never ended up getting it and now I know the name of the game (:
i still have this its s fun game definetly a great game
You could also mind control those big meat bags if you knocked them over and waited for the exact right frame to mind control them!
21:19 That's a stock sound? I always thought it was unique to Halo.
i remember ruining my older brother's save game by ending up putting him after unlocking remote viewing after i thought i went into another save file
That wasn't actually the game's main theme, was it? I actually think it was pretty (generic but) great.
What website did you download this off of?
more fun to use the tools available than to brute force your way through for the simple reason it's possible
Like how one of the bosses is an Ozzy Osbourne.
This video was released 8 years ago? Wow.
Anyways, I played this game for the first time last month. Finished it today. It's terrible, I loved it. Psi-Ops 2 when? XD
I feel your frustration. I really do. But come on, this part 34:15 was funny as shit! Nothing better than organic slapstick.
this review ended about as abruptly as precursors
Played this as a kid around 2008. It had some "budget" vibe to it. Got stuck and never finished.
Same
This game had terrible final levels.(The levels were you had invisible enemies and invisible mines)
I thought you were playing the JP version.
10:40 i see what you mean about melee being entertaining for the wrong reasons 😂 looks like he's giving him a nuggie
Hey! The title song is the best part of this game and I still listen to it every now and then, which may be the sign of me being a fucking idiot, but I don't care.
I'm about to think that you're gonna shit on the Apocalypse OST. You know, the one where you play as Bruce Willis or something. With big monitors throughout stages with short videos of said OST playing. Guano Apes, Snot, System of a Down and all that.
21:49 garage door sound too familiar, launching gta liberty city stories nostalgia
Or any gta for that mattrr
Anyone know how to download the game on PC? And actually plays the game without getting a message about needing an internet connection?
Just torrent it, if it's not on any digital stores then you shouldn't feel guilty for pirating it, it's essentially been abandoned.
The website majorgeeks has a copy you can download that they fixed, removing the internet thing and I believe fixing a couple of bugs.
I love this game!
Playing around in the training arena post game was the best thing ever. I loved the extra characters.
Yeah, PC port was shite, story was alright but nothing glowing. I played it on the xbox, besides it being quite dark (first level was damn near impossible to navigate) I had an amazing time. I put up with a lot of the boring parts just to yeet fuckers off buildings or gib them with large objects.
It was def one of those 7/10 games
Hell yeah, one of my favorite ps2 game.
3:28
*Pays respect*
14:26
Man who cares if the ladders are buggy, that was fucking great XD!
I remember renting this in middle school, being excited because it seemed really cool, then I only played like an hour.
second sight: go stealth
psi-ops: try stealth but go ahead shoot everyone
How can I get the ad-free version?
Buy the game
Damoreon Settle Where is it sold? Do I have to find a hard copy for the PC version?
mind mindmind. mind? mind mind mind!
I’m in the middle of reviewing the PS2 version and looking through your footage I totally envy the smooth controls and framerate of the PC port, even if parts of its aren’t that great, because man the PS2 version has some serious issues.
You missed Survival Mode
i fucking loved this game as a kid!
It gives you way more power draining from the back noob! That's why they put it
What part of the body is the back noob?
@@Tehsnakerer well the back noob when you drain from the back noob. The back of the head noob
30:30 holy shit that's the same sound from Castleminer Z!! That's the noise that the zombies make!! Holy tits!!!
I refuse to believe that weird radioactive/water room isn't broken or something. There's a remote view cutscene that highlights everything, the scientist behind the glass will respawn infinitely and wont leave the room. And those switches are otherwise useless. I personally ended up taking a crate from the previous room and TK surfing across the water. But at first it seemed like you are supposed to activate the conveyor in the prev. room to get the radioactive cansiters in there, and I thought fill up the tank and hit the switches; but that didnt work.
Why is there any of that if you're *supposed* to blow open a fence. Why have a cutscene, why have THREE switches and a respawning scientist, it has to be a puzzle or have been a puzzle at some point. SO WEIRD.
Yeah, this game was so awesome! What the hell happened?!
I dont care i love this game!!
ive never passed that staircase with the bullshit aura enemies. it killed the game for me.
ahahahah i love the " Mom DID always like me best , bitch '' AHAHAHAHA :D i got tear in my eye.. lol
2:25
WHAT A THRILL
1:40 They will be GNOMED!
SHIIIIT I PLAYED THAT
19:14 Amazing*
So basically, Barret was the best character in the game. Cool.
so much movement
28:17 ...hmm left for dead 2 serie cinema anyone?