549th played so far
Genre: Action
Platform: Xbox/Playstation 2/PC
Year of Release: 2004
Developer: Midway Games
Publisher: Midway Games
Psi-Ops: Mindgate Conspiracy isn’t the first game that combines an FPS with psychic powers – a few years ago we played Second Sight, which played with the same basic idea. It’s probably not a coincidence they are right next to each other on the list – something in the air.
Even beyond that, you start off captured and need to escape a facility. From there on, powers will be discovered and explored. Let’s go.
Our Thoughts
Psi-Ops has a similar feel to Second Sight, but there are certainly big differences. Story wise, here you’re an agent of a government agency, fighting to take down the terrorists. A mindwipe drug kept you in the dark, but soon your memories start coming back as you uncover your powers.
The power selection seems most significant during gameplay. Not the ones you’d expect – telekinesis is fun, but nothing that far out of the ordinary for these games. Instead, both remote viewing and mind control add a bit more strategy, the former creating some fun semi-stealthy exploration aspect that makes the game more strategic than most shooters. The help it gives you is really useful, advance warning being needed in some cases (and even then not always being enough).
Final Thoughts
As a shooter, this game is not too inspired, but the powers add a decent enough twist to the mechanics that it becomes more enjoyable that way. That’s most of what it has to recommend it though, sadly.